Halloween Spread

And the follow-up scrap layout of the Halloween pics!
I only really had a handful of pics due to the whole... darkness and rain... stuff goin' on. And I didn't get to see the family as much as usual so I didn't get my goofy nephew pics.



But I'm glad I thought to take some pics around our block before it rained...



I'm enjoying another bowl of mashed potatoes as I type this... I had a sandwich in the car... but I was hungry again when I got home... and luckily Daryl didn't eat all the mashed potatoes.



And here's the making of the 12x12. The other side is PL style...



And now!!! Onto CHRISTMAS PROJECTS!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Halloween Costume Re-cap

So I have to say Eleanor is pretty good about sticking to her Halloween costume plan...   This is the second time she decided on what to be almost a year before and hasn't changed her mind.  So I kinda feel like that's huge when it comes to making costumes.  I mean, what would happen if your kid decides to be a squashbutter ninja and then you go to the trouble of making the perfect  costume, and then they won't wear it because they changed their mind and now want to be a Stripey fruit ninja!  If that was the case I probably wouldn't have bothered with making costumes at all.. or I would ...and I'd just have a lot more.

This year it was Sofia the First. If you don't know who that is, here's a pic:



It's a newer Disney Jr. show... and it meant another purple princess dress! (Last year was Rapunzel) Whoot!

So I'm always disappointed with the Princess dresses in the Disney store. They're expensive and usually don't look like the actual dress the princess wears... and to top it off, they always add some cheesey charm on them with the princess' picture on it. SUPERCHEESE!
Roo wasn't too impressed with them either because they lacked the "poofiness" that Sofia's dress clearly has!
It wasn't in my plan to buy one, but this October was busier than usual and there was a slim chance that I would just plum run out of time when it came to making Roo's costume this year. I had some other people's costumes to make, and some photo jobs to take care of, so my free time outside of work was pretty slim. But luckily I was able to make it work. I mean, I was down to the wire and had to forgo a couple last minute details but I at least got to the point where you could say "Ok, this is a Sofia costume no doubt about it!"

I'm not really going to go through a step by step but I at least took a few pics along the way:

I decided right off the bat that I was going to make an "under" dress first for two reasons:
One, I knew I needed a lot of layers of netting and fabric so I could get it poofy enough. Trying to sew all that together and keep it straight would be tricky. And the top purple layer needed to lay right due to the tulip type skirt. And two, I figured she could use it under other dresses that needed extra poof!




So the skirt with a satin layer inside and the crinoline under-skirt looked like this:


Looked poofy enough to me? It actually looked like it might swallow her whole!

And then I added the white cloth layer on top. I sewed on a strip of light purple ribbon to the bottom edge before I attached it.

sry, these photos aren't the best, but they were like the phone photos I was sending my husband as I was making this because I just thought it was funny looking.

So then I attached the white top and added a zipper in back, and I got this:

There are a set of fangs in her mouth from an octoberfest phototaking job we did the day before.  She's not wearing some weird Frankenretainer or anything...

So now I'm thinking I'm well on my way... well as the Halloween week days were closing, I realized this dress had so much more going on than I really thought through! But regardless, I got this far, I wasn't turning back! Who doesn't love a challenge!

SIDE STORY ALERT:
So I've got this big poofy white under dress thing but I just need to take up the top a little.
Roo decides she wants to paint. So I'm like, ok sure because I never really say no to any arts and crafts. I take off her dress, get her set up with paint and an easel...


