Halloween Bling

Halloween is here at last.  Time for tricks and treats.  For treats this year, I made these bracelets to give out in addition to the usual candy.  They are stretchy bracelets made from wide black lace.  I had some foam scraps leftover from last year’s bracelets (see Trick or Treat?), so I made little jack o’ lanterns and glued them on.  Hopefully the kids well like them as much as last year.  If not, we still have tons of candy.
Here’s the updated list:

• Pins
• Altered top
• Rose headband
• Doll
• Bracelets
• White dress
• Gift

Seven down and out.  Just in time too.

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Birthdays and Angels

First off, today is my birthday! :)  I’m one year closer to 30. :(  I still get mistaken for a junior high school student. :0



Anyway, I finally finished my new dress.  It was one of those sometime pieces.  “Sometime I’d like to make a white dress.”  I finally did it.

I used some white fabric I got at Goodwill for $1 and three different kinds of lace.  The skirt is tiered, something I have never done and may not try again for a while.  The straps are shirred to make them cute and user-friendly, at least that was the intention.  The elastic helps make them adjustable without being obvious, but I think I made the elastic too loose.  The dress keeps slowly sliding downward when I wear it, I just have to adjust it every 20-30 minutes, could be worse.

You might be wondering why there are a pair of wings in the picture.  That’s the best part.  When paired with the wings, this dress makes a perfect angel costume.  Now I have an adorable costume as well as a pretty dress I can wear the rest of the year.



Next up, a simple gift.  I already mentioned it was my birthday today.  And I may have mentioned a few times before that I have a twin sister.  And it never fails, every year when our birthday comes around I can not seem to figure out what to give her. 

This year is a repeater.  I recall giving her a stretchy headband I made a two years ago (see Done Already?), she obviously loved it since she wears it almost on a daily basis.  So why not make her another one to give her more options? 

For this head band I made a braid with wide ribbon that was long enough to cover the head band.  I glued it on and then glued a single strip of ribbon to the underside.  To finish, I wrapped the tips with more ribbon to hide the raw edges and make them look pretty.  Now I have a classic and pretty head band to give.

Here’s the updated list:

• Pins
• Altered top
• Rose headband
• Doll
• Bracelets
• White dress
• Gift

Six down, just one more to go.  And I only have two more days to finish.

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Attention My Little Pony Fans

Just to let you know, I am letting my mom auction off a bunch of my My Little Ponies on eBay.  Feel free to take a peak if you’re interested and/or curious about them.

• Lot of 12 My Little Ponies
• Lot of 9 My Little Ponies—these ones are nicer by the way.  The other lot would be better to give to kids or something.

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Purple Fairy Fun

Today I have another doll makeover for you.

This was from a bunch of old dolls my niece decided to give up.  It was a Sleeping Beauty doll, and I can actually see why she didn’t want this one.  The hair was horribly matted and the face was very dirty.  Plus she had lost her clothes somehow and there appeared to be bite marks.  So here’s the before…

…And after.  After a quick bath and a not so quick hair detangle, she looked remarkably improve.  The hair was horrible, I had to use twice as much conditioner than normal.  Afterward, I whipped up the dress with scraps of purple tulle and fabric, it’s sewn on to her because I was feeling lazy.  I then restyled the hair by tending to her curls, trimming her bangs, and adding buns.  I‘m not sure why I decided to add buns, just a hunch.  Finished up with a set of soda bottle wings, and she is a perfect little purple fairy.  Some of you may remember the first appearance of the soda bottle wings (see Trimmings and a Angel).  They just work so well for dolls that I had to make them again. 
Here’s the updated list:

• Pins
• Altered top
• Rose headband
• Doll
• Bracelets
• White dress
• Gift

Four down, three more to go.  And a little over a week to finish.

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LinkUp #9: Late but Improved

Time for another Free for All Friday.

Sorry it’s a little late this week, but there’s something new this time.  I did a little update with the linky so now links can be submitted with thumbnails.

The rules:

• No more then 5 links.
• You must link to individual posts on your blog instead of the just your blog.
• Same with shops (zibbet, etsy, etc.), link to a specific item in your shop.
• Twitter and Facebook links are welcome.
• Links must be family friendly.
• Don’t forget to grab one of my buttons (they’re on the left).
• Following me is not required, but it is helpful (for me).
• Beyond that anything goes.

Now get to it and have fun.

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Of Black Tees and Roses

This past week I’ve had two major tests, two major assignments due, plus a quiz, but I still found the time to make three of my projects.  Word of warning, I am still stuck using my webcam instead of a decent camera.:(

I acquired this rather large t-shirt for free along with a large pile of other castaways.  As many of you know, I just adore taking these old tees and making them cute and wearable.  So here’s the before…

…and after.  Ugh, that webcam, you can barely tell how much cuter it is now.  First I chopped off the sleeves and cut the shirt down the size before sewing new seams.  I cut down the sleeves a little before adding lace and some elastic.  Most of the time with these t-shirts I just sew the elastic straight on the fabric, but for this one I used the hem as a casing and threaded the elastic through.  It takes a little more time, but it makes the shirt more comfortable to wear.  I re-attached the sleeves, redid the neckline with some lace, then finished up by attaching two tiny black bows along the neckline.  Now it’s a comfy and pretty t-shirt that actually fits me.  Yay!

