How to R2-D2

This year for Halloween we had a three year old who wanted to be R2-D2, accompanied by a Princess Leia mommy and a Han Solo daddy. Leia and Han seemed easy. Buy, borrow, or steal appropriate clothing and get a fairly popular wig. R2 was going to be more of a challenge because I wanted something more charming than store bought. I searched Google Images and pinned to Pinterest. I came up with a plan:

We spent an afternoon at a craft store trying to find just the right materials: foam, felt, glue, and something to craft the headpiece from. For the headpiece we ended up with a plastic army helmet glued to the inside of a salad bowl, both from a dollar store.

We crafted.

I bought a full Princess Leia costume, complete with hair-buns wig and ended up hating everything about it. So I Freecycled it and started from scratch, changing my concept to Hoth Leia. White yoga pants on sale for $5 and a beautiful white vest and snow boots that I'll wear this winter anyway paired with a long-hair wig that my mom helped braid. Han had to buy a henley shirt and black vest, supplying his own pants and boots. We bought $5 blasters and decided to keep them fake looking by not painting them black.

Star Wars family complete!

This was Muffin's first Halloween in the United States so we had to go the extra mile for her. Although, she's only three so the extra mile didn't have to be too far. We drove to a nearby neighborhood where a friend of ours was having a small party. We trick-or-treated at about five houses then went to our friend's for pizza and "grown-up" treats. Muffin ate too much candy but she didn't have school the next day so we could have a later night than usual and manage her the next day without too much difficulty. (Friday night she slept for twelve hours.)

I'm going to skip over Thanksgiving this year -- dinner is at my aunt's house and Mike most likely won't be home for it anyway -- and jump right into Muffin's First U.S. Christmas.

The Amy Sedaris Ghost Cake

I know I'm a little late, so bookmark or Pinterest this one for next Halloween.

I bought Amy Sedaris's I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence when it first came out several years ago. I love so many of the crafts and recipes but I'd never gotten around to trying any of them. About a year ago, though, Muffin became obsessed with the book, especially the pages with ice cream on them and the pages with ghosts. I looked forward to her being old enough to do the craft projects. When I made her a pair of tissue ghosts, she was ecstatic. My next project was the ghost cake for a Halloween party.

It was really quite simple, since I'd already tested cake mixes and frostings (back for Muffin's birthday party). I followed the photo in the book for the shape of the ghost. I cut out the shape of the head and used those pieces for the arms. I secured the arms with toothpicks and frosting. I used a white cake mix so that crumbs wouldn't be seen through the frosting. For the frosting I made sure to use white butter (no yellow coloring added) and I didn't add any vanilla so it was as white as it could be. For the mouth I cut a chunk of chocolate.

While I was working in the kitchen, I gave Mike and Muffin the task of testing the flaming eyes. I'd been saving egg shells all week so the two best ones could be used on the cake and the others could be used for practice. The instructions in the book call for sugar cubes soaked in lemon extract with an additional teaspoon of lemon extract added to the eggshells. We didn't have lemon extract, so after experimenting with vanilla abstract and whiskey, we determined that whiskey produced a nice, blue, glowing flame that lasted long enough for everyone to ooh and ahh and take some photos. (Don't worry, we didn't use the good whiskey from the stash. If you have any Teacher's Origin, India's finest, this is the best use we've found for it so far.)

Boo!

Muffin loved the ghost cake. I was laughing at myself the whole time I was working on it, the lengths I go to for such silliness.

Book cover image is from Amazon. Book link is an Amazon Affiliate link.

The Smallest One Was Madeline

I started thinking about Halloween costumes months ago. You need to start planning early so you can figure out what you can buy locally and what needs to be ordered from the United States. I can buy a lot of fabrics here but not a lot of other craft supplies. Some ideas were heavy on things that needed to be ordered or purchased whole rather than made. After a while I gave up the idea of a family costume and decided just to concentrate on Muffin, because my October activities calendar was filling up. Eventually I decided I could easily make one really great dress, so I gave Muffin the choice of Olivia or Madeline, two of her favorite characters.

She chose Madeline. I turned to the books for inspiration. I decided on a yellow hat and cape with a blue dress and found a vintage pattern -- 1970's Simplicity 7410 from Lanetz Living -- that was perfect for the cape and dress. I opted for the sleeveless dress because it's 80 degrees outside and it would make my life easier.

I got a little stuck on the hat. I couldn't find a suitable hat locally and I was afraid ordering one would result in a crushed hat. None of the patterns I had in my stash seemed appropriate. I turned to the internet to find hat tutorials. I couldn't find a good hat tutorial, but I did see a lot of Madeline costumes -- all of which looked like the modern cartoon rather than the classic book, which made me a little worried about my cape and my color choices. (And I'm sorry, but grown women wearing Madeline costumes rather than Madeline-inspired outfits is a little sad looking.)

Still full of indecision about the hat and having a little bit of self-doubt about the costume in general, I went fabric shopping for my blue and yellow fabrics. I knew exactly which store I wanted to go to, but my driver suggested an expo instead. Against my gut instinct I agreed to stop in at the expo. And after fifteen minutes I'd assessed the whole place as having many lovely fabrics but nothing that was anywhere near what I was looking for. It felt kind of good to continue on to the shop I'd originally asked my driver to take me to, walk in, and find the exact fabrics I wanted right away. I bought cheap "matching fabric," the material used to make the blouses worn under saris. It comes in all shades of solid colors and it was at least a cotton/poly blend if not 100% cotton (I could live with a  blend for this project.). I brought it home, washed it, realized it was a little too see-through and decided to line the dress, and gave my driver a swatch to take back to the store to buy another meters' worth for the lining. With my blue and yellow fabric and some black ribbon from the grocery store I was ready to sew a Madeline costume.

