Costumes! (and a fairy tale...)

Well apparently I was wrong and there was nothing going on downtown today. Fortunately I realized this before we got dressed up and went downtown. Then I would have really looked crazy.

But since I promised pictures, I fully intend to keep that promise! Here's a little story for you...

Once upon a time, Little Red Riding Hood went out to the edge of the woods on her property to take some pictures. She did not have a basket of cookies for granny because then granny would have gotten distracted and not cooperated for a single picture.

Upon reaching granny's storage shed house, Red repeated those famous lines "Why granny, what big eyes you have..." but granny just sat there wagging his tale and not saying his lines on cue.

After luring granny out of the house, Red called upon her woodsman lover to evaluate the situation. It seemed there was something different about granny, but since she'd been a rotten old thing anyway, it was decided that the new, quieter granny was actually an improvement.

They decided to keep him around.

And they all lived happily ever after. :)

31 Days Series: Halloween costumes

Halloween costumes!!

As much as I looove Halloween, I've really been slacking the past few years. Two years ago I threw a pumpkin carving party a couple of weeks before Halloween, and was still recovering from that on Halloween. Last year we had just moved here two weeks before Halloween, and were still in the process of unpacking, getting settled, and we really didn't have any idea of what to do. But this year I am determined to do something, even if it's just dressing up so that I don't look crazy (or creepy) when I go walk around downtown and take pictures of everyone else in their costumes.

I chose my fairy tale (Little Red Riding Hood) and assigned parts. Obviously I was going to be Little Red Riding Hood, and it was easiest to give Josh the part of the huntsman who saves me (and granny), which left Orion to play the part of the wolf dressed as granny.

At Re-store I collected the pieces for our various costumes: a plaid flannel shirt for Josh, a night gown, scarf, and granny glasses for Orion, and a red circle skirt (to be converted to a cape) for me. I didn't really want to make everything from scratch, so I bought basic stuff that could be easily altered to fit our needs. I think Orion's costume ended up needed the most alteration (Duh, I guess, I did buy people clothes to dress a dog as a wolf dressing as a granny.)

(As usual, these photos were taken over the span of like 24 hours, so the lighting is pretty random. Sorry!)

Ok. Here's the breakdown. For our wolfy-granny I started with a long pink nightgown. I tried it on him, then cut off approximately ten inches. Then, I cut a huge, upside down V out of the front (don't want him peeing on it!) I didn't want to hem anything up so I just stitched a piece of pink lace across the bottom. (I just happened to have a piece the perfect length. It was fate!) Next I had to work on the neck. It was a little tight across his back so I cut another V out of the top. Then I pulled out so that it was straight across, and used a piece of fabric from the bottom to make a matching ruffle to fill in the gap.

His accessories were much easier. For the glasses I simply attached a cheap pearl necklace to them, then put a dot of hot glue on each end to keep the chain from sliding around. I made 'wolf ears' out of some black furry fabric and brown suede. I stuck a few pieces of jewelry wire inside them (after sewing them) to keep them standing up, then I hot glued them to the top of his scarf. Easy peasy.
Here's his whole outfit.

Mine was actually much more simple. I took a circle skirt I'd found at Re-store, and cut off the elastic waistband. Next, I cut it open, right up the middle. (I guess. I didn't measure.) I folded the top down and stitched it closed. (For whatever reason, I apparently took no pictures during any of this.) Then, I took a red t-shirt (same color, same fabric) and cut a hood out of it. (I cut it out of the bottom and the side so I only had to sew one seam.) Then I attached that to the inside of the cape. I strung a piece of ribbon through the top of the cape, but I kind of like it better with a broach instead.

I'm like 90% sure of what I'm going to wear under my cape tomorrow, but I am really going to have to wait and see what the weather is going to be like. Anyway, we'll be heading downtown to walk around and gawk at other people, and take pictures so hopefully I can get someone to take one of us at some point and then you can see a (well lit!!) picture of us all in costume. :)

31 Days Series: Sweater hats

Today, I made hats. Two of them so far, one more in the works. They're pretty basic and easy to make if you have a sweater or two that don't fit, and depending on the size of the sweater, you can not only make multiples, but you can use the rest of it for other re-purposing purposes! (Pretty sure that's some kind of grammatical blasphemy, but I'm making it work.)

