FYI: I'm a Halloween Slacker

Happy Halloween everyone! We have been busy with lots of Halloween fun: school parades, pumpkin patch visits, neighborhood parties, a straw bale maze, and a hayride. Seems Halloween gets bigger and bigger every year. It is certainly more fun for me as my children grow older, and I love doing seasonal things with them, but in general I haven't been a huge fan of the holiday. This past Saturday, I was talking with some friends at a great kids party they throw every Halloween and confessed, "I am a Halloween slacker." They didn't believe me, and most who know my love of sewing and other creative things, don't believe it, but I promise you, it is true.

I guess it should be different, but I have never sewn a Halloween costume for my girls. I love seeing the amazing things other moms and dads do for their children, but I just can't seem to make the investment of time and money, and more importantly the trade-off of the costume instead of another project.

I thought I would turn the corner last year and make a beautiful Little Red Riding Hood costume for Audrey. I couldn't wait to make a red wool and satin lined hooded cape and dirndl style dress, and even bought a pattern, but alas, Audrey wanted to be Count Dracula. "The Count?" I asked, hoping for the Sesame Street version, and thankfully the two were a bit mixed in her mind, but even then, I was not inspired. I would just rather sew a beautiful dress or work on styling a birthday party!

I did end up making a black and purple satin lined cape for Audrey's "Count" costume last year. I'll have to blog about it sometime, because it's fun. But I lost steam after that. I should have appliqued numbers on the cape but I didn't. Just found some plastic fang teeth, put her in some black leggings and a white t-shirt and called it good.

At the party Saturday, one of my friends saw Audrey in her purchased pirate costume (looking pretty cute I thought) and said, "oh, that is just wrong!" I am still laughing at her honesty. You should see the amazing costumes she makes for her children. This year they were gnomes and toadstools. She is right of course. I could make Audrey a pirate costume, which would be much nicer and much cuter, but then I wouldn't have had time to make Tess the cute criss-cross smock. Or maybe I would have had to purchase the baby shower invitations instead of making them. Anyway, I think I've stated my position on this thing.

I did sew a white feather boa to a black witch's hat I bought at the grocery store and donned it with my (purchased) black and white spider skirt to get in the spirit. Our house is decorated, although a bit sparingly compared to some. And I love how excited Audrey and Scarlett have been to wear their costumes, even though they're off-the-shelf. They don't know the difference. Maybe when they do, and they're really excited about something, I will put in the late hours to sew some fabulous Halloween costumes. It would be fun to develop some costume concepts with them.

I did get an unexpected boost in celebrating the holiday with this flower arrangement. Now this is something I could get into--holiday arrangements. How fun. Especially if I had access to flowers as nice as these. My neighbor had a bunch of flowers leftover from doing a weeding, and about a week later they were still looking beautiful. So I accepted the offer to take some out of her garage, carried one of my favorite vases over, and came away with this! Isn't it fun?! Orange gladiolas and roses, white roses, chartreuse bells of Ireland (one of my favorite flowers!) and some orange blooms that look like a relative of the billy ball...no idea. The glads were a bit droopy so I thought I'd try them this way, arcing over the lip of the vase. It was so much fun playing around with the arrangement, and even more fun to place it on my orange Halloween tablecloth.

Well friends, maybe next year I'll pick up the speed with some handmade costumes for Halloween, but this year, I'm going to enjoy trick-or-treating with our girls, tuck them into bed on their sugar highs, and then get back to work on my "instead of" project: a baby blanket I've almost finished.

My "FYI" posts share news or a perspective about something that's been on my mind. You can read them all here.

Sewing: Cargo Pants for Fall

I loved making convertible cargo pants for my girls this summer and wanted to try them again this Fall, without the "convertibility." Our good friends, Aimee and Brian, brought me a couple yards of fabric home from their trip to Japan last year (what a fabulous, generous souvenir to share! and right during my obsession with japanese import prints) I love this cute print with hedgehogs and mushrooms. It seemed perfect for a pair of school pants for Audrey.

