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Halloween ranks right up there with Christmas as one of my favorite crafty holidays. Every year, we break out the scary pumpkins for the top of our house, dig out the CD of halloween sounds, buy some pumpkins and get to work on spooky crafts. Last year we made cheesecloth ghosts, jack-o-lanterns for the front window, construction paper bats for the kid’s bedroom light and the front porch and a Robin (of Batman and Robin) costume for dad. This year, with a 4 year-old around, I can hardly contain my excitement about all of the creepy possibilities!

Thanks to school, we’re already accruing quite a pile of great decorations. Love the kleenex ghosts. We’ll likely make a few more to balance out the house. … I’m thinking maybe a garland of them??

Will has been drawing creepy things like this skull.

Expect more Halloweeny pictures as we get closer to the big night.

We’ve also got a birthday coming up. Although Sylvie wasn’t really a Halloween baby (on purpose), we’re making use of the holiday this year to throw a spooky dinner. I’m sure future years she’ll want a creepy-in-other-ways princess birthday, but until she can voice an opinion, Halloween it shall be. Invites printed on the Gocco printer.

Before:

After:

Dreaded sweater moths had been picnicking in my woolens on a sweater I never wore anyway. Armed with newfound knowledge that I could actually cut felt and it would not unravel, I’ve been turning accidental felts as well as purposed felts (in the case below) into refashioned garments. This one got a good felting and then some child-like applique. The elephant ear moves! I kind of wish the tail did, but I was pressed for time, needing some actual sewing on Mama’s Sewing site… (Sorry about the unadjusted color…)

This one was an accidental felt, a victim of poor communication in our house, that I squirreled away long before we had kids. I pulled it out last week and refashioned it so that I might have something interesting to balance my left-wing pandering. I’m still not quite happy with it… It is too serious for the comedienne who wears it. Maybe some pockets? A family of ducks quacking across the bottom?

There is a wonderful honeycomb smocking tutorial at Tumbling Blocks. I’ve had many unrealized dreams of smocking crib bumpers and purses and shirts with this pattern, but have yet to act on that dream. This tutorial may be all the motivation I need. Enjoy.

Target was a madhouse on Saturday. Wild monsters running up and down the aisles!

The good (for us) news is that I think my anti-superhero campaign has gotten through to Will, and he might not be a super hero for halloween this year. We’re thinking dragon.

and Sylvie, dragon slayer.

I’ve actually got a few sewing pictures to post, but I haven’t uploaded the photos, yet, so here are some bunny slippers:

We didn’t make it to the grande re-opening of the Academy of Sciences, but we did make it this weekend thanks to a rained out soccer game. The living roof is cool in an eco-geeky sort of way. The place is like Disney in that there are lines to do everything, and there is a little too much stimulation for even a well-paced adult. The family’s favorite exhibit was the Penguins.

Their jelly-fish exhibit is not the best I’ve seen, but jellies are unquestionably cool.

“Stand there and hold your sister” (Shot of the living roof)

Hey, Dad, if you build/buy me one of these teeny-tiny cottages for your Hill Country property, we’ll come visit at least once a quarter.

Image thanks to TinyTexasHouses.com.

Homer Simpson tries to vote for Obama

I lean heavily to the left, but I have been researching Sarah Palin, Obama, McCain, and Biden because I don’t want to vote blindly. Women fought so hard to give me this right, I’m going to take it seriously. I feel that we should all be making educated decisions, so I wanted to pass along factcheck.org. Check it out next time you hear the candidates say something unbelievable.