All in a Hallowe'en Afternoon

The Bean was the topic of some mild twitter hoopla yesterday. You see, this year her hallowe'en costume was based on the adorable super sneezing panda Chu from Neil Gaiman's and Adam Rex's picture book for preschoolers Chu's Day. It's a big favourite in our house, as is Fortunately the Milk and all other Gaiman books and Adam Rex illustrated books.

As I have posted before, I like to make the Peanut and Bean's costumes. The more every day use items I can find to concoct their hallowe'en costumes the better. This year I hit the jackpot at Old Navy in the toddler boys section with a super green stripped shirt and again at the Canadian Superstore with a Joe Fresh aviator cap (again from the boys section because I'm all non gender specific with the girls) I Added a pair of black leggings, a pair of her sisters clean white underwear over top. Black face paint (with added sparks) on her nose and eyes with a pair of bear ears pinned on to her cap and she was Chu.

After her costume was complete; at around 10am she refused to take any of it off until sometime around 3pm. On top of that she carried her Chu book around the house all morning and pretended to sneeze every few moments with an, "ah ah ah ahhhh no" peppered in every once in a while.

I snapped a picture of her in full Chu gear and tweeted it to Adam Rex and also to Neil Gaiman. I didn't expect anything to come of it, twitter posts are buried almost as fast as they are typed up, and then nothing happened.  Until about two hours later when Mr Rex re tweeted and then oh holy of holies Neil Gaiman re tweeted. Using all caps. And my brain exploded, well not literally but Caps! My Bean all done up as her favourite book character got my favourite author excited enough to tweet in all caps.

BEST COSTUME EVER! LOOK! ALSO I'M TYPING THIS IN CAPITALS AS IT'S IMPORTANT! RT @PeanutButterPie: pic.twitter.com/y9XiF8BC8S @MrAdamRex #ChusDay
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) October 31, 2013

To add some extra sweetness to the Gaiman Rex excitement we went to the Peanut's Hallowe'en Assembly and watched the spooky performances, and costume parade, then we went in with the Peanut's class and helped celebrate with the class party. The Peanut dressed as a gorgeous Phoenix. We used an old red tunic of mine with flowing sleeves for wings, I painted her face with flames and topped it off with a hand made fire feather. She looked stunning and her face paint stayed pretty close to unmarred all day and into the night.

We went out trick or treating for an hour and then it headed home amongst the bangs, pops and booms of fireworks. The candy stash is huge and we haven't even dived in just yet, so our sugar hangovers are pretty nonexistent today but I'm sure that will change over the weekend.

Did you buy costumes for your littles or yourself; or were you able to get a costume together from your tickle trunk? I love to hear about costume concoctions.

I Want Only to Haunt You

And the countdown to Halloween is on and the race to get costumes ready is on as well.

The Peanut had decided at the beginning of the summer that she wanted to be a knight dragon. I spent a number of hours considering how I'd pull that one off. And then this morning she declared her new choice; a Phoenix. The scrambling for that get up is on. At the very least I have a few ideas for this one. Once I've pulled it together I'll try to post it. If it looks a 10th of how I'm picturing it she'll look fabulous.

The Bean declared she would be yellow and then green when I asked her. While I could pull those two choices off with minimal effort I just can't take the easy road so I'm taking advantage of her lack of desire to demand an exact costume and she'll be going as the sneezy panda Chu. I found a hat and shirt to fit the bill and I'm just on the hook for goggles and panda ears to have her done. With the Bean I don't have to worry about getting a great look. Her sparkling eyes, infectious smile and corkscrew curls will make up for any shortcomings I have in getting her costume completed.

This past month has been a whirlwind with me getting started teaching, getting the Peanut settled into school, getting the Bean settled in without her sister around every day and then reworking everything  with the Peanut. Last spring she was accepted into the Challenge Program in her school district; which means that she goes to a special class once a week at a different school.  On top of that we have both girls enrolled in classes in the center I'm teaching at. With all the comings and goings I'm barely able to keep up with the laundry and dishes.

