Months of Making

It's been a while since this space has been updated. A lot has happened in the last few months: holidays, ski trips, birthdays, and making memories. I think these days of the kids being young, innocent, and happy will be our best. As challenging and busy as this life can be, it is so rich, so full of good things.

I have dedicated a lot more time to creating things these past few months. Starting with Everett's Halloween costume. Luckily I didn't have to put too much work into it, and I was able to add wings to his dinosaur costume from last year to create a dragon.

There were wings that came with the Simplicity 1765 dinosaur costume pattern, but I just could not get them to look right, and Everett seemed pretty bummed by the way they turned out. So I decided to go rogue and design them myself to create a more cape-like effect - something I thought he would love since all his friends would be dressed like superheroes.

 

Yes, I wear Christmas pajamas all year. 

I used the costume for dimensions, added a seam allowance, then cut 4 pieces of the hand-drawn wings. After sewing the right sides together leaving the large (body) sides open, I trimmed the seams, turned right-side out, pressed, then top stitched around the outside of the wings to give it a finished look. To attach the wings to the body, I pressed down the large/body/open sides a bit to close off that last area of the wings, attached them to the body near the original costume seams, then did my best to stitch along the original lines. A couple hand stitches along the shoulders, arms, and wrists finished the look.

Alice's unicorn costume from last year still fit like a glove. She was just the sweetest. I died every time she walked up to a door and said, "Tricky Treat."

It was a fun and crazy Halloween! Someone please remind me to take the afternoon off work next time though, because feeding two littles and getting them dressed before the chaos began was a little much.

Other highlights from our autumn included harvesting all our squash, making pumpkin pie with said squash, preserving seeds for next year, visiting the arboretum, planting hundreds of bulbs for spring blooms, Everett's first Harry Potter symphony concert, walks in the leaves, beginning the wallpaper removal process, and Everett starting a new school.

Even in times of struggle, may you always find ways to create in your life, may you always find joy in the ones you love, and may you remember these times with fondness.