pumpkins.

Where we live road side farm stands, pumpkin patches, orchards and farms are everywhere. From the few rows of pumpkins outside of a rural farmhouse to the elaborate production of a farm that caters to the school buses and field trips. It's all here. We have many favorites, and will always stop at more than one spot throughout the season.



We have our favorite carving pumpkins, favorite pie pumpkins, the place with the chatty owner, the place with the friendly cats and some goats, the best hayrides, the place that always has unusual varieties of winter squash, the farm that has the best wagons. And if we can squeak in during quiet times, we visit our favorite farm maze or that spot with excellent caramel apples.



And so it goes, year after year. Boys keep getting bigger, but they still love pulling that wagon. And even if it is only a few miles from home, it is about the whole experience. What park do we have to go to nearby? Do we need a picnic, is the weather perfect? Do we have the right music for the drive? ;)



And only when the farms and road side stands all finally close up, when there are no more signs with arrows scattered along the roadsides, and all of our pie pumpkins have been puréed, does it feel truly like winter is not far behind.

ghost lanterns.

As the rainy fall days surround us, we think of light. More light! It has been awhile since we have made any canning jar tissue paper lanterns, so today in the spirit of G's holiday decorating mission we made ghosts. These are always fun and easy to make and you can pretty much find a design for any holiday or season (here is a good tutorial with Halloween designs if you want more than my laid back general info!).


G and I cut strips of white tissue paper, pulled out brushes, put out craft mats, and poured Mod Podge into bowls. Working a strip at a time the boys then brushed on Mod Podge, then applied a strip, gently tapping and coating each strip as they adhered.


They did two layers, leaving the tops loose until the end. They then added Mod Podge to the top edge and then sprinkled a good bit of white thick glitter all over the outside.


Must have glitter.


We trimmed the tops so no white paper was over the opening and let them dry. We did apply a single water based varnish layer with a brush after the modpodge dried. If you don't use glitter you won't need it, but we didn't want to shed glitter forever (there are now versions of all-in-one Mod Podge glue/sealer/finish that glow in the dark, shimmer and have glitter, but ours was...plain).


When dry G helped draw face designs and I cut them out. He glued them on with a thick glue stick layer. All that was left was inserting a tea light and turning out the lights!

felt skull bunting/banner.

For the past week, G has been on a crafting extravaganza. We have made and baked and crafted and created. He loves that the holidays are upon us and we can FINALLY decorate the house for something! One of the first projects we did was a felt skull banner.

Supplies:: 2 pieces of 8.5x11" orange felt, and 2 pieces of 8.5x11" dark brown felt (you can use black too, we just like brown/orange for Halloween). Bias tape or hem binding. Stapler (or sewing machine). Glitter glue. Craft glue. Scissors.

I cut one piece of the orange felt into quarters (fold in half, cut. fold both halves in half, cut).
Did the same for the brown. This makes 4 orange rectangles and 4 brown.


We had looked online for a skull I could cut out with scissors easily (and which G approved of), and found this one. I cut it out after printing a copy to the printer (printed larger/blown up to fit my felt rectangles). I used a chalk pattern pencil to outline it to the felt. I cut out 4 orange skulls and 4 brown skulls from the other 2 felt sheets.


G got to work laying out all of the felt pieces and gluing orange skulls to brown felt, and brown skulls to orange felt.


Once that was done, it was time to attach the felt bunting/banners to the bias tape (you could easily use a ribbon or hem tape too). I offered to sew it for an even stitch, but as he must do everything himself and already had to concede that I must do the skull cutting, he decided that stapling would be best. He carefully stapled each felt piece to the bias tape.


He then applied a glitter glue design to cover the staples.


After it dried for awhile it was ready to hang. We now have an awesome skull bunting/banner hanging in our window. He wants to make more! I have my scissors ready.

happy monday!

Happy Monday! We had such a full weekend (for us) - I honestly didn't know if the boys would make it through (A admitted to me that it was all too much, but he didn't want to miss a thing). But, with lots of quiet breaks and some down time in between the parties and activities, they kept on going right until the end of Trick or Treating. Sweet boys.


They saw friends, went to parties, bobbed for apples, dressed in costume several times, and did some Kicks & Treats.


They tried some new fun party games, made decorations, answered the door for the wee treaters...


...had friends come trick or treat the neighborhood with them, and saw lots of pumpkins.


I have two exhausted and happy boys. :)


This morning as we all cozied up together with a blanket and had some warm cider and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, they sighed and said there is no place like home. I agree.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

.

happy halloween!

Happy Halloween!

What a fun day. A's jedi costume turned out super cute. It actually lasted through karate games ("Kicks or Treats" at his karate school - fun!), trick or treating, and a get-together at home afterwards. The cloak has a hood too, which was on for most of the evening. Verrrry jedi.

G, well...As I suspected, after his insistence on being a ghost, G changed his mind. He is 3 after all. Nothing could go on his body or over his head. We had a moment of octopus costume from last year, but then it was decided that G was going to be G. He did wear a big fancy wizard hat to trick or treat in though - perfect!


