Sew I Made It Myself!!

I have been working on pillowcase dresses for some special little girls for Christmas. Nieces, Heidi Anne (she doesn't know which one is her's), and Heidi Anne's Best Friends. Below are some of the dresses so far. I'm not saying who the go to-because I still want some sense of a Surprise!!

 This one is Purple, with a Yellow trim, and white ruffle Edging. I had a ton of fun making this one!

This one is for an older girl, so it's a little big on Heidi Anne. It has fun poka-dots of blue and purple with bits of yellow. So I did yellow ribbon for the ties and then a yellow trim. For fun I have purple rick-rack at the bottom, so it looks like purple edging. (Shame she isn't having fun).

 This one is Pink and Brown with a strip of brown ribbon with pink poka dots sewn into the pink trim.

 My Little model got board of our game. This is a purple, with purple trim, with purple ties. It was one of my first. I plan on putting a little more flare on it soon. But this is it now. Still very pretty I think.

The Lost Bet and The Won Snowday Adventure

We made a bet at work, towards the end of Sept or first week of October of when the first snow would happen in the valley. There were a few requirements for the snow:

1) It had to be in the valley, not in the mountains
2) It had to be real snow, not the slush rain that wants to be snow
3) It had to stick on the ground and couldn't melt for at LEAST 15 Minutes.

I picked the day after Thanksgiving. I know it was wishful thinking but it's been so nice these last few weeks I really thought I had a shot. The snow normally hits us around the Pumpkin Walk (so a week before Halloween) or on Halloween. Well it hit this morning-meeting if not exceeding all the requirements. There were 3 inches of snow on our front yard and it's still there.

While I lost the bet, Heidi Anne won the Snowday Adventure. As soon as Heidi Anne saw it she wanted to go play in it. We told her after she eat her breakfast and get ready first. She shoveled the food in her mouth and was still chewing her toast as I was putting on her gloves to go out. She had to use just normal shoes since she's outgrown her old snowboots, which I thought was fine because she would be back in shortly where it was nice and warm. Right.....

WRONG!! She LOVED it! She was like a fish to water. She was making little snowballs, making trails, and just playing in the snow having a blast. She is already making plans on making snow forts, snowmans, and snow angels, and just all around playing in snow.

The only way I got her in was to promise her she could go back outside later to play in the snow again. Anyone know where I can get some good, affordable, little girl snow boots that can handle Heidi Anne's and her Adventures?  

More Halloween!

Did I mention I LOVE Halloween?? Here are a few more pics of Halloween from the office.

My Team at Work

 A Yeap Yeap, Penguin, Pirate, Cesare (even being wounded), Emperor from Star Wars, a Fairy, and Me.

Cori and I

The Emperor And Darth

So my absolute favorite is when teams or groups of people get together and plan their costumes. These tend to be closely guarded secrets in our office until the big day.

Donkey, Shrek, Fiona, Puss in Boots

Security! :-)

Angry Birds (and some Pigs) 

 

These two teams are both Busy Bees-different teams that didn't coordinate with each other-they just had the same great idea. Great minds think alike. 

Box of Crayons

Heidi Anne

 Sneaking treats when I "wasn't looking". She'll learn, her Momma and Daddy see everything.

It's Halloween!

I Love Halloween at work. Even better-this year Heidi Anne got excited about it as well. She's been telling us all weekend how you are to say "Happy Halloween! Trick or Treat. Thank-you!" In that order or else you get told by a three year old "You're NOT doing Halloween Right."
I think the best part of Halloween has to be our office. We really get into the costumes-many teams do themes together. On top of that there is a best costume award for guys and gals. 
This year I tried to be a paper doll. My plan was to get some poster board, cut out a pattern, and then decopougue it with fabric. Sounded fun, not to mention, fairly simple, unique, and cheap--right?
Well, Round 1: With decoupage failed Horribly! It either didn't stick OR it would curl the poster paper.
Ding, Round 2: With acrylic paints it should have worked...again it rolled and curled to the point beyond use.
Dong,Round 3: Gave up on poster board-got some foam board. It was too stiff. (Yes at this point I felt like Goldilocks and the 3 costume attempts.) I figurded in the battle between flimpsy and stable-stable won. At last with the help of a hot glue gun and some ribbon, I made a sandwich board version of a paper doll. Most kids knew right off the bat what I was trying for. Later in the day I ran into a co-worker, who had the same idea as I did. Only-Her's WORKED. Sooooo......

What I Was Trying For.....

What I Ended Up As

I think Heidi Anne treated the Trick-or-Treat more like an Easter Egg Hunt. She would go from desk to desk and exclaim "Oh!! Another One!! Thank-you!" Then she would spot another desk with a bowl of candy and dart there before Char could catch up with her. Every single time she got a piece of candy or went to a desk with a treat she would say "Oh! Another One!!"

Look! Another One!!

As I said before-We really get into Halloween at work. These are just a few pictures of them. 

Darth

Where Did Daddy Go??

