Word Up!

Finally, the Halloween costume reveal! I started out trying to convince the kids to be Thing 1 and Thing 2 because I thought the costumes would be super easy. My oldest went along with that idea at first, but then she started having ideas of her own. After changing her mind a few times, she decided she wanted to be Word Girl. I decided that wouldn’t be too difficult as long as I didn’t have to try to actually sew the clothing. As I’ve mentioned before, this is my first year attempting to do homemade costumes. I found some solid colored clothes at Children’s Place (after removing a few embellishments), and I made the rest. All our festivities were on Saturday, so I got the costumes done in the nick of time on Friday.

Straight from the planet Lexicon, I present to you . . . Word Girl!

She just LOVED shouting out Word Girl’s catch phrase: Word up!

And we couldn’t have Word Girl without Captain Huggy Face!

If you’re not familiar with these beloved PBS Kids characters, this is what they’re supposed to look like:

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I think my main frustration with these costumes was their headbands. I didn’t think I had the skills to try to create my own pattern for hats that would look like the characters’ hats, so I decided to try to make wide headbands. The only problem with that is that since they go under the chin and they’re made of satin, they kept wanting to slip forward. You can see Word Girl’s is clipped to her in the picture above. Captain Huggy Face’s stayed on pretty well, except for when I tried to take her picture and she kept yanking it off, saying, “No dank you,” and handing it to me. When we went to the church carnival and trunk-or-treating the next day, I found some red bobby pins to pin on both of their headbands. Much better.I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cuter dynamic duo!By the time I was finished with the costumes, I felt like saying, “never again.” I was having a hard time convincing myself one day of fun was worth all that work when I could have dragged them to the store and convinced them to conform to what I could purchase. But then we got to the carnival, and each time we finished at one station, Word Girl ran a loop around the gym floor. She was more excited about flying in her costume than playing games and winning prizes. She happily exclaimed “Word up!” for anyone who stopped and said, “Hey, it’s Word Girl!”

Both my girls were so excited and happy to be all dressed up and showing off their finished costumes. I soaked up their enthusiasm, and it made me feel giddy like I had been waiting for this holiday with the same eagerness they had. And at the end of the day, I told myself that maybe, just maybe, I could be persuaded to do this again.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Jenny at The Southern Institute for Domestic Arts and Crafts is hosting a blog hop so we can all share our Halloween costumes, and I thought I’d join in. Here it is, my first blog hop ever! Please add a link below to your blog post (not your main blog page) that shows off your kids’ costumes. Then, if you’d like to, you can add this blog hop to your own blog. This will be fun!

I’m sharing this post with (a whole bunch of link parties) . . .

I Just Can’t Resist

I guess I haven’t really gotten into the Halloween spirit this year, if there is such a thing. My main focus has been dealing with the costumes.

But I was supposed to go visiting teaching this week, and the appointment fell through (learn more about visiting teaching HERE). So, I started thinking about stopping by her house to drop off some sort of treat.

Then I found these adorable cupcakes via One Charming Party:

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I decided I just have to make these. They are too cute and too easy! They are the perfect thing to drop off for visiting teaching. But that would leave me with quite a few cupcakes left over . . .

And then I found this adorable printable for the Halloween Phantom over at This Little Life of Mine, and I remembered being visited by the Halloween Phantom when I was a kid. It was always so exciting. I think my girls would really have fun trying to sneak goodies onto our neighbors’ porches. So I can’t hold out anymore. I can’t resist getting into Halloween a little bit more. I know what we’re doing as a family tomorrow evening.

Uhhh . . . and if you happen to read my blog and you happen to have some adorable owl cupcakes show up on your doorstep . . . pretend you didn’t see this. Nnnkay?

Getting Closer

I’ve been preoccupied. On the bright side, this is the first year I’ve been able to work it out so my girls are in coordinated Halloween costumes. The difficult part is that means this is the first year I have to try to make costumes (or portions of the costumes, as you can see in the picture that I purchased what I could make work).

I’m really a beginner when it comes to sewing, and this has been a whole different realm. I’ve been winging it on these costumes, sketching things out (and I really don’t draw), and hoping it will all work. I’m finally nearing the end. I don’t want anything to do with satin for a long time after this. There are just a few more details that I hope to have done in the next couple days. I hope it will turn out. There are already spots that look pretty wonky from my sewing. Oh well. As long as the kids have fun and the costumes hold out for one day, right?

I’ll take pictures once things are finished. What are you/your kids going to be for Halloween?

My First Feature(s)!

(This is late getting up here. I was having trouble publishing, and then I forgot to try again until now.)

My wee little blog was featured over at What Allie’s Making Now! She added me to her “Making it with Allie” features this week for my post about my daughter’s dog party. I’m so glad people liked my ideas. I was so worried about that party! Check out her blog for all sorts of crafty ideas.

Whoops! I guess I spoke too soon. Revision: I have been featured for the dog party on not one, but two blogs. I just wandered over to Lamb Around recently and found that I’ve been featured there, too!I never thought that party would be such a hit. I’m so flattered.