Anyway, here's a link to a tutorial if you need one.

My process came about after getting distracted while trying to finish up our Halloween costumes. (More on that tomorrow.) I was desperately searching for a skirt that I'd bought at Re-store before Joshs birthday party, and then packed away when I got to cleaning. I emptied my entire bin of fabric before remembering that I'd put it with the rest of the costume supplies, in a box on the shelf in the closet. Anyway, long story short, I needed something to do while the skirt (and other costume bits and pieces) washed since they had gotten that 'been in a box in the closet' smell to them, and after coming across two pieces of what used to be sweaters in my fabric bin, I decided to make us a couple of winter hats.

Sorry for the poor lighting, a storm rolled in on me and it got dark earlier than I expected. Brown one is mine, the patchwork one is Joshs.

Our attempts at taking a picture together with the hats were...a failure, I think is the best way to put it. I offer this as proof:

I'm going to make one more hat, considering that I managed to find a gorgeous grey angora sweater at Re-Store today. It's too small for me to wear, but I want to find a way to utilize as much of it as possible, then I'm going to work on making some soft, gorgeous matching accessories. :)

Here it is, in all it's soft, fluffy, grey glory:

(Yes, I did take that in the car immediately after buying it. I WAS EXCITED! And the light was great.)

Here's a close-up of the detailing.

This is taken back at home, obviously, but check out the buttons on the top; you could open it up for a more 'off-the-shoulder' look! I almost feel bad about cutting it up, but it only cost me $3.

That's all for now. Our Halloween costumes coming tomorrow! All three of them, including Orion. He's going to look hilariously adorable! So excited!!

31 Days Series: Skull vase

So after a giant break full of road trips, and doctor visits, and general laziness, I made something today! Woo!

Has anyone else seen those Pottery Barn skull vases? They're nice, and I've seen a few different DIY versions of them, but I went in a slightly different direction. Still a skull vase, but more obviously so. And, most importantly, an easy, 5 - 10 minute project.

First I cut a skull out of another scrap of leather.

(Forgive the funky shaped eye sockets. :P)

Then I hot glued a few rhinestones onto the head. (Obviously this is optional; I wanted mine to look kind of classy.) And then I hot glued the whole skull onto an empty and clean Elijah Craig bottle.

Insert a gorgeous, delicious smelling rose and you're done!

Easy, unique, and perfect for Halloween. You could even gift one to the host of a Halloween party! :)

31 Days Series: Bat necklace

Ahh I'm cutting it close tonight! 11:17, I barely made it while it was still 'today'!

Ok, well let's cut to the chase, shall we? I used up some more of my black leather scraps tonight for a very easy bat necklace.

I bought these things last month when Dollar Tree first put out their Halloween stuff:

The faces make them a bit silly, but I like the shape and size, and for a dollar? Duh, I got them. I traced around the edge onto a piece of leather, cut it out, punched a hole at the top of each wing, and strung a piece of leather cord through it. Simplest necklace ever. (For a bit more pizazz, you can line the edge with rhinestones; I may do that later.)

Planning something great for tomorrow, but we'll really just have to wait and see because Josh has tickets to a wrestling match tomorrow night and I anticipate making him take me to Restore and a nice meal before I have to sit through God knows how many hours of giant sweaty men in my face. (We have front row seats.)

(See a list of the other 30 days in this series here.)

HERE IN MY CAR...

We've had the TV on the 'Flashback New Wave' channel all week...AND IT IS SPECTACULAR.

I can't believe it's already Friday again. After I realized that I rushed off to the post office to mail the necklaces that I gave away on Facebook last week, lest people think I promise things but then fail to deliver. Now it's in the hands of the post office. If they don't deliver, at least it's not on me.

I made a lot of things this week, and also (tried) to clean and rearrange my craft room. It's like 80% done but I already started in the kitchen so this weekend is going to be interesting trying to finish them both. In reality, though I'll probably do nothing for the rest of today, then start on the bedroom tomorrow morning, and then have three half finished rooms for the rest of the week. Eh. As long as it gets done before the third week of September.

