Lady Gaga is IN THE HOUSE!

Unfortunately, lots of sewing = very little blogging.  Lots to come in this next week as I finish up Halloween and a few other projects.

Other costumes are still in the works, but Paige needed hers before the Girl Scout Halloween party - it was early because we had it during our last regular troop meeting of the month.  Here she is in all her Gaga-glory:

Once she decided she wanted to be Lady Gaga for Halloween, we perused pictures of Lady Gaga fashion through the years.  Not wanting to deal with raw meat, go sans pants, or be overwhelmed by Kermit, Paige picked the 'Triangle Dress', but not strapless and a little more coverage down the legs...

I was working without a pattern, but it turned out pretty good.  I bought 2 yards of costume satin for $1.98/yard (50% off) and less than 1/2 yard of the sequin fabric.  Everything else I had on hand.  I made a quick tulle underskirt but it still didn't make it stand up enough, so there is flexible tubing along the side hems (to round the sides) and then angled coat hanger wires that run down the sides of the bodice in a casing and then angle out under the sides of the skirt.  Still not perfect, but good enough.  I reworked the skirt several times trying to get that nice flare without gathers, but it just didn't work out, so I ended up just gathering the circle skirt.  The back of the bodice has grommets down either side that we just laced up with ribbon.

 
She will actually get the most use out of her costume since she wore it at this party, will wear it at another event Saturday night, and then for Trick-or-Treating.

I can't figure out why this picture won't rotate, but here's the food I made for the party.  Deviled Eyeballs and Used Q-Tips (lollipop stick with mini marshmallows on the end, dipped in melted butterscotch chips). 

 

 I'm not quite ready to share the full picture of my costume, but it required just a little bit of sewing and some creative makeup.  Here's my feet at the end of the night: 

The girls all had a great time.  Here's a group shot... we had Athena, a cop, Old Grannies, Pirate, Punk Zombie, Annabeth Chase from Percy Jackson, Evil Queen, Graveyard Bride, and a Hot Dog!  Quite the motley crew.

In other craftiness, I made Paige a pencil case to match her new messenger bag.  I didn't have any more of the fabric from the cargo pants I used for her bag, so I just 'recycled' a pair of Blake's outgrown cargo shorts and accented it with the froggie fabric.  It zips at the top and has buttonholes to fit into her binder at the bottom. 

Blake joined choir this year and had his first performance last week.  We may still need to work on this rythm a little bit (chronically off-beat during clapping sequences) but he did great.  Center, bottom row... blond hair...

And lastly, I have some sad, sad news to report.  It is still unconfirmed, but Lady Gaga herself is believed to be dead after taking a bite from the poisoned apple of Evil Queen Grimhelda.  The apple was meant for Snow White, of course, but in a rare moment of opportunity, the Evil Queen realized Gaga herself would make a much more profoud victim (and Snow White wasn't at this party anyway).  The following picture could be disturbing to some... please use caution. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Paige's Party Update

I'm way late posting this, but since I posted about it weeks ago I figured I'd better follow up.

Paige's 10th Birthday party went really well. We started out at the pool - we had drinks, sandwiches, fruit kabobs, chips & salsa, and cupcakes. All 'decorations' were in lime green and turquoise. The baskets for sandwiches and pails for chips and fruit were from the dollar store, and the drink tub was from Party City.


Here are the yummy cupcakes... chocolate rasberry, chocolate chip cookie dough, and apple cinnamon with honey buttercream. Paige requested the apple cinnamon as I'd made them before but the others were new. I think everyone loved the chocolate chip cookie dough - they were delish!

I don't know why... but this picture just cracks me up. I think it's because A) Blake's mouth is full and B) Erika is eyeing him awfully suspiciously...

The kids all had a lot of fun. While we couldn't reserve the pool for exclusive use, there were only about 6 other people when we arrive and 4 left shortly after. It was a lot of fun!


Paige's highlight of the night.... a Jacob Black T-shirt. We won't tell her I'm just a little bit jealous. Yes... I know he's 16 years younger than me, but he sure is nice to look at....

For the decorations back at the house, I did end up making several of the large tissue pom poms... but not as many as I'd planned. I also had streamers around the den where all the girls were sleeping.


They were up WAY too late, but it was a really nice reconnection for them right before school started. Not sure if you can see them, but as a party favor for the girls who came to the sleepover, I made sleep masks from two layers of soft fleece and leftover blackout fabric in the center (as the fleece was still allowing light through). There are a few of them to the left of this picture, right behind Paige.

And just so you know... this is how you can tell who the first one to fall asleep at a sleeover was...


Thanks for checking out Paige's Party! She really had a lot of fun and it was relatively stress free for me! Love it!

Birthdays

We just had Paige's Birthday a few weeks ago. I was looking back over several years worth of pictures and love the chronicle of time the birthday pictures show. I also love LOVE love making their cakes. I thought about, at one time, selling cakes; but the 'right' way to do it involves having your home kitchen inspected and certified 'commercial' before you can get a license to sell. Way too much trouble... so I just do it for fun.

Some years I really went all out with the cake, matching favors and goody bags, etc. Some years there just wasn't time.

I know we should be looking at Paige, but somehow I'm missing her 3rd and 7th BDay pics and need to find them before I post hers.

So, Blake's 1st Birthday was just family and a small baseball-decorated smash cake for him. No digital pics - maybe I'll scan them in soon. His 2nd Birthday was the first 'big' one with friends. It was a firetruck theme.

Blake's 3rd Birthday was at Chuck E. Cheese's and was all about Spongebob Squarepants.

Blake's 4th Birthday was just a small 'party' at his daycare - but they didn't allow home-baked goods so it had to be a store-bough Dinosaur cake that year.

Blake's 5th Birthday was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - I forgot to get a head-on picture of the cake though.

His 6th Birthday was at Pump-It-Up (bounce houses and obstacle courses) and had a Star Wars theme. The boy loves him some TOYS on his cake :-)

And his 7th Birthday. I'll be honest here - I was 7 months pregnant and really just 'phoned in' this cake. The party was on a Friday night and I'd worked all day and just really didn't have time to decorate it like I wanted to. The party was a 'Night at the Museum' theme as I took him and his friends to see the 2nd movie and then have a sleepover. The cake just has two little toys from the movie and uses one of the lines "Dum Dum - Give me Gum Gum". Blake didn't seem to mind.

It's so neat to see how he's grown and changed over the years. He's a real sweetheart and will still cuddle with me almost anytime I ask. He's got a real sensitive side to him although he can be a real tough guy when his friends are around.