It's been a while . . .

Hello anyone who might occasionally still check this blog! I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. What can I say, life is hectic sometimes, and I'm haven't been carving out time to contribute to this blog. Now it's 4:00 in the morning and I can't get back to sleep. I'm thinking of starting a blog of my own, if I can get excited enough about it to post regularly and not neglect it. I like the idea of this one, Shellee, but only a few of the family are participating, and I think I want one for my friends to read just by me. I'll let you know if I decide to go for it.

So who's ready for Halloween? What are you and/or your kids dressing up as? My husband and I rarely dress up, only if invited to a costume party or something. A few years ago we were doctors in scrubs and stethoscopes (sp?), and several years before that we dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf (hope it's obvious which one of us was which!). This year I'm not planning on anything for me, but the kids are really excited. I've been putting off costume prep for weeks, since they started bugging me about it in August! But we finally got started yesterday.

Kelsey will be a cave girl and has sculpted fake bones from tin foil and masking tape, and we bought some fake fur at a decent sale price for a cute tunic and belt thing. (see familyfun.com for a picture). Emily found a large square of red fabric in my stash and came up with little red riding hood on her own. I (ingeniously without a pattern, I must say!) created from a square of fabric, a cute hood without a cut to the square (created shape by sewing on a casing and gathering with elastic). Add ties and hem the whole thing, and it's a hood. I also sewed a simple skirt (also without a pattern) and napkin for her basket of goodies out of a cute red gingham fabric. Jacob will be a fireman for under $7. I got a fireman jacket on sale from Discovery Toys for $4, and a hat and set of accessories at the dollar store for $1 each. Brooke either wants to be a kitty cat like last year, or a butterfly. Either way, I don't need to buy/make anything new!

As a side note, all that sewing yesterday reminded me how much I enjoy it! I got my new sewing maching for my birthday last April, but I haven't had time to do anything with it since a couple of how to classes in May. I love it!!! All the cute decorative stitches, a machine that hums along without suddenly loosing its tension or skipping stitches! My parents gave me my first machine for my 15th birthday, and it lasted for 18 years and served me well. But the new one works so much better and has so many great features. I just may get busy and machine quilt the quilt top I finished right before my last baby was born in 2006!