Note: This post was originally published on November 4, 2014. All posts prior to this date - along with images from April 2014 to March 2015 - have been lost forever to the Internet black hole.
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Soooo... it looks like I blog once a month these days. I'm going to make a serious effort to change that. Are any of you guys even reading this anymore?
Oh, and before I get distracted and forget, I have to tell you guys about some new stuff in my art shop. (Shameless self-promotion time!) I'm offering cartoon-style watercolour pet portraits - at a wicked "introductory special" discount, btw - and also custom pet sculptures. Christmas is less than 8 weeks away, just sayin'.
Halloween has come and gone, and for the first year in a long time, I didn't get dressed up. I just didn't have the time to plan out a costume for myself, y'know? I made costumes for both J-Bird and Baby Turtle, and it's really hard to find time for costume-making projects with a newborn. I mean, I was still working on J-Bird's costume the night before Halloween... although, if I'm completely honest, that could have had something to do with how long I procrastinated starting on it. See, J-Bird wanted to be Naruto this year and I could not find a kids' Naruto costume anywhere, which meant I had to make it. "No biggie," I thought, "I'll just grab an orange track suit and make the adjustments."
WRONG.
It it impossible to find orange track pants. We managed to locate an orange sweatshirt at a thrift store, but the pants were not happening. So George and I loaded the boys into the car, made a trip to the fabric store, and picked up a couple yards of orange micro-fleece. I was going to sew the pants.
Here's why that was terrifying.
I have never turned my sewing machine on. About ten years ago, I had a machine that used to belong to my great grandmother, and I sewed a few squares together before loaning it to a friend of mine. While she had it, it broke down (probably because it was a jillion years old already), so she brought it back and I stuck it out in the garage. Two years ago, I mentioned to my mom that I wanted to make some curtains but my sewing machine was broken, so she decided to give me hers - apparently, she's not much of a seamstress, either, and wasn't using it. She brought it over and it sat in my bedroom closet until a week before Halloween this year, when I dragged it out and brought it down to the dining room table to make J-Bird's costume.
And then I promptly chickened out, returned it to its case, stuck it on the dining room floor, and started working on Baby Turtle's costume instead (which, obviously, was a baby turtle costume.)
Once Baby Turtle's baby turtle costume was all finished, and I could procrastinate no longer, I pulled the sewing machine back out of the case and got to work. And I was so stressed about it. I kept picturing J-Bird wearing his costume to school only to have my shoddy craftsmanship come apart at the seams and leave him standing in his underwear in front of the whole school, so even though - spoiler alert! - the costume totally ended up working out, and even though I tested the seams over and over again), I made J-Bird wear shorts under his costume. Y'know... just in case.
{pictures of the boys in their handmade costumes were here}
So there you have it - Halloween costume success! Now... what percentage of J-Bird's candy do you think I can claim in the name of "costume-making payment"...?
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