Oh, the things I made, right...I think I posted pictures of a few things, mostly the leather bracelets...I also made this:

And while it may just look like another boring Chan-Luu style bracelet, there's actually a much more in depth story behind it...see back in 2004, when I used to get Lucky magazine (the first time around) I saw a bracelet like that in there. I don't remember the brand, but it was pretty much exactly like the Chan-Luu ones that have recently soared in popularity. Anyway, I knew that I could make one very easily, so I did. But the beads I used weren't all that great and before long the color rubbed off of them and they were clear with just flecks of color left on the insides of a few of them, and that looked crappy so I scrapped it. I started to make another but it's a rather time-consuming process, and it was around that time that I finally made some friends in Arkansas and started going out and so it sat, half-done, in a box of craft stuff for the next 6 years. (Not even kidding.) Then, two summers ago, I found it, and started thinking that I needed to either finish it or make another one...and as you can see, it took me two years to do that. And now everyone will think I did it because of the Chan-Luu craze, but I DIDN'T. I WAS EONS AHEAD OF THIS FAD. Just...not consistently.

Not that it matters, really...

Moving on...

I also started working on party favors for my second annual pumpkin carving party. (We missed last year because we were in the process of moving at the time I normally would have thrown it.) A few years ago (like 4) when I worked at Joann's for all of 3 months (if that) I bought a bunch of packages of Halloween themed Christmas ornaments. (Surprising that they didn't sell out, huh?) I wanted to make jewelry out of them but after gluing earring backs onto a couple of them I lost interest and they too got banished to the Craft Box of Shame. But, like I said, recently I've been in a crafty mood and I pulled them out and started making them into necklace charms. Here's my process (sort of):

This is what they look like originally, with the string:

I pulled that out using tweezers (I just grabbed it tight, then twisted it around and around until it popped out - pulling it would usually resulting in it breaking off at the edge, and leaving part of the string in there.) Once I had an empty hole I would dip one of those tiny rounded top screw things in (E6000) glue (they're actually made for picture frames) and then screw it down into the hole.

And then, after those were dry, I could attach a jump ring and string it onto a necklace chain!

Now I have a box full of cute things to give away!

Tonight we're heading downtown to watch Joshs cousins band play at our local bar/live music venue, and as I mentioned, I'll probably be cleaning a bunch over the weekend, but once I get my craft room 100% organized I'll try to post some pictures! It is much more comfortable to work in now, and I have it set up to be inspiring and easy to get at all my stuff.

Clearance and crafting and leather OH MY!

Oh man. What an awesome weekend. Friday I had to take Orion to the vet because he had his last heartworm pill last month and he needed more by today. (Yay procrastination!) Actually I kind of waited this long on purpose because he's a growing boy and he needed to get weighed so we'd know what size to get him...and of course he needs two separate sizes. Two pills each month, two boxes every six months...because my 9 month old puppy has passed the 100 pound mark! Anyway, I took him by myself while Josh was working, then we went to Pet-co where he got two new toys and a treat for being a good boy. He (I) picked out a giant rubber gummy bear and a triangular frisbee looking thing. He loves them both.

Once Josh finished up his work we (tried) to take his brother and friend to the card shop but found it no longer exists...so we headed to Michael's where I got some clasps that I needed (since I've been making jewelry non-stop for the past week!) and then, while looking for the leather scraps, I got sucked into the clearance bin. (I think they put it across from the leather just because they saw me coming.) I ended up with all this:

Pretty sure this was the best deal. Not sure what I'm going to use it for, yet, but I couldn't pass it up!

After we came home the guys spent most of the evening outside playing ping-pong on the new table and I managed to pass out early.

Saturday, after Aaron and his friend left, Josh and I went to the floral convention! It was really fun, and I got a lot of awesome pictures but I'm not going to post any until I'm done editing them (which is not something I usually do) and have them uploaded to an album where the florists who invited us can see them first.

Yesterday I spent most of the day lounging around the house, playing ping-pong, and making jewelry for Josh and me...I used the black leather that I got in the scrap bag and made four different bracelets...here are two of them:

And then today I made these for Josh and his friend Riquo:

And now, my desk is a giant mess, with glue and bottle caps and pieces of leather everywhere, but it feels like fall and I couldn't be happier. :)

P.S. Joining: