Nightmare Before Christmas - Sally Costume

I have loved everything that Tim Burton has created. This year I decided I would finally be Sally from "The Nightmare Before Christmas". My husband was not into dressing up this year -- I can only convince him to wear a costume about every other year. My poor son was young enough that I could choose his costume and so he was Jack.

Now given that this costume was only going to be used for a handful of parties and probably never again, I did not want to spend a lot of money on it. I used the cheapest white broadcloth that I had yardage of in the closet (a horrible fabric purchase years ago that has been quite helpful!). I cut a general rag doll shape and sewed it up. It originally had sleeves, but those became too cumbersome and so I snipped them right off. Sewing is not scary, it's not surgery. It's fabric and thread and meant to be fun. If you have never sewn clothing before, I think this is the best time to do it. 

And then I dyed my hair fire engine red... I actually loved it so much that it is still this red today..

And then I painted and painted and painted. I scoured images of Sally off the internet and tried to emulate her dress. I used cheap, old craft paint. I did not mix in any fabric medium - this made the dress quite stiff and cartoon-like.. which was my goal.

Once the dress was completed, I returned to scouring the internet for makeup ideas.. My baby would have nothing to do with me the first time around. He cried, hollered and ran away from me. Maybe it was the eyes??

After the first party, I learned a few things and tried it a bit different.

I bought a couple pairs of light blue pantyhose to accessorize the outfit. I used one pair as pantyhose and added some Sharpie stitches. For the other pair, I cut out the panty area and wore it as a top under my dress. It gave me quick, blue Sally arms and kept help keep me warm.

Such a fun costume to wear! And now that we are in the first week of November, it's time to start planning next year's fun.. thinking Lucy & Ricky Ricardo!

Halloween 2014!

I hope everyone had a yummy Halloween! We celebrated the whole month of October. I honestly don't remember another year when we had quite so much going on. There were parties at Liberty Girls, co-ops, Girl Scouts, pre-school and trunk-or-treats. We had field trips to the pumpkin patch, to the farm and CornBelly's. We had multiple sessions of cookie decorating, decoration making and "Boo"ing the neighbors. I am a die-hard Halloween fan, but honestly by the time the date actually rolled around, I was pretty tired.

We celebrated with chili and cornbread (a family tradition!) and my Mum heard about this yummy candy corn colored drink. I know she heard the recipe on a local news show, but I can not find the blogger. This one over at DessertNowDinnerLater is very close to how she created it. The kids went bananas!

And no one wanted to pose for cute pictures. Seriously! That's what this holiday is about - lots of pictures! Neither of my girls ended up dressing like Elsa or Anna. My Kiddo was a sweet Cinderella, Wild Child was Ariel and Little Man was Jack Skellington. I didn't sew any of their costumes. I accept no guilt! Maybe next year I will make them, but this year we let Costco take care of it and had fun spending time together.

But I did sew one costume... I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton and when I saw Little Man's skelly costume, I knew I had to be Sally. 

I'm a bit tired of all the shenanigans in this picture! I will post more in depth pictures of how I created my costume later this week.

Here is the motley crew after trick-or-treating. Oi! This has been a crazy sugar crashing week.. Time to raid the loot and munch on some chocolate!

Playing In Clay

I had a huge surge in quilty inspiration after the baby was born. Last month I was working on 6 quilts plus a number of sewing projects for a book coming out next year. And what does all that sewing do to me? It makes me want to throw it all in a box and run away. I'm not sure why, but all that inspiration and work leaves me exhausted and in need for a break.

And then I had a great blog post idea, I was going to give all my tips on how to juggle children while pursing an artist career. Wouldn't you know it, the baby boycotted naps for 2 weeks and the very last thing I felt like doing was giving balance tips to anyone. Oy! That post is saved for a time when I feel like Supermom.

What to do with no desire to sew, little time to work and a desperate need for creative time? I picked up some clay and had a blast!