I now have full and near full capacity classes in two of my programs and I have some very talented and engaged students. I'm learning what types of lessons work best, how to deal with different personalities and challenges and on top of it I'm trying to do a dry run of each class each week so that I can make any changes to fit within the time I've got for each class. My weeks are flying by.

With all of that I found this lovely sound today and thought it would be a nice soundtrack to get into the Halloween spirit. Are you getting costumes ready?

And Just Like That; It's Over.

What a loaded title,right?


Of course I could have been talking about how fast Summer seemed to fly by which it did:

We went camping, swimming, and to the park among other things. Most everything on our bucket list was crossed off and a few things were added in that were completely awesome; me being offered a job for instance. 

What's that you say? Yes I was offered a job at the beginning of the summer break right after the Peanut's birthday party. I am currently part of the teaching faculty at Burnaby's Artspace for Children. I teach toddlers and their parents, Preschoolers and school aged children art on Saturday mornings. It is so much fun and so nerve wracking too. Fortunately I have two tester kids to practice my classes on and tweak them accordingly. So far we've painted circles and op-art, drawn a still life and made an autumn leaf collage. You can see some pictures of me in action;  and some of the other amazing classes available at Artspace if you click on this link here
.


 
Also added in was a great night out for me and a friend where I got to go and hear one of my favourite authors read. While I would have liked to get a personalized autograph on my book I made due with a pre-signed copy I might have been waiting until 1AM had we stuck around. And then we were off on our camping trip and then back in time to scramble for the beginning of school. Which leads me to September. September just flew by.

It could have been that the first week is full of the unknown, new teacher, new class and nothing is settled until the second week. It could have been that I began teaching the second weekend and getting each lesson planned and organized takes up a lot of time. It could be that juggling our schedules has just swallowed up a lot of time and it could be that each week something new has started or finished or popped up and when that happens time seems to fly. In any case September is nearly over and I feel like I have whiplash.

How was your summer? What did you do? It's been so long, let's catch up.

Time Sure Flies

Looking over the posts from the last year I notice that I've been posting more and more on regular family things and not on being creative. This last year has been a challenge that way.

Most of our focus has been on the husband's pedal building, music playing and getting into school. Then there were bucket of other family matters. The last time I had a spurt of creativity was around the winter holidays. Until now that is. I'm getting myself busy getting ready for the holiday selling and craft show season. I have felt ready for sewing, birds sculpted and right now, between typing paragraphs (you know, to let the tips if my fingers recover in between) I'm working with wire to make bird feet to go in the sculpted birds.

There are a few things that I've been doing to stay creative this year. One is a daily photograph on Instagram (my instagram name is PeanutButterPie if you're interested in following my stream). I've been trying to incorporate a smallish diary type entry with each photograph and that is getting me to think labels and hashtags too. What I'd like, is to look at these together and see what patterns arise; what images really get me excited and happy and perhaps use them as a spring board for art projects or just to get my brain working.

I've also started to draw and paint again as you can see in the image below, there are a few of my quick watercolour sketches included on my instagram feed. And I'm gearing up for the Peanut's birthday party but this year it will be much more about baking than crafting as she's having a drama party at the ArtSpace for Children instead of a back yard party.

On top of that I've been working on a separate project that I have kept away from here. It's a guerrilla art project that you can read about on the blog; The Paper Heart Project which I've created just for it.

So I may not have been blogging here lately but I've been doing stuff. What have you been up to? anything you're doing that you are excited about? Share in the comments.

this and that again again again

We've been doing laundry dryer free since before December of last year. It sounds like such a long time ago when I put it like that and then I think about it and it is a long time. On sunny days like today it's actually kind of nice, sheets and towels outside on the line is a nice image, even every one's clothes on the line outside is nice. The rest of the time we've been using the multi-tiered drying rack that we got from IKEA but it's slow going. Toss in a few days where the family has been sick and then it feels like we have laundry piles from a year's worth of living.

