Halloween Costumes

This is the second time the kids and I have made there own costumes. Coyote went as Dr House. I found him some mismatched scrubs (as Dr House doesn’t care about his appearance) messed up his hair and found a cane for him to use. We made a fake name tag and got a BoiHazard bag from the hospital for his candy. He carried around a pill bottle full of Smarties all night long and pretended to be eating the candy the way Dr House eats Vikadin on the show.

Mouse went as a witch. A simple costume. I had a long black cape from my own costume years ago. She wore my black broomstick skirt. we just rolled the waist band to keep it up and she wore my black shirt and the cape over that. I did have to buy her a hat. I waited to late and couldn’t find a true witches hat but I did find a small witches hat table topper at hobby lobby. I sewed an elastic strap on it to keep it on her chin and once she was dressed I ratted her hair. Then I sprayed the whole thing down with silver glitter. She carried a plastic cauldron for candy and a decorative broom we took off the wall.

Last year they went as Gandolf and Hermione. Coyote found a long curly tree branch from the woods (a vine that has grown around a tree branch will make it appear twisted). We drilled a hole in the end and stuck a used a clear glass ball Christmas ornament in the end of it so that it looked like a Crystal ball. I poured some of that glow juice from glow sticks in the end before we left. He wore my big green bathrobe with a frayed rope belt tied around the waist and my tall black witches hat that was all bent out of shape from being in the closet all year long. Once again the whole costume was sprayed with glitter to give it a magic look.

Mouse once again wore my long black cape and a white shirt and a pair of blue jeans underneath. I made her a fake Hogwarts school patch from cardboard and shimmery fabric paint I already had. She carried books under one arm and used her school backpack to put candy in. I also ratted her hair (then blonde and longer) so it would be messy like Hermione’s is in the book.

lets do some halloweeny recycling with Martha Stewart

Create a new Halloween tradition by punching robotlike faces into cans. Add votive candles, and the heads come to life. Place in window, or stack as a centerpiece. Begin by cleaning empty coffee or soup cans and removing labels. Fill can with water, and freeze. Steady frozen can on a bag of rice, and punch holes with an awl and hammer. Defrost and dry. Paint exterior with oil-based enamel; if holes get blocked, poke with a toothpick.

An update on the cowl neck.

I've been working on this pattern for about six weeks using plain old cheap red heart yarn in peach. Its a pretty simply pattern to do. I guess I was feel fat when I started this because I made the extra large and its way way to big for me. I was temped to give it to my sister until I realized how easy it would be just to unravel 1 sleeve and about 9 inches of the body (thats how big it was on me). I'm not going to start that just yet though. I'm kind of tired of looking at peach at the moment so I went ahead and bought the yarn to make the same sweater for me 10 year old in extra small. I'm also using cheap red heart yarn, this time in the multi colored yarn called "fall". Interestingly enough this yarn looks like fall leaves when crocheted in this pattern. My daughter loves it. Its very striking.

This is a very very warm pattern though. Maybe to warm for our milder Arkansas winters. I'm tempted to try this is a lighter weight yarn.

A review of eyelash yarn.

My step daughter and I can wear the same size shoes so we often trade off when one has a pair that matches something we are wearing. Yesterday was no expection as I slipped on her blue flip flops with white polka dots to go with the shirt I was wearing. Unfortunately I broke them and this was the last pair of summer shoes she had left (the dog chewed up all of the others).

So we were off to hobby lobby to find her a pair of flip flops. I decided to treat her and do something creative. She picked out a pair of black ones and some bright pink eyelash yard which I crocheted around the straps when we got home making those cute little fuzzy flip flops. They looked kind of like fuzzy pink house slippers but she loved them. I tried to get her to get something other than pink. Maybe a multi colored eyelash yard but she insisted on pink. I was surprised at just how much yarn was in that roll when I got it home and started rolling it into a ball. It just seemed to go on forever. Now that the flip flops are finished I have plans for a bun cover a pony tail holder and a headband. I played with it a little bit this morning. its very slick and difficult to work with because you can't really see the loops that well through all of the fur. its practically a guessing game working with it. I can see why it would only be suitable for small non complicated projects.

I did run across a knitted afghan pattern this morning that was very striking but it didn't appear to be exactly the same stuff. This had a kind of a woolen look to it.

I imagine if you were going to use this yarn for a project it was designed for you might want to use a larger hook or needle than called for because the yarn is so small. If this was a wearable project it wouldn't make a difference because of the way the stuff crochets. Its designed to be furry therefore all of the little furry things tend to fill up the holes.