The Holidays Are Coming

Busy week again. Damn! I guess this kind of schedule will roll out to the Christmas season eh?

Just last Monday, while on a leave to renew my driver’s license among other errands, I went shopping for the kids’ halloween costumes just to realize I need to actually make one for the little boy. He wants to be an octopus and I can’t find a ready made outfit online and in the malls so I bought materials from the fabric stores. The little girl will be a witch and that’s a cinch to put together.

Here are our pegs for this year’s Halloween costumes:

witch costume photo credit 

octopus photo credit

Then comes Christmas (is it really just 68 days before we officially say ho-ho-ho?) and I’m just starting to make our long list of inaanaks, family and friends for the gift giving. With the busy schedules, I think we will once again rely greatly on online shopping and bazaars for that one-stop convenient shopping.

One thing I likey about online shopping is that I don’t have to go through horrendous traffic and parking problem. I found to have a lot of nice pieces for moi (hehe), husby, my sister, brothers and friends in one online shop Zalora.

On a personal note, I’m a dress person and I more often wear dresses either to work or even on personal errands and I’m excited to see some lovely silhouettes in the site.  

The weather report says after the scattered rainshowers we experience now, we are looking towards cool climate. The joyous holiday season is just around the corner so better spruce up on Christmas shopping to avoid the rush J

Halloween 2012: Costumes and Candies Galore!

I've never seen so many Spidermen in my life until October 26th. I'm talking about the Halloween costume party in my kids' school with countless Batman, Spidey and princesses came to strut their special outfits. 

Just look at the throng of kiddos in princes/princesses, superhero and modern day cartoon costumes - the three categories of the costume contest. 

 As I shared in my previous post, the little girl came as Ariel under the princes, princesses/fairies category. That's her with the red hair and blue mermaid outfit.

And my little prince went as Spider-Man (but refused to wear his mask, itchy daw). I suspect that Sam's fascination with Spider-Man was hubby's fault. I try as much as I can to limit their TV viewing to Disney channel and educational shows. Then hubby came home one night with a Spider-Man comic book for the little boy. Naghahanap na karamay sa comic book addiction niya...

Back to the party, even the teachers came dressed in fun characters like Jasmine, Pocahontas, the jester, Alice in Wonderland, etc. 

Sophie with her K1 teacher who came as Pocahontas

And yeah, I was one of the judges that day and being so disallowed me to vote for my kids. Bummer right? So it was to my utter surprise when my little girl won the top two best costume in princess category. Yay! All that sewing and beading paid off somehow.
After the party the original plan was to go house to house for the trick or treat but due to the bad weather, the school came up with plan B, trick or treat in the classrooms. Parents just brought the bags of candies in school. Kids were ecstatic with their pumpkin baskets overflowing with candies and other goodies from the trick or treat. 

The following night, it's another trick or treat in our subdivision and both kids went house to house with their cousins and friends. That means MORE CANDIES and sugar rush problems. lol!

How was your Halloween fun? :)

Halloween 2012: Making Old Things New

It’s almost Halloween and if you go to the mall, it's all about pumpkins, monster (and really ugly!) rubber/plastic masks and tons of costumes for the kids. 

Speaking of costumes, the yearly trick or treat celebration in school will not be missed and kids are excited to come in their chosen character for Friday school activity. Good thing it's a holiday so I don't have to take a leave from work.

This year, Sophie wants to come as Ariel so I’m refurbishing a never-been-used but outgrown mermaid costume her uncle brought from London. It’s sooo cute but somehow just looks a tad short for her. My remedy: add length by cutting off the shoulders and sewing in about 3 inches of ribbons to make straps.

I wanted to use these sequins to decorate the straps but I ran out of supply.

Since I don't have time to go to Divisoria to restock, I went to the mall and found these bubble beads. I always go to Notions in SM North Edsa for my sewing supplies when I couldn't go to Ilaya or Tabora in Divisoria. 

I found the shell design a little too simple so I added those bubble beads and sequins as well

The end result. 

 For the fish tail, I don't have time anymore to sew them myself so I just took them to our mananahi neighbor. I bought a lime green satin fabric and blue frosted chiffon for shimmer and requested the dressmaker to copy the existing fishtail bt make it longer. Can't wait to see the finish product. 

My little boy Sam, on the other hand, is determined to come as Spiderman. I bought him the costume last year but he was still in Thomas and Friends addiction that time so I also made him this train box. This Thomas train is so special to us because we handpainted everything and I never thought I’d get his face right but I actually did.

I’m still thinking on how to make the little guy's Spidey outfit a little more special. I have several ideas in my head already but I have to check if resources are available.