Happy Hallowe'en

Just stopping by quickly today to wish everyone a Happy Hallowe'en!

We've been gearing up here for a few days now for the festivities.  Thursday night the little boys did their annual pumpkin carving ('scuze the mountain of dirty dishes - we'd just finished supper)

Friday was the school Hallowe'en party and the boys were excited to get dressed up in their costumes.  Little Man decided he was going to be a vampire and was excited to wear J's old vampire/Zoro cape that I made him some time back in the late 90s. I made the bow tie as a new addition to the costume using Sis Boom's Bosco Bowtie pattern.  He combined that with his suit from our wedding last year, some face paint and a wig to complete his dashing Dracula look.  The wig stayed home from school as he decided he looked funny in it and thought his classmates might laugh at him.  There was no convincing him otherwise.

Baby Boy had his heart set on being a vampire bat.  For his costume, I used the very popular Max and Meena All Ears Hoodie.  What a fab pattern!!! I was so happy when I was able to get it on sale a few weeks ago - the US/Can exchange rate has been making me think twice about all my cross border purchases these days, so the sale was much appreciated and great timing.  By the way - on that note, if you're a member of the Max and Meena Facebook group, Jamie posts a one day sale almost weekly!  I think I'll make some other ears versions for the boys in the near future.  Best part of it?  After Hallowe'en has come and gone the hoodie can go into his wardrobe for regular wear!

So the All Ears using the fox ears slightly modified to be bat ears, self-drafted wings, his suit pants (apparently vampire bats wear fancy pants according to Baby Boy) and his mask from his spider costume last year made for a very happy little bat.

Of course what would Hallowe'en be without some treats??  I signed up to bring a sweet treat for the class parties - of course I did!  I LOVE sweet treats and  I LOVE making sweet treats!!!  I knew that this year I wanted to do some sugar cookies. With the class party in mind, a few weeks ago I even bought a new set of Wilton cutters at the dollar store that had an awesome combination of broom, hat, cauldron and shoe. Spoiler.  I did not use the Wilton cutters.  Nor did I use the entire bin of other ghosts, witches, bats, pumpkins, black cats etc. cutters.  I used a tulip cutter and a smaller circle cutter to make ghost and monster eyeball cookies.  I love doing the royal icing and although I'm still perfecting my technique and consistency, I think I'm slowly improving.  No leftovers came home so I think they went over well in the Kindergarten and Grade One classrooms!

Now, I'm off to peruse Pinterest for some fun and quick ideas for supper tonight and then some spooky sort of snack for after trick or treating.  We're getting together in town tonight to take the kiddos trick or treating with school friends and then all having a little get together afterwards.  Hopefully the rain clears out and it's a nice evening for being out.  Should be loads of fun though, no matter what the weather, with a crew of an exuberant six and unders!

I hope you all have a very fun and safe evening no matter what your plans are for tonight!

A Trio of Tees

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians!  I hope you're enjoying your weekend!  We had some glorious weather for Saturday and Sunday - it was a whopping 25C yesterday!!!  What a difference a few hours makes though.  The inclement weather rolled in after supper last night and it seems set on staying the day today.  It's raining cats and dogs and the wind so strong that I'm not entirely sure we won't actually end up in the Land of Oz at some point!

So it seems like a good time to sit down with a cup of tea and tell you about a new favourite pattern!  A few months ago I snagged Kennis Wong's Itch to Stitch* Idyllwild Tee and Dress pattern on sale.  I kept meaning to make it - I'd already printed out and taped together the PDF pattern, traced off my size and was just waiting for the right moment and fabric to sew up a new tee.  WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG?!?!?!

I finally sewed my first tee up at the beginning of Selfish Sewing Week (that ran from Sept. 28th - Oct. 3rd) and have positively been living it it since.  I absolutely love it! As a side note to all the moms and dads that see me five days a week during school drop off and pick up I promise I washed it in between wearings.  Really, I did!

However, since laundry and I are definitely not BFFs and I generally subscribe to the theory of sew something new in order to prolong the necessity of doing laundry, it only made sense that when I was in the city running errands the other day I picked up another couple of lengths of knits to make a couple more tees.  Given the knits I got were on sale,  I figured I couldn't go wrong!

I've done the longer/lower neckline and 3/4 sleeve option for all of mine so far as I was in dire need of new shirts for fall.  But rest assured there will be more variations on this top to come as seasons change.  I'm picturing the addition of a rainbow of sleeveless, short sleeve and cap sleeve tees into my wardrobe next spring.  Idyllwild comes with enough options that the pattern offers the possibility of 42 combinations.  This pattern whips up really quickly and I do so love a good tried and true pattern in my arsenal!

Little Man usually takes pictures for me if I don't want to use the timer on my camera, but this morning after taking a few pictures of my just finished third top, he said he'd rather be in a picture with me than taking pictures.  I'd rather that too, so we took a selfie instead.

Before I leave off I thought I'd mention that if you hurry over to the Itch to Stitch site, she's got a birthday sale on right now with discounts from 20 - 40% off depending on how many patterns you purchase. You'll see all the codes and details there at the top of her shop page.  She's also got a contest running too for a few more days.