The Husband is in school now and re-shifting his priorities as he figures out what it is he wants to do.

I'm in the midst of a project that is taking me outside of my comfort zone and also hopefully bringing a happy moment to strangers in my city. On top of that I've challenged myself to submit a piece of art to an art magazine which is giving me something to mull over while I'm playing with the Bean or picking up the Peanut from school.

Add to that trying to get organized for my niece's wedding in less than a month and it's busy around here.

What have you been up to?

Book Review: Chu's Day

When Chu Sneezes bad things happen. How bad? So bad that his parents always ask Chu with great concern if he is going to sneeze.

We got the Bean the latest of the great Neil Gaiman's books, which was illustrated by one of our favourite artists Adam Rex; Chu's Day for her Birthday gift. She thinks making pretend sneezes are the ultimate in comedy.

The book was a smashing (or should I say nose tingling success at the first ahh ahhh ahhhh... and since then we have read it to her multiple times a day. Until today; when the reading wasn't at nap time or snuggle time but when the Bean pushed herself between me and the kitchen counter where I was doing kitchen things and demanded Chu Day Chu Day! and like all Moms of a just starting to speak child I looked at her in bafflement and said "what is that you want today?" and she replied with "Chu Day!" and I said "yes it is Today" and she looked at me with infinite patience (which in a two year old is a miracle in and of itself) and said again "Chu Day" and then the light bulb of comprehension kicked in.






The Bean was demanding that I stop and read her a book. A specific book, the book we got her for her birthday and the book that in the deepest part of my heart I had hoped she would adore so much that I would be reading it over and over and over. Wish granted.

In case I've not been clear We love this book. It's short and sweet and so lushly illustrated that we can look into the art and tell more stories to each other based on the characters in the pictures. The tale of the snail for example. So I read it to her and then I read it again and I recorded me reading it to her and though I'm not Mr. Gaiman I think it went well and the bean is watching the video and shouting Achoo achoo so it's a keeper.

If you would like to read Chu's Day to your little one click on the picture above of Chu with his father at the diner and you'll be transported to Harper Collins where you can find your very own copy.

Greetings

time flies when both kids are home, the husband is awaiting news of entry into school and the holidays are keeping every one very busy. This holiday season was declared the best one ever by the Peanut and I'm sure the Bean would agree if her vocabulary was up to it.

Since we're now in the second week of January I won't deluge you with holiday news and pictures. Suffice it to say that lots of quality family time was spent, lots of baking, cooking and eating was done and everyone got what they asked for as well as some things they weren't expecting but hit the spot. New Years eve was spent in a quiet fog. A fog rolled in just before midnight and midnight was so quiet and still that I slept through it.

The husband was accepted into the program he's been upgrading for which means that we are moving into a year of changes. I'm looking forward to them and also to the other changes coming down the line. He starts at the end of the month, until then we're getting last minute house organization things taken care of and cramming in as much family time as possible. His courses are intensive and we'll see very little of him for four months.

What new things are going on for you?

Mourning

It's funny you see; not funny ha ha but funny in an odd way because I don't have any connections to the children, teachers and families who lost lives and loved ones on Friday, no physical connections and yet I find myself sobbing at random moments and wiping away stray tears before entering a room where my children are playing. The only thing that links me to last Friday's tragedy is the fact that any one of those beautiful bright eyed children could have been my Peanut. My peanut was a day before, a week after, a month before two months after, six months before, a year after... days, weeks, months a year. I could be in the same position as the mothers in Connecticut who are mourning their babies, their children.

When I posted after my niece' lost her baby after a long stay in hospital I said that I could imagine the pain and the loss and that I knew full well that what I imagined for myself didn't even scratch the surface. And still the pain I imagined was immense; and I had the Peanut who is six and well past infant-hood and the Bean who was and is and was healthy without any trace of genetic disorder or disease.

So I can well imagine what the mothers of those twenty children are feeling, I can put myself in their shoes because what they have lost is so, so very close to what I have safe and sound and boisterously running around my home. I can imagine their pain and it is unspeakable and I know it's not even scratching the surface. So I do what they can no longer do; I hug my girls close and tight, I let them know that they mean the world to me and I pray that no other mama has to feel the pain I am imagining.