I call her back in the sewing room to try on the dress again so I can check the length of the top... It's good. She starts dancing around again and before I know it, she decides to crawl under the paint easel (coz kids like to crawl under stuff) and I'm starting to freak cos she's close to her paints. Well she didn't touch the paint, but she did get some paint on the floor... which she's now swept her white enveloped self through. The bottom edge of this white angel dress is now coated in blue paint. And not only that, but there are three random blue paint spots higher up on the outside skirt. Just when I think I'm going to lose it, I remember this spot remover I bought at Hobby Lobby that they sell right on the fabric cutting counter. I remember I picked it up and asked the lady cutting my fabric if it worked. She said she didn't know firsthand, but that everyone she's known to try it has only had good things to report. So it's $3.99, I buy it. And as I'm throwing it in the cart I'm thinking in my head that I'm probably going to end up with a reason to use this. Well thank god I got it because boy did I ever need it and boy if it didn't take that paint out like a champ then I don't even know my own name. ( wait...) Or on the flip side, this all might not have happened if I hadn't bought it at all.
The point is, if you see this:


you better just buy it. You just never know when you'll really need it.

So Grandma's secret spot remover saved the day!!

Ok, story over. Back to the dress:

Now for the fun part! Starting the purple dress! For the top, I needed two shades of purple and some kind of dark purple trim to divide the two colors and add that little twist at the torso. I had this satiny fabric in a lighter purple which was annoying but I used it anyway coz I had it on hand. I ended up doubling the lighter fabric so I wouldn't have to hem or turn under the edge when I was going to put the dark purple trim. I got this tiny dark purple ribbon and just sewed it on the folded side of the satiny light colored fabric with a matching thread.

Then I just added simple sleeves, nothin' fancy.

After thinking about it, I decided the best way to put the skirt together was to just cut four big ovals flat on top and sew them together from the middle up. I didn't want any seams going through the white applique design.

So that seemed to work out well. I pinned them together and laid them over the white dress and adjusted the shape until I was happy with how they looked. Once I was satisfied, I sewed them together loosely and started making the appliques.



The applique was made with the leftover white thick satin material I made the innermost layer of the white dress with. I ironed on the fusable interfacing, and started cutting out the shapes. These also weren't cut with any precision or measurements. I just kinda cut one tear drop shape, placed it on and cut it down until it looked right, and then make 15 more. And so on with the other shape. After I did that, I ironed them on and then sewed around each shape with a white tight zig zag.

So here I'm thinking that I'm really almost done! I haven't attached the skirt yet because I still have to decide on how to add that scooping of beads on top.

Even though in Sofia's dress, it really doesn't look like there's an extra layer of fabric on top of the tulip skirt, I made the choice to add one. I just kinda thought it would look better than just sewing a string of beads in a scoopy shape on either side. So here's where we're at now without having actually sewed on the beads just yet. They're kinda just pinned up for now.

Now this is where I ran out of time. These beads were supposed to also trim the big purple tulip skirt...and the neckline but since they had to be hand sewn, I only had time to trim the extra layer and the top. I mean, I guess I could still add em' now if I wanted but I think it actually looked good enough as it was. It was getting busy already and it was pretty darn close to looking almost exactly like Sofia's dress.

So after sewing on the beads the night before Halloween, I'm pretty convinced that's the last I'm going to do for this dress instead of losing another hour of sleep. I'm definitely happy with how it turned out... and Eleanor (roo) is thrilled with it but slightly disappointed that I never got around to making Norma a dress... or myself for that matter so we could be the mom and step-sister. Perhaps I can make up for it at Christmas with matching elf outfits for the three of us.

So here's what went out on Halloween!







She's already put in her order for a "Shake it Santa" dress but "bigger" for Christmas. I'm trying to talk her out of it so we can make something different... but we'll see. Maybe the girls from the Shake it up show will have something new on that she'll like. So I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I've become her dress making slave, but honestly I'm so happy to be.

Oh, and I can't leave before I show you one more pic... Kevin was dying to try on the dress, so we all agreed he wore it as well as Eleanor. Points if you can find him!!


