Trick or Treat...in November

I posted a few weeks ago about Charlotte's Halloween costume--a purple fairy godmother--but never got around to posting about Halloween. In short, it was super cold and rainy on the 31st but she still went out trick-or-treating for over an hour and proudly carried her pumpkin candy basket the whole time. Success.

We carved pumpkins the day before, and by "we" I mean Chad and I since she lost interest by the time we were done removing the pumpkin guts. She did hang around long enough to watch me draw a happy face, per request, on it as a carving guide.

She had a Halloween parade at school the day before where the kids all wore their costumes to school and then at the end of the day families could come to see the parade. It was all very cute, and she soaked up every minute of parade time to wave at everyone (to the point where she walked out of the line and into a wall she was so focused on waving). I took pictures, but it's too hard to crop out the other kids so I won't post any here. Here she is in her fairy godmother glory:

I hope you had a lovely Halloween (and October)!

~Stacy

Birthday B&B

Chad turned the big 3-0 last week (which means I've now known him over half his life...which is both cool and horrifying). To celebrate, we went to a bed & breakfast for the weekend called The Inn at Brandywine Falls. You'd never guess from the name, but it's located right near Brandywine Falls in Northfield (about 40 minutes southeast from us). Our hope was that the fall leaves would be bursting with color and while they were certainly colorful they were also almost entirely on the ground. Ah well, it was still gorgeous. And we had perfect weather, so we were able to hike around Cuyahoga Valley National Park all day.

We visited Hale Farm (right near Peninsula), Peninsula, the Falls, some covered bridges, many hiking trails, and Country Maid Homemade Ice Cream. We also saw a movie, in a theater, something we haven't done together in about a year (we saw St. Vincent, which was good but I'd suggest you wait for Netflix).

So without further ado, here are some photos:

~Stacy

Fairy Godmother Costume

So Halloween is next Friday and I'm not sure how that happened. Thankfully I got my act together enough to make sure Charlotte has a costume.

This year was interesting, since she (mostly) gets the idea of Halloween and what it's all about--which meant she had opinions about her costume. Many opinions, that changed frequently. She had announced her decision to dress up as Dory the fish, Jessi the cowgirl, Cinderella, a bride, a dragon, a mermaid and, oddly, a donkey. The one that ended up sticking was a fairy godmother, so I ran with it (because any more time to think and she would've insisted on dressing up as Elsa or Anna, and I can only imagine how many little Elsa's and Anna's will be trick-or-treating this year). She was firm in her color choice for her costume: purple.

Next was pattern hunting. I didn't find any tutorials online that I liked so I looked at regular patterns and found this one:

I wanted a full length skirt and some type of jacket piece that she could wear over a long sleeved shirt. I went with this view:

My mom make the skirt, which was good for me and traumatizing for her. I wasn't about sew four layers of slippery tulle on top of a layer of slippery satin with a ton of gathering involved. No thanks. She would've been a fairy godmother in leggings if that had been up to me :)

I was in charge of the jacket/vest portion. I made it out of a sparkly satin type fabric and lined it with fleece for warmth. My hope is that she can wear layers of long sleeved shirts if it's cold out and use the vest as a jacket...fingers crossed it isn't too cold on the 31st.

The last step came this morning, when I made the hat. I used a large piece of purple foam and cut a half circle about 10" tall, formed into a cone shape, and stapled shut. Before stapling I took four strips of tulle and knotted the end a few times and inserted that into the hat. Lastly, I used a hole punch on both sides and tied ribbons so I can tie it under her chin to stay put.

I'm pretty excited about this costume :) I like that it's homemade and was (mostly) fun to make. Another bonus is the cost. If I add in my and my mom's time, the cost comes out quite high. However, since sewing is a fun hobby I am NOT counting our time. The overall materials cost was just under $20, which is fantastic considering the crazy prices stores charge for ready made costumes. I used a few 40% coupons at Joann's, which helped keep prices down as well. And she loves to play dress up, so I know the costume will get used beyond just Halloween.

I actually haven't tried this on her yet--I know if I do she won't want to take it off. So pictures to follow next week of her as Fairy Godmother Charlotte.

Happy Halloween!

~Stacy

Quilted Baby Carrier

Charlotte loves her Baby Stella doll (and really any doll, but this project specifically has Baby Stella in mind). She carries it around with her a lot and I thought it'd be cute to make her her own baby carrier. Enter Pinterest, where I searched "diy baby carrier" and found this:

Click here to go right to the pin

I thought it was adorable and the tutorial looked simple enough--to see, it click here to go directly to the blog!

It's a great tutorial and the whole project took one evening and one afternoon. I split it up because the pieces all needed to be quilted--which was easy, but time consuming. So I did all the cutting and quilting last night and put it together this afternoon. All told it probably took a total of about 2 hours.

I used leftover fabric from this outfit I made her over the summer:

I had juuust enough left to make the carrier! And the tutorial called for high loft batting, which I did not have. So I improvised and did one layer of fusible fleece and another layer of low loft natural cotton batting. It worked out fine, and I'd definitely recommend doing that if you don't have high loft since it needs some heft to hold its shape. A heavier weight interfacing would be fine for the hood, but I wouldn't suggest it for the basket since it wouldn't be very soft and squishy. And the pretend baby that will be laying inside will require soft and squishy ;)

It's so cute and the perfect size for Stella (it'll comfortably hold a doll up to 15").

~Stacy

Hammocks Are Hilarious, and Other Things

These pictures don't really require much of an explanation, other than Chad and Charlotte hung a hammock in the back yard and she thought it was really funny to hang out in it.

No matter how much fun you had on Sunday, you did not have as much fun as Charlotte in a hammock. Unless of course you're a Browns fan and watched them wipe the floor (field?) with the Steelers. I think we could hear fans screaming all the way from downtown; you would think they had won the Superbowl. Being a Cleveland football fan is hard.

Anyhow, hammocks and the park--that was our weekend when we had free time. I'll take it.

and this one, because those eyes...

Happy Monday.

~Stacy

The Last Two Weeks

When I last posted, Chad and Charlotte were getting ready to go on a camping trip with my dad and brother--which they did, and had a great time. Then once they got home (literally within hours of arriving home), Charlotte started having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic she'd been on and things quickly went downhill from there and last week was a ball of chaos because of it, followed by a visit from Chad's family and a terrifically busy week at work. The End.

But now things appear to be back to normal (fingers crossed). We had a lovely visit with Chad's mom and sister (even if we were not all at our best. Definitely not our best). Charlotte seems to be back to her regular self and now I know that penicillin is not her friend, nor will it ever be. Good to know.

Here are some camping photos, pre-chaos:

And I barely have any photos taken since then, since it was the last thing on my mind with everything else going on. But in that time, it has suddenly become fall:

And my favorite shot of the month, my little tree hugger:

I hope your October is going well.

~Stacy