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.

trunk or treat

at the disgust of my children (mostly madeline) i decided that we were not going trick or treating this year and instead decided to go to the madeley ward (other ward that meets in our chapel) trunk or treat. it had been opened to anyone that wanted to attend as they were doing a sausage sizzle and games etc to raise funds for their end of year youth activity.

i'm not anti halloween, i just find it hard to get into it, being that i've grown up in australia (and country australia at that!) but i donned my costume (which took me all of 3 minutes to put together, all opshopped and things i already had - and actually a remake of a fabulous halloween here) helped the kids into theirs and off we went.

out little one armed ninja turtle in an opshopped costume complete with the shell and accessories madeline got a few christmases back...

and rainbow dash... we already owned everything she is wearing, and added little rainbow tattoos to her face and hands

for those of you not familiar with the trunk or treat concept... it's a safe option for kids. it's generally done with a group of people, in our case a church group, who park their cars and decorate the open trunk (we call it a boot in asustralia) so that kids can go from car to car in the carpark and trick or treat. i was particularly keen this year, being that one of my kids is sporting a broken bone. i couldn't even imagine having to chaperone that around the neighbourhood.

there was some pretty amazingly decorated cars, but this was madelines favourite, decorated with her latest obsession, the disney descendants (don't know what that is - have a look at the preview here) she was so thrilled to see someone else loves them too!

joseph and his best friend, aunty dom ♥

madeline and her friends hannah and hayley

and catching up with old friends, here i am with my friend jamie-lee. we had an awesome night and i think i may be trying to talk my kids into trunk or treating every year... i felt so much safer in our gated carpark. hooray for the church community! 

halloween party

 on saturday night our friends lisa and brandon had a halloween party at their house. it was amazing! we decorated the place with spiderwebs, skulls, pumpkins and more - and ate ghost shaped sandwiches, halloween candy, rice krispy treats with candy corn on top and heaps more junk... and then played halloween charades and murder in the dark.

mads was an absolute trooper, stayed awake for nearly the whole thing with just a few quick naps on peoples laps... but did not get cranky at all... i freaking love that kid! what a machine.

but the costumes... the costumes were the best bit. all up between the three of us - our costumes cost a grand total of $5.50

i was mary poppins, which was so much fun to put together - black low heeled shoes and stockings i already had, skirt and nanna shirt i borrowed from chelsea (ahhh chelsea... for all your nanna needs!) bowtie and sash made from red ribbon i may have stolen (ehrm relocated...) from work - so flipping easy - twist twist and a few stitches then safety pinned on! my long red jacket, white cotton gloves, my black umbrella and tapestry bag andddd... my $2 hat from vinnies with a fake flower. easy peasy!

doug was a vintage golfer - old school lace up shoes that were handed on from a mate, knee high black football socks with his $1 tweed pants from gsi, shirt, ugly vintage tie, cardi and suspenders from the wardrobe... my tweed hat and carried around a golf club.

and miss madeline, a pumpkin wore a 50c onesie from vinnies that her daddy so kindly drew a jack o' lantern face on... orange tights, a green headband with a mini bow on top (made by aunty pip!) that looked like a stem and a $2 mini pumpkin mask from coles. she was adorable - and even wore the mask without complaining. :)

some of our friends came up with the most hilarious ideas for costumes too... brandon was an old made complete with cardi and grey hair (courtesy of maddies baby powder) dannii was a pirate wench, lisa a witch, lissette a pregnant nun (hilarious!!), matt and mel were harry and hermione and the winner of the best costume prize - cody. he was the best by far! a terrorist... had made dynamite and taped it to his chest, carried around a detonator, smeared his face with black eyeshadow and had bought big eyebrows and a beard. so so funny. i can't believe the things people come up with!

so freaking good. can't wait for the next one!