I used the MADE kid pants (with flat front) pattern and enlarged it for Audrey. You can find a tutorial for the rest over here where I'm guest posting for Tip Junkie today.

Sewing: CrissCross Smock for Tess

 

I just finished a crisscross smock and matching diaper cover for Tess. I love this classic pinafore shape. I'm sure you've seen many patterns for something similar. I used Butterick 5439, which I've used before--for a polka dot version for Audrey's first birthday.

Taking these pictures of Tess reminded me so much of Audrey when she was close to this age! We have a few pictures of her with a little red bow in her hair. There are some strong similarities but Tess is the bleached version! 

And looking so grown up all of a sudden! And pleased with herself.

But, what, you may ask, could I be thinking with this sort of outfit in late October? Well, I'd had it cut out for months intending it for this past summer and just didn't get to it. But I picked it up again in the middle of my gingham spree (see here and here and here) because I thought of a cute holiday ensemble for Little Miss Tess. So "layering" is the answer to why this and why now.

 

 

This crisscross smock will be a pinafore over a couple other things. It will be cute I think! But I couldn't resist taking some photos of Tess bare armed and bare legged and barefoot! And she can certainly wear it this way next summer, although maybe with a pair of shorts.

I love this natural linen! I used it for this Modern Farm Birthday Dress and these Double Layer Pillowcase Dresses, and I'm not finished with it yet! It's such a great weight and a great neutral, and though I love the idea of "no linen after Labor Day" I think this particular weight and color works even when summer is past.

 

I paired it with some red rickrack. I think this would be called "medium" sized. I was thinking of using the baby stuff but I was in a bit of a rush to be that precise. My favorite part the way this left strap turned out. The rickrack and button hole are perfect! Not so much with the other strap, but that's ok.

I used the MADE pattern for a diaper cover, which is darling and seamless on the backside. I didn't finish the side seams before I starting making the casings so I zigzagged along them catching the raw edges of the seam allowance and I rather like the result. A bit of added texture.

Tess was in such a great mood playing in her sister's room this morning that it was hard to be more selective with the photos and I just had to include these last two of her trying to put the lens cover back on the camera. Perhaps she is an assistant-to-be, or maybe she was just finished with her photo session!

Invite: Oh Baby! Oh Boy! Shower

Oh I love it when there's another party in the works! Here we are: oh baby, oh boy, it's a baby shower!

I love love love conceiving and throwing birthday parties but it's not often I get the chance to do a baby shower, and for a boy! It's so fun for this mother of girls to think "boy" for a bit. And I can't wait to meet him!

 

This celebration is honoring my sister-in-law and I was inspired by the things she has chosen for her baby registry--so many great colors: blues in several shades such as teal, aqua, robin's egg, and blue-grey, some greys, and white and off-white. I love her simple modern taste.

I couldn't resist playing around with a chevron print, and making my own envelopes again! Envelopes are my new favorite thing after this invitation. But I also have some "stitched circles" forming a bunting across the front and back of the invitation, and a stitched area for the address on the front of the envelope. I'm thinking of some good handmade texture for this baby shower.

If you like these invitations and have a shower in the works yourself, I am putting them in my Etsy shop. And stay tuned for more baby boy projects!

Cooking: Orzo Pasta with Tarragon, Chicken, Artichoke Hearts and Parmesan

I love that the day after Tess's birthday party I had leftover Tarragon Chicken in my refrigerator. I usually just eat it cold the next day or warm it, but the day after her party I came up with an even better plan--pasta salad! You know how I love a good pasta salad, and I think I came up with a good one with the party leftovers! It has a really fresh taste, thanks to the spinach, and a bit of a tang, thanks to the mustard, and is a one-bowl meal thanks to the chicken. I'm so happy to have another thing to do with this chicken recipe. Now I'll always make more than enough so I can follow up with this pasta salad.

I know it seems like I should be sharing some sort of stew given the month of October, but we've been having summer like weather, so here you go! Click for the recipe.