Thursday, November 1, 2012

halloweenies


Here's a quick rundown of Halloween:

Quinn was "Starscream" from Transformers Prime, and this is what almost an entire roll of duct tape looks like:



Before I started on the costume it dawned on me that he might have ulterior motives in wanting to be a Transformer for Halloween, so we sat down and had a little talk: "Quinn, you understand that when you're dressed up as Starscream you're not actually going to be able to transform into a plane, right?"  "Why not???"  Yeah, I consider it a tender mercy that I had the inspiration to have that conversation before making the costume.  I can just imagine if he had put it on and then been disappointed when it didn't transform.  This is how he wore it for school, but for trick-or-treating it also had wings. 


Max wouldn't give us a clear answer on what he wanted to be for Halloween.  Most times when we asked him he would just say, "I don't like clowns...."  Then last week he settled on being a bird, and luckily didn't budge after that.  And I got the opportunity to sew a completely ridiculous bird costume.  Really, it was like a treat for me.  He happened to be running around the house in his underwear when I finally finished the costume and I was lucky enough to get this beauty of a shot (Max is a genius of posing):


Max hates (hates) walking, so for trick-or-treating Zach wore all brown and carried Max on his shoulders and called himself a bird's nest.  Clever.  And a good thing bird poop isn't brown.
Here he is before we left for preschool - another great pose:



This is a shot of the wings before I sewed them all together.  I wanted to make sure I had a good idea of how I was putting them on, so I put them all on, took a picture, and then took them off row by row and sewed them on, row by row.  I'm a sucker for punishment.  But it sure turned out awesome.  Oh, and just so you know, I didn't cut out a single triangle.  My sister found them in a ziplock bag in her attic 12+ years ago and I've been holding onto them, knowing there was something great in store for them. ;)



I'll post pictures of Ollie in his costume later, but this is one of my favorite pictures from the evening - We had a bunch of teenagers show up at our house, three of which were boys dressed as superheros that I think came for the sole purpose of wearing our boys out before bed.  It was awesome. The one dressed as Robin put his gloves on Ollie and while everyone in the room was having a good laugh over it (except for the one on the couch being pummeled by Quinn and Max) Ollie gave him this look:


Not amused.

This is the greatest picture of the night - the stand-off between Quinn and Max and the Superboys (and Oliver).  Seriously, they could have played with these guys all. night. long.  Next time I'm looking for babysitters, I know who to call:



Thursday, October 11, 2012

your mom dresses you funny



Now that our bedroom/sewing room is mostly finished and functioning I've been spending a lot of time sewing.  A lot.  I pulled out our 4T box of all the clothes Quinn wore and that Max now needs to wear, and I didn't like any of it.  I feel bad that Quinn had such a sad selection of clothes at that time, and confused that I actually thought they were cute!  Poor kid.  But I can do something about that now.  And since most of the fabric is coming from clothes Zach and I don't wear anymore, or clothes other people give us (I don't let my friends take their old clothes to DI anymore - we'll take your sloppy seconds!), it's not costing me much to sew new duds for the kiddos!  Seriously, I'm in heaven.  I really have to limit myself because even though it's for them, I take a lot of pleasure in making the clothes and I feel selfish that I'm spending so much time sewing.  Yeah.  Oh, and since this is going on it's got me even more on fire.  People are super talented.  Also, I can't stop looking at this picture for inspiration, as I'm sure you'll see in the pictures below.  Here we go.








For Ollie:

This shirt is made from a men's Old Navy long sleeve shirt.  I drafted a pattern (and all the others you're about to see) using one of his shirts that has the fit that I like.  I used the original sleeves for the new sleeves so it has the original cuff.  The shoulder patches and neck are from a men's waffle weave long john top that I bought new on sale for a dollar or two last year.  I did topstitching on the patches so it has a quilted look.  Turned out super cool.












His pants and shoes are also made by me.  Nothing fancy, so you don't get a better picture. ;) The sweatpants are just super simple pants made from the sleeves of a navy blue sweatshirt that Zach never wore.  For the shoes I used this pattern and they're made of a really thin denim and lined with mustard and grey flannel.  He wears these almost constantly since he immediately yanks off any socks that I put on him.















 Here's another shirt I made using the same pattern.  This one also has patches on the shoulders (in grey), but I added a little storm cloud and thunder bolt out of flannel (same flannel that lines his shoes) to the chest.  The original shirt was one of my friend's maternity shirts. ;)  This one doesn't spend much time in his drawer because it usually goes on him as soon as it comes out of the dryer.


















For Max:

I was originally planning on making this shirt for Quinn, but I'm so glad I changed my mind and made it for Max instead.  This one was a super simple refashion since the neck was small enough that I didn't have to mess with it at all.  All I had to do was take in the sides and the sleeves.  This is a shirt that my friend saved from her family's yard sale for me.  It used to belong to her brother.  Do you know many 4 year olds with Dashboard Confessional t-shirts?  (it's dirty because Max dropped a full cup of water on the floor and refused to help me clean it up, so after putting towels on top of the water I literally used his body to mop it up.  He loved it.  And I felt like a nut job.)







The boys in this house love "cozy pants".  I found this fabric at Joann's for 75% off because it had a mark on it (which didn't come off in the wash - oh well, I can cut around it).  I lined these with fabric from an old t-shirt so they're a little thicker than just flannel and they're extra cozy.  I also added pockets (for the first time!) but they came out a little too small.  He can get his hand in, but when he pulls it out the whole pocket comes with it, which is fun since the pocket is white with black polka dots.  They're totally clown pants, but great for running around the house and throwing paper airplanes (which has been all the rage around here lately).










