HALLOWEEN!! Okay, it’s true… I’ll jump at the chance to make costumes or dress up. That is why I love Halloween so much. This year I had to come up with two costumes - one for work and one for a party.

For those who don’t know I’ve very lucky to work for a company that embraces Halloween and encourages every department to dress up and decorate. And no one is shy about it. I normally head the decoration planning, because I’m a bossy perfectionist that way but this year I kept my crown in storage and went with the flow. It was nice, due to our department change we were absorbed into the fellow creative team’s idea and there wasn’t much that had to be done. The theme was Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. I admit, I had to watch the movies to get an idea of what in the hell to dress up as. Again luckily I was just a Barter Town folk and didn’t have to plan too hard for my costume. The search began at the local second hand store. Since Barter Town was a crappy post-apocalypse town the costume details didn’t have to be perfect and looked better if they weren’t. The costume consisted of a large dress that was half black thermal and half crinkled linen, as you can imagine it was quite a show stopper, I can’t believe someone gave up such a gem!! I added extra flair with textured puff sleeves I got from this wonderful 80’s top. LOL The second layer was a nasty gray synthetic stretch top that I converted with the help of a tweed mini skirt zipper. I made a capelet-thing out of the left over skirt and wrist warmers out of the sleeves from the thermal dress. The best part was these weird magnifying glasses that added that special touch of wtf!! The base layer was a distressed long sleeve shirt and black pants. I also added details like bracelets, chains and a cool leather bag that acted as my trick or treat bag as I walked around taking candy!! I have to say it was one of the most comfy costumes I had worn in some time. Oh and I made a headband out of a elastic belt… actually pretty cool looking and if I wouldn’t get weird looks I’d add it into my regular rotation. LOL

Tina was pretty rad… and yes Mary DID drive with those glasses on. Goofball…

The thunderdome costume was nice… but the haunted hillbilly Halloween costume was the best!! My mom was in town for this party so we whipped up her a costume with the left over brain and bits from my costume. My theme was “hunter’s safety”. You know I love to dress up dead… I don’t know why, I just do. The costume consisted of a camo hat that I gave a faux bullet hole on the front and an exposed section in the back, to look as though my head had been blown out. Brains and blood everywhere. My little bro even got into the costume and gave me the idea of adding the buckshot element… of course he would know. I wore a long curly brown wig with Mary said freaked her out more than the hat because it looked good?? I’m not quite sure but it was funny. The hunting vest and shirt were found in a last minute shopping trip at the same second hand store I got my Mad Max pieces. It came together quite effortlessly! Of course I splattered blood on the clothing and my face for that extra detail, again the buckshot came into play. My mom’s costume was fun as she came up with the theme of her’s before she arrived. She was the “toilet seat horseshoe champion” who met her untimely fate with a nasty head gash!! The head gash was made of the left over brain from my hat and a great discount wig we got at Joanns. I made the brain a clip that glued to the hair and then painted around it with acrylic paint. The best component of her costume was a replica toilet seat complete with poo and blood stains!! How much more hillbilly can you get. This was the best costume in quite some time and now I have a couple options for next year’s zombie walk. **I will make next years zombie walk!!!!!!

Check out my mom before and after!! She’s such a good sport.

When looking at one of my fav sites for free crochet/knit patterns I found these amusing patterns to “teach your children about politics”.  The tiny tie is killing me!

** If you are super crafty you could alter these patterns to create finger puppets of family members or story book characters. So cute!!

McCain vs Obama (click the names for the free patterns from Lion Brand)

My latest score when out thrift store shopping. Lynn and I just happened upon this thrift shop going out of business. Everything was 50% and you could stuff a bag full of clothing for 10 bucks. When it was all said and done we had about a dozen pieces of clothing including this amazing gently used retro dress coat that Lynn literally jumped up and down when she found and all the crafty items shown for $9.50!!! They gave us 50% of the already amazing clothing sale… it was crazy. Lynn and I ran out of the store just in case they made a mistake. It was a good day.

