Happy Halloween!!

Can you guess what they are this year?

I saw a pin on Pinterest way back in July that I thought was just adorable.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/367043438350636503/
purlbee.com

The sad thing?  The link didn't work and I couldn't find the project or a tutorial on the website. Darn.

Now I was going to have to make it up.  Well, that could be fun.  I kind of like making things up from scratch.  Did you know that about me? ;)

Now that I knew I wanted to make the girls these costumes for Halloween. The trick was to somehow get Emma to choose this costume so that it was her decision - not mine.  I showed her the picture and (thankfully) she decided  that she wanted to be a "fairy princess" for Halloween. Phew!  I say flower, she says fairy princess...whatever.  We are technically on the same page.

I took the girls to JoAnn Fabrics and had them each choose 2 colors of felt.  Emma, of course, chose pink.  She also chose a nice blue to go with it.  And Hannah?  She wanted purple and orange.  Perfect!  

I'm a  little partial to the purple and orange, but whatever.  They both look cute, I think.

For the skirts, I measured the girls from waist to knee and free-handed a petal shape that was as long as that measurement.  I then cut about 20 huge-petals (10 from each color).  I layered the petals onto pieces of belting cut to the girls' waist measurements.  I then sewed the petals to the belting.

Looking through my stash of stuff, I came up with some ribbon that matched the skirts. I sewed that ribbon on top of the belting to hide the belt and the stitching.  I made the ribbon extra long so that we could tie each skirt on in the back with a pretty bow.

Skirts: done.  Now on to the wands and crowns.

For the crowns, I bought some cheap headbands and hot-glued smaller petals on to it in alternating colors.  I then took some gems I had laying around from a previous project and added them to the center petal to add some sparkle.  Fairy princesses (or flowers) love sparkle!

I went into the back yard and found some lovely sticks that would work for wands and scrunched up small half circles into the shape of petals.  I hot glued like crazy and added those wonderful gems to the middle of the flower.  I added flowing ribbons and some sparkles on the stick for a little extra glamour.

Hannah decided to use hers as a hammer and broke it in half.  Her beautiful wand also features silver duct tape.  Can you see it?

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  Add white shirts and leggings underneath and they are cute little flowers/fairy princesses!

Here they are having a little fairy princess conference.

They are SO excited about Halloween...especially Emma.  Although, I'm pretty sure she's more excited about playing dress-up than she is about the candy.  But that might just be my "wishful mom thinking" coming into play. ;)

Have a wonderful Halloween everyone!

Get ready for Christmas presents...yes, it really is time to start making them. :)

Getting Ready For Baby: Phases 1, 2, and 3

My it's been along time since I've sat down to write a post!  Let's just say that life got a bit crazy over the summer. :)

When I found out in June that we have a little one arriving in late January, the countdown began - and my mind starting going crazy with all of the re-organization/redecorating that needed to be done.

The plan?

1. Split all toys between the "new" playroom in the basement and the kids' rooms.

2. Move everything from our computer/sewing room (the downstairs bedroom) into the back playroom (now workroom/office).

3.  Paint and fix-up downstairs bedroom and move my husband's and my bedroom furniture down.

4.  Paint our old upstairs bedroom and move the girls in there.

5.  Re-decorate the girls' old room for the baby.

Phew!  Got all that?  We decided to move the girls because our old bedroom upstairs is bigger than their current one (and has 2 closets).  And baby boy will get the smaller one all to himself.

The first 2 were relatively easy.  Really, it was just re-distributing stuff.  And, no, I am not going to post pics of the playroom or the workroom/office because they are already disasters.  They both started off generally organized but between the girls playing and my sewing...there is stuff everywhere.  And, honestly, I'm don't feel like organizing it all over again for a few pictures.

On to our new downstairs bedroom.

At first, I was pretty certain that we could complete it in a week.  I think I was delusional.  It's a small room, but there was a lot of stuff that needed to be done - and all after the kids were in bed for the night.  It took over a month.

Well, you know how these things go.

We were just going to paint the walls, but then noticed that the trim looked awful.  Add "paint trim" to the list.

But if we were going to paint the trim, we had to paint the doors, because now those didn't match the trim.  And since the doors were already off their hinges, why not put on new hinges and new doorknobs?

And, wait, if we're going to paint the trim and doors, we really should caulk all the cracks around the molding, windows, and doors.

Hmmm...the ceiling looks pretty old now.  Better paint that.

Ugh - look at the closet.  Let's paint everything in there, too - after we caulk it.

And then...

"Becca, the old paint is cracked, I'm going to scrape it."

An hour later...

"Ummm... now the wall is uneven - I'm going to sand it."

So, as you can see, we didn't just repaint the room.  We really re-did the entire thing.  While I was really frustrated at the slow pace, it did turn out really nice (I think).

What do you think?

It's small and cozy.  And we went from 2 closets to 1.  Amazingly, everything fits.  Well, after bags and bags of stuff were brought to Goodwill. ;)

I made the bedspread and then used the leftover fabric to make the curtains and decorative pillow.  It just looks so nice and clean now...ahhh...

New fixtures for the closet.

Pillow I made for the bed

Now that our bedroom is finished, it's time to start all over again and get to work on the girls' new room upstairs.  Wish us luck!