Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone is having (or already had, in our case!) a fun time with the kiddos celebrating Halloween this year!  And yes, I am back from my hiatus (I know..I've been gone for a while, but I'm hoping the end of my rut is over!)! 

So what were your kids this year for Halloween?  Did you buy their costume(s) or make them yourself?  I went with the homemade version this year, as I know the older Makayla gets probably the less likely it will be that I'll be able to make (or that she will want) a homemade costume.

This year is all about Elsa from Frozen around here.  Makayla was kind of late on jumping on the Frozen bandwagon (we are talking late summer!) but boy when she did, she went all out and is just crazy about all things Frozen nowadays! 

Originally, I had purchased her an Elsa costume online, but then when the order from the company was cancelled, I had to go to a backup plan which was to make it myself!  After seeing the fabrics available at Hobby Lobby and Walmart I knew it would be a relatively easy one to put together.  And it was!

All I used was:

1 long sleeved plain white V-neck shirt from Walmart
1/2 yard of blue sequined fabric (for the top of the dress)
1 yard of blue shiny fabric (for the bottom half)
1 yard of sheer snowflake fabric (for the attached cape)

I use no patterns when I sew.  They confuse me.  Everything I do is basically by eye (or a good tutorial on pinterest, like the pj pants I often make for her).  I just sewed everything to the tshirt basically! There wasn't a rhyme or reason to any of it..just cut, eye ball it, and sew and keep going!  I also made her a pair of glitter shoes to go along with it.  I found some canvas mary janes on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $3 something and used mod podge and very fine blue glitter.  A very cheap project (and fun!). 

And here is our little Elsa this year!

 

I hope you and yours had a fun time trick or treating!

A Quiet October (but not for long!)

So far, October has been a quiet month for us.  You'll hear no complaints from me about that either.

Of course, my best friend is coming in this week for a long awaited visit, so it's been more of anticipation building over the past few weeks!

I have been readying our guest room for her arrival in the past month as you know.  Course, it just became a guest room over that time period!  Not just for her, but also for us.  It's been great to see that room transformed into something so nice.  Instead of being clutter filled!!

It's so much different when you have a real friend.  One you can trust and one who shares your beliefs and the same faith in God.  We have no secrets.  There isn't anything about my friend that I secretly "wonder" about.  She is who she is.  A solid Christian girl, strong in her beliefs, funny, smart, and a load of fun.  I'm so blessed to have a friend like her!!

Picture of when we first met, my wedding day!

So as we plan on spending tons of time together, going shopping, baking, and of course just hanging out and talking up a storm, I probably won't be posting much for a couple weeks.  Not that it will be much different than how my blog has been going lately!  I guess I have been in a bit of a rut when it comes to sitting down and doing a blog post in the past months.  And I do apologize to my readers, but I also know we have all gone through this a time or two!  I have also been contemplating making my blog private, or something.  I have had an uneasiness with posting pictures, especially of Makayla, as of late.  So if any of you could give me advice on how to go private, or another route that you think would be beneficial to someone in my situation, I would love to hear your input!

Here's to a fun couple of weeks!!

Just being her

Makayla was wanting me to snap some pictures of her on my Kindle tonight just for fun.

She was just being Makayla!

Gotta say, I love this age.  She's independent, but still needs mommy.

I "heart" her.

A Busy Bee

That I have been lately!

I've been working on our spare bedroom (aka the 'junk room') for the past week or so now.  I feel like I've been going non-stop between painting, organizing, and going to the store to buy paint, but its been a good kind of busy!  I enjoy staying busy for sure but I am also glad the painting is done for the time being!  It definitely wears a girl out!  Especially when you've been dealing with the sick bug that's run its course through our house lately as well (thankfully I didn't get it..praying I don't!).

So here is a little sneak peak of what I've been busy doing.  Its not finished yet as I still have the 'pretties' to polish off everything.  Curtains, probably new blinds, a lamp, and wall art.  All the fun stuff! But you'll get the bones of it in these pictures, which I think is pretty dramatic!

Before:

And after:

The one before picture I didn't get was what was on the wall where the 2 antique dressers are now.  Damon had a wardrobe closet we had bought (you know..the type Sauder makes..kinda cheap!) that was there and basically, falling apart.  He decided when I was going to paint the room to take it down and take all his clothes out of it.  Which resulted in my house looking like a train wreck!!!  I had his clothes all over the place, including hanging in an unused shower!  Totes everywhere, yeah, it was a mess!  But, now with things getting back to normal and a lot of reorganizing (and purging of old clothes on his end), my house is slowly getting back to normal.  I can't express how much I am in love with this room!!!