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. 

18 inch Doll Accessories: Owl Hat and Striped Scarf

Recently my oldest daughter has become somewhat obsessed with American Girl dolls. She gets the catalog in the mail and loves looking at all of the dolls and their clothes and accessories. She even found and watched videos on You Tube about American Girls dolls. Every time we go to the library she checks out American Girl books, faster than we can read them so most get returned unread. The truth is she will probably never get and American Girl doll because I am way too cheap to ever spend that much money on a doll, but the good news for her is that there are plenty of cheaper options and she doesn't really know the difference. She had her 6th birthday earlier this month and one day, maybe a week before her birthday, we happened to be at Walmart and saw that they had some of their 18 inch dolls on clearance. I knew she would love to get an "American Girl" doll, or anything that looked like one, for her birthday so we grabbed it. I had all sorts of different ideas of things I could make to go along with it but unfortunately the week leading up to her birthday we were super busy so most of them didn't happen. I still have tons of ideas of things I want to make for her so I am sure there will be more doll posts in the future, probably around Christmas time. 

Crocheted Pumpkins In Two Sizes: Free Pattern

Fall is my favorite season. I love everything about it, the cooler weather, the changing colors, the smell of pumpkin spice candles, desserts made with pumpkin. There is something about pumpkins that just screams fall, when you see a pumpkin you automatically think fall, whether it makes you think of harvest time or jack-o-lanterns at Halloween or pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. 

Wedding Gift: Couple Embroidery

As I have mentioned in previous posts, my sister-in-law just got married. A few weeks ago I was invited to a bridal shower and I really wanted to make something to give to her as a gift. I looked online and came across this link that had some handmade wedding gift ideas. Number 13 on that list is an embroidery of the couples names and a large ampersand. I saw that and thought that was something that I could make pretty easily. Mine does not look exactly like the one in the picture of course, I played around with different fonts until I found a combination that I liked. I ended up making it at kind of the last minute so I didn't think to take any pictures so that i could post it here. I just made it, stuck it in a bag and gave it away. The only pictures that I had were the two below that I had texted my husband from Walmart to get his opinion on how I should frame it.