Character Pumpkin and Happy Halloween!

I showed a bit of our family's character pumpkin in the Photo 366.  Well, I'm here to wish you a very Happy Halloween and unveil the whole pumpkin.

Maben chose to do, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," again.  You can see where we have done this theme before here. 

The character pumpkins are something our school district challenges the families to do.  Each pumpkin gets put on display for a week in the library at school.  It was a lot of fun and I foresee us doing this every year.  If you want to do it, it's easy.  Let your child pick out a book or character, then paint your pumpkin up with what was chosen.  Everyone in the family has to help! 

Maben and I did the majority of the painting.  I drew out the shapes in pencil, then gave Maben (and a few times Colton) a loaded up paint brush and showed them where to paint.  I came in and did the detail work.  My husband painted one small spot, he's not so artsy and didn't want to ruin it.

Have you ever painted a character pumpkin?  If so, I would love to hear/see what you have done.

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Halloween.

Favorite Photo(s) Tuesday: Halloween Edition

I took a lot of great photos yesterday to capture all the fun that surrounds Halloween.  I couldn't narrow it down to my single favorite photo, so I turned Favorite Photo Tuesday into a Holiday edition that will show off all my favorites.

Because I love pumpkins, we had to carve one up.  The problem down here in Texas, they rot if you don't carve them the day of or the day before.  My helpers weren't too eager to pull out the guts, until I pulled out a spoon.  Neither one of them wanted to be "gooey."

While we were getting the pumpkins ready, Colton decided to attempt and take advantage of my being distracted.  This is his up to no good face.

And there he goes...

Maben picked out the design to carve onto our pumpkin.  He came home from school today with a pumpkin he made and asked if I could carve our pumpkin like that.  Of course I can!

My little robot cowboy is showing off the uncanny resemblance the two pumpkins have.  I think I made Maben proud.

Maben was so excited about dressing up and going trick-or-treating he pretended to be many things today.  The one he kept going back to was a cowboy.  I have a very cute little cowboy!

Once daddy got home, we ate quickly and all got dressed into our costumes.  Colton ended up being a firefighter because he got Charlie Brown super dirty yesterday when we went to lunch.  We were taking advantage of kids eating free that came in costume. 

Maben chose the Angry Bird shirt for Matt.  The firefighter costume is a pajama costume from Carter's.  They use to carry quite a few when Maben was that age and I bought up a bunch of them because they are fun.  Maben ended up going as just a robot and I donned my owl.

The boys really enjoyed trick-or-treating.  Colton was a riot to watch.  He had no fear of strangers...he even walked into one of my neighbors houses when they opened the door.

Colton did catch on quickly to how this whole thing works.  I walk up, they give me candy and I say, "Dank Oooo."  Well, that wasn't good enough for this little guy.  Towards the end of our trick-or-treating, Maben would yell, "Trick-or-treat," both boys would collect their candy.  Maben would say, "thank you," and Colton would look all sad and say, "I have more?"  Of course he would get more candy and his face would light up and he would say, "Dank Oooo." 

What a little manipulator!  It is hard to say NO to that cute little monster.

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

I want to wish everyone out there a Happy Halloween.  I hope you enjoy this holiday as much as I do and have a very fun day!  I hope there are many children who bring joy to your hearts today and that you celebrate this time as a family and community.

This is me and the kiddos from last year.  I will share with you our new Halloween photos later.

Last Minute Kid Costume: Robot

Maben has issues with texture.  He doesn't do tags, he isn't a fan of anything scratchy.  He hates the polyester that most costumes are made of and yet he asked to be a robot this year.  I think of a homemade robot and it includes a boxed body, spray painted funnel hat and dryer vent arms and legs.  NOT HAPPENING!  

So, I was stuck and bought a sweat suit and ended up butchering it to the point of putting it to the trash.  I had to rethink and attack.  I pulled this robot off the night before the Fall party last weekend and the best part...it was easy and Maben LOVED it!

I cut out felt pieces and sewed them onto a jersey shirt.  I gave the robot essentials.  A pressure guage, on/off buttons and some cog wheels.  The pressure gauge was done using a simple short zig zag stitch. 

 

Maben proudly proclaimed all day that he was a robot.  He also kept the shirt on for almost the entire party!  Success!

Last Minute Kid Costume: Charlie Brown

This past weekend we had a Fall party to go to where it was encouraged for everyone to dress up.  While, we have a stack of pajama costumes that I could have put on Colton...but, since I was making my costume and Maben's, I really needed to make him one too. 

Inspiration struck and I decided to make Colton into Charlie Brown!  The hardest part...scouring the mall for a yellow polo shirt.  After dragging the kids through about 10 stores, bribing them with carousel rides and letting them play some games in a kids store, I finally found a yellow polo shirt at Burlington Coat Factory.

I paid $4.31 for this shirt.  The biggest problem with it...all that embroidery!  It took a few hours in front of the TV to rip all those stitches out, but I eventually did it.  (and I only created one hole in the shirt)

After that, I pulled the shirt over piece of cardboard and measured out and marked my chevron stripe.