Another Art Show How To (or this is how I did it; packaging edition)

If you're just finding this post and haven't read my previous post where I focus on creating an eye catching display using mostly materials I already had on hand click here and catch up. I'll be adding a link there to this post so you'll be able to find your way back.

The drawers we used for display, the one in front is
filled with our ornaments, tissue
and our packaging

So while I was spending the last few years making mental notes about the best ways to do a craft/ art sale some pretty cool ideas were filed away in the back of my head. One of my favourite blogs from an artist who has some pretty fantastic ideas and tutorials for this type of stuff/ not to mention just in general is ArtMind. She's posted tutorials on making your own scratch cards, contemporary price tags, adding your brand to your packaging and of course recycled bags. Mitzi of Artmind is someone who I would love to emulate. She spends her days being super creative and artistic, she's major organized and she loves sharing her ideas.

Our folded envelopes and Tissues

While I was sitting down on the computer to find her tutorial on making the recycled bags (which is something that I will be using in future, when I have way more time and a lot more energy to plan for a show) I started to think about other options that would be less time consuming, use less materials to create and would be self contained. Add in the Peanut's recent obsession with origami and I decided to look up folded envelopes as an option for creating packaging. I came across a tutorial for a simple origami envelope that was self contained, required less than half a minute to do for each envelope and was self closing.

I played around with different paper sizes to get the best package size and decided to use the holiday themed scrapbooking paper I had got on sale last year and that full 12"x12" sheets that were the best bet. They were a little bigger than the ornaments but if I was factoring in tissue to cushion the glass and business cards the larger envelope was the way to go. Also using a full sheet meant I wasn't spending my time measuring and trimming paper before getting down to the business of folding.

Detail of the branding we attached to each envelope

The packages we wrapped our ornaments in looked elegant and charming which fit with our branding and were eye catching to boot. I wrapped each ornament in it's own envelope so that they could be given away as gifts without further need for wrapping. They will look beautiful placed on a tree branch filled with our ornaments or another charming little gift. I used the clear ink jet sticker sheets to print off our shop name and web address and attached them to each envelope as well so the person who bought the ornaments has another reminder to check out our online shop and the person receiving the ornaments can check us out too. One of my customers even asked if I was selling the envelopes which may not have been a bad idea...

To keep the ornaments safe once we sent them off with new owners (to be hung on trees, attached to floral arrangements or gifted to someone special) we used gift wrapping tissue paper from the dollar store. Also from the dollar store we picked up a booklet of receipts to give to customers as well as a decorative book to collect names and email addresses to use in future marketing.

 Next post will talk a little about money and payment options. 

Another Craft Show How To (or this is how I did it)

I was going to make this one post but then it just kept getting longer and longer so I thought why not split it up.

Over the last few years as I've played around with the idea of doing art/ craft shows I've visited lots of blogs and flickr pages (and more recently pintrest pins) to figure out how to do a successful show. This is my addition to that list. Hopefully someone finds it helpful.

Table Set up the Peanut's School Art Show and Sale

So the invitation to be a part of the Peanut's school art sale was a little last minute; and my procrastination/ planning for the one day not to far away that I would take that step and sell at a handmade show/sale paid off in that I was able to put together a beautiful table with little stress. Not to mention that there was no stress on the making sure that I had enough inventory front. The husband and I have a nice stack of finished ornaments that are ready to go.

So this is the first of three posts about what did I do to get ready for a show. This post focuses on display and set up. In all my research and reading having an inviting and interesting display was number one on the must do list for a successful show.  In our case we weren't just competing with the other vendors at the show but also the student's art. All of the people who attended the show were family or friends of the students in the school and they were all there to buy their kids art. Any other purchases made were bonus buys. Having a beautiful table that beckoned buyers made sure that we had a steady flow of people talking to us, picking up the ornaments, taking business cards and coming back for a second look. In some cases we saw people scanning the room from the refreshment table; see our display and walk over to get a better look.