Anwyay, so if you have any questions about the making of this dress, feel free to ask! I'm kind of a fly by the seat of my pants sewninja. Ninja seems to be my choice word currently. I'm asked a lot how I sew things without patterns and I'll just answer that here.
There's a couple reasons and the first is that there usually isn't a pattern for the things I want to make. A lot of the dresses I make for my daughter we either make up, or she sees on TV so I honestly think it's a waste of time to look for a pattern because it probably won't fit them exactly, and it will probably won't even look like the dress anyway... like the disney store dresses! I can't say this is true 100% of the time, because the first time I looked for a pattern for a particular dress was the last time... and that was a while ago. But it's probably a safe bet. And the second is that I'm just not that used to reading patterns. I never took home economics. I was never taught how to read a pattern. I'm not saying I never bought a pattern... I have. I did make a purse from a pattern and some other things along the way... but for the most part, I would end up changing the pattern anyway. The fun of sewing for me is making up something new... or being challenged to make something from a character or picture and seeing how close I can get. It's like those logic puzzles in those puzzle magazines I used to get in my Easter Basket: Identify the pieces. Figure out where they need to go. Decide which order they need to be attached. And I've taken out many stitches this way, but it's all for the fun of it!

I started sewing after my daughter was born... and it started with stuffed animals and bunting. The first dress I made her was for the 4th of July and she was already close to 2 years old. And the way I did was by taking clothes that I knew fit her well and using them as a guide. I just kinda mentally un-did the seams and pictured what they would look like flattened out. And now a days I just kinda put a piece of scrap paper on her back and mark her shoulders and whatever that way... once you have the basic shape, you can adjust it to almost any type of clothing. Honestly, I think trial and error over a few years has taught me the most about sewing. I still want to take some classes, but everytime I sign up for one at the community school, it gets canceled for under enrollment. Maybe I'll start my own...

Anyway, sorry for the long post!!!
TFR!!

Stay tuned for a Scrapbook layout using these Halloween pics!

xo FITTY!

All dressed in Vintage

So I had the awesome pleasure of playing photographer for a beautiful friends wedding. I still have around a billionty more pics to edit... But for now I just thought I'd share a couple with the brides permission... Without revealing people or places... Just yet anyway.

What was awesome about this wedding was that the dress was in its third generation of brides... From grandma to mom to daughter... So sweet! Of course by this round,it needed a little TLC... But it was absolutely gorgeous!
My fav was the tule underskirt...

And the veil was a simple classic style... brilliant!

I have to hand it to you photographers out there... It's a week later, and I'm still sore.  That's probably the most excercise I've gotten in years!  If anyone else ever asks me to be the wedding photog...  I think I'll need to train a bit first.  Holy bajeez what a work-out!  And probably more fun than flipping tires...  at least in my opinion.  I could be wrong because I've never actually flipped a tire... lol.  But I know a lot of people who do it on a regular basis...

To me, fall is the best time of year and what was supposed to be a rainy day turned out to be absolutely perfect!! Who knows though... in a few years, fall could be in january.  Which would be cool cos that's my b-day month... tee hee...  then I could have a Halloween birthday party!

So overall, it was an awesome day and I was honored to be a part of it.  Congrats Meg!  You made a perfect bride and I hope your new life chapter brings happiness, joy, and blessings!

xo, Fitty

Apple seedy yes indeedy!

So despite the back of the hand slapping we always receive when we go here, we somehow ended up back at Russo's in Chesterfield for Apple picking this year.
We thought about not going and trying another place but... we thought misbehaving again at the same farm is more fun than behaving at a new farm?!
We think at least. Next year we'll discuss again briefly and then probably end up back there letting our kids ride in the wagons, move the gourds out of place, and throw hay.


Eleanor knows how to spell her name, but I don't think she knows how to spell mine.. which made it funny when I realized the wagon she picked had my name on it. Yes, that's how you spell Fitty on wagons.  On the interwebs it's F  I T T Y.  Wagons, K A R E N.  Got it?  Good.    And Collin on a wagon is spelled K A T H Y.   It has something to do with the Secret National and International Association of people who use wagons for secret agenty purposes.   How do I know about it... heh...

I love how this blog has turned into a big crunchy photo share...  I've been busy but I don't even have to promise that I'll be scrapbooking these pics...  they are just too yummy! I might even do a mini album!