The Penguin

Heidi Anne Interrogating My Boss on Her Outfit of Choice

Death vs. Darth--It's On Like Don King Kong!

A Yeap-Yeap--If You Have to Ask-You Missed Out on Childhood

 This is Kay-Bug all ready for her school's Halloween Party, she is Cinderella (LOVE the dress!)! The one in pink is Heidi Anne as a Ballerina. What I think is super funny is the fact that these pictures are taken nearly 100 miles away, however, these 2 little girls are so alike-they strike a pose in nearly the exact same way.

Cori (a Fairy)  and her baby Johhny (A Gnome)!

Maja Cuddles Johhny

He's Just Soooo Cute!!!

Facebook Funnies

It's Turkey-I Promise

I learned from Wikipedia that it takes about 24 cats to make a fur coat. This is outlawed in the US and Europe, but is common elsewhere. In addition, there is a region in China that kills about 10,000 cats per day (to eat) and is estimated that Asia as a whole consumes about 4 million cats per year. I told my cats this and they seem to be taking it well.

I Love Our Pumpkin Walk Tradition

We have gone to the Pumpkin Walk every year since before Heidi Anne was born (In fact I was pregnant the first year we went to the Pumpkin Walk). So I guess she can honestly say she's never missed a Pumpkin Walk in her life.
 All the displays below are made from pumpkins, gourds, squash, and people with a lot of time and talent. These are our favorite displays from the walk. The walk normally lasts about 1 hour to see all the art work / carved pumpkins along the trail. Some people wait an hour just to go walk an hour. But it's one of the highlights here in the Valley that pretty much everyone looks forward to.

 

Bambi-Now Remember All Pumpkins-Neat!!

 

Heidi Anne got so excited when she saw this one. It's Angry Birds or sometimes called "Mad Birds-Arrggg". She kept telling us they were going to "Shoot" at any moment. When they didn't move, she started to cheer them on to "GO". She was very disappointed she wasn't able to watch them knock down the buildings.

Rapunzel

I liked this one-because they had to use fake snow this year. It seems like the last few years it's snowed by now. Also it's Calvin and Hobbs. Who doesn't like them? When we fished our little walk we had our traditional Pumpkin Shaped Pizza. The only things that could have made it better according to Heidi-Having K-Bug with her and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

The Pretty Tote

While I didn't get a picture of the tote my sister and I had made, my sister did. Now I get to show and tell you about it!
First, we painted the tote black. Then we did decoupage with pretty, sparkle paper (I choose dots since it's supposed to hold sewing pins). I don't have a picture, but she even came up with the great idea to decoupage the bottom of the tote on the inside, very detailed.
For the finishing touches we wrapped a red ribbon around the edge of the tote (remember how Nana LOVES red) and it just made everything flow so nicely. My sister kicked it up a notch by making the pretty flower. See, I told you it was tempting to keep it.  :-)

Nana's Birthday

Ballerina-Just Finished a Spin

 **Side Note: Nana's favorite color is red, hence the post color.** Anyways, Nana really wanted to see Heidi Anne in her Ballerina outfit. Since we aren't going down to the Valley for Halloween, we let her dress up in it for Nana as part of her birthday gift. Besides, what little girl is going to pass up a chance to wear her Ballerina outfit at every opportunity? Oh, how she LOVES it.  Like the hair? My sister did the bun before we left her house from painting pumpkins. I think it gives it that finishing touch.

Hugs for Alice

Heidi was so excited when her cousin Alice woke up from her nap and was able to play. That made it so she played with ALL of her cousins in 1 day. She was on cloud nine. She would play peek-a-boo with Alice with the tent. Heidi Anne even shared Ana Rose with Alice, now that is love.

Where did she go--(Insert Giggles)

There's Alice!! (Insert Full Force Laughter)

We got to watch Nana open her surprises (learning time for Heidi Anne that not all gifts are for her) it was quite the shocker. I think for being 3 she took it pretty well. I made Nana a box to hold her pins in (she loves to quilt and sew so I  thought a cute little tote with her favorite colors would be handy for her. It was the craft project my sister helped me with (she's the master at those types of crafts-I wish I had her talents). I didn't get a picture of it-but it was so cute I wanted to keep it. Which I think is the sign of a good gift. She also got some things for her running hobby (I don't know much about running), and Hotel Rwanda (the movie-not the place) and a certificate for her Traveled to 100 Counties club. Oh, and the whole family was there (minus Millie but we'll forgive her ;D ) 

Heidi Anne and Alice-Best Gifts Eve

At long last we got to eat the cake. We had to tell Heidi a few times that it was Nana's turn to blow out the candles'-Not Heidi Anne's. She wasn't to happy at first because she had been practing on the way to Nana's house. But once we told her she was still going to get cake and ice cream-all was right in the world again. 
I wish I was three sometimes, when all it takes to right a wrong is some carrot cake and vanilla ice cream.

Being Reminded NOT to Blow out Candles

Ready to Help--Just In Case