Trick or Treat Bags

WOOHOO I completed something!!! Saturday morning I worked on one of the kid's costume but then started to feel unwell. The rest of the weekend was spent on the couch or in bed. Today I sewed the kids' Trick or Treat bags. I can't believe how time consuming these were, but I think its because I'm still new to sewing and figuring out all the little tricks such as cutting material, pinning, and making a box bottom bag. I used this tutorial for the bags. I tried stitching around the felt appliques I made for the kids, but my machine did not want to work with me. Oh well! Figure if the Heat n Bond didn't hold I can always rely on my Liquid Stitch...LOVE IT!!  

The Boys' Bags

 The Girls' Bags

Im a Pro...

Pro in PROCRASTINATION! One thing you should know about me I have a lot of ideas and many many future projects and most are left to the last minute. Halloween is only 5 days away and there's a lot to be done and have I started? Yes and no, we have our theme which is Alice in Wonderland. We have some parts of costumes thanks to our thrift store, but I still need to make an Alice apron, a Mad Hatter hat, a card solider costume, and a Queen of Heart wand and crown. Oh if that isn't enough I decided to make the kids new Trick or Treat bags, their old ones weren't going to last another year. In the days to come I hope to finish my to do list and have a HUGE post about my success in completing them all.

Chore Charts

As my kids have gotten older we've tried many different chore charts. They'll work for awhile, but I know I'm not consistent in keeping up with them. I decided with school in full bloom that I needed to lessen my stress and make the kids more responsible for doing their chores w/o a ton of reminders. I looked at many chore charts on Pinterest and decided to try this one out. I had all the items already in my craft stash which makes it even better. Plus I felt it was a chore chart they could easily do on their own. I used a cardboard backing and had each of the children choose scrapbook paper to mod podge it on with. They chose the color for the marker and ribbon. I rubbed out their names since I don't share those online.

My kids sometimes come home w/ prizes from their Teachers' prize bucket. I felt a prize bucket might encourage the kids to do their chores more freely. I ordered a bunch of little goodies like stickers, bubbles, erasers, pencils, hot wheels, and etc for our prize bucket. Each chore is worth 2 pts and at the end of the week, points can be traded in for a prize, which all prizes have a different point value. We also gave our kids 3 large chores that are paid chores for the week, each one was assigned a $ value. This will give them a little spending money for our Movie Night treats.

Girl Halloween Skirts

 
I'm not a big fan of matchy matchy when it comes to dressing my girls, however when I saw this material at the thrift store I had to get it and wanted to make  Halloween skirts with it. To make them different I decided to try new to me sewing techniques, such as layering, piping, and bias tape. I used the same tutorial for the skirt that I did a few weeks back. I really like how simplistic it is. The difficulty came w/ the edge work. I had never done ruffles before. I tried several different pins and lets just say I didn't accomplish the end goal. I however found this tutorial here and was finally successful in making a ruffle. WOOHOO!!! I like how the first skirt turned out. 


For the 2nd skirt I knew I wanted to make it a layered skirt which is shown on the same tutorial as the first skirt. She had bias tape on each layer and I loved the look of it. By chance I found the elastic band and yellow bias tape at the thrift store too. I decided to try this tutorial here for sewing the bias tape on. It was nice and easy and because I went slow I didn't have to pin it ahead of time. I dislike pinning!!!


The best part of this project was the cost. For $3 in supplies at the thrift store I have two very cute skirts. I have enough material left over that I could make more skirts, I have two baby nieces that would look adorable in similar skirts.

Painted Halloween Rocks

My kids love painting rocks. Its a messy project but we always have fun trying to find rocks that look like certain things. I surprised them on Monday with a walk to the creek to pick up rocks after seeing this pin. This is what we created using normal craft paint and then a permanent marker for the faces and writing. Don't know how we ended up with a pet cemetery, but we did.

Leg warmers

We live in a cold climate and walk around town a lot even in the winter. I decided I wanted to make leg warmers for my girls. I found a very simple pattern here but used Red Heart Super Saver Yarn instead of wool. 

I found the heart pattern here. I sewed it onto the sides, but I'm wishing I had sewn them more towards the front now. Maybe on the next pair I'll try a different applique and position.