Creed's Polkadot Pad

I'm sort of embarrassed to post about this, but here goes anyway. I love reading this blog called Apartment Therapy and I check their nursery page almost everyday because they always feature cool toys and parenting advice and decorating, etc. Anyway, they are having a competition for nursery colors and you send in 3 pictures of your nursery and they pick 15 finalists to feature on the blog. After readers vote, the top three will be featured again with more photos.

I was experimenting with fairy doors the other day, trying out what a wall with a bunch of them would look like and since I was taking pictures of Creed's room I decided to enter the contest. The thing is, after I turned in my entry I really looked at the pictures, and they were NOT good. The photos were bad, and the doors looked weird on the wall so I took them down and figured I wouldn't be a finalist, but that's was ok and now I have plenty of time to figure out what to put on the wall above Creed's bed (and no one would ever see how bad it was).

Then yesterday Creed's room was featured!!! I was totally surprised and a little embarrassed because it looks pretty shabby. Readers vote and so far, the vote is pretty evenly split between 1. It's inspiring, 2. It's in the running, and 3. Almost, but not quite, which sort of surprises me because I look at the pictures and think, "Almost, but not quite" myself! Anyway, if you have a chance you can head over there and boost my confidence and vote (just scroll down until you see Creed's room). I just wish the rules would have allowed me to change the photos, but oh well!

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

I figure since I am not elligible for prizes at my own party, I can share my witch's hat with you a bit early. Besides, someone out there may need directions!

I'm not an amazing seamstress so here's what I did, but I'm sure there are better ways. I used wool felt. I bought one yard, which was more than I needed, but I always like to have a little extra just in case. I left it folded in half so everything would be two layers thick so it would be stiff enough to stand up. First, I cut out the top of the hat about twelve inches high plus a seam allowance. It was the shape of a piece of pie about 1/3 of the pie. I decided to decorate my hat with polka dots. If you don't sew, you can make this hat just using glue (since it's wool-felt I would use fabritac glue) so you could glue the dots on, but I decided to sew them all on by stitching stars with contrasting black thread. I think they showed up pretty well.

Then fold the straight edges together with right sides together and sew down the straight edge (doesn't just the stiching look fun? You could do a really fun design just with thread).

Then turn the hat right side out

Next using a chalk pencil or fabric ink pen, trace a large circle for the brim of your hat. My circle was about 14 inches across and then I decided to give my brim a scalloped edge so I traced half a cup around the edge of my circle. Then since you want this to be two layers thick, pu thte layers together and sew along the outside of your brim.

Trim the brim close to your stitching then draw a circle in the middle of your hat for the hole for your head. My hole is about 7 1/2 inches across. Then sew over that circle and cut out the inside fairly close to your stitching.

Slide the brim of your hat over the top (from the top down) until the circle of your brim is tight on the top of your hat. Pin the extra edge of the top section of your hat so it's sticking out below the brim and stitch all the way around. Trim the excess.

I decided to add a toole ruffle around my hat and since I know a few of you don't so I'll explain how to do that too. I cut long strips of toole 5 inches across, then I stacked two strips together and folded them in half so they were two and a half inches across. Then I sewed all the way down the strip with the biggest stitches that my sewing machine can make.

Next begin to pull one thread out, which will gather the fabric. You can pull the top or the bottom thread, but se sure to always pull the same thread. If you switch from top to bottom or vice versa, your stiches will lock and you will no longer be able to gather the fabric. Just keep pulling until you have the length that you want, then spread the gathers out evenly.

Last I just wrapped the ruffles around my hat and tacked it down by sewing by hand in a few spots around the hat, and tada! Here's my hat

Just Another Day At The Pumpkin Show

Saturday we headed back to the Circleville Pumpkin Show and arrived just as they were opening before everything became too crowdedOnly this time we brought friends! Jason & Liz

And Stephanie & BrandonWe met up and viewed the giant pumpkins.Then headed to pick up our favorite pumpkin foods like pumpkin doughnuts and pumpkin chili before they ran out, which they often do on Saturday.

They per tradition we had to hunt out some kind of pumpkin food that we've never had before like Pumpkin Buckeyes It was a great day with a beautiful blue sky. We missed the Stringhams and the Sharpes, but we still had a lot of fun!

No trip to the Pumpkin show is complete without sighting scary Pumpkin Man, but he was nowhere to be seen. Don't worry though, we did find this lifesize mural of him!

Speaking of pumpkins . . .

Awhile ago I mentioned that I needed a recipe for pumpkin pancakes and two of my friends sent me the same recipe, so it must be good. Jessica says she got her recipe from Ruth and Nikki says she got her recipe from Martha Stewart so I'm guessing Martha's the original source. Anyway, Larry and I tried it last night, and it was delicious so here it is for the rest of you:

Pumpkin Pancakes

Whisk 1 1/4 cup flour, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. each cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, and a pinch of ground cloves.

