Wednesday, October 31, 2012

A fine All Hallow's Eve...

The wall between the worlds was indeed thin tonight.  
But we managed to fool the fay once again...


A superhero princess and a fierce werewolf*...


No one suspected they were just out for the candy...


Apparently, they fooled everyone:


Though, the "other side" can't be all that brilliant if boots 
constructed of fabric and shiny tape managed to fool them...


Our two weeks of partying between the wee girl's birthday and Halloween 
has come to an end.  Like always, it was a lot of fun but I'm ever so grateful it's over!  




*And, yes...I made both costumes! Though the werewolf is really last year's Ghost Pirate repurposed with fake fur bits.  He had wolf ears, but the hat made them flop down like donkey ears and neither one of us was okay with that. And a tiara is part of my daughter's every day wardrobe.  Because, really, why not?

Sunday, October 21, 2012

How I've been spending my free time...and the evils of Pinterest.

I think it really first began when the wee girl talked us into getting her a Barbie...because then her growing Barbie/Princess family needed a place to live.

Then I came across an ingenius idea on Pinterest (evil, evil time sucking place...but a good kind of evil) where a mom had turned four 3-ring binders into Barbie house rooms and made all of the furniture to go with it.  She was kind enough to include tutorials for the various bits of furniture.  Everything looked simple enough, I decided I could do the same thing.

And then I kept seeing old, discarded dressers, armoires and shelves being repurposed into play kitchens and doll houses.  Since there was a birthday coming up (tomorrow) I was on the lookout for a cheap shelf to use instead of the binder idea.  Also, because I'm apparently a masochist. 

One Saturday morning, about a month ago, I was out for a run.  On the street back behind us I passed an elderly lady bringing items out to the front yard for a yard sale.  I stopped and helped her carry out an old desk shelf.  It was scratched up, dusty, covered in cobwebs and paint stains.  She told me I could have it for $5.  Sold!  I finished my run and drove back around with the Jeep.  


The next day the kiddos went to the Y with their dad and I pulled the shelf out of the shed and had it sanded, primed and stashed back in the shed before they got home.  The remainder of the house had to be completed inside the shed...a dark, smelly, smallish shed.  A lot of afternoons with big brother as a look out.  Though we did get her help when we were priming the new backerboard.  She had no idea she was painting her own birthday present!


Ta daa!  The only furniture I didn't make was the bathroom set.  But I found it on sale for far less than the materials to make it would have cost.  And I bought a couple pieces of foam for the beds, sofa and chair.  Everything else is made from bits and pieces I already had.  I printed out pictures of the items I didn't have room for...the dressers, bookshelves, stove and refrigerator...and glued them to the walls.  The wallpaper downstairs' rugs are scrapbook paper, the bedroom rugs are dollar store placemats. 

I kept track of what I spent.  Total cost for the project was right at $40.  A store bought, solid wood, furnished doll house of this size? $300.  Wee girlie's reaction?  Absolutely priceless:


Happy Day Early Birthday, Kyleigh Gray!