This is the newest member of our clan, Collin.  I just can't stand the adorable that pours outta this one!!!  He's the little nugget belonging to one of my besties Mary.  Right now he's also the easiest to grab shots of because he's not running around chasing other running around boys while throwing rotten apples.  So I was able to snap a few of those bad boy blues!!



Can you stand it!

And with each new pic of Eleanor, I say it's my fav... just like the latest song you wrote, you might as well throw out the rest.. But in this case, I'll be keeping them all. This one reminds me of an Olivia Newton John record album cover... Have YOU never been mellow?



I probably shouldn't point out the dirt smudge on her nose... coz before I wrote that, I was the only one who noticed.



oh, and they have pumpkins too.. all mine lost their stems rolling around the back of my car... :( boo!



Horsey is the ewesh when it comes to what Eleanor carries around with her, but the little sewing kit she found in one of my bags is a new addition. I don't know if she thought she might need to sew some apples back together or something. When we got home she did tell me she was mad at me for not fixing Luke's stuffed Sonic yet... It hasn't been a week yet, but I guess I should get right on top of that. After all it is a neck wound and this is the stuffie ER!!


And with that, the lost boys and I bid you farewell! Happy OCTOBER!!! YAY YAY! I mean HAPPY I WISH IT FELT LIKE OCTOBER AND NOT A RAINFORST THAT MAKES IT HARD TO DECIDE WHETHER TO PUT THE AIR ON IN MY CAR OR JUST LEAVE IT OFF AND FEEL COLD AND STICKY AT THE SAME TIME OCTOBER OCTOBER!

The Chocolate Cake recipe I use

We are not Vegan, but I have a stack of vegan cook books just because it makes life easier when it comes to Roo's food allergies. It already cuts out the dairy and eggs, and nuts are an easy thing to leave out or replace. They don't usually have any real "job" as far as making a cake or baked item perform as it should.
So after trying out a bunch of different recipes (mostly from vegan cook books or online), I think I've come to the conclusion that this is my most used line up of ingredients.

This makes 24 cupcakes or two 8-9' rounds for a layer cake... or cut it in half for a quick small cake or 12 cupcakes... ( I probably didn't need to add that... but whatevs...) I like to make a big batch of cupcakes and freeze some in case something comes up and I need a "birthday" cake type dessert in a jif to bring to a party.

A little side note here is that I also find a big difference when I only use a fork to mix this recipe. You can mix it with a spoon, but it's just as easy and doable with a fork. Takes a bit more patience, but it comes out more fluffy and moist. One of the biggest problems I always had baking without eggs was trying to get the cake less dense... and I could be crazy, but I feel like substituting the fork for the spoon is the key.

Dry ingreds:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Mix all dry ingredients together. You can throw em' in a big bowl, or you can throw em' right in the pan you're going to bake them in. If you're using a square or rectangular pan, you can pretend it's your zen garden and run the fork through in pleasing patterns whilst crushing any flour, sugar, or cocoa power rocks that may have formed.
And if you are just mixing this in the pan you're going to bake it in, you won't need any kind of baking spray. This is the "less stuff to wash later" method. Not suggested if you're making a layer cake... but if you're just going to leave it in there to frost and cut up, it's the quickest and easiest way.

Wet ingreds:
2 cup warm water
2/3 cup Canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 apple cider vinegar

Once all your dry ingreds looks uniform, start adding the wet ones one at a time until completely blended with the fork. The oil is the toughest to incorporate, but just keep running the fork around the edge and kinda fold the oil in until blended. I always leave the vinegar till last, it's doing the job the eggs got fired for and it can't sit around like that too long so try to have your oven ready as soon as it's mixed.

I used to worry about over-mixing with a spoon, but again, I don't think I've ever over-mixed with the fork so don't be afraid to keep blending until you've got a good consistent texture.

