Sophie aka The Queen of Hearts

I sew.  I like things that are not like others.  My daughter knows this and always wants her Halloween costumes handmade so she is different than anyone else. 
This was her inspiration:

Yes, no pressure.  Not at all.
First we had to buy the supplies- that means lots of tulle.  Lots of hard to work with tulle.

We could not find any harlequin ribbon anywhere.  We looked everywhere.  So, I had to make my own.  Yes white cotton fabric and black marker.

In process, looking pretty good.

I think it looks great.  Well it looks good on my dress dummy.  I hope it looks even better on Sophie.

The Queen - love her makeup.

All hail the Queen. 

Off with their heads.  She rocked this costume. 

halloween 2014

Its that time..

That crazy time we call Halloween in base housing.  With 100+ homes to trick or treat at it is a mad dash to get all the candy you can.



These two were excited to hit the neighborhood.

This was the first request for a picture together- yep they'd rather eat broken glass.  haha

But after reminding them that mom is the one that makes this night possible they could at least be grateful and give me a picture.

I just love it when a good old guilt trip makes it all work out. :)

I think they look very scary, odd and weird.  The three qualifications are met.

Happy Halloween Jack & Sophie. 

off with their heads

Time for the fitting...hope it works.

Here she is excited to see it done.

 

The day and night look all together. 

First job was to get the shirt on - do the hair and crown and then the God awful makeup. 

She especially liked the little heart on the lips.  The girl loves any reason to get to wear lipstick out in public.  How about those bad 80's throwback blue eyes..haha

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!

I think Queen Sophie has spoken.

She loves it.

And the awesome thing is it will work for the next school year when her school in NC does the book character day on Halloween.

the queen of hearts

Sophie did not want to wear her angel of death costume for a third year and I don't blame her.  So, she came up with the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.  Now my girl does not like any cutesy costumes they need to be weird, scary or just plain odd.  This look hit two of those.

I did not use a pattern but found an inspiration photo and went from this:

I started with a pile of stuff: black and red fine tulle for the outer skirt, black stiff tulle for the underskirt, a black t shirt, some white tulle for the collar, felt and some trim.

Tulle is a pain in the butt to work with.  It slides all over when sewing it.  And with many layers it is even more difficult to do.

The original had harlequin ribbon.  It was a key part of the look.  We hit all the craft and fabric stores in town but no ribbon was to be found.  Heck not even any harlequin fabric could be found.  So, I had to make my own.  It was more difficult figuring out how to draw it then to get it all done.  I used plain white cotton and then colored the harlequin with Sharpe marker.  The equivalent to duct tape - works in a pinch always :)

 The first fitting was going well.

 I finished it while Sophie was at school.  It looks good to me..

It looks great on my dress form - Josephine.  I hope it looks even better on Sophie.

We shall see how it fits her. 

a halloween day look for sophie

The schools here in Texas do not allow costumes to be worn on Halloween.  Total bummer I know.  In NC you can wear a costume but it has to be a character from a book - non scary and no weapons.



With that being the case the girl needed an outfit to wear to show her Halloween spirit.  She had outgrown her t shirt from last year- but wait- big brother outgrew his too.

I raided the fabric stash..yes I have a healthy stash of someday I'll do them projects.  :)  I found some black and white zebra print and orange polka dot.

Just whip up a pleated skirt to add to the bottom of the t shirt and make a big bow to go on the bun and voila- we have a Halloween spirit outfit.

The girl is a fashion diva.  She loves to work her stylin' magic.

Looking good Sophie. 

a bit of halloween decor- sophie style

Since we moved all the home decor back to NC the house was a bit sparse here for Halloween.
That is until Sophie got bored a couple of days and made us some decorations.

She took an old book and made a pumpkin by cutting it and then dying the edges orange.  She also added a nice lime green stem.  Then she stole a roll of toilet paper and covered it with tissue paper and added more lime green for the stem and tendrils.  She also made a tiny bat from a toilet paper roll.

Last but not least she made a mummy out of a box and toilet paper.

I'd say she did an amazing job and the pumpkins can stick around for Thanksgiving too.
Thanks Sophie.

our texas halloween "porch"

As this is still October we do not have our "fall" porch up yet.  That happens after Halloween in this house.  Why?   Because October belongs to all things scary here; inside and out.

Bring on the spooky.

Welcome to our new porch at our military base house..not quite a porch, as it more a landing.  And the hard part is we are not permitted to hook ANYTHING to the fake brick.  ughhhh 

We do the outside like the inside- spooky, scary and eerie.

Lots of skulls, skeletons, dead body parts, heads and webs..If it represents scary death then it is there.

You will notice there are not many fun autumn colored plants.  Again not our option- we are under drought stage 4 which doesn't allow us to water whenever we want - thus no fun flowers. We planted zombies instead.

 From us here in Texas...Happy Halloween.

Here's to your porch being scary, kids having fun and lots of left over chocolate candy for yourselves.

our first halloween in texas

We've recently moved here to military base housing in Texas.  It has been a challenge making it our own. You know rules that must be followed and not many changes to be made on a permanent basis.Welcome to our foyer.  There is a big opening that we closed up with an old screen door and my table that painted.  We like it creepy here.
 

Notice the book- To Kill A Mockingbird..hahaNext we tried to spookify a boring kitchen...
 

Then we stroll into the dining room..scary, spooky and fun.
 

 
 Do you decorate your bathrooms?  We did one..haha
 

We love to fill glass with scary items..heads- yes doll heads- they are funny in a scary way, skulls, rats etc..
 

Well with that I'll leave you - Happy Halloween All.  Whether you do it subtle, fun or gory it is a great day to have fun.  Here's to much candy in your bag at the end of the evening.
 

{ halloween recap }

Was I the only one not in the mood to decorate for Halloween? 

 It makes no sense if you know me at all.  Christmas is my fave decorating time but Halloween is almost neck and neck.  This year however, I was in no mood.  I almost didn't do it at all but then it would have been a rip off for these two. 

 

I mean look at them, my gory two of the dead.

This is why I did it - for them.  

And once it was done and all the neighborhood people told us how much they love our house it made me realize that I don't do it for me- I do it for the kids to enjoy.  Next year it won't be an issue..Heck I already ordered more gore at 50% off from Grandin Road.  

Jack is so much easier than Sophie- he just loves a good mask and his clothes.  Sophie, on the other hand, knows her mama can sew so she comes up with an elaborate plan every year. Nothing like buying expensive fabric only to bring it home and shred it for a costume.  OH well they both looked amazing.  

 

Now bring on Christmas decorating please.  

tammy