Next, I saw these black roses at SAS over a year ago.  At the time I didn’t buy them, but they were on my mind.  A few months later I thought of an idea for a headband using them, but when I went to the store they were all out of them.  Fast forward to now.  I spotted them on my last trip to SAS and immediately grabbed a couple.  After a bit of maneuvering with the wire and some black ribbon (and a couple glue gun burns), I fashioned this lovely headband as modeled by my niece.  The photo doesn’t do it justice, it is beautiful.  So much so that I am thinking of buying more roses to stock my shoppe with some lovely hair accessories.  Good idea?

I found this tutorial for glass head sewing pins and thought it was a fantastic idea since I have tons of plain straight pins lying around and I tend to avoid using them because it’s so easy for them to fall out or get lost.  A few minutes of fiddling with glue and beads, and now I have a handful of custom pearl head pins.  I used faux pearls because I still have tons of them to use up, plus they look so pretty.
Here’s the updated list:

• Pins
• Altered top
• Rose headband
• Doll
• Bracelets
• White dress
• Gift

Three down, four more to go.  And only a little over two weeks to finish.

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Story Time: Of Boys and Stuff Toys

This is a story about a little boy who loves stuff animals.  Really loves them.  He has a special shelf in his room built by his grandpa where his entire collection lives.  All except his favorite, a stuff bunny his grandma made for him when he was two years old.  This bunny has long floppy ears and a soft huggable body, perfect to cuddle with when the boy goes to bed.  When he sleeps, the boy dreams wonderful dreams of going on adventures with his bunny.  He had one where he was the captain on a ship and his bunny was his first mate.  They sailed all around the world together.  In another dream, the boy was a brave knight and his bunny was his faithful squire.  The little boy liked to take his bunny along with him during the daytime too.  Grocery shopping with his parents, the swings at the park, the doctor’s office, his bunny went everywhere with him.  Everywhere except one place, to school.  It wasn’t that he wasn’t allowed to bring his bunny to school, other kids brought toys to school all the time.  It was because the boy next door once told him that boys aren’t supposed to play with stuffed animals, they’re for girls and babies.  The boy next door is 4 months older so he knows better, at least that’s what the little boy thought.  So the little boy was afraid that the kids would laugh at him and call him a baby if he brought the bunny to school.  And so, everyday before he left for school he would sadly wave bye-bye to his bunny, wishing he could take him with him. 

There was another boy who recently moved in across the street.  He was much older than the boy next store, and went to a bigger school too.  One day, the little boy’s mother asked the older boy to walk him to school since she had something important to do that morning.  This made the little boy very happy, the older boy was so cool.  The little boy did still feel sad though when he waved to his bunny, still wishing he could take him with him.  “Well, why don’t you?” said the older boy.  The little boy was surprised to hear that.  He told the older boy everything he had been told about stuffed animals.  Then the older boy surprised him again.  “I have a stuffed bear,” he said.  He pulled it out of his backpack and showed it to the little boy.  It was light brown with a blue ribbon around its neck and was small enough to fit in the older boy’s hand, such a cute little bear.  He told the little boy that he took it to school everyday because it was good luck, especially during practice (he is on the basketball team).  “Do you think that makes me a baby?” asked the older boy.  The little boy shook his head, and immediately ran to grab his bunny.  So when they got to the little boy’s classroom, he and his bunny waved bye-bye to the older boy and his bear.  That day only one kid laugh at the little boy, but he didn’t mind.  He was too busy playing with his bunny and the other kids to even notice.

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Halloween On Pinterest

I think I may have mentioned that I am on Pinterest once or twice.  Well, probably only once.  One of the things I do there is set up boards for upcoming holidays (i.e. this Halloween).  I just thought “why the heck don’t I post these here?”  Why indeed?  So here we have:

My Halloween 2012 Pin Board

A few of my favorites include:

• Felt Halloween Decorations
• Magnetic Spiders
• House O' Lantern
• No-sew Iridescent Fairy Wings

And so you know, I will continue to add more pins as I find them through Halloween, in fact through until the New Year. 


Update: You can check out the latest version of my Halloween Pinterest board here.

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Up to Thirty-One

Back from the month-long hiatus, it’s my project lists.  The latest is a little short, but only because I am actually trying to be realistic and think about other priorities, like school and stuff.  That and also I want to put a little extra effort in a couple of the projects.
Project List #31:

• Pins
• Altered top
• Rose headband
• Doll
• Bracelets
• White dress
• Gift

Technically only two projects are specifically for Halloween.  We already have more than enough pumpkins, faux spider web, etc. to cover our little neck of the woods for multiples years.

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