Bake for 30 mins at 350 if you've got two 8' round pans or a half batch square.
Bake for 20 mins at 350 for cupcakes

Bake longer if you're using a bigger or deeper pan. I would start with 30 mins and just keep testing after. I've never actually made a batch this size in one big pan so ... use your judgement. :)

And the great thing about this cake batter is that I have no problem letting my daughter lick the bowl (shown above) since there are no raw eggs or dairy in there, it's basically liquid chocolate sugar... how could that taste bad?

As far as frosting, you can throw a quick glaze on top with confectioners sugar, water, (soy milk or a safe butter alternative), add an extract for flavoring... etc. This is perfect if you're making a chocolate bundt cake.

If it's for a birthday party or something where I want to decorate it, I usually just use the Pillsbury frostings. (Ya know... coz you want your kid to bounce off the walls a little after consuming your confections... hey, it's a party right?) But they generally don't have any dairy and are just a pile of sugar and soy ingredients in attractive colors topped with coordinating sprinkle type decorations.



And the above picture is proof that this cake can stand on it's own...  if your child steals a cupcake pre-frost... you know you've got a keeper.

Enjoy!

xo Fitty

Hershey Revisual

So this is our third trip to Hershey with the kiddies. I think that means it's officially a tradition... but this was the first time we visited the Gardens there.



This face painter was not only talented... but a face-painting warrior! She battled kids knocking into her and invading her space, she re-painted several times areas roo had wiped off, and she didn't even flinch when the biggest flying waspy bee thing landed on her ear whilst Nins and I screamed and pointed and went..."omg...omg...OMG.."



I thought it was so weird that Roo would choose to have a unicorn painted on her face and then have it shellacked with glitter...
That last statement is the biggest lie ever.



This one needs a caption... I think they were looking for the rock garden on the map... They as in Noah and Eleanor... Luke was contemplating whether he should start that online rocket science course, or just play baseball next weekend.





This one kinda looks like two kids in love running off into big piles of roses to live happily ever after... until one falls down or gets a rose thorn prick and runs back crying for a bandaid. Or until they realize they're cousins.



Was a good weekend trip as usually. Thanks Aunt Nins for Roo's b-day present! We had an awesome time!

Oh, and a little side-note about taking a Food Allergy kid to Hershey Park: Don't know about anyone else's experience, but so far it's been one of the easier places to deal with. For some reason the first time I was going to take her there I thought... "OMG, I can't take her to HERSHEY!?!..." For some reason in my head I just pictured kids running around with peanut butter in their hair and wiping Reese's peanutbutter cup residue all over the rides... and ...etc... But after I dared to go there, I realized that it's no different than any other amusement park that sells candy and has roasted peanut stands. I just made sure I had her meds close at hand... two sets of EPI pens... and clorox wipes to wipe down any ride or seat that I felt needed wiping.
And as far as restaurants and food in general. The Hershey Park website has all the allergens listed by place so I was able to pick out places she could eat before we even went, and if I wasn't sure, I could just go to my phone and double-check online. There was a restaurant we ate at in the hotel that I couldn't find any information about online, so when we got there, I asked the waitress if she had any allergen information and she was very sweet and asked me what her allergies were and said she would go discuss it with the chef. Not five minutes later, the chef himself came out to double-check and ask me what she liked to eat. Long story-short, he made her dinner and brought it out himself and said he used separate cooking pans and utensils and made her a batch of fries with new oil also separate from the rest. I can't say I've ever had any restaurant be so attentive when it came to food allergies. I almost cried I think...

So I give Hershey great marks for that... I should probably write a letter or something...

xo fitts

Keep Happy in a box, that way you'll never lose it.

So one of my favorite people to follow on Youtube is a gal who's channel goes by the name of PAPERSPEAKS.

Her name is Mel and she has a fun sidekick Pat ( a big white gloved pointer ).  She's a super duper nicehead and she does a lot of hand-made journals and cards and really cool stuff.

She recently posted a challenge to create something that would be like an aid when you're creatively blocked, or, as she put it, when you've lost your mojo.

