Thanksgiving Centerpiece

I had some time alone with Seth on a sunny day and we spent a good chunk of it in the backyard. I wanted to get some of the kitchen garden cleaned out and while doing so, found a few hidden clumps of dried garlic chives.  I usually try to clip the flowers off so they don’t go to seed as these things spread something fierce. However, through laziness and the cover of the tarragon and tomato plants a few clumps escaped my attentions. Seth thought they needed a vase, so I obliged and pulled out one of my favorite vases made by Rebecca and let him go to town. He carefully selected and cut to size each stem.  Sometimes he got a little carried away cutting down the stems, but that was part of the learning process and I had no attachment at the time to those flowers. Now, however, I think it makes for the perfect Thanksgiving centerpiece.

Little Gnome

Thanks to Kristin, I got to spend a relaxing afternoon with a group of lovely women learning how to make these little guys. I think more are needed for the stockings don’t you?

Super Seth!

To tell you about Seth’s Halloween costume I have to take a step back to July for Seth’s birthday party. Which is good because I’ve been having mommy guilt over the fact that I never posted about it. He wanted a superhero birthday party and that’s just what he got. There were only 3 activities, one of which I completely forgot until 2 days later. The thank you gift was part of the 1st activity – superhero dress up. The 2nd activity was a water gun fight, which I have conflicting feelings about. I don’t allow play guns in the house, but somehow can’t say no to water guns on a hot summer day. The 3rd activity, which I forgot to get out, was decorate your own super hero mask. Unfortunately, I had gotten the masks so far in advance I had to hide them because Seth wouldn’t leave them alone. I apparently hid them from myself too. Out of sight, out of mind. The kids didn’t seem to mind. And although it was unseasonably cool and therefore the water guns weren’t used much, they didn’t seem to mind that either. Besides there was cake.

So why did I need to tell you this in order to tell you about Seth’s halloween costume? Well, the dress up portion, of course! Steve and I freezer paper stenciled each child’s first initial onto t-shirts. Honestly, Steve did most of the work with this one. I found cheap t-shirts on sale, each a different color and size. Would have been easier to do all the same color, but the huge size differences in the kids made that impossible.

While Steve was stenciling I was making play silk capes. I kool-aid dyed more silk scarves as before only in a slightly smaller size. Then I made 2 folds on one of the edges and sewed a longer strip of  bias tape to make the collar edge. Love pre-packaged bias tape, all folded and ready for you. I was nervous about the sewing as I always am with sewing but it was a breeze and no-one could tell or would even mind that I can’t sew a straight line. Finally I added a little strip of iron on velcro to the ends of the bias tape. Easy on, easy off and no potential strangulation possibilities – just how I like it. They turned out great, if I do say so myself. And as a bonus they pack down really small for putting away at the end of the day. Or shoving in a corner as the case may be.

This all made for a very colorful backyard of kids.

Seth had no problem picking out his halloween costume this year – a superhero. He was set at least a month if not 2 before and never wavered in his choice. Whenever he was asked what he wanted to be, they always followed with the question “which superhero?” To which Seth gave them an odd look and either ran away or stated defiantly “Super Seth!!” He doesn’t really know a lot of the traditional superheroes, so to him this was a ridiculous question.

I finished off the outfit by dying one of those masks I had set aside to match his cape. And since t-shirts don’t fly in Minnesota at Halloween we added plenty of warmth with long johns, sweats and gloves. Unfortunately, although Seth liked the mask I made him it and wore it on several occasions, he couldn’t bring himself to wear it trick-or-treating. He found his swimming goggles much more appropriate.

Of course, even those didn’t make it the whole evening.

Puppy!

Eleanor love, love, loves puppies. And when asked what she wanted to be for Halloween there was no hesitation – a puppy. Granted every 5th time I asked her she would change the answer to crab, but I think that was just to tease me.

I have fabulous memories of home made halloween costumes -lady bugs, witches, princesses…. I also remember my mom staying up terribly late sewing. I don’t have the energy my mom had. I admit it. And I’m not as proficient with the sewing machine. So my approach is  a toned down version and so far I’ve been able to modify store bought clothes to get the costumes my children are interested in. In this case it was an all brown outfit with some blobs of tan felt quickly sewn on and a funky hand sewn fake fur made-up-as-I-went pull on tail.

The ears were from her birthday party and I just realized all these shots were before she put her collar on. It’s made of red ribbon with a puppy charm on it and was also made for her birthday back in May.

So in the end I paid $7 for a brown sweatshirt and 62 cents for some fur for the tail. I used what we had on hand for the rest. The great thing about halloween costumes is that even though I sewed I didn’t have to sew straight or even very well. Knots on the back of the fabric and puckers in the patches were ok. She wore the shirt 3 times. It’s not an heirloom. She can use the tail and even the shirt for dress up and I wont’ be concerned if she rips it.  Or maybe I’ll take the patches off. We’ll see how it does in the wash. I think she might be mad if I take them off.