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There’s nothing like a completely upcycled Halloween costume to make you feel thrifty.

Combine a box, a black plastic flowerpot, buttons, toilet paper and paper towel tubes, an old cd and some pipe cleaners and we had for a very happy robot.  (I know he doesn’t look real happy on the photo…so you’ll just have to trust me).   

 The initial modeling of the costume had to be done by Alexandra…because, well, she wanted to try it on first.

We used toilet paper tubes cut in half on the top of the body to secure the head in place without having to glue it.   I didn’t want to mess with trying to glue the head to the body, and I wanted Jarod to be able to take the head off without having to remove the whole costume.

An old cd, buttons, and the painted tubes made for the knobs and gadgets.

All in all it looked pretty good, too good in fact, since both the girls want one after Halloween so they can all play robot family.

Some of Makenna’s older skirts were too short.

Luckily the skinny little thing still has the same waist size as she did two years ago.

Being inspired by the simple ruffled skirt I made her for her birthday…

Add ruffle.

‘New’, longer, fancier skirts!

And he has given us this command:

Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:21

I needed Halloween themed cupcakes quickly.

With no decorations in sight, I found a few marshmallows and some leftover black gel icing.

The marshamllows were cut into four slices.  Sliced from the top down the slices start out round but pull together since they’re sticky and form these little ghostly shapes.

Enjoy!

Cold is coming….well, not right now anyway.  It’s 70 something.  But naturally it was here last weekend for the twins birthday party (40 degrees) so we locked the kids in the basement to play.  Well we didn’t really lock them in the basement although it was tempting.   The quiet was nice.

But anyway, with the cold coming Makenna is concerned for the birds so we made them a birdfeeder.

Your standard recycled milk jug birdfeeder, but it looks cute hanging from the sour cherry tree and the birds seem to like it.  

To make your own.

Clean milk jug.   Cut holes in the two sides opposite the handle (see the big cirlces on the photo) for the birds to stick there little heads in.  Then poke two holes to push a stick or dowel rod through for the birdies to sit on while they’re eating(see the two black dots).   Poke a few holes in the bottom for drainage, but don’t make them too big or the birdseed will fall through.  Leave the lid on and poke two holes at the top and string wire or rope through them to hang your feeder.

Bring on the Yankees…

 and back to back World Series Championships!

Have boys and girls with the same birthday party, and you’ll never have a cohesive theme.

This year it was baseball and bunnies.  (and I will admit to influencing the baseball decision since a nice round baseball is an easy shape for making a pinata and a cake….oh, and thank you Phillies for continuing to win in the playoffs or else it would’ve kinda put a damper on the whole baseball theme.)

The baseball cake was baked in a very well greased round ceramic bowl.  The cake you see here was the second try since the first one was was not well oiled enough and refused to come out of the bowl in a round shape.

The bunny cake was made from two round cakes.  One cut in half and set on the cut sides next to each other for the body and the other round cake cut in  quarters and set the same way against the body for the head.  There were a few left over pieces for taste testing.

The pinatas were started a week in advance and you’ll find the directions in our post from last year’s birthday.

Due to time constraints (i.e. mommy was lazy), I refused to make the pinata into a bunny shape and took the easy way out and just had Makenna paint bunnies on it.  Plus the idea of whacking a bunny looking pinata with a baseball bat seemed a little mean and could send two year old Alexandra into therapy.

The baseball was easy, and the perfect pinata since we were hitting them with a baseball bat.

Birthday Party over. 

Halloween costumes up next….Ghosts anyone?  Please.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in Him. 

 Jeremiah 17:7

I will admit, that we probably have enough blocks in the house.   Wood blocks made from scrap wood, wood blocks with letters and numbers, big legos, little legos, duplo blocks, and little plastic blocks that were concrete spacers (or some such construction thing) that my dad got off a job when I was a kid.

But, we didn’t have any really big blocks to build really big things, that were light enough to not harm the two year old (she has her big brother to do that)…

Until now.

For each block take two empty and well cleaned milk/juice cartons and cut off just the tops. 

Insert one into the other to the desired length.

Cover with contact paper, colored duct tape, wrapping paper (then covered with packaging tape for durability) or painters tape.    Our photo shows one of each.  Blue painters tape, tan duct tape and yellow wrapping paper.

Recycle and Have Fun.

Since we were going to be on vacation for the twins 8th birthday I had to get some gifts done quickly before we left (because I couldn’t have possible planned ahead and made things weeks before we left.)

I think this skirt is my absolute favorite thing I’ve made ever. 

II wanted fancy and pink (is there any other color), and Makenna just loves a ruffled skirt she got from Dabaw and Poppi last year.   So using that skirt as a template I went out of my comfort zone and made a skirt with ruffles for the first time. 

 It was really quite easy and didn’t take long.   Although I admit that after sewing each ruffle on I was scared to look at the skirt for fear I somehow did it wrong.

I will be making LOTS more of these, as well as adding a single wide ruffle to some plain skirts that I made her the past two years that are now too short. 

I will get a tutorial up in time for making these for Christmas.  I promise.

Jarod’s homemade gift was a little more mundane.  He’s a boy…so other than a quilt (which I really will make one day), I can’t think of too much that I could make him that would excite me.  

So he needed a rug for his room and I quick knit up one of my favorite easy to make rugs from recycled sheets.   The directions are here. 

This particular rug I made a little more narrow (cast on 21 stitches) and long, because it’s for beside his bed.  Now he wants a matching colored one for in front of his dresser.

And here is a picture of them on their birthday.  And look at that, the magic of photographs makes it look as though they actually like each other.