And it happens to all of us no matter what we're into.   We play a crappy game of baseball, we sing bad notes, or sometimes we just wanna sit in the corner and cry.  And it's times like that where even the thing we love doing the most seems like a waste of time.  Though it probably doesn't seem like it... I feel like that quite often. I just wanna pack up my paper and photos in boxes and try to forget that I ever enjoyed scrapbooking. I start to wonder who I'm doing it for...  Will my daughter dread having her entire life documented in volumes when she's older?  I'm pretty sure the dog (s) don't mind.

Well anyhow... what I decided to make for myself was a recipe box just simply filled with photos that I like to look at. Because for me, the photo is what makes me want to scrapbook.  It's not the scrapbooking stuff...  it's taking a photo, printing it out and thinking...  SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE... this photo is so delicious I could eat it!  And what makes it hard is that I take a gazillion photos a week, so just picking out a few to scrapbook is tricky. So for me ( for you for me... )  scrapbooking isn't solving my problem of getting photos out of boxes (or hard drives) and into scralbums, it's just highlighting what's in the boxes. I may actually get some good ol' fashioned photo albums and coordinate them with my scrapbooks.  So I can have the bulk of a photo shoot in a photo album, and then the real important stuff in the scrapbook.

So this was one of those CTMH recipe boxes I've had forever.   I had two.. but Roo decided to make one also.  She filled hers with smurf.  Who doesn't get a little happy from a box of smurf?

So I have different sized photos in here, some I took from Pinterest, some I took from my own photo stash, and I just tabbed the tops so I can pull em' out easy.

So out of all the challenges I've missed, I'm glad I was able to sneak this one in, because I think I actually will pick through this box when I'm feeling blue.  There's plenty more room in it to keep adding stuff so now as I come across something, I can just toss it in there.

Here's a link to what Mel made to help get her Mojo back.  I love it!

And thanks again Mel for the great challenge idea!  Looks like everyone got a very good something out of it!

Pictures of Eleanor - Jackson Park

I think the only way to stop me from taking pictures of Eleanor everywhere she goes is to get a puppy, or have another kid. I don't know if it's because I just like taking pictures... or that she's always a willing and pose-able subject... or it's just a mom thing. I honestly thought I'd get tired of taking her picture by now... but I honestly feel like she gets more beautiful everyday. (That's def. a mom thing...)



So anyway... I usually do a lot of APP editing to my photos. So the previous two photos I ran through one of my fav. photo apps called Phototoaster. I'm sure I've mentioned it before..
But here's one of the photos in the raw below so you can see the diff. I didn't do much, just added one filter called Aquatic. ( my favorite filter I've ever come across in any app!! Who doesn't wanna look like they're in water? Not anyone I know!) So I think this one filter added so much! It pulled her out of all that green background and really made her the feature.



So there are a lot of cool filters in this app... you can mess with it on your own, or they have pre-sets. Very worth the $1.99 for the 5.0 version. I've used the fiddlesticks out of it! I think photo apps are the only ones I pay for. Especially if you scrapbook... and are doing project life or smashing... or any of that... it's the quickest way to edit aside from pluggin' your camera into your computer. And most of ya'll know how to print from your mobile devices so... what's the prob. Spend a dollar and save your memories in a artsy way! Didn't you just spend $1.82 on a bagel this morning? And that's gone already isn't it??? ...thought so.

The following photos are not edited.. but I might still go back and play with em'.  I have to go through the other 70 and see if any are print-worthy.



OH, and lemme just plug another app while I'm at it. Though this series of pictures were not edited, I did throw them into a collage app called DIPTIC. It's basically just that... a collage app, but you can move your frames around which comes in handy. And I think you can add text... (honestly haven't used it that much...) And it's FREE!



I was actually shooting in monochrome for the first half of the park visit... which I normally don't do. I don't know why, but I tend to edit the color mostly after... but I like the way the monochrome ones shot...



And the hair-style she's sporting is called... combed out after being in a bun for two days! I actually trimed it a bit this morning due to many many knots. So it was fluffier than usual.

Well I'm gonna put my cheese and crackers away and call it a night!

xo Fitter