Halloween Past Picture Dump!

As I've been making my sons' Halloween costumes for 2021, I realized it's been a long time since I've posted any of my Halloween costume creations. So here is a photo dump from the last few years.

In Halloween 2016, Thing 1 was really into the movie Zootopia, so he wanted to be a fox police officer. But he didn't want to be the character from the movie. He wanted to be his own character named "Alex".

Thing 2 on the other hand was really into the Warriors book series. So he wanted to be his own original Warriors character named "Snow Star".

With their grandparents. I had to post this one, because their grandpa died of COVID this past January. He always loved seeing what original ideas they came up with, even though he rarely understood what they were.

I loved the quick costumes I threw together for us... middle aged Harry and Ginny Potter!

For Halloween 2017, Thing 1 wanted to be a glow in the dark stick figure. This was the easiest costume I'd made today. I just taped a bunch of glowsticks to an all black sweatsuit.

Thing 2 wanted to be Tails from Sonic. You can't tell form the picture, but the costume actually has two tails, like the character.

Halloween 2018 the boys wanted to return to Five Nights at Freddy's, but this time they were characters from the Sister Series franchise.

Halloween 2019 brought the least recognizable costumes I've ever made. They wanted to be Komasan and Komajiro from Yo-Kai Watch. Hardly anyone knew who they were, but they loved how the costumes turned out, so they was the most important thing.

Halloween 2020 was the year Halloween almost didn't happen. Most people in our little college town had decided they weren't doing trick or treating (I still handed out candy in costume though!), so my boys decided not to go out. I was really sad they didn't want to dress up, because they were 13, which meant they were getting to the end of their trick or treating life. But I was able to convince everyone to throw together some costumes from our Halloween hodge podge tote/dress up tote to go do a window visit with Superman's mom who was in a rehab facility recovering from knee surgery. 

Superman was Dud from Lodge 49. Thing 1 was a construction worker and Thing 2 resurrected my Mario costume from Halloween 2015 (I was Mario the year he was Yoshi). 

I opted to be a mad scientist. (Fun fact, I actually officiated a wedding that afternoon for a couple that were dressed like Frankenstein's Monster and the Bride of Frankenstein. They requested I come in costume, so I figured this was appropriate!) 

And in honor of our dog's first Halloween with us (we adopted him early in 2020), he was my evil experiment gone wrong...a Spider dog!

 

It's been a long time

 I haven't posted in this blog in so long! But just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I haven't been crafting!

In fact, I've made several t-shirt quilts this summer.

My husband's colleague and long time friend retired last year. He has always admired my husband's tshirt quilt made out of old rock concert tees, so I offered to make him his own tshirt quilt as a retirement present. He chose to use an assortment of 5K tshirts from when he used to be an avid runner. He didn't have a lot of tees, but he had enough for a small lap blanket.

Most of these shirts were from the early 80s! This is what I love about making tshirt quilts! You get to move all of these old mementos from out of a box where you NEVER look at them and bring them out into your every day life! And the method I use for making quilts (where each block is free-hand quilted) helps to preserve the old jersey material that often becomes very thin over a lifetime of wear and washing. (As opposed to the blocky tshirt quilt style that usually only sews the top together and then attaches the top of the quilt to the back using yarn knots in the corners of each square.)

Another tshirt quilt I made recently was for a man who collects Hard Rock tshirts. Hard Rock tees are really great for tshirt quilts because their designs are often nice and big and very colorful! Plus, many Hard Rock tees have both big designs on the back, and mini designs on the upper left chest. Plus, their long sleeve style tees often include yet another design on the sleeve!

This is yet another reason why I prefer this style of making tshirt quilts over the blocky kind I've seen... those quilts only use designs that fit into the big square! Where my style of making tshirt quilts incorporates any and all design from the shirt into the quilt. Of course my style also takes more time and more skill, which is why it also costs more. (I've seen the block style quilt advertised on Groupon for $99!) But I obviously prefer my style! I prefer both how it incorporates more design of the shirt, protects and preserves the jersey material more, and I think it is just more interesting and aesthetically pleasing to look at!

The last one is another lap blanket. This is a sentimental one for me. 10 years ago my high school sweetheart, with whom I was still very good friends, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving behind a wife and a young daughter. I offered to make a memory quilt for her/their daughter out of some of his old shirts. I kept offering for a decade, and she finally took me up on the offer. 

Every year since he passed, his friends and family gather around the time of his birthday for an event they call Pattyfest, where they celebrate the way too short, but excellent life, of our friend, brother, son, uncle, cousin, husband, and dad. This shirt was made out of 10 years worth of Pattyfest tshirts! I always feel honored when this little hobby/side hustle of mine is able to bring such joy and happiness to someone who has lost a loved one.

