Kathleen's Krazy Krafts: Advent Edition

We always had a manger growing up that we filled with straw all through advent. Every time the child thinks they have done a kind, loving or helpful act they can put a straw in the manger to soften Jesus' bed for Christmas. Making the manger and straw was a very kid friendly craft, but I have to admit that during the process of making this crib one of my kids (who will remain nameless) might have given the other a massive facial bruise with the Rubber cement can.  That, for example, would not constitute a straw worthy action. Baby steps.. Sigh.

You just need an old box, some glue, scissors, construction paper, and a chubby baby Jesus which you can hide until Christmas eve or keep in the manger as an attempt to motivate your children to not wrestle like brawling cowboys on your kitchen floor. You never know what might work.

The Materials:

Good times before the rubber cement smack down.

Baby Jesus waiting and waiting and waiting for some straw.  (Isn't he cute?)

Hope you all have a great Advent.  Looking forward to see some of your ideas for gussy-ing up your home for Christmas!

Little Miss Mary Poppins

I made this one with that string Alissa was talking about....

We are on a serious budget so I was looking for the absolute cheapest (and quickest) way to make this little ditty - I used scraps, felt and solid colored t-shirts because they were cheaper than buying fabric and I could keep some of the already made seams and hems - which made my life a lot easier! All in all I'm happy with how it turned out even though it's definitely not the best made costume - but that was my plan - quick and cheap and UNIQUE!

And here is the little cheekiness herself showing off her duds!
She went for more of a modern Poppins with the cell phone accessory.


I was also inspired my Alissa's homemade decorations from last year and created these silhouettes... representations of our family using altered frame & silhouette designs from the web. The frames are made from stiff black felt and the rest from paper.

Belle and Crazy Old Maurice

When I first started doing Halloween with Evelyn, I envisioned many years of clever, funny costumes held together by shoestring and tenacity. This year, however, Evelyn staged a coup and overthrew me as ultimate decision maker. Apparently, over the last year she has developed opinions and very strong ones at that. So she informed me in no uncertain terms that this Halloween she was to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Belle with the yellow dress. Mind you, Evelyn has never seen this movie, so where she got this brain wave is beyond me.

Dan had to convince me that we should probably let Evelyn make her own decision on this non-moral issue so I gave in. In spite of the fact that I was to be the shoestring and tenacity provider.

Anyway.

I started with an old pair of pants, courtesy of Goodwill, and a modish yellow dress, courtesy of my maternal grandmother. (I only sacrificed this dress because it was not salvageable for adult consumption. Otherwise, I would have worn it about the house for no good reason. Except that it was awesome. The picture does not do it justice.)

So I took in the pants about 5 sizes and converted them into shorts. With the remaining material, I made a vest and Josephine's costume was about done.

Then I just added some tucks in several places and VOILA! A Belle dress. Not hard, but time consuming as can be. I stayed up Friday night finishing it only to find that I had done too good a job and it was now about 3 inches too short. So I took out about 10 tucks and did them over. But luckily, it turned out great and Evelyn was so happy. It might as well have been straight out of the movie for as much as she loved it.

I didn't reckon on Josephine having any opinions but apparently she is chock full of them too. She did not appreciate her vest at all (she kept ripping it off) and she was a little floored by the mustache. But all in all, it was a pretty awesome Halloween. I hope everyone else's was too!