Bookweek 2022

Well Bookweek is done and dusted for yet another year - meaning Maddie has just one left before she leaves primary school! What the heck - how did that happen? This years costumes by request were Ms. Marvel and Harry Potter.

They weren't too hard thankfully, although Madeline's did take a bit of sewing from Nanna. Thank goodness she was on hand to assist as I don't think it would have been quite as easy for me to modify it from it's original structure.

The entire get up cost around $15 as some of the pieces were used elsewhere as well.

Long sleeve t-shirt, over dress and bangles were all from the opshop at a total of approx $5

Tights from Kmart $7

Ribbons, mask and stones for the bangles from Spotlight all up about $5 

The blue top was a workout hoodie from Lorna Jane, cut and sewed to fit her. A bit of nail polish to edge the mask, spray paint on the bangles... some Converse we already had - done!

Joseph already had a white shirt, we already had a Harry Potter wand and robe, the tie is a Brisbane Lions one from the opshop in QLD, that has been used time and time again as a Gryffindor tie as it is not only burgundy, but has little lions printed all over it. $1 pants from the opshop, $3 shoes from Big W. Easiest costume ever! In all honesty, the hardest bit was finding the pants, which are ladies 3/4 pants with the button moved slightly. Perfect fit!

I love it when the costumes don't cost a fortune and the kids are still happy!

Here's a shot of Maddie's class parade in action... featuring her and Alvin the chipmunk Ella and Maddie's mate Jake, who she spends far too much time on the phone to, for a person that's just a mate. Hmmmm. Rumour has it he only dressed up cause Madeline was too. This should be interesting.

Anddd here is Joseph and his little bestie, Ella's sister Abby, who was Hermoine. Super cute! 

Bookweek 2022, we out!

bookweek 2021

it's bookweek time!!!!! i absolutely loved seeing these two dressed up and ready to go out the door yesterday and i was low key squealing on the inside a little when i saw maddie in her costume that i made myself. 

joseph however is my hero of the day - as when i asked him what he wanted to be, he went and got his iron man costume out of the wardrobe and his helmet out of the toybox and threw it at me. yessss son. no more sewing for mum.

what a cutie! 

he was so happy in his costume and it really showed, he couldn't wait to get to school and show it off

❤

costume looking a little creepy set out the night before

but not as creepy as this. i nearly died laughing when i saw how this shot looked on my camera roll. i snapped it after school when he got out of the car and slumped on my bonnet.

maddie was thrilled beyond words with her costume. she kept saying how much she loved it which made me so happy.

complete with her mermaid crown, left over jewels i bought for dancing concerts years ago (they were too big!) and seahorse earrings from pip and pepper.

and we even chalked her hair in some cute pastel shades for that extra mermaid vibe.

seriously, look how chuffed she is!

i think this mum did okay this year huh? ❤

mermaid costume making

bookweek is on monday and madeline has decided she wants to be a mermaid. inspired by the shell crown my mum made her to wear to her mermaid party last year, that was what she decided it needed to be this year, so she could wear it again. so. this mum got to work.

inspired by this shirt i found online, i bought iridescent iron on vinyl patches from spotlight, traced and cut a pattern from tracing my computer screen and proceeded to cut each individual piece out, one by one. shoot me now, that's never happening again. 

but it worked and oh did it work, so it was totally worth it of course.

see, piece by piece, not fun. 

i ironed each one with a tea towel over the top to prevent it melting, but i think it was just sheer luck it worked out.

the skirt was very much inspired by this skirt my friend made for her daughter years ago for a costume day at their school, i had to search back for ages on her facebook but finally found it and just guessed and kind of winged it to make it the right shape.

which also miraculously worked, so maybe i am finally nailing this barbara junior gig hahaha. i can vouch though, the famous fork pleating video online works an absolute treat - cause that is how i managed to get this fishtail skirt to sit so nicely. 

she is so thrilled and i am chuffed, she can't wait to show it off at bookweek and keeps bragging to everyone that i made her costume. well, yes i did, so i guess i can be a little bit proud of myself too! ❤

 

bookweek 2020

i loooove bookweek. well, i love books. i always have. i spent many of my years with my nose in a book - or really in multiple books. so when i became a mum and the reality of book week came around, i was so excited! until this year when madeline matter of factly informed me that she wanted to be rey from star wars. um what?! that'd not a real book. cue my eye twitching.

but as i have had a third child and started to learn not to care so much about things, i have been more okay with the random unexpected requests of my kids. cue the search for a rey costume, which was incredibly unsuccessful unless i was willing to pay more than $60. yeah nah.

thankfully uncle james came to the rescue with charlottes rey costume from a few years back, (complete with a light saber!) posted express to be here in time. then all i had to do was google rey's ridiculous hair do, which thankfully didn't end up being that hard!

ta-dah!

