Day 551 | Drawing
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Painting time with Mary Catherine today. The blue one is Chase's space ship and the red on is Mary Catherine's. Adorable, I know. |
Day 550 | Candle Making
/Day 549 | Becoming a Dalmatian
/What I used:
- a gray sweat suit (separate hoodie and pants), inside out
- black flannel for spots (the flannel glued to the sweatshirt easier than felt would have)
- black felt for the ears and tail
- stuffing (for the tail)
- black thread (for minimal hand sewing)
- fabric glue
- ribbon for collar
- old pet tag (or make something that looks like one)
- Cut out a bunch of different-shaped spots and lay them out on the sweatshirt in an appealing pattern. Maybe you noticed that I started out spacing the spots evenly (see photo above), but ended up clumping them a bit more. I was much happier with that layout.
- Use the fabric glue to adhere the spots. Don't go too heavy with the glue application or it'll seep through the felt fabric.
- Cut ear shapes out of the felt fabric and handstitch them in place (the glue isn't strong enough to handle this job).
- Cut a skinny cone shape out of the felt for the tail and hand sew up the long edges. Then add stuffing (not too full) and hand stitch the tail to the bum of the sweatpants.
- Finally, attach the ribbon to the neck of the sweatshirt to act as the collar. Instead of handstitching the ribbon all the way around, just tack it on there with one stitch at each opening and one in the middle (where you'll add the tag with one stitch, too).
Day 548 | Becoming a Firefighter
/What I used:
- an old raincoat (could you tell it was a *bit* too small?), but I tucked the hood in so it disappeared
- a pair of gray windpants
- silver reflective tape (seemed slightly wider than duct tape, but that would work)
- skinnier black tape (I used a Gorilla brand tape)
- a fireman's hat (ours was white, so I also had to buy red spray paint...per my little own's request)
- pair of toddler suspenders (I found a really cheap pair at a consignment store)
- navy shirt (I just used a regular graphic tee inside out)
- Use the silver tape to add two stripes to the body of the jacket. Then add the black tape on top of the silver. Fold the arms over the body and add a stripe in the same location as the body so that they line up. Add a similar stripe to the bottom of each leg of the windpants.
- I also added "DCFD" on the back of the jacket with the black tape for some extra flare.
- For the suspenders, I added a tape stripe as well. Just brings them into the costume a little more.
Day 547 | Pumpkin Patch Field Trip
/There were some tired 3 year olds upon returning to school. Some of them were still asleep during pick up. Big day for these little guys.
Note: Sorry for missing a post yesterday. It's been a week of continued recovery and catch up and upon falling into bed last night, I just didn't have the energy to add a post. Please forgive me!
Day 546 | Pumpkin Pancakes
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In case you can't tell, that's a pumpkin. Chris tried to convice the boys it was a ghost. Nope, definitely a pumpkin.
These are yesterday's pancakes. I had no intention of highlighting a day-late breakfast recipe, but it was just too good not to share. I have a feeling there will be a bit of catching up on blog posts this week since I'll write up quick descriptions about how I made both the boys' Halloween costumes, too. Hope that's ok!
Here's the
I found. They are super delicious with just the right amount of pumpkin flavor.
Two changes I made:
I doubled the recipe. I've got two growing boys to feed!
I left out the nutmeg. Chris isn't a fan and they definitely didn't need it to be yummy.
And I did include the brown sugar. I just didn't want to risk ruining them on
the
pumpkin holiday. Next time I'll definitely try to cut back or cut it out entirely, but I'll say something made the pancakes extra delicious...I'm not above admitting it could have been the sugar.
Day 545 | Happy Halloween!
/I wouldn't say everyone was feeling 100% today, but that didn't keep us down. Two short Halloween outings to take advantage of a beautiful fall day was just what we needed. We're hoping tomorrow greets us with an extra bit of sleep and everyone healthy.
Day 543 | Snuggles
/Day 541 | The Never Ending Sick Days
/In case anyone is listening, we're ready to be healthy again at our house. Thanks in advance.
Day 540 | Pumpkin Craft
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Day 539 | Three Year Old Pumpkin Dreams
/You might be curious about our pumpkin designs. Chase requested "a snowman" and "Paw Patrol". This is what we came up with. I usually do a cat pumpkin (do you remember?) so the paw print wasn't too much of a stretch for me but the snowman was definitely out of Chris's normal carving subjects. We feel pretty happy about how they both turned out.
Day 537 | Lattes
/Day 535 | Halloween Sneak Peek
/Day 534 | Baby Gifts
/In case you're new to the blog, this is the same technique for faux-screen printing I've used many times before. Here's the first time I did it with a tutorial included.
I have to say, now that my boys have worn their own shirts that I've created over and over, I'm beyond pleased with how well these designs survive the wash and wear (*repeat*) of a toddler's lifestyle. The fabric paint undoubtedly outlives the amount of time the boys fit into the clothes!
Day 533 | Culture Queen
/As promised, I gave the Busboys and Poets music class another chance. I went assuming it would probably be the same scene of chaos and uninvolved caregivers but was quickly proven wrong. Today's performer really wrangled in the crowd and forced participation...my kind of scene!
The Culture Queen was great. She was exuberant and stayed in character throughout the 1.5 hour show. An impressive feat to be sure. Robbe (and I) enjoyed the dancing, reading, exercising, singing, tambourine-playing, learning, and everything else. Thank you, Culture Queen, for a worthwhile morning outing.
It turns out the Busboys and Poets events have hope after all. I'm happy to say, I'll be back.