Halloween

Hello blog! Long time no see!

I've been crafting like crazy, but have not taken the time to photograph things. Most of it has been for work, but eventually I'll get it photographed and on here. I've been quilting a lot lately. The quilting took a back seat, though, while we created our Halloween costumes.

Haven wanted to be Sonic the hedgehog, but that proved a little out of reach. So she decided to be Pikachu and she had her boyfriend, Marius, dress up as Ash, the player from the TV show. We ordered Haven's costume, which is basically giant fleece pajamas. We ordered the hat for "Ash" and Haven made his jacket by taking the sleeves off of a blue hoodie and layering it with a white shirt. It worked perfectly!
 Ethan wanted to be Steve from Minecraft. If you aren't familiar with the game then you probably don't have a young boy living in your house. It's an 8-bit video game that has a crazy following. I can't say I truly understand it's popularity, but whatever. We couldn't walk two feet without someone yelling "STEVE!" all night long!

 I had decided back in the summer that I wanted to be Merida from "Brave." I bought the bow and arrows at the Medieval market months ago. I know the picture doesn't show the elbows, but I got the poofy bits of fabric in there. The cape was a last minute decision, and I'm really glad I made it because it ended up being COLD. Oh, I even wore hair extensions to get the long red curly locks. I couldn't get my hair quite as full as hers... that's computer magic. But the kids knew who I was.

I've been trying something new with scrapbooking. I'm intrigued by the Project Life products we've been selling in our store. They aren't a new concept, but they've really gained in popularity the last couple of years. They are little pockets where you slip in cards or pictures instead of doing a detailed scrapbook page. They come in digital form too. So here are two pages I made using this style.

I kind of like the clean, simple look of it. And it's for sure easier than doing all the fancy layering and all. I haven't done much scrapbooking in the last year, so I guess if this helps me start working with my photos again then it's a good thing.

Minecraft Crafting

Do you have a boy in your life who has gotten sucked into the wonderful world of Minecrafting? I do. It doesn't make me happy. But I suppose it's better than shooting games and blood and gore. If you aren't familiar, you can read about it here. It's quite the "movement."

This school year we have a new rule. No screen time during the school week. Can I tell you how much this has improved our evenings? Well, at least mine. Ethan thinks I'm torturing him, but it has made a huge difference in my stress levels. It's so quiet in the house now! Do you have school age kids? How much electronic entertainment do you allow during the week? 

Even though I think Minecraft is terribly boring, I get that Ethan and all his friends enjoy it. Since a couple of boys have birthdays this week I decided to do some Minecraft crafting of my own. I've been using this Interfacing Piecing method to make blocks with 2 1/2" squares. (I have a few more projects in line to be blogged)

Minecraft Pillow

This is the front and back of the pillow. The front character is called "Creeper" and the back character is called "Enderman." I used five different colors of green, plus black to make creeper. Ethan L.O.V.E.D. it. He didn't really want to give it away as a gift, but I assured him more would be coming. I have plans to make other characters too.