For Quinn:

I made this shirt for Quinn last night and could hardly put myself to bed because I just wanted to sit and stare at it.  I love it and I already have another one in the making.  The shirt is made from an off-white long sleeved shirt from American Eagle - another one from my friend's brother.  The cuffs and neck are hunter green ribbing that I got on super sale at Joann's, and the shoulder patches are from some jersey knit brown pants that have been in my "to be used for fabric" cupboard for years. 








  





I was so excited for him to wake up this morning so I could see it on him.  He wears it well.



Maybe when I'm feeling ambitious I'll put together a post with some of the things I've made for myself.  But then I would have to take pictures of myself...  We'll see how that goes.  At this point, I should probably just shower....


Thanks for letting me toot my own horn for a bit.  Not like you had a choice in the matter....




Friday, October 5, 2012

my boys

What a wonderful thing to find on a chilly Sunday morning:


Sorry for the absence.  I promise I'll write something soon.  I've been sewing.  A lot.  And I'm going to go get back to it.  Max wants to play games on the computer while Quinn's gone at school so I'm going to let him do that to save myself from hearing, "Let's dow to da dames now Mama!  Wite now Mama!  Dames, dames, dames, dames!  DAMESDAMESDAMESDAMES..... You're taking so long!!!...."  Check ya later.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

the hole in the wall gang

*This post is dedicated to my sister-in-law Mandi, who has been waiting for it for a very long time.


Three Saturdays ago I gave Zach a list of possible activities for the day:
Replace the kitchen faucet
Remove the toilet so I can clean under it (because that's the only thing I can think of that might remove the pee smell from the bathroom... WHY?????)
Paint our bedroom...

You get the idea.  Fairly reasonable options.  But instead Zach said, "Why don't we knock a hole in the wall??"  He said, why not?  And then I said, why not?? And pretty soon the whole group said, WHY NOT?  So here we are.  (that was a movie quote, in case you're wondering)


This is the room formerly known as "The Casita", accessible through a door on the front porch OR through a window in my sewing room.  Totally normal, right?  We knocked out the wall below the window. 



 Here Zach is adding the trim around the new opening.  Just in case you're wondering, brick, old drywall, and "wood" paneling is a total pain to work with.  And Zach has TOTALLY gotten his money's worth out of those knee pads he bought 6 years ago.  One of our smartest purchases ever.



 All trimmed out and looking pretty fancy!  Zach did a great job getting it to match the other door frames in the house.  It was a bit of a fiasco, but we persevered.  And I have to say, a few years ago we couldn't have done a project like this together without fighting.  But I can honestly say there was not a single disagreement through this whole process. Amazing.


Then the second Saturday in we had this conversation:
Zach: "So how bad is that carpet"
Katie: "It's pretty bad.  Low quality.  Stained (with Edison vomit).  It's really bad."
Zach:  "Well, we might as well rip it out.... I'll get started on that now."

(And yes, Oliver puts up with A LOT from his brothers)




Within an hour the carpet was gone!  We were very happy to see that the floor had been painted before which meant painting it again wouldn't be too much of a problem. 

For the walls I just wanted white, white, white.  Weird how I always dreamed of having a colorful house one day, and then when it came time to paint our bedroom all I wanted was bright white.  Whatever.  It's Behr Paint With Primer in eggshell and it's called White Fur (makes me laugh every time I say it).  All the trim in the room is the same except in semi gloss.
On the floor we removed all the random nails and staples, gave it a light sanding, wiped it all down, filled the holes and dents (some of them quite large), and then it was ready for a coat of Kilz and two coats of Behr Espresso Bean floor and porch paint.  Here's where we are right this second (Like, I just took these pictures and didn't even bother making things look nice - the bed was already made) (take note - Ollie crawling, Max and the sword, and his pants are on backwards):










We still have quite a bit to do.  Like, we just gave up our GIANT closet so that the boys could take over our old bedroom (nothing fancy there - we just moved all their stuff in.  we'll paint and do all that fun stuff another time), so we have a bit of a clothes storage issue right now.  We converted a tall bookshelf into a wardrobe type thing for Zach's suits, and that'll do for now, but we're looking for better (prettier) options. We're also looking for another dresser, curtains, bedding (eventually.... which means, maybe in the next five years), artwork.... Which we will probably make or refinish ourselves, since that's how we roll.  I think we'll try stripping the paint off of the closet and bedroom doors and see what's underneath (exciting!).  Oh, and of course putting back together all the other rooms in the house now (sewing room in the casita, guestroom in the boys' old room, fixing up the boys' new room....).  In other words, we just turned our house upside down.  Weee!

Monday, September 3, 2012

there goes my baby

Who does he think he is??

Thursday, August 30, 2012

sunday best

I saw the sweetest idea on a blog I read where the mom takes a picture of her two kids every Sunday morning before they head out to church.  Adorable.  For a split second I thought, "Genius!  Stealing that idea!"  And then I realized, with boys, it's different.  Quinn and Max wear almost the exact same thing every. single. Sunday.  SOMETIMES Max wears brown corduroys instead of blue ones.  And maybe, every once in a while, a white shirt.  Quinn has navy blue pants, but I'm so in love with these seersucker ones that I'm trying to get every last wear out of them before summer ends.  And he usually alternates a short sleeved shirt and a long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up, depending on how messy he gets during Primary.  


I took pictures one Sunday morning anyways, and I'm so glad I did.  I'm kind of in love with them.