A Crafty Catch Up

I'm back... hope all is well out there and apologies for the radio silence as of late.  I've been posting a fair amount of my crafty pursuits on Instagram lately, but haven't had the chance to sit down and properly write a blog post.  The whole new job thing didn't work out unfortunately - it just wasn't a good fit at all for our life right now, so I'm back to pounding the pavement so to speak and looking for something new.  I'm hoping to be back to work somewhere soon - and hey!  If you know anyone looking for a library technician/parts person/purchaser let me know!!

I have done quite a bit of craftiness in my blogging absence, albeit most of it Halloween related.  I made the boys halloween costumes this year again and of course they had very distinct ideas of what they wanted to be.  Little Man wanted to be Harry Potter wearing his Quidditch uniform and Baby Boy wanted to be a Red Panda, which happens to be his very favourite animal.  But he didn't want to be any ordinary Red Panda.  He wanted to be one that had super powers.  And Red Pandas with super powers have wings.  Not capes. And the wings had to be very specifically shaped and attach to his costume in a very concise manner. Fair enough. Who am I to argue on the finer points of the elusive Super Red Panda?  Little Man's costume even included a very exclusive "Nimbus 2009" model made by his dad.  The boys got to go Trick or Treating at the zoo again this year on the weekend before Halloween and the highlight of course was getting to see mama, papa and baby red panda very active in their outdoor enclosure!

Super Red Panda set to save the world!

Trick or Treating at the Zoo!

Harry Potter's favourite animal is also the Red Panda...

Super Red Panda meets up with his ordinary counterparts

I also decided to put my Silhouette Cameo and some glow in the dark heat transfer vinyl to good use and make them some skeleton tees for Halloween.  I went the easy route and just purchased the plain tees at Old Navy rather than sew them up, so it was a quick afternoon project that I surprised them with when they got home from school one day!

In the un-halloween related realm of craftiness, I finally met our newest little great nephew last week and was finally able to give him his baby gift.  I went with an owl theme - I love owls, so figure everyone else should too - I had got a little book and owl stuffy and had a tiny little owl toque I'd knit ready to go, but I wanted one more little something to go with it, so decorated a little onesie with vinyl.  I was really happy how it worked out!

I also sewed up the Elliot Sweater, which is the newest release from Helen's Closet.  I snapped up the pattern and printed it out instantly when the notification hit my email inbox that it was up on her site, but then had to wait a bit to have the time to sew it up.  I had bought the fabric from Blended Threads last fall or early winter, and when it arrived I had no hot clue what I was going to make with it.  It's a bit bulkier than I wanted for a cardigan and I wasn't sure how it would handle any sort of bands because of the bulk. I thought of a waterfall type cardi, but that wasn't really speaking to me much as something I wanted in my wardrobe, but as soon as I saw the Elliot I knew that was the pattern the fabric was waiting for!  It's a super quick sew.  I had it done in an afternoon, except for the sleeve hems.  I wasn't sure what route to take because they felt just a bit too short for such a bulky knit and because I'd only had 1 1/2 meters to start with, there was no way to cut longer sleeves but I had just enough left over to make nice wide cuffs to create somewhere between a 3/4 and bracelet length sleeve.  I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out and may actually live in this for the rest of the fall and winter.

Lately my knitting and spinning has really take a back seat in my crafting time.  I am not sure why, but I still haven't located my missing knitting mojo.  I want to be knitting, but am finding it hard to find the energy or mental space for it somehow in life right now.  So because of that I am still working on my latest Untangling Knots knit along Populuxe cardi (the deadline was November 1st, but my cardi is, as of yet, still sleeveless.  Ooops!)  so I thought I'd try to jump start my motivation and shift gears with a little colour work project, but sadly even that is not going anywhere quickly.

I have taken some time to do a bit more sewing though this week and I'll leave you with a bit of a teaser of that one.  I was outside in the snow this morning trying to take pictures of it, which was a bit silly, but the light was better out there than in here.  LOL!