There have been many more quilts since my last post in 2015! But I don't always get pictures of them. (I'm terrible at that!) So these are just a few of the ones that I actually managed to get pictures of. I hope you enjoy them!

Halloween 2015

As I've discussed in previous posts, I LOVE Halloween. I LOVE making homemade costumes for my boys and myself. This year, my sons wanted to be characters from their current favorite video game: Five Nights at Freddy. Thing 1 wanted to be "Nightmare Bonnie" (which is a tattered and scary version of the regular Bonnie) and Thing 2 wanted to be Foxy the Pirate.

These costumes were great fun to make. It took a lot of craft foam, fleece, and hot glue, and I'm really happy with how they came out.

Throw Pillows - Pinterest Project

Last week, my MIL handed down a gently used sofa and love seat to us. We really needed a new set, but were reluctant to invest in something new, seeing as we still have two very spill prone and messy 7 year old boys! We had been trying to make due with new slip covers, but the key word is SLIP, as in they kept slipping out of place. Anyway, I digress...

New-to-us love seat and couch

I LOVE throw pillows. The more the better. I use them to prop, to lean, the cuddle, to nap on... And I especially prefer the look of lots of random throw pillows over the matchy-matchy-came-with-the-sofa throw pillows. I have had for a while, this vision of making lots of throw covers for all of my throw pillow in cool, unique, matching AND contrasting styles. In fact, I even made a pinterest board called Throw Fluffies where I've been saving up these ideas.

Getting the new set last week was the perfect excuse I needed to start working on this goal. First up: animal silhouette pillows. A while back, I found a blog where someone did her own copy-cat version of a throw pillow design she found at Restoration Hardware, and I really liked them.

Original Restoration Hardware version

Version by lessthanperfectlifeofbliss.blogspot.com

I decided that I'd like to copy her copycat version, making my own version of a gray cat for my cat Persy and a black cocker spaniel for our dog McGarrett.

Persy pillow

McGarrett pillow

I love how they came out! And I can't wait to tackle some of my other throw pillow ideas!

Anniversary Quilt

Remember when I made all those matching tshirts for my family's trip to Disney to celebrate my sister and her husband's 25th wedding anniversary? Well, for Christmas, my sister requested I turn those tshirts into a memory quilt for her and her husband.

Her favorite combo of colors are purple and black, so I used those as the main filler colors and for the backing and binding. She loves this full-sized quilt and it now adorns the bed in her guest bedroom.

Halloween 2014

Once again, it is fall...my favorite time of the year! And in just a few weeks, it will be my favorite holiday... Halloween!!

This past summer my son turned seven, and I can almost tear up just thinking about what amazingly sweet, kind, smart, and fun boys they are growing up to be. I just keep commenting on how much they are maturing and becoming more and more independent. And this year, almost as if to prove my point, for the first time ever they have chosen two separate Halloween costumes. (Did you hear that? That was the sound of my heart breaking just a little.) Since they were babies, they've worn coordinating twins costumes, but this year, they are really letting their growing independent personalities and interests show! I'm simultaneously proud and a bit sad.

Before I reveal their costume choices for this year, let's take a moment to review their costumes from Halloweens past:

2007: Thing 1 and Thing 2

2008: Bert & Ernie

(Kinda plain...they wouldn't wear the wigs or face paint)

2009: Rock stars! (complete with black nail polish, eye liner, and pleather pants!!)

2010: Thomas the Tank Engineers

2011: Ketchup and mustard (what for Thing 1's picture on the French's Facbook page on Oct 30!)

2012: Red dog and rainbow dog*:

2013: R2-D2 and R2-Q5 (aka "the darkside R2")

And for this year, Halloween 2014....
Thing 1 chose to be... Sky Does Minecraft

And Thing 2 chose to be... Yoshi

 *While the dogs were not *my* favorite costumes, they boys LOVED them! In fact, they loved them so much, they STILL dress up in them at home and occasionally wear them out. In fact, red dog made an appearance last fall when the boys had to dress up as a book character for a class book report (Thing 1 went as Pete the Cat and Thing 2 went as Clifford the Big Red Dog)

And this past weekend, we took the kids to the local Zoo Boo and Thing 1 opted not to wear his Sky Does Minecraft costume because it would "be too hard to sit in" when riding the train, roller coaster, etc. So he opted to wear his Rainbow dog costume instead and keep the Sky Does Minecraft costume for Halloween night.

So it just goes to show...sometimes it's not the most complicated or "original" costumes that the kids love best. Sometimes it's just the simple ones that allow them to use their imaginations!!

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Another graduation quilt

This evening I finished another graduation quilt for a recent graduate. This young lady really liked the hand quilted designs on the blocks, and requested a black backing with white thread, so the designs would be more visible.

This quilt's finished size is 76w x 72h, so it's finished cost is $370 + $15 for an embroidered block with name and graduation date, for a total of $385.