joseph's costume was so fun! i was amazed that he agreed to it so readily as he can be such a little fuss pot, but when i suggested the tin man from the wizard of oz, he was super keen.

every so often, my sister in law donna passes on things that belonged to her kids, my 5 nieces and nephews. this super cool suit of armour made from flattened out tin cans was one of them. it was actually so impressive, all connected and attached perfectly with snaps and pieces of leather to take it on and off. it was absolutely perfect for tin man, along with some grey clothes and a silver sprayed funnel with elastic through it to wear as a hat. he drew the line at letting us swear his face with grey eyeshadow, but happily carried the terribly misshapen axe that doug and i threw together at the last minute and i spraypainted in the backyard late at night. #mumlife. he looked adorable! he honestly is the cutest little thing sometimes.

the axe, inside to dry in the hopes it would be dry for the morning, made from an old plastic sword, some cardboard and a lot of tape. woo. 

bookweek 2020, done and dusted.

book week

it is no secret that i am a giant book nerd. i looove books, so of course i automatically love bookweek. i am 100% not that mum that gets cranky and complains that it's bookweek and i have to find a costume... i am the mum that's excited to see what we can come up with. i would just like to point out though, that there is nothing that irriates me more than kids dressing up in costumes that aren't a book. no further comment. just know i am judging you if you do this in your home.

maddie has been super keen on harry potter lately so i nearly died of happiness and low key excitement when she told me she wanted to be ginny weasley (cause her hair is red of course!) but then got cranky with me because aunty had borrowed my straightener and ginny has straight hair, so now i can't be ginny and i'll have to be hermione! oh dear. she still looked cute! the tie is an old brisbane lions one of doug (that is burgandy and conveniently has lions on it - gryffindor yo!) one of joseph's church shirts, black skirt, shoes and stockings, a cape borrowed from a friend who has done harry potter before andddd a wand that my friend made for me (which just by the way is amazing and i love it, she did such a beautiful job and it even has a glow in the dark stone at the end!) 

this little monkey wanted to be where's wally, which was also a breeze... big w sell the costumes, but even better, someone on marketplace had one - super cheap! winning! all we had to add was jeans and boots of our own and a walking stick that nanna kindly provided.

it rained for part of the parade and then was so cold that all us mums seriously thought we were dying, but you do these things for love... the kids were happy and so was i. another excellent bookweek done and dusted.

book week 2017

we love book week! it's no secret that i am an absolute book worm, so i get super excited when it's time for the kids to dress up and show off some love for books. i love seeing the costumes all the creative mums come up with, i always do something a lot simpler, but definitely recognisable.

i came up with all kinds of suggestions for joseph, the green sheep from where is the green sheep, the lion from dear zoo... and the phantom from the phantom of the opera (yes! it was originally a book!) but he hated all of those ideas, especially the phantom - when the mask i ordered arrived in the mail he just cried at it. haha. then i stumbled across an idea on instagram, a rapper from the ab to jayz book that he's obsessed with reading. without a second of hesitation, he was in! easy.

all clothes we already owned, including his straight outta kindy shirt, with a chain added from nannas house.

maddie was easy too, i suggested dorothy from the wizard of oz, prepping myself to have to paint a pair of shoes to make them ruby slippers... only to find we had a pair in her "too big box" in the shed. perfect. another case of having everything, including the basket (mine when i was a kid!) and a little "toto" that she got for her birthday from a friend. so so cute!

they were both really chuffed with their outfits and went off happily to their classes for parade. joseph even had the vice principal stop and admire his and tell him what a cool idea it was. yay! i felt like that was a personal win right there, even if i did get the idea from the internet haha.

hooray for bookweek! 

book week 2017 - i'm madeline!

my heart was full to bursting today as madeline went off to school for book week today dressed as none other than madeline herself! it was possibly the cutest thing i have ever seen in my life. 

such an easy costume too, that was the best bit! the dress was actually mine as a little girl (my amazing mum made it!), it has a smocked bodice, but was quite long, so mum cut some off the bottom to tack over the smocking just for the day. it looked great!. 50c hat from the opshop with a bit of black ribbon and another piece of ribbon to make a bow at the neck... done!

how i wish she could stay little forever... i love my madeline! ♥

book week 2016

this adorable little gumnut took part in her first bookweek parade earlier this week. shattering my dreams of dressing my little girl up as madeline from the classic book, this years theme was apparently "australian books" so we went with that and busted out an original snugglepot and cuddlepie costume. (there is always next year and the year after and the year after that to do madeline!) 

the tutu was a gift from some beautiful friends of ours when she was still very small and we were thrilled to see it finally fit as it was perfect for the occasion. add a little green tshirt dress and dads green beanie with cut up serviettes stapled on and yellow shoes and we were ready to go. 

maddie and isabella the koala

and with her kindy squad... these girls are the best ♥