I'll be back next week to tell you all about this one, so until next time, happy crafting everyone!

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!

Happy Halloween!!

We've been busy getting ready for Halloween for the last few weeks!  On Tuesday night, it was finally time to carve the pumpkins that the boys grew from seeds this year.  They were so eager and had been asking ever since we picked them out of the garden (Ok, flower bed, truth be known, but that's where they grow the best for some reason!) when it would be time to carve them, so you can imagine the excitement in the house the day that Daddy brought them in from the breeze way and set them on the counter for carving to begin!

Carving pumpkins they grew themselves!

I had spent the last two weeks making the requested costumes. I thought I was going to get off easily again this year and be able to pull costumes from the costume bin, especially when, for weeks, Little Man told me he wanted to be a pirate. So simple.  He had his pirate costume from his skating show last spring! Whoot!  And then it all became so much more challenging...

He changed his mind. Only a triceratops would do.  No problem! I was going to alter my much used old Butterick pattern and add a tail and quilt a chest plate, but then I pulled the pattern out set to go and found all the major pieces missing - backs and fronts and sleeves. Gone. Bad words were said.  Then a friend told me about the simplicity pattern that I ended up having (BF)G pick up from the fabric store for me and life was good again.  It was perfect. Pretty much what I wanted. Except for a  few things. I changed up the "dino hands" from mitts to mitten covers. Years of experience tells me those costume mitts cause nothing but frustration when trick or treating. So the covers will slip easily over their mittens tonight.  Also, I made the tails detachable. They have a belt that feeds through slits in the side seams and then velcro around their tummies. Pure brilliance on my behalf I thought. Not only easy for sitting en route in their car seats, but for future use. They can use the hands, hats and tails as costumes for play without me having to put on the jumpsuit, take off the jumpsuit, put on the jumpsuit, take off the jumpsuit, put on... well you get the idea. And bonus to the costume making? They counted for Kids Clothing Week Challenge last week - making it my most successful KCWC ever.  Ha ha!!

Dinos in our field!

And a back view!

After the costumes were finished I had some other halloween sewing to do! When Baby Boy turned one I made all the cousins treat bags for his party using the Fishsticks Designs tutorial. All but the two that were still babies.  So I'm catching up! I made my littlest niece her's and am looking forward to giving it to her tonight when we meet up to go trick or treating!

Yesterday I took a notion into my head to put together a little goodie bag for the two nieces we will be with this evening.  Just a fun, non-purely-sugar type treat of fruit snacks and Halloween playdoh tins. But I didn't think to buy those little plastic goodie bags at the store yesterday. So this afternoon I did this:

Prepping the goodie bags with freezer paper stencils

Fun and festive bags! Meow! 

Lastly, this morning we also had to do something with the tonne of pumpkin seeds we removed from our pumpkins.  I looked online for how to roast them because they've never really turned out well in the past for me.  Turns out I didn't really need to.  I had a resident expert.  Little Man made them in preschool on Monday, so he could tell me what to do.

Here's his instructions:

1) boil in a pot in salty water
2) drain
3) use oil
4) then use seasoning salt - make sure it's seasoning salt - IS THAT SEASONING SALT?!?
- what are you doing putting them in the oven. We did NOT put them in the oven at school. Well... Maybe they put them in the oven while me made slime and I didn't see it... I don't think they go in the oven... WHY ARE YOU PUTTING THEM IN THE OVEN???????

My interpretation:

Bring seeds to a boil in salted water, simmer while getting the dog out of mischief, removing cat from counter, picking up aforementioned slime - so maybe five minutes? Drained them, put them back in the pot and mixed with a little oil, and seasoning salt (yes it definitely was seasoning salt! Yikes!), then onion powder, a sprinkle of soya and Worcestershire sauce and in the oven (at 400F) for about ten minutes. Yum, yum. And the head chef approves so phew! ;)

Very tasty! And four year old chef-approved!

So, I think we are all set for Halloween fun! I hope all of you celebrating have a safe and happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween!