Happy Halloween!

I can't decide if this is funny or obscene-

I'm thinking it's pretty funny...

Happy Birthday Lisa- Sondra- Tia- P.J. & Soleil!

Pumpkin Love

We're not carving pumpkins this year, boo hoo but I have found some interestingly carved pumpkins out here on the inter-web, well actually my MIL sent out a spam mail with these crazy pumpkins carved by Ray Villafane  too bad pumpkins last like a week after they are carved...

Autumn Tree Craft

Whenever I'm over at my moms I go through her huge magazine collection. She has everything from Veranda to Vogue to Elle Decor to Family Fun Magazine. FUN- FUN- FUN- Serious eye candy! I saw this little project that I think would be really fun with your kids. 


All you need to get started is some branches from your back yard- some rope- a piece of tape & some scraps of fleece!  

1. Bend the branch into a loop and use masking tape to join the overlapping ends.

2. Cut the yarn into 15 pieces that are about twice as long as the diameter of the loop. (You can use more or fewer yarn pieces, but you must have an odd number of them.) Tie one end of each yarn piece to the top of the loop.

3. Gather the loose ends of the yarn and tie them with a single knot around the bottom of the loop.

4. Weave the fabric strips into the top half of the tree, tucking under the ends.

5. To create the tree trunk, divide the strands of yarn into two or three unequal bunches and wrap each with brown yarn. As you get closer to the bottom, wrap the bunches into one trunk. Tuck yarn ends into the back of the weaving. Hang your tree from a nail

Tips: For this project, look for a long, thin, straight branch that you can prune from a tree or bush; dead limbs will be too brittle. We used buckthorn for ours. Other good bets: forsythia, willow, and grapevine.

Halloween DIY Club

I thought this months DIY was tons of fun! We got our idea from The Graphics Fairy Karen is super generous with sharing the graphics she finds or creates-  she also turns them into usable PDF's for you. When she did her Halloween hoop art she printed them through her computer. Since we have such a large group for DIY club I decided we should screen print them instead. 

It was still a lot of work but the prints look amazing. We were able to finish up our screen prints that night. Everyone was busy either ironing-  cutting- screen printing or mod podging. I wasn't able to put everything together till the next day. Yes- I should be sewing like a mad woman for The Bijou Market & The Beehive Bazaar but I couldn't pass up having one last week to hang these in my house. {plus quilt club is at my house tonight so I wanted to show them off}

this is another one of the DIY Club projects of the night. You can see a tutorial from Amy here thanks to her my little halloween family got cut out. I screen printed the haunted house onto the striped paper before I put everything together.

Here are a few pics from DIY night that I stole from Amy's blog

I also made a few toddler t-shirts because I love this print so much

These are for sale- but I may be too lazy to put them in the shop- so let me know if you're interested- They are $9 each

1. grey long sleeve t-shirt 9-12 months & 12 - 18 months (I have 2 of these)
2. green long sleeve onesie 12- 18 months
3. white long sleeve girls t-shirt 2T
4. grey & darker grey striped long sleeve t-shirt 12- 18months (I have 2 of these)
5. light blue short sleeve t-shirt 4- 6 yrs

Halloween Decor/ My House

I bought these bats for the bat garland from House of Clouds on etsy. I bought the cheapest version {you score & bend them & put it together yourself} because I felt strange spending money on paper bats-  I really couldn't have made these on my own- without it taking a million years anyways. Also everyone who sees them loves them so go & order yours before it's too late!

I think I bought this big spider at Big Lots about 6 years ago

my mom gave me this orange tinsel tree for a wedding gift {she knows orange is my favorite color} I use it every other year for christmas but this is the first time i've used it for Halloween! Can you believe it- I think it's amazing. The Halloween ornaments are made of chip board. I just painted them black & added a hole at the top to put ornament hangers on. I bought them half off at Smith's Marketplace. The cat is super creepy. Adam's moms gave it to Little Pookie for Christmas last year. It purrrrs & licks it's self...

since we can't put gum balls in our gumball machine {because the girls would go crazy wanting them every minute} I decided to put these vintage cake toppers I bought from Gingerly 88 on etsy in it. It's Hansel & Gretel with a witch & a cat. I couldn't get a better picture. 

Modern Love/ Chairs

I love these furniture pieces by Carlos Motta from his Used and Reused Wood show. He is known for his life long commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.

check out these cool chairs from NuFurn

A Place To Hang Your Shoes

Unfortunately our house doesn't have this beautiful crown molding to rest all of my gold sparkly heels.

maisiecousins

♻ from sfgirlbybay

Concept Holga

What would you think about the Holga going digital? Saikat Biswas is thinking about making this come to life. I love the idea. While I love getting the film back from my Holga I really don't use it very much because I just can't afford it right now. 

Saikat's ideas for the camera would still make it seem pretty true to it's self. {no display on the back so you wouldn't be able to see your images until you downloaded them} plus your pictures would come out looking cross processed like they do when you develop your film. It's a pretty simple design & I absolutely love it.

♻ From Gizmodo

My Bike

Wouldn't it be pretty rad to have a bike with your name on it. It's less likely to get stolen I'm thinking- especially if your name was Adolf or Ransom.

Juri Zaech is working on a way to make a prototype of one of these babies. I wish my name was cooler...

♻ from buamai

Let Halloween Begin!

The girls were invited to two birthday parties on Saturday so Adam & I decided to divide & concur. One was a Halloween costume party & the other wasn't. Guess who was going to which one.  {p.s. elsa's won't take her cowboy-cowgirl elsa boots off} that's what she calls them. I bought the boots for Elsa last April at the Hester Street Fair in NYC & love that they finally fit.