Mix 1 egg, 6 Tbsp. pumpkin puree, 2 Tbsp. melted butter, and 1 cup milk, fold into dry ingredients.

Heat a buttered skillet over medium heat; pour in 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook about 3 minutes per side.

Makes 12 pancakes.

Oh, and did I mention we seem to have a new resident at our home . . .

A PUMPKIN FAIRY!!!! We haven't spotted her yet, but she seems to have made herself right at home in one of our pumpkins. I wonder if she's here to stay or just visiting for the season. I'll keep you posted!

Let's All Go To The Pumpkin Show!

Larry and I are planning to head to the Circleville Pumpkin Show on Saturday, as we traditionally do, but since this is the last year we will be attending, I thought about heading down on Wednesday with my friends Reba and Katherine and all of our kids. Sadly my plans were foiled because Reba's kids were sick. However great minds think alike and when Larry got home he said, " If we leave right now, we can still make it to The Pumpkin Show's opening day! This is our last year, we should go at least twice."

This year the biggest pumpkin weighed in at 1524 1/2 lbs, breaking all records. We had a hard time getting Creed to look at the camera because there was so much to see.He was in heaven watching the parade and staring at all the flashing lights.We've never seen any of the parades before and we ended up with a prime parade watching spot right in front of the giant pumpkin display. We got to see the pumpkin Queens.At there was even a spotting of the scary Pumpkin Man, who apparently likes to be formal for the parade and wears tails. Too bad I wasn't fast enough to get a good picture. We'll have to try again on Saturday.We always search for new pumpkin foods that we haven't tried yet. This year we found Pumpkin canoli.And pumpkin corn bread. They were both just ok. Saturday I think we going to hunt for pumpkin buckeyes! Sounds interesting. WE saved most of our favorite pumpkin foods for Saturday, but we could resist a few pumpkin doughnuts from Lyndsey's Bakery. That were hot and delicious! I can't blame Creed for wanting to try it.And while we were at the bakery, Creed got to see the six foot pumpkin pie.I love how the whole town gets into the Pumpkin Show. Even all of the houses are decorated. If you get a chance to visit, you should, but try to avoid Saturday afternoon/evening if you can because it will be super crowded.
Creed can't wait to go back!

Witches brew party

I'm in need of a girls' night so I'm throwing a party for my girlfriends (and of course if you're one of my girlfriends that lives in town, you're invited) so I'm posting about it here for those who are out of town and looking for a fun way to celebrate Halloween.

Instead of a tea party, I'm throwing a witches brew party. Instead of tea we'll be drinking apple cider. There will be good treats and a make-your-own candy apple bar. I've been gathering toppings to roll your carmel apple in like, pecans, crushed oreos, crushed graham crackers, coconut, chocolate chips, reeses pieces, and sprinkles.. Are there any toppings that I should add?

Each guest is required to come in a decorated witches hat. It doesn't have to be a traditional witches hat, but it does have to look like something that a witch might wear. Here are some examples of amazing witches hats available from Department 56.
The good witch Fall witch

Bad witch

Now I need to come up with prizes for the most creative hat, cutest hat, and best overall hat. Any ideas?

Good Mail

I've been meaning to post a picture of this apron my mom mailed to me as a surprise. I was shopping with her when she bought the fabric to make an apron, but I thought it was for her, not for me. She made a cute Halloween one for Marissa too. I felt bad that she gave both of the aprons away, but she made me feel better when I talked to her and she said, "Well, I don't really wear aprons because you know I don;t really cook!" Good point! I guess I better start cooking so I can wear mine!

The Eating Habits of Creed Atticus

This is Creed when you try to feed him banana baby food.

And this is Creed when you try to feed him Chicken & vegetable baby food.
It cracks me up how he's already refusing food that he doesn't like by tucking his chin into his chest and pursing his lips. As soon as you move the spoon away from him, he'll look up, but as soon as it comes towards him, his head is down again.

And this is Creed after his first teether cracker (and this is ONE cracker that he didn't even finish mind you, the spoon he's chewing on was only there to play with)

Birthday crown

Creed's friend Bella turned one last week and we made her a birthday crown, but I'm just getting around to posting pictures. Creed modeled for me. It was just a really quick project using fleece silver thread and felt scraps (or it would have been a quick project if my sewing machine wasn't skipping stiches)

Candice Stringham Photography

Candice just posted another picture on her blog of Creed's photoshoot while we were in Utah so I'm stealing it to post it here because I HEART this picture! A special thanks to Audrey for sending Creed his cute hat!