As is my MO I used a lot of what I have/had on hand to create the display (as well as our packaging and signage which I'll talk more about in future posts). The rest we broke down and purchased.

Display:

I had a decorative brass tree that I picked up a few years ago after the holidays. We've used this tree on our kitchen table during December with battery powered LED lights and some of the hand made ornaments we like to display.

After the show we put it on the table and filled with with candy canes and some of the hand made ornaments the Peanut has made this year.

I've also used this tree in merchandising photographs over the last few years and have it featured on my business cards. When I bought the tree it was for future use in shows like this one. Getting to use it for holiday decoration and for product photo shoots has been a bonus but putting it to use for the reason I initially purchased it for was pretty darn exciting. I wrapped some lights around the tree and hung ornaments from the branches.

A few years ago the husband and I got a little organizational and picked up some drawer units to stash my art supplies, his electronics components and also the girls paints, crayons and play dough. The drawers (pictured above filled with everything we took to the show for sale and display) are also metal mesh so that we can see what is inside without having to open all the drawers. I emptied out three of the drawers from these units to use as display racks on the table with the tree.

Because the drawers are metal mesh I was able to set up a light source inside and to create a semi permanent hook system for hanging our ornaments. Using some metal ornament hooks I'd picked up at the dollar store a few years ago; I threaded them through the mesh on the bottom of the drawers pinched the top portion of the hook closed and used the bottom to hang our ornaments. The drawers also would have doubled as a handy place to carry everything from our home to the show venue and back again if we weren't in the middle of a torrential downpour; instead we put most of the display stuff into a plastic bin with a lid. Once the sale was over, the hooks were removed.  Once I've got some free time, the drawers will be replaced and all our displaced art supplies put away.

Our fish, Dragon swimming in front of the
As Is vases we picked up at Ikea for the show

For promoting our shop name I used watercolour paper that was in in my paper stash, watercolour paints and some ink jet sticker paper with our shop name and address printed on it in the font we use for our Etsy shop.  These were placed in a shadowbox frame that I've had in storage for years. I used some blackboard vinyl on a photograph frame clip board that we got for a wedding gift to write down our prices with chalk pastel. One of the other vendors at the show commented on what a good idea the large signage was, which was a pretty awesome compliment.

Inside the drawers and behind the ornaments we used some glass jars; baby food jars, kitchen storage containers and one of the pretty glass vases that was a gift filled with pretty flowers after the Bean came home. We filled them with some battery powered floral lights that we used to decorate for our wedding over ten years ago and that we've had on hand and used yearly since in our decor. the lights inside reflected off the glass and made a pretty glow from behind the mesh similar to tree lights.

In addition to all the things we already had and were able to transform and use for our display we also picked up a few things inexpensively at dollar stores and Ikea to fill out the display.

From the dollar store we picked up some adjustable book lights to help showcase the iridescent quality of our ornaments and also to light up the signage on the display so that people could see what our prices are and who we are.


At Ikea we got more battery powered lights both plain LED as well as a snowflake string and a fiber optic disco ball to place behind the mesh display inside the jars we had on hand. These lights are now decorating our house for the holidays.

To drape over the back of our boxes we picked out an inexpensive set of sheer curtains in black. We'll likely keep these solely for use in craft sales unless we decide that the privacy of being able to keep our bedroom windows open in the summer is too tempting to forgo and now that I've put that thought into my head you know that that is what's going to happen.

Lastly in the display department we hit the "As Is" section in Ikea. I love love this section and never go to Ikea without visiting that area. I found two pretty glass vases with frosted stars decorating the outside which were also filled with lights and placed in the boxes. These will be put to use all year round and right now I've got blue and silver glass balls filling them with a couple of the light strings. they're lighting up our kitchen window and entertaining the family pet.

Absolutely everything we had on hand and picked up to use in display will also be used again for different purposes. Even the book lights are being used at bedtime and I can see them inside a carved pumpkin next year.

