Goodie Ghosts!

For children, halloween is simple.  You simply get dressed up and go from house to house trick or treating for candy.  But things get much more difficult once you become an adult and even more so once you become a parent.

Do you stay home and hand out candy to kids or escort your own kid around the block so that they can get candy?  Give or get?  ...Can you ever do both?  Well that is what I will attempt to do this year!  I can't be in two places at once... so I decided to make some little helpers!

Some Goodie Ghosts!

While I'm out with Buddy the Dragon collecting treats, these guys will be sitting on our porch ready to hand themselves out to the trick or treaters passing by.  Unlike just leaving a bowl of unsupervised candy out, each ghost contains an equal assortment of candies in a cute, single-serving sized package.  Hopefully these little guys will be large enough that the kids will be content with taking only one each.  And because the candy assortment is a "surprise" it will discourage the "picking and choosing" that leaves you with a bowl of unwanted milk duds and butterscotch dum-dums at the end of the night.

These little guys were also pretty easy to make!  Here's how to make your own Goodie Ghosts:

First, cut some white copy paper in half to make 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" sheets.  Also, cut some tissue paper into 12" squares, roughly.  Feel free to be approximate with the tissue paper and crinkle it thoroughly for best results!

Roll the copy paper sheets into tubes by wrapping them around a large dowel or an empty paper towel tube and use masking tape to secure the seam.

While the paper is still wrapped around your dowel or tube, fold over the top inch of the paper towards the center to close off one end.  Secure the folded end with some more masking tape.

Dilute some white Elmer's glue with water and paint onto the top half of your paper tube.

Now place your paper tube, closed end down, in the center of a square of tissue paper and crumple the tissue paper up around the tube.  Paint the top half of the tissue paper with more diluted glue to help smooth it onto to the paper tube and then let it dry completely.

Once your ghost is dry, draw a face on it with a sharpie marker.

Now for the fun part!  Turn your ghost over and fill it with candy!  Staples work well for closing the bottom end of the tube.

And there you have it!  An army of ghosts ready and waiting to evenly distribute candy to the little monsters!

Trick or Treat!

Shelob's Web

Halloween seems to be a big community event here in our village.  The week before the big night, there is a huge parade of costumed kids marching around the neighborhood led by the high school marching band.  So I thought that I should have a little fun decorating our front porch!

It was a pretty fun little project.  I started by stringing 3 pieces of yarn from hooks in the porch ceiling to the bottom railing.  I made sure they crossed in the middle and then I looped yarn around and around from string to string to create the web.

The finishing touch was a large, intimidating spider!

Arachnophobes, beware!

Making Christmas, Week 2

It's time to update my to-do list!  I managed to make some good progress on things this week and I finished one item on my list!  Can you guess what it is?

The To-Do List:

     [  ]  finish crocheting one scarf--PROGRESS!!
     [X]  finish crocheting one pair of hand warmers--DONE!!
     [  ]  finish one embroidered ornament
     [  ]  finish one harvest-themed wall hanging
     [  ]  finish one paper-pieced pattern
     [  ]  crochet two amigurumi birds
     [  ]  sew four messenger bags
     [  ]  sew two fish pencil cases--PROGRESS!!
     [  ]  sew one stuffed aquatic invertebrate
     [  ]  sew a surprise for Buddy

...and then I accomplished some other things that weren't on my list.  So I'm going to start a list of those things too!  Who doesn't love crossing things off of lists?

Bonus Achievements:

     [X]  sew a small zippered bag
     [X]  decorate the porch for halloween

Posts and more pictures of these are to come!  So stay tuned!

A To Do List...

Our computer is back up and running smoothly... just in time for me to start panicking about all of the projects I have lined up for the end of the year!  And it turns out that I'm not the only one with a monstrously long to-do list...

Welcome to "Making Christmas 2013!"

Thanks to Rebecca of Making Rebecca Lynn and Janine of Rainbow Hare, a whole bunch of us crafty bloggers are counting down the days until December 25th and ticking off our to-do lists as we go!  Kind of like a virtual accountability group... for craft-a-holics.

There are dozens of things that I would "like" to get done before the holidays, but realistically I have very limited crafting time and I need to prioritize.  Some things on my list simply need finishing... and theoretically they shouldn't take very long.  But then I also have quite a number of gifts that I need to start and finish before Christmas. Since the gift items on my to-do list are for family members and people who may happen to read my blog, I'm keeping my descriptions vague and cryptic.

Here is the list:

     [ ]  finish crocheting one scarf
     [ ]  finish crocheting one pair of hand warmers
     [ ]  finish one embroidered ornament
     [ ]  finish one harvest-themed wall hanging
     [ ]  finish one paper-pieced pattern
     [ ]  crochet two amigurumi birds
     [ ]  sew four messenger bags
     [ ]  sew two fish pencil cases
     [ ]  sew one stuffed aquatic invertebrate
     [ ]  sew a surprise for Buddy

Hopefully I can get it all accomplished without pulling too many all-nighters the week before Christmas (which is what usually happens!)  But hey, go check out some of the other blogs that are "Making Christmas" and feel motivated to tackle your own to-do list!