I made the cape first. Muffin was thrilled with it. As I started working on the dress she became anxious about my progress and started "working" in the sewing room with me so she could monitor how things were going. She has a Madeline doll and I keep some craft supplies especially for keeping Muffin entertained in the sewing room. While I worked on her Madeline dress she worked on clothes for her Madeline doll. It was kind of sweet and it was the first time she did independent projects while allowing me to sew, so it was a nice milestone for us.

With a Halloween party bearing down on us I still had to figure out a hat. I went back to my patterns and decided to use the sunhat from Butterick 3846 with the brim turned up. I made the brim slightly wider to give me a little more to play with. I was prepared to "starch the hell out of it," as I'd read in one of the many hat-making tutorials I'd poured over in the last few weeks, but it actually worked out quite nicely with just some interfacing. The hat and cape were so cute together that I didn't care anymore that it didn't look exactly like the book or exactly like the cartoon. Muffin looked like a little French boarding school girl and the vintage pattern added a bit of style.

Her new black Mary Janes arrived in the mail just in time to finish off the look.

Happy Halloween!

Our crazy week of parties and bake sales is half over and all three of us are fending off colds. We're trying to get lots of sleep and fresh fruit and veggies in between all the candy and fun. 

I hope everyone has a nice, fun, safe holiday!

Motivation Monday: Awesome Edition

Image from Pinterest.

"Is this... is this a weekday?" says The Dude in The Big Lebowski. Between the family illnesses of the last couple weeks, last week's strikes, holidays, and car troubles, and today's holiday, I have absolutely no feeling for what day it is. But Muffin went to school today so it must be a weekday.

I have to run again. I have to finish up my homework this month before I begin two months of school vacation (while Muffin stays in school!). I have to make Muffin's Halloween costume. I have several baking commitments for charity bake sales and seasonal parties. I must be awesome right now. But I must also delegate tasks where I can and not spread myself too thin.

Accomplishing all that stuff means I should probably either be doing homework right now or going to bed early instead of messing around online. I have a plan though. Rest up tonight. Do homework while Muffin is at school tomorrow morning and continue with that every weekday. Go fabric shopping for her costume while she naps tomorrow afternoon with the baby-sitter and do my sewing during subsequent afternoon naps. Start hoarding ingredients for holiday baking whenever I see them in the grocery stores. Stick to my Saturday long runs even if I don't do any other running during the week.

It's not impossible. Just wake up and be awesome. And really, really go running to combat the effects of all the baked good test batches.

Travel Photo Friday: Pumpkin Shopping, Rythu Bazar, Hyderabad, India

We can't go to a pumpkin patch or an apple orchard here, so two weekends ago we went to one of the big produce markets, Rythu Bazar, in search of pumpkins for Halloween.

Photo Friday is hosted by DeliciousBaby.com. 

Halloween with Some Local Legends

We actually had Halloween last weekend, because last night was the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. Two entirely different kinds of dressing up.

For last weekend's party, Mike and I went as two local legends:

If you've been paying attention recently, you can probably guess.

Gustave and Patrice Faye!

I have awesome skills with cardboard and green paint.

Check it out

Gluten-free Halloween candy and more this week at What I Eat.

Yay Democracy!

Even though I was a little homesick, it was thrilling to be here for the presidential election. I had the opportunity to watch the results early on Wednesday morning with some Burundian university students. They were so inspired. I think they think that if they can get to the United States somehow, then their children could be the president someday, too. They also think this democracy thing is pretty cool. One student told me he thinks it’s great that we can vote for someone based on ideas, not from coercion or who will give you a job or which party you belong to. And they like how we get to know a candidate through the media, all the information about both policy ideas and personal lives. Optimists yearn for Burundi elections to be the same way some day. (Unfortunately it doesn’t look like they’ll adopt the American style before the 2010 election here.)

Oh, and here’s a photo of us from Halloween:

Boo!

Happy Halloween! Can you guess which pumpkin is mine and which is Mike's?

These were carved on Thursday. They are now filled with fuzzy green mold for extra scariness.

We just got back from a friend's wedding weekend in L.A. Incriminating photos are here. Most of these pics are from the Halloween party the night before the wedding. More pics to follow as other guests get home, sober up, and start emailing and uploading.

Sunday Sunday

Mike's out mountain biking. I'm sitting around watching these awful Bridezilla shows on the terrible WE channel. (Que Family Guy aside: "Lifetime... TV for idiots.") But at least I am actively sitting. (I'll explain that in a second.)

We decided that our workout routines need to be refreshed and rejuvenated. Yesterday we bought a jump rope, some small dumbells, and one of those big exercise balls. So, my active sitting is sitting on the ball. The balance takes work, so you strengthen your trunk and promote good posture while sitting on it. Mike can do a variety of exercises with it, but I don't have the coordination to do anything but sit on it yet. In the afternoons on slow work days, I can do a bit of strength training and stretching in the house, and I can take quick trips outside to jump rope in a nearby park. I don't have to schedule large blocks of time for running every day (which I don't do as often as I should).

We also decided that for the costume party wedding we're attending next weekend in Los Angeles we are no longer doing Katherine Hepburn and Howard Hughes. It got too hard to work on those costumes and we don't want to spend our last week together fretting about them. The first night is a Come as Your Favorite Movie Star or Character party. We're recycling costume ideas from a couple years ago to be Richie and Margot Tennenbaum. The second night, the actual wedding, is 1930s Hollywood Glamour themed, and we have clothes to wear for that.