kirstencan

Halloween Garland

I felt like our mantel needed a little something extra this year.  Now that The Redhead is doing better with his Fall Anxiety, we can put up a few more decorations!  But no creepy ones!  And only two weeks before or later.

I'll take it.

Anyway, a friend of mine has a paper crafting room that is like Disneyland for papercrafters.  She has all the toys!  So rather than cut out all these letters by hand for the idea I came up with, I asked her to help me with her fancy gizmos.

I just wanted a couple lines from 'This is Halloween' (Nightmare Before Christmas).  I was looking for a phrase that could be divided in two (because VISUALLY I knew what I wanted!) and probably picked the wrong one, but that's okay!  I love how it looks.

It goes well with our little Nightmare figures on the mantel (but no Oogie-Boogie, he was banished).

I love paper decorations.  And sometimes they last.  I've had these little dudes hanging up in the kitchen for... I don't know how many years but they've lasted well!

Have a great Halloween!  The Girl went to school as Totoro and I will try and get photos of the boys tomorrow - I LOVE their (surprisingly easy) costumes this year! Weirdly The Redhead hasn't had a chance to dress up yet!  What are your kids dressing up as?

Totoro costume

Again, this girl wanted to dress up for a local anime con, so her costume was done in August - I am very glad of that now!

Last year she was Kiki, and this year wanted to stick with another Studio Ghibli classic character.  She went as Totoro!

Like last year, I feel like we struck a good balance between geeky and 'not-too-over-the-top' with wigs and stuff like that.  Although the day of we realized she should have been Princess Tutu!  That would've been fun - maybe next year.

Her costume base was a dress (nightshirt?) from Target.  I appliqued cream knit on top, plus little soot sprites and a little white totoro on the back.  There is one soot sprite on her sleeve, too.

Her ears + leaf hat are wool felt, totally made up as I went along, with a little tulle thrown in their for fancy.

She loves it and is excited to wear it again for Halloween!

We ALMOST did Arietty - but somehow ended up here.

Costume 1: done.  The boys'... are getting there! :)

Eggs

It finally happened!  We have eggs from our chickens!

Most of the hens lay brown eggs, but a couple lay blue-green colored (those are the ones I picked, and that is why I picked them!).

I packed a few in an origami box to give to our awesome next-door neighbors.  In part as an apology - these chickens have been bawk-BAWKing a lot as they figure out this whole egg-laying thing.  They'd better quit it...

I made french toast today, and here is what they look like compared to a store-bought (though cage-free organic) egg.  Three are ours, and one is bought.  

They are a little smaller and very orangey! 

We tally up the eggs in our egg book as we find them.  

Kinda fun to try and figure out who is laying - we sure were excited to see those blue eggs!

Pillow

 

My mother-in-law gifted me a box of fabric, which included these super fun Japanese strips.  I knew that they'd make the perfect gift for my daughter's friend, so I whipped up a quilted pillow for her bday last week.

It was great to do a small project - reminded me that quilting is fun, and motivated me to get back to my list of quilts-in-progress!  

So I did.  More on that front soon.   Right now I have a quilt top & back to sandwich and baste!