I have been instructed to not ‘dis this coin purse that I attempted to sew at Mary’s house on Sunday. Mary had already knocked one out so I thought I’d try… We were to begin our Project Red Dress dresses on Sunday but due to schedule conflicts it turned out to be a fun shopping and crafting day. So while I can’t say this purse turned out like crap and I hate it, I can say the Amy Butler’s pattern was so complicated it was bound to be messed up. So maybe it was my skills and not the pattern… maybe it was the pattern and not my awesome skillz™, who knows but the end result was not pretty. It also didn’t help that we had jinxed zippers that wanted to be pulled apart. Both Teresa and I pulled the zipper head off the zipper when attempting this horrible coin purse of doom. Okay… I’ll stop. The fabric used was a combo of vintage corduroy and a calico print, both won on Ebay. (Mary is an Ebay bidding machine!) Oh well now I have a pouch for my Christmas camera so yeah.

(I’m excited for this weekend’s Project Red Dress construction and sleep over!)

So what do you make for the girl who has everything? Okay she may not have “everything” but what she does have she gets the full use out of. When it came to making holiday gifts I chose to observe my friends and see what they truly seemed to need. Of course this was from my perspective but with Jenny it was loud and clear. She had this little organic cotton lunch sack that was one more lunch from falling apart so I made her a new bag. I made the pattern from scratch so it was 100% experimental. I went to Joann’s Fabrics and found the most fun and wacky fabric I could find. I settled on a black fabric with western peppers playing random western roles. My fav was the saloon girl pepper complete with boobs! I lined the bag with a contrast polka dot pattern fabric. The only design flaw was the closure could have been further up but Jenny is tolerating it and using it!! Got to love her! So when the bag was all said and done it was empty, too empty to give so I crochet an amigurumi bologna sandwich with cheese… so cute.

I absolutely love shopping at thrift stores! I think it’s in my genes. In my latest treasure hunt I found so many great crafting deals. The biggest scores include 3 mini needlepoints - one saying “I love rainbows”, a grab bag of misc. knitting supplies and Simplicity sewing book that is full of great sewing knowledge and how-tos!

I’m going to use the silver sparkle yarn to knit a camera cozy.

photo taken with my awesome new camera!

I found this fun spray dye (like spray paint for clothing) which I had fun experimenting with on a children’s shirt sample I had lying around. I took a cotton doily and used it to create an interesting pattern. I wish I knew some kid that could fit into this shirt since now I don’t know what to do with it…

I finished the head base, wig and ears. The placement was tricky, I had to constantly check where I was sewing next to keep all the details even. The most difficult area on the head was keeping the part in the wig. The wig is just that a wig piece that you sew on to the head base. I took the pattern and added sideburns for the Colin look. The curls on the top are chenille yarn that I looped through each crochet “valley” and tacked down with a small stitch.  The finished look turned out great for my first humanoid.

Now on to the body and figuring out the clothing. The next tricky area will be constructing the clothing… vest and tails.

Here is the progress of my amigurumi “humanoid”. I’m already a pro crocheter (toot toot) so I really had a hard time taking it slow with my new book. I completed the strawberry (okay not really, i figured out the “working in a ring” portion) so I felt confident to move forward. What creature did I decide to make you ask? Well since I was going in completely blind to the whole process I figured why not go for the gusto and chose a character I would really like and would actually finish… so I’m making a Colin Firth aka Mr. Darcy amigurumi humanoid doll!! (don’t roll your eyes!)

Here is his progress so far. I have 2 arms, 2 ears and half a head sounds like a Beck song. The arms went very quickly and I added the lace on my own. The ears compared with his head look large, if they turn out to be huge then I’ll be remaking them. I went out of order when making the components. The pattern calls for me to make the wig portion before the body BUT I find that for Colin I need to have his head complete so I know that his hair actually fits. I bought a nice chenille yarn for his hair but don’t want to mess it up. Of all the piece I think his wig will be the most challenging… I say that now. Now the hard work begins…

like a hole in the head.

BUT I just bought this book and I’m so inspired.

How can you not be when you can create such cute little guys like this snail.