I love this pose- get in shape girl

I've had this costume in my head for a couple of months now. my goal this year was to use stuff I had around the house to save on money. the only thing I ended up buying was the leo when I was at the $1 store last week- i couldn't resist.

 it was a beautiful day in the 70's so I could get away with the leo. I'm thinking when Halloween comes around- I may have to put a long sleeve onesie on her. I had some elastic webbing that I made into a belt- head band & wrist band.

I'm too lazy to take a better picture- I love the belt buckle- it reminds me of my childhood

Life's Still Moments

I've been kind of absent this week. Due mainly to lack of motivation to do anything creative. I did however come across this totally creative dance on FB.


wheel number from E and M-P on Vimeo.

I know nothing about it except that when I watch it I want to get creative again- like now- except that it's almost one in the morning & I really should go to bed...


HELP!

San Jose Mine- Chile

Wow! They are finally able to get all the men out of the mine is Chile. I couldn't imagine being stuck down there. 2000 feet under ground for 68 days with 32 other men- yikes- I get claustrophobic when I'm taking my shirt off & it gets trapped around my arms & head.

here are the men- possibly after they found out they would still be able to smoke...

the phoenix capsule built by chilean navy engineers

The Phoenix' interior is 6 ft. 4 inches & weighs 924 pounds. The empty capsule is lowered 2,000 ft. into the mine. The men will individually take the capsule up which will then take 20 minutes to ride back to the surface. They say it should take an hour for the rescue capsule to make a round trip. I definitely shed a tear watching the news tonight. This is seriously amazing. Yay for engineers!

Pumpkin Piñata Tutorial

Did you ever make a paper mache globe when you were in elementary school? I remember it being so awesome but I didn't get to kill it with a bat & get lots of candy afterwards like you do a piñata...

Also making a piñata is way better & it's super easy. After my bff Chris & I racked our brains thinking of the cheapest way to make a piñata for her 10.10.10 birthday party this past weekend, we came up with this fine recipe.  Wanna make one? OK go grab the goods & let's get started.



First get your balloon ready by blowing it up- we wanted a really big piñata so Chris bought a big one with thicker skin {balloon $4 bought at Zurchers}

Chris' cheeks really hurt after blowing this sucker up! {it's really big I promise}

This would be a good time to tear up your strips of paper or newspaper. We used some paper Chris' tenants left in one of her rental homes {yes I said one of- she has 2! so guys if you read my blog- she's available} After tearing a few strips up only about 1inch & a 1/2 wide- we came to the conclusion that tearing them that small would take us forever so we ended up with about 3 inch strips.

We were going to go & buy craft glue- for the next part but decided we would go the old fashioned path using the flour & water = glue mix way. {plus we saved $5- $10} keep in mind this recipe is for a REALLY BIG balloon- you may want to 1/2 the recipe if your piñata is on the smaller scale.

Step 1) Boil 6 cups of water in a pot

Step 2) Put 2 cups of flour in a separate bowl 

Step 3) Add 2 cups of room temperature water to the flour & whisk away

Step 4) Pour the flour mixer into the boiling water & whisk away again making sure there are no        lumps (no you're not making gravy) 

We wanted to watch Glee while we did this project so I threw a large beach town down on the living room floor. Also you'll want a large bowl to set the balloon on while you're attaching the paper to it to avoid getting glue all over the floor. {we used a colander}

Spread the glue onto the strips of paper & start laying them horizontally onto the balloon

We went at it from both sides

After you've gone around the entire balloon horizontally do a second layer vertically. Then repeat the horizontal step again & if you really want a super sturdy piñata repeat the vertical step one more time = 4 layers of paper strips.

Next let your amazing piece of work dry for 2 days! {if you don't want your very curious 12 yr old son - who was sleeping while you made this- to not touch this wet goopy ball of awesome - put a sign on it} 

p.s. that rad art work behind the ball was created by my friend Marsha

Ok it's been 2 days! I set a fan in front of the piñata to get it really dry. Also remember to turn it every so often.

Now it's time to start cutting your crepe paper {I bought ours at the $1 store} We used 3 rolls. 

We ended up cutting the paper smaller than we originally started. Half the size that is in the picture. {about an inch} 

Chris cut both sides- then she cut through the middle to cut the strips in half

You'll need some more cheap glue for the next part- so get your butt back in the kitchen- this time on a smaller scale

Step 1) Boil 2 cups of water in a pot

Step 2) Put 3/4 cups of flour in a separate bowl 

Step 3) Add 3/4 cups of room temperature water to the flour & whisk away

Step 4) Pour the flour mixer into the boiling water & whisk away again making sure there are no        lumps 

Then start layering. We started at the bottom & discovered {like I mentioned before} shorter  strips worked better. Spread the glue kind of thick {a sponge brush works great .49 at michaels} & then layer like crazy.

This part is really fun. They don't need to be very straight- just go to town making sure you cover all the white up. 

We waited another day to put the face on. We used black fabric because I didn't have black paper & I'm a border line fabric hoarder. This time we used craft glue I had on hand. No template we just kind of winged it. Triangles for the eyes & nose & a totally typical pumpkin mouth.

To hang it- I took an exact- o knife & cut little holes big enough to string some rope through- then I tide a knot at the top

Now fill it with the good stuff cause this party is for you & your friends- not your kids after all...

Lastly- We taped the hat on by rolling the tape- then sticking it under the hat fringe. The hat made it so we didn't have to worry about the hole on the top.

Pretty cute huh! I'm loving the layers- sort of makes me want to make a skirt like this

Next we partied like 30 something year olds do! 

Elin's funny

After discovering we had no where to hang the piñata-{we were in park city at a resort for the birthday party} our friend Chris sacrificed his body to hold it.

Even when you're in your late 20's & 30's you still go crazy for the candy!

                                                      that's my husband  ↴