Halloween Costumes

Last year was epic when it came to Halloween Costumes. This year I didn't go all out because my kids found costumes at the thrift store that they liked. The only costume I needed to make was for my oldest, he wanted to be a medieval Spear man. I found an old curtain that I used for his tunic. The chain mail armor I crocheted with gray yarn. There was no pattern to follow but I did see this pic which gave me inspiration. My hubby made the spear out of an old broom handle, cardboard, and black duct tape. He received many compliments as he tricked or treated.

 Now, my husband's costume was EPIC! 
It scared so many people and its all because of this awesome 39 lb pumpkin. 

This is how it looked at the Trunk or Treat. He had false legs and when people reached into the bowl he'd grabbed their hands.

 

I made the ghosts out of Geo mesh.

Crochet Dresses for American Girl Dolls

I have a TON of yarn, totes filled to the brim! hehe The totes need to be used up. Most of the yarn isn't the fancy kind, just plain Red Heart yarn, but it works perfectly for doll clothes because it holds up well and washes easily. I found this adorable dress pattern for American Girl dolls. My girls wanted a regular dress so I extended the length of the skirt. 

Filet Crochet Name Doily

I wanted to do something special for a family member and I had seen filet crochet name doilies in the past and had thought they were really cool. For some reason I always thought there was no way I can do that, it looks so difficult. Guess what....THEY'RE NOT!!! I found these great instructions and because I'm a visual person I also watched a few videos on YouTube to make sure I understood the instructions. This video was a nice and easy one, though be mindful she uses European terms. I chose this alphabet, but omitted the little dots on the sides of the letters. There are SOOOOO many different alphabets to choose from. I did transfer my letters to graph paper so it would be easier visually to make sure I kept on track.

 I used a #4/2.0MM hook and size 10 crochet thread in white. My one suggestion would be... be mindful of your tension. Because it was the first time I had done filet crocheting I was crocheting rather loosely in the beginning but as I got going I noticed I was tighter in my stitches. For those like me who have the critical eye to their own homemade work I noticed the difference in height of my doily from the beginning compared to the middle and end. Friends said they couldn't tell. 

 

 There are a lot of great edges that can be done too, but I decided to leave this one simple to make sure the letters really pop. After I was done I lightly starched and ironed it. 

Wizard Wands

When you have four kiddos you need crafts that can encourage their imaginary play. My kids love to pretend and my eldest has read all the Harry Potter books. The younger kiddos have watched the first two movies, but are a bit too young for the rest. Of course they all caught the wizard's bug. We came across this great pin. We had all the supplies except for chopsticks. We found at a the local craft store dowels that we're the perfect size and then we shaved  one end to a point with a pencil sharpener. Here's the end results.

The kids still talk about making more, they had a blast making and painting them.

I've been crafting...just not posting. Oops!

There are so many crafts that the kids and I have done over the past three months but I became a complete slacker when it came to posting on here. I'm going to try this week to play catch up to a certain degree and let ya see what we've been busy doing.

An American Girl Fixer-upper

My daughters have discovered American Girl dolls, I was a little taken back with the price. I kept watching Craigslist and Ebay hoping that I might get one for a good buy. To my joy on a local sale site I purchased a Kaya doll and horse for $50. It was in great condition, but my youngest daughter wanted a doll too. By chance I found this gem for $2 at a local thrift store. 

 

Though she looked like she was in rough shape her limbs weren't loose and her body was clean. She did however have bright orange marker marks on her chin, cheek and arm. Her hair was also badly cut, beyond repair. I contacted American Girl and it would have cost me $40 for a new head. I debated, but thought I'd go Googling and see if I could find other options. Two sites came to my rescue. I love this video about getting permanent marker off the doll. 

 

It worked, I probably should do it one more time since the spot on her chin is still faintly there.

The next thing I looked for was wig ideas, I came across this tutorial, how to re-wig a doll. I ordered a wig on Ebay for $12.99. Here's the finished doll.

Cleaning House!

So we recently moved and of course the nice thing about moving is you de-junk more than you would normally. I decided since I've been so busy lately that I needed to de-junk my Pinterest boards, keep what I really would like to do. Pinterest has been acting a little wacky for me lately, my numbers are not adding up for me. But I still hope to be able to have a least half of the pins done by my blog's one year anniversary in September.