Practice set up for the show.

Before the show I practiced setting up the display in our kitchen a few times. Once when I got the initial idea to use the drawers. This let me see how the display might look and also let me figure out what items I had on hand and what I'd need to pick up to finish off the display. I did another practice once we'd visited the dollar store and Ikea so I could see how everything looked together as well as making note of what was missing, what needed to be added or subtracted from the set up and what I might need to help make the display as seamless looking as possible. I did a final practice two days before the show to figure out the most efficient way to set up and also to make sure that the loose items (mostly the sheer fabric but also the book lights) on the table would stay where I wanted them. This way I was able to include twist ties, paperclips, scotch tape and alligator clips to my supply list so that I could keep the lighting wires organized, attach the light for the price sign and not least make sure the fabric was secure.

Finished table

When I got to the venue to set up my table I adjusted my layout to suit the location of my table. Because the tables we were given to use included table coverings both white and the black place mats I decided to use both the sheer curtains on each display box instead of draping one over the table and spreading the second over both boxes.  I reversed the placement of the boxes and tree, as well as the pricing sign and our business sign. Before I set up I also adjusted the table placement to allow more room for people to look at our display without crowding the table behind us or in front of us. Next year we may  move the tables even more.

Did I leave anything out? Is there anything you would do differently? Anything you 'd like to know more about? Tell me int he comments. Next time I'll post about our packaging; click here to read it!.

Moving Right Along

Signage and Proto-Signage for my table

If you've read my last post you'll know I've been busy with trying to keep the Bean asleep past 4AM, making sure the Peanut is feeling loved and everyone has clean clothes... Oh yeah there's also that art show and sale thing....


All my procrastinating has finally paid off and planning a display and table layout is so far going surprisingly well. There are bugs to work out, like where and how to attach spot lighting, collecting glass jars, vases, bottles or  sourcing some nice ribbon to use for hanging the ornaments as well as fabric and more lights and getting a float together, and looking into possibly getting a card reader for debit and credit cards and so so many other things. The last few years when I was thinking each year, "Next year I'll get it together to do a art/craft sale" and looking at how other people do it and do it successfully was well worth it.

As well as the procrastination worked, finally breaking down and joining Pintrest helped too. Really it made sense after doing search upon search for just about anything and everything and having just about every search end on some one's Pintrest pin. So now I have my own boards and am collecting ideas and images that feed into my need to be creative and to dream and to plan and did you know that Neville Longbottom went and got all dreamy looking after puberty? but I digress. Also I find that my thinking that particular thought a little on the creepy side and still I digress. back to Pintrest. One of my most posted to boards is the one for display ideas.I've used one or two from the plethora of pins I've repinned and the rest were all brainstormed using those other pins as jumping off points.

There's really nothing like doing creative things to get more creative ideas. I've been sewing little felt trees together over the last week or so and some of my best brainstorming comes when I've got busy fingers. So Pintrest and making things together have gotten me into one really productive place. I'm excited for the sale and for getting the rest of the display and packaging together over the next week.

I'd say that I'll post pictures once I've got everything put together but I'm not going to promise anything. I still have so much to do as well as getting the Bean to sleep past 4, keeping the Peanut taken care of and managing piles and piles of laundry. I will post after the show for sure and will post before if I can swing it....

Deep Deep Breaths or There's nothing quite as exhilerating as jumping in with very little prep

Oh boy; so I went and gone and done it.

An assortment of snowflake ornaments

The Peanut's school's PAC sent home a request for items for a silent auction that they hold as a fundraiser every year. Last year the husband and I attended the event for a short hour and a half before heading downtown to see The Watchmen (one of our all time favourite Canadian rock bands) perform at a grey cup party. While we were there, we bought the Peanut's art pieces that she made for the sale and also a few other gifts for family and friends. This year we have no other obligations and are excited to be there all night long.

