Buzzmills

Happy Halloween...

We love Halloween in our house, parents and kids alike!  We love the creativity, the idea that you get to be something different for just a little bit, of course the candy too!! One of things that is most fun to us is coming up with a costume!  We have been discussing possible Halloween costumes since last Halloween as I am sure many of you have been too.  Violet is certainly not on her own here.  Brad and I have always discussed possible costume ideas for us to do someday...Two of our favorites...Jack and the Beanstalk - I was Jack complete with a stuffed goose that I found at a thrift store and a painted golden egg, while tall and skinny Brad was the beanstalk complete with a felt hat and green beans safety pinned to green clothes!  Another year Brad got off easily and only had to carry two circular wipe boards around that were attached to paint stirrers...the rest of his costume was me, an angel, and another friend, a devil...we were his good and bad conscience!  That was a fun night, writing nice and naughty things on the wipe boards ;)

Last year Violet had decided she wanted to be ladybug girl for a long time and then about two weeks before Halloween she changed her mind and decided she wanted to be Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street.  It actually wasn't too big of a deal because I had been procrastinating and had not yet started on the ladybug girl costume, phew!  So, knowing that there might be last minute decisions, I gave everyone a deadline of October 15th to decide what they wanted to be.  There was a lot of back and forth between many different costumes...and then it was decided, our new favorites...Henry, Llama llama red pajama, and Violet, Mary Poppins.  

Violet's costume was so much fun to make put together.  Our first stop was the thrift store, where in one day we found the perfect hat, gloves, and an actual kid's sized Mary Poppins bag!! The coat was borrowed, the umbrella purchased because we needed a new functioning one anyway, the skirt was shortened from one of my old ones and the scarf was in our stash...Violet helped add the cherries and daisies to her hat and I whipped up a little felt parrot head!  Voila!

Taking flight...

And, of course to go along with Mary, we must have a Bert!!  

Brad's costume involved $2 of red fabric, raiding his closet, raiding the recycle bin for the chimney sweep, and raiding the chimney for the soot!

As for Henry and I...llama mama and llama red pajama...quick fleece and felt llama head's, supplies purchase and put together on Saturday!!  An apron made from dish towels and some lace from my stash attached to an old shirt of Brad's...

People kept complimenting us on the fact that we were wearing costumes also, thank you, but we just like to do it!!  And, no, we don't have a ton of time, and yes, it is put together at the last minute!!!  

Thankfully we were able to get out for a little neighborhood costume get together yesterday because, after all of the last minute putting together on Saturday, it turns out that we won't be heading out trick or treating tonight after all :(  Violet was diagnosed with a little case of pneumonia this morning.  So, instead, we will don our costumes in our house.  Violet will pull some yummy treats out of her Mary Poppins bag to hand out to the trick or treaters and we will eat some homemade warm you up squash soup.  

Before I leave...a trip down memory lane...

Violet Flower (8months)

Violet and "Mum"

Lion (20months)

Abby Cadabby

Flying Fairy School Crew, Gonnigin, Blogg, Abby, Miss Sparklenose... (Violet 2 1/2, Henry 5 months)

Happy Halloween, hope your is spooky, safe and fun!! 

 

The colors of fall...

Despite a brief visit from old man winter yesterday, we have just begun to see some of the brilliant colors of fall in our neighborhood!  While the bold and bright colors of spring are always welcome and beautiful, the warmth and fire of fall always amazes me.

And this tree is my favorite!  We pass this tree every day on our walk to and from preschool.  We have watched it slowly shift from green to half green to yellow.  The picture does not do it justice, but as the wind blows...it appears as though there are gold coins falling from the tree.

Here's hoping you are enjoying a beautiful fall weekend filled with the sights and smells, applesauce and squash soup here, of fall...

Holding hands...

Don't you love it, holding hands with anyone that you love big or small!  

(*The first time Brad and I held hands it was weird an awkward, but also felt just right!)

Enjoy your weekend!  Here, I must finish up some Halloween costumes...procrastination!  And, um...probably some other fall fun like squash soup...yum!

 

After nap (today)...

I am taking a cue and finding myself inspired by Meg from Sew Liberated today.  All week she has been sharing some things that she does with her children after nap.  Meg is a former Montessori teacher, as well as an author and a pattern designer.  She has been sharing some really fun ideas, including "painting the sky" which I can not wait to do!  I must say that I am not always mindful of what we do after nap.  Often we are doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  It does often involve some sort of crafting, collecting or outdoorsy play, but much of the time it is not always planned.  So, as we were taking a walk this morning in the rain

we admired all of the shiny autumn leaves on the ground and I was inspired....We picked some of the leaves up to bring home with us for our after nap time.

We used the leaves as stamps of sorts.  We painted the backs of them and then pressed them down onto the paper.  

I wish I had gotten a better picture of Henry's face at this point.  His mouth and eyes were wide open admiring what he was about to do!

'

And then when Henry tired of the project he scooted his trash collecting bike around to collect trash...

and then whipped us up a snack in the kitchen!

Thank you Meg for helping me to be mindful.  You should definitely head over to her site because she has lots of great links too, in case you are looking to be inspired.  

As for the leaf printing...I love this project and I am thinking that I might just need to find the time to do some of it myself, by myself.  I found it very soothing and thought the outcome was beautiful.  

 

Ps. If you've been here before ( or if you haven't...). I've added a "store" check it out. Pps. Gulp, I've done it again...I just signed up to sell at The Fenton Street market again, November 12!

A pair of pillowcases...

Recently a friend of mine asked me if I could make her some pillowcases for her couch, no problem.  Some time went by...and then one day she emailed me the size of the pillows, there was some discussion about the fabric, etc...and then shortly after some fabric arrived at my doorstep.  And then it hit me...wait a second...I have to make these pillowcases with zippers!  HAHA!  I hadn't really thought about the fact that she had the pillows miles and miles away from me.  Of course, this is going to make her laugh when she reads this because I didn't tell her that I haven't done zippers before.  Maybe I shouldn't admit this.  But, then again, I've already told you that I am a wing it kind of girl, with one exception...when I'm making something for someone else.  I always get a little bit nervous when I make something for someone else, if I mess up something for myself it's fine, I can live with it, but I don't want to mess something up that someone else will be using.  

A quick google search led me exactly to where I wanted to be "How to Sew a Zipper Pillow" on the Prudent Baby blog.  They had me at "STOP! Do not turn away. You are going to conquer your fear of zippers right now."  This tutorial was perfect, so easy to follow, and, as it turns out, it really isn't anything to be scared of, not to mention they do look quite professional!

And then, the bonus that she doesn't know about...two extra pillowcases tucked into her package...

So, the pictures aren't great, sorry, it was a gloomy day and I was in a hurry (also wrinkled pillowcases, oops!)   The Christmas tree pillowcase was inspired by a pillow I pinned on Pinterest here.  She conveniently told me she loved it after she saw that I had pinned it...wait a minute maybe she is just manipulating me... ;)  And, the falling leaves pillowcase was inspired by a onesie that I made for Henry last fall.  (Oh so tiny here!)

Hope she likes them :)  

One more thing...don't you just love this fabric

This was one of Violet's fat quarter picks one day.  At my most recent trip to the fabric store I saw it on the bolt and I think it is so cute.  I'm thinking it might need to be made in to a pair of pj pants for me.