This evening before friends arrived, the boys visited with all of the neighbors on our block who were outside. One neighbor was skooting throughout the neighborhood with streamers on his back passing out coins. It was still very warm outside (on Halloween! we usually freeze!) and pretty light, so everyone was outside enjoying the weather.


The boys had fun trick or treating - with 4 spunky boys out together it made it just that much more exciting. I think this is the first Halloween we didn't have to come home to warm up! Fun night.

Happy Halloween!

See, I knew I had enough time...

Woo hoo! Today we got a lot more done on the costumes. We pinned and cut and sewed. Only a few loose ends and tidbits to finish for tomorrow. See? Pleeeeeeeenty of time. A will be a jedi, and G will be a ghost (if he'll actually wear it after asking for it ;))!


We have people joining us Halloween eve so that the kids can trick or treat together. We are lucky to live in a neighborhood full of families and kids and where so many people know each other - so even just walking down the sidewalk is exciting as everyone runs into neighbors and chats, those answering the doors see if they can guess who is inside the costumes, the sidewalks are full of kids, and it is generally a fun, happy, busy evening! We will come back in to warm apple cider, good food, and perhaps even a Halloween special. The boys made a deal with me to trade in most of their collected candy for their favorite fair trade chocolates and some special goodies - things that they like since they don't usually like much at all from their bags (but costumes and trick or treating are too much fun to miss!). Should be a fun night. I plan to take lots of pictures - hope you do too!

procrastination.

pro·cras·ti·nate
Pronunciation: \prə-ˈkras-tə-ˌnāt, prō-\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): pro·cras·ti·nat·ed; pro·cras·ti·nat·ing
Etymology: Latin procrastinatus, past participle of procrastinare, from pro- forward + crastinus of tomorrow, from cras tomorrow
transitive verb : to put off intentionally and habitually
intransitive verb : to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done

I know. I am procrastinating. I don't know what it is about sewing Halloween costumes. Maybe it is the sewing extravaganza from last Halloween that I'm remembering. The boys want to be more simple things this year, but still...I'm just nowhere near done.

It isn't like I haven't tried to start. But you know how procrastination is. There are so many other things to do. Things that "have" to be done. Like carving pumpkins. Like working in the garden (and watching the birds and the chipmunks).


Doing crafts with kids.


These cute kids - that distract me - they want to read, play, snuggle, have fun, do things.


Or what about all of those other things that are absolute musts. I mean, Sunday was chicken day after all, so we had to drive to the farm, pickup chickens, and then process them, make stock.


Then today was another scheduled farm pickup - my turn to drive down. Gotta go!


And what about all of those photos that just HAD to be taken. I just can't stop taking pictures!


And it gets dark so early now, and how can I sew when elaborate light saber dance performances are going on in the dark living room? It's too dark to sew anyway. And I can take pictures.


It doesn't help that I have allergies and a sinus infection. And, of course I need sprouts. Mmmmm, sprouts. s.p.r.o.u.t.s...


Oh, right. I still have two days left, right? I sketched the ideas out, had the boys lie down on the fabric and I drew where I want to cut - and actually have a ghost costume cut out! You see, that is progress.

I'll have time tomorrow (or maybe tomorrow night or even Friday). The sewing machine is too loud when the boys are in bed anyway, and I have to post to my blog, and of course mess with my iTunes playlist...it needs to be just right, you know, so that it is the right mood to get the most work done.

Of course, with all that in mind, maybe it is not procrastination after all. Wikipedia states "Psychology researchers also have three criteria they use to categorize procrastination. They believe that procrastination must be counterproductive, needless, and delaying."

Well, maybe delaying, but certainly not needless, come on!

It also states "For an individual, procrastination may result in stress, a sense of guilt, the loss of personal productivity, the creation of crisis and the disapproval of others for not fulfilling one's responsibilities or commitments. "

Nope, definitely not me. Not procrastinating. I'm perfectly happy not sewing costumes!

Pumpkin Driller.

It is that time again. The time of hand drilling holes in pumpkins. A waits all year to drill this way. He can drill hundreds of holes in no time at all.


He has drilled only two jack'o'lanterns so far, but we have a few more saved to carve this week.


He'll be ready.

apple stamping.

This week we have been working on several fun craft projects. One was making jack'o'lantern stamps using apples as the stamps. We cut an apple in half, and carved out a face - leaving the seed area as the 'nose'. Using orange paint, we stamped onto watercolor paper.



After they dried, the boys painted on the faces into the white spaces, using whatever odd shapes the stamp gave as their guide.

We then cut them out, and the boys used them to decorate our dining room entrance.


What is cool about this is that there are so many variations you could do. I liked even the plain orange stamps without embellishment - they look great. A and G really enjoyed painting on the faces with the black paints, and thought they might want to do a version with glow in the dark paint as well. You could also use marker instead of paint for the faces. We were going to punch and string ours onto black fuzzy yarn to make a garland - but the boys decided they looked cool all around the arch! They would make nice window decorations or a mobile too.


For a few days in there the boys even used them to play 'cards'! Many interesting games were created. Fun!