The Bean's Peacock ornament I made for her last year

I've been playing with the idea of approaching them next year to have a table at the sale. It's well attended and the people who attend are there to spend some money, it's a fund raiser after all and also an amazing place to get holiday shopping done and dealt with. So I thought to get my feet wet I'd dip a toe in and offer a set of three ornaments for their silent auction and perhaps inquire about setting up a table for the following year. They replied with an invitation to set up a table this year and now I'm awash in excitement and panic in equal measure.

This Year's ornaments for the girls; the first of as many
as I can put together over the next few weeks

We have about 60 finished ornaments sitting in boxes that can be sold right away and about 60 more that can be soldered if need be. Is that enough? should I include other things? The Peacocks I created last year? I have 5 of them in various states of finished; read all done to still needing a first coat of paint. The felt trees I've been making this year? I can make about 3 or four a day if I don't embellish them with stitchery and beads.

What do I have on hand to display with? What do I need still? What should I build my banner with? Should I have one? Should I price individually or use signage since all my ornaments are the same price across the board? A Float how much change should I have on hand? Packaging, business cards, mailing list, artist bio..... on top of keeping up with the laundry, feeding the family and making sure the Peanut is picked up from school and the Bean isn't drawing on the couch with permanent marker (true story) and also dealing with her recent habit of getting up at 4, 4:30 and 5AM. I have one pretty full plate.

One of my intentions for this coming year is to take any reasonable opportunity and keep up any momentum that builds so that I keep moving forward. I could have politely declined the offer of the table. I could have stepped back and made plans for next year instead. Instead I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and accepted. I've been reading up on doing shows, I've got a list of display items I'd love to be able to put to use, some that I can only dream of and others that I have on hand and or can put together simply and elegantly (I hope).

So the roller coaster is starting up that first big hill, the trick will be to keep those cars on track after that first hill. Any good advice out there?

Still In Candy Coma-land

We celebrated our seventh Trick Or Treating night this year and once again I managed to keep the costumes pretty close to the home made scale of things. I'm a little bendy in what I'll consider part of a home made costume though. For instance if it's been in the dress up box for more than a year and it was originally part of a bought costume that has been handed down to us I will call it a home made costume. I will also accept the addition of newly purchased components of a costume regardless of what it is. This year both of these were a big part of our costume building.

The Peanut had a dress up party to attend this year and since I didn't want her to give up the surprise of the costume she's picked for the big day we rummaged in the dress up box and came up with a layered witchy, gypsy clown costume. The main dress was part of an old witch costume. It was way too flimsy and kind of boring so I added a pink tulle tutu and also the ribbon tutu that's been in the dress up box since our first Halloween with the Peanut. WE put on her flowered leggings underneath, layered the Bean's baby legs leg warmers, some spotted socks and the orange and black witch hat headband we purchased this year. We finished with some purple glitter face make up and she was ready for the party. I think it worked out pretty well and I think the Peanut looks pretty darn cute.

For the big day the Peanut chose to be a cheetah. We purchased a pair of cheetah ears and a tail when we got the with hat pictured above but the main part of her costume was the face paint and the cheetah print top and cardigan that are a part of her every day wardrobe. We got up a little early to get her face painted and her hair done so that those ears would stay put. A little trick I came up with is to pull a portion of hair over top of the head band and secure it with a barrette directly behind the headband. It holds the ears in place and also hides the headband too.The makeup and headband held up from 6:30am until 8:30pm, or if you'd rather all throughout the school day and up until the end of trick or treating.

Last year for the Bean we used the Monarch Butterfly costume that's been with us since the Peanut was 4 months old. I couldn't get it together enough to put anything more together for her after building bat wings for the Peanut. This year I am pleased to say that the Bean's costume was home made from top to bottom. We put her in a black velveteen dress, purple striped leggings and a little purple shrug. Then to top it off I made a tiny felt witch hat and attached it to a barrette and my little witch was ready to go out and cast some spells on the neighborhood. Except the hat didn't stay put; toddlers eh?