I then mixed up my black acrylic paint and fabric medium to make fabric paint.  I then painted the stripe with lots of brush strokes.  I didn't want a solid stripe because I remembered in the comics that it was typically done with more of an artistic brush stroke flair.

Once I let that dry, the next day I put Colton in it and I had myself the cutest Charlie Brown ever!  I also think this Charlie Brown will get more than a rock when it comes time for some trick-or-treating.

This costume cost me $4.31.  All I had to buy was the shirt.  I had the paint and fabric medium on hand already and Colton had a pair of black shorts too.  Even if you did have to buy fabric paint and shorts/pants...I am sure the whole thing would still cost less than $10.  If you can't find a yellow polo shirt, check out Hobby Lobby or Michaels for a plain yellow shirt.

Showing this off at:

My Costume: Part 2

I finished the wings of my costume and finally set up the camera and tripod in a rare spare moment to show it off!  Owl you glad I did!?!  Okay, I recognize how bad that pun is but am so sleep deprived that I don't care.

I created a template with paper and tracing a bowl to get the scallop shape.  I wish I had a tutorial for you, but sadly, I forgot to take photos of half the process.  This was however my first attempt at making a template for sewing and I would say it went rather successful. 

The wings are made with felt and attached to my arms with elastic loops.  I picked my shirt because it was ruffly and I think it goes well with the whole owl ensemble.

So, what do you think of the whole costume together?  I like it for my first real attempt at making my own costume.

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Do you theme your family or does everyone go as something different?

My Costume: Part 1

Owls have been rather popular in the sewing and crafting world for over a year now and I personally love the trend.  I decided to embody that trend and make myself an owl costume for Halloween. 

Now, first of all, this is the FIRST year I have ever made myself a costume.  I typically will thrift something/buy/borrow to get a costume.  Last year I hijacked my hubby's old Army uniform and boots and went as a soldier. 

The first part of my costume is a mask.  I completed this last night and if all goes well, I will finish the second part of my costume sometime in the near future.  I was hoping to say tonight, but I have a kiddo battling croup, which means no one is sleeping well around here. 

Anyways, onto the mask.  Isn't it beautiful?  I love it!  Does it look owl enough?

I have always enjoyed making masks, ever since I was a kid.  As a kid I even use to collect those porcelain face masks that seemed to be everywhere in the late 80's. 

My mask started off as this.  A fabric covered plastic molded mask that I picked up at Jo Ann Fabrics.

Then with the addition of glue, felt, markers and some pheasant feathers I was able to transform it into this.

Now, trying to keep my kiddos hands off of this until Halloween is going to be the challenge. 

Fall Is Upon Us and So Is Mr. Potato Head

It is finally feeling a little like fall around here.  We have been able to open up the house at night, occasionally.  A beautiful steady rain fell upon us most of the day yesterday.  I think that is the most rain we have had all year...in one beautiful day!  This last week I started decorating our front porch in honor of the cooler temps and Halloween being one of my favorite holidays.

I have learned that decorating for the holidays is done very differently down south than other parts of the country that can enjoy 4 seasons.

One of the biggest disappointments that I have encountered living in Texas, pumpkin carving.  Seriously, pumpkins rot so fast down here that if you are going to carve them up for Halloween, you do it the day of!!!  I have had a carved fresh pumpkin rot and fall in on itself in 24 hours.  How disappointing! I am use to a cooler drier, climate that allows your pumpkins to survive at least a week. 

I have had to resort to other methods for decorating pumpkins.  Enter, Mr. Potato Head!

My monster pumpkin is decorated with nothing but Mr. Potato Head parts. I purchased a seasonal potato head at the store the other day and plugged all the pieces into my pumpkin.  Voila!  A decorated pumpkin that will take a few weeks before it rots.

They even make Mr. Potato Head pumpkin sets.  These are sets that are designed specifically for use to decorate a pumpkin.

These pieces vary just slightly from regular pieces.  The feet have two spikes and occasionally the head/hat piece will have it's spike at an angle that would not be condusive for using on a regular potato head.  Other than that, the rest of the pieces can be used on a regular Mr. Potato Head.

The trick to getting these pieces to work on your pumpkin, you need to create a hole prior to putting in the pieces.  The plastic is far too flimsy to just push into a pumpkin.  I use a nail to create a large enough hole that will allow the pieces to penetrate the pumpkin's outer skin.

We now have a Vampire Potato Head, a Monster Potato Head and a Cowboy Potato Head.  I will still probably carve up a pumpkin...but it will be a few weeks before that task will be tackled.

Blast From The Past: Halloween Edition

I have been busy cranking away on some Halloween inspired things which hasn't given me anything finished to show off this week.  Wait til next week, I will have a bit to show off!  In the mean time, I want to share a gorgeous watercolor painting that I did of Maben as a cute little pumpkin from his very first Halloween.  It hangs in our livingroom year round. 

I love how it turned out.  The hands aren't bad either.  That is my weakness when it comes to painting people.  I should probably do a study on painting just hands.  I think that might require someone adding more hours to a day though. 

Are you as excited for Halloween as I am?  This is my favorite holiday!