5 Little Monsters: October 2014

Last Minute Halloween Costume: Care Bear


My 4 oldest kids have all had their Halloween costumes for nearly two months. We bought costumes for the three oldest to wear to Comic Con and then wear again for Halloween. My second youngest was going to wear one of her older sister's old princess dresses so she was set too. Then we have our youngest. I had no idea what she was going to wear. She didn't dress up for Comic Con, she didn't dress up for the halloween party we went to last week. She couldn't just wear her sister's costume from last year because she was the Tin Man which was cute as part of the group but a little weird by itself. I wanted to make her a costume because all of the other costumes were store bought and I think homemade costumes are just more fun. The problem was that I could not think of a single good idea of what to make for her. A few days ago I was talking to my husband about it and he came up with the perfect idea. Her nickname is Mare-Bear so he suggested we do a Care Bear costume. I thought it was perfect for her. Mare-Bear the Care Bear.

Lace Cluster Scarf: A Free Crochet Pattern


A few weeks ago I ran into the fabric store to grab something and while I was there I decided to check out the clearance section. They had a lot of yarn there and it was all really tempting but I have so much yarn and fabric at home, a lot of which has been given to me, that I rarely buy any unless I have something I want to make with it. I ended up buying two skeins of an acrylic/alpaca blend in a light blue color. I thought it would make some soft, pretty scarves. After I got home I immediately started thinking up patterns for it.  It took less than one skein to make this scarf. I figure I will probably be able to make 3 scarves from the two skeins that I bought.

Triangles & Stripes Baby Blanket


I had the idea for this baby blanket after coming across a Japanese crochet pattern on Pinterest that had this triangle design. I took that design and turned it into a blanket. My first thought was to do it in a solid color but then I thought it might be fun in stripes. I used three colors and decided to use blues, I thought the geometric pattern in the blanket would work well for a boy blanket but I think it would be cute in girly colors too, and as few or as many colors as you want. 

Homemade Halloween Costumes: A Look Back at Years Past


I thought since today is the first of October and my first October having this blog it would be fun to show some pictures of halloween costumes that I have made for my kids in the past. I have not made their costumes every year, in fact I am not making costumes this year. At least not for the 3 oldest. We bought them costumes to wear to Comic Con a month ago with the understanding that they would be wearing those for halloween as well. I haven't decided yet whether I will make costumes for the little girls this year. Even though I have not made their costumes every year I love making halloween costumes. I think it is so fun to have costumes that are not the same as every other kid out there. Even though they might not be the only Jedi or Dorothy in their school parade their costume will still be unique, no one else will have the same one. I have loved doing theme costumes but I think we might be running out of years where that will work. Another thing that I like about sewing halloween costumes is that they really don't need to be perfect, they are just a costume, not something that will be worn all the time. I can just cut and sew and make it work.