This year was the first time we did Trick or Treating with a friend and it was a big success. The Bean made it to ten houses before she rode in her stroller, and the Peanut finished the night off with a big bag of goodies that we are still working our way through hence the candy coma.

How was your Halloween? Did you build a costume or go store bought and what were you?

Wow

The husband and I finally had a date night two weeks ago.

What did we do? We went to see Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra and it was one of the best live shows I have ever had the fortune of experiencing.

5 questions: Colourful and Perfect

I started following Eyelah's (otherwise known as Ayla)  blog way back when it was mainly in support of her jewelry shop on Etsy, AAlexandra. I came across her one morning in the etsy forums and added her blog to my reading list because something about her writing style just seemed to resonate with me; her taste in music has sealed the deal for me; I have been known keep Imogen Heap on auto repeat myself. That and I thought her creations were simply beautiful. Now Ayla puts most of her energy into her jewel bright hand bags and clutches which you can fine at Eyelah

Over the course of the last two or so years I've found following all the blogs on my reading list a bit of a challenge but I manage to drop in here and there when the Bean allows for a little me time. When I decided that it might be a good idea to return to doing features again Eyelah's own blog post about doing features seemed to be too serendipitous to ignore.

Before I went into my feature hiatus I decided that in order to be excited and get everyone else excited about the features I do I would have to choose the artists and artisans I featured from my own list of favourites. They would have to be shops that I would shop at, have shopped at or just visit on a very regular basis to satisfy my hunger for awesome stuff.

Of course Eyelah fits right in there. Her handbags are bright and colourful and I could picture grabbing one of her butterfly clutch handbag's and heading out for an evening on the town with my Mommy friends or for a date night with the husband. Personally I think her yellow Butterfly Cotton Clutch would look stunning at Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra's Theatre is Evil performance at the end of the month... I covet; it's true.

As always a five question feature is a Q&A format of five questions about being an artist, designer and/or artisan, getting inspired and possibly a little insight into the nuts and bolts getting creative. Please please visit her shop you'll be happy that you did. Just looking at her gorgeous and fun handbags puts a smile on my face, let me tell you...

so here's what I asked and how she answered:

What got you started?
I originally starting making jewelry a few years ago because I have a nickel allergy and I found that it was better to make my own earrings than buy them. So when I started making earrings it became necklaces and then someone suggested Etsy. After going Etsy I pretty much became obsessed with crafting.



 


















Do you listen to music when you create? What's on your play list right now and why?
I definitely listen to music now. I used to have Netflix playing in the background but I realize that I am more creative/productive when I have music playing than a movie or TV show. I currently use Pandora for my music source and right now my station is for Imogen Heap.

What life or art lesson have you learned that has shaped your work?
I guess the art lesson I have learned is handbag making and sewing. I started making handbags shortly after I started jewelry and I've just developed the craft even further. It took me a while and a lot of troubleshooting to finally get the look I wanted even now I'm constantly developing the handbags, clutches or wallets I make.

If you were granted 3 wishes to furnish your dream studio space, what would you choose and why?
an awesome sewing machine, endless amounts of materials, a new camera. I think these three things are the key to handmade items especially for handbags. Having a great sewing machine is  very helpful. Having an awesome camera makes all the difference.







Which Children's book character would you be and why?
One of my favorite children's book growing up was "Alexander and the Horrible No Good Very Bad Day". I liked Alexander because he was just trying push through the day and everything just wasn't going his way. Sometimes I felt that was my life back then and even now but at the end of the day or month, year, or decade everything ends up being awesome for me. Plus, I also liked he was named Alexander because my middle name is Alexandra.

So besides Eyelah on Etsy you can also find Ayla on her beautifully designed Eyelah blog where she posts some pretty awesome tutorials as well as lots of other everyday stuff as well as on facebook where you can get a glimpse of her work in progress, the treasuries she's made on Etsy and a little bit of what is going on behind the scenes.


As always all the images should link up to the matching item in Eyelah on Etsy. Go! Visit! and then I really must insist that you check out her latest blog posting... Really it's a great post. I promise!