Homemade Ninja Turtle Costume

My son knew right away that he wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for Halloween this year.  So I immediately started to brainstorm how to make that costume.  I was so happy with how last year's piñata costume came out that I knew I wanted to make a homemade costume again.  Here's how it turned out.

Raphael!

And here's a quick breakdown:

And know that garden tools can be TMNT weapons too :)

Hiiii-yaaa!

Linking up with Friday Favs Party at Nap Time Crafters

DIY Advent Calendar

I want to share with you a project my mom worked on last week.  I'm sure a lot of you have seen the Evergreen Tree fabric from Ikea.

There have been several blogs that have done different things with it.

Normally, the fabric is just $6.99/yd (which is awesome already) but we were lucky enough to find it on sale for $3.99/yd.  Crazy!

My mom's idea was to add 24 buttons to various spots on the tree.

This would allow for little ornaments to be hung.

And here is the entire tree "decorated" with felt ornaments.

I think my  mom found all these ornaments at JoAnn Fabrics.

She will be giving this tree as a gift to a friend's grandkids as their Advent calendar.  Cute, huh?

Joining Metamorphosis Mondays with Between Naps on the Porch

Fall Pinterest Challenge: Pinata Costume

I'm joining Sherry and Katie on the Fall Pinterest challenge.

I saw this pinata costume on Pinterest this summer and knew immediately that I had to make it for my son.

And here is what I came up with.

The hat is made out of foam sheets and hot glue.

I just hot glued 4 pieces together as the hat base.

And I added some elastic string as the chin strap.

The outside is covered in rows of felt that I later cut into fringe.

Same thing with the ears: foam sheets that were rolled into cone shapes.

Hot glue those to the base of the hat.  (If I had to do it over, I'd make the ears smaller.  Theses are too big and make the hat top-heavy.)

I found a large footy pajama set at Goodwill (only $2!!) and used that as my costume base.  I bought it 2 sizes bigger to accommodate for layered clothing underneath.

I sewed rows of felt to the entire outfit and tried to work around the zipper.  I hot glued the rows of felt to the sleeves since they were too small to fit into the sewing machine.

And here's the finished product!

iPhone photos from Friday night trick-or-treating

Dining Room Transformation

My husband and I finally finished up the dining room windows. We took down the original blinds, that can be seen in the photo below.

Here are the windows after a few coats of paint.

So much brighter and cleaner already :)

And here's the final look:

My mom made these curtains from my FAVORITE fabric at Calico Corners.

We hung a thin silver curtain rod from Target and added some bamboo shades from Home Depot.

And the windows now have a soft, warm look. I love love LOVE it!

Sewing- Baby Burp Cloths

My co-worker just left for maternity leave but before her last day we threw her a baby shower. I decided to try a sewing project I saw on Prudent Baby- terry cloth burp cloths.

I found some fabric in coordinating colors and then bought a cheap towel at Target. I cut my fabric pieces to 8" x 18". After ironing fabric, pin wrong sides together.

Sew around the edges and leave a gap to turn fabric right side out. Then sew around edges, closing up the gap.

And now you're done! Check out the colorful fabric and the terry cloth underneath.

I rolled them up and tied a ribbon around them.

So cute and so easy!

Linking up with Metamorphosis Monday on Between Naps on the Porch.