This post is sponsored by Artifact Uprising. Thank you for supporting the brands that help make this blog possible.
A couple weeks ago I asked you to vote on a RED or GREEN floral still life that I was going to add to my Artifact Uprising Holiday Card this year. Green won! I mean, it is my favorite color, but so many of you liked the red as well, so I printed BOTH! They came out really beautiful. Artifact Uprising‘s gorgeous mat ink and paper makes these look like mini oil paintings.
As a small shop owner, I’m always looking for ways to give my customers a unique and memorable experience when they purchase from my shop. It’s hard to be the little guy competing against the big brands. But, even when my customers order online, I want them to be pleasantly surprised when they open their package. That’s why I always include a handwritten thank you note. I make sure to included something pretty on the card so that it’s something my customers will hang onto and hopefully remember to come back and shop again.
Artifact Uprising makes it so easy to create professionally designed cards and prints. There are so many amazing layouts and designs available. I opted for the simplest card that allowed me to fill the entire surface with my florals. But, if you want to pack in a couple cute pictures of your kids or pets, they have so many great options for that as well. Their Holiday cards are fully customizable with 5 foil color options, varying image placements, interchangeable color choices and so many festive designs. You can even customize the envelopes!
I added a couple more images to the back of the cards and wrote a Happy Holidays greeting. I can’t wait to add these to orders from my shop in the weeks to come.
I’ve printed our family holiday cards with Artifact Uprising for a few years now. I also regularly create photo albums and calendars with family pictures. Everything made by Artifact Uprising is the BEST and that why they are my go-to when I want to create premium-quality customizable photo goods with my digital photos. I LOVE that they always print on 100% recycled paper.
Take my advice, there really is nothing Grandparents like more than photo gifts. Just speaking from experience. And if you decide to make some beautiful holiday cards or a gorgeous photo book, be sure to save 15% with my code: JERAN15 (which is good till 12/31/2021).
This post is sponsored by Sherwin Williams. A big thank you to Sherwin Williams for helping provide paint for this project. And a thank you for supporting the brands that help make this blog possible.
Yes, we painted our house. You can see all the angles HERE! Ok, humor me while we look at a couple more befores and afters before we get started whitee all the how-to information and the process of getting this BIG job done.
I still can’t get over how different our house looks.The siding was in desperate need of some care. You can see some peeling and the exposed nails.
Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty of all the supplies you’ll need and how we went about painting our house. I’m going to link products as much as possible and explain in detail the steps. If I miss anything, please leave a question in the comments. Ok, here we go.
I have only 2 pieces of advice for painting. Number 1. PREP PREP PREP and PREP. and Number 2. USE THE BEST PAINT THERE IS. Once you start reading my instructions, you will see that painting a house is really mostly a bunch of prep and then just a little painting. I firmly believe that the quality of your painting is only as good as the prep you do. The more prep you do, the better your results will be. And if you are going to go to all this work, you should definitely use the best paint there is. Weeks and weeks of work, and then you use a cheap, thin paint that can’t stand up to the weather, that doesn’t make sense. That’s why I always use Sherwin Williams product. They are the BEST!
Setting all the nails and filling the holes.Here you can see how much filling and scraping we did before priming.
Method and Order of Operations:
We worked in sections for these steps. Once one side of the house was done, we would remove all the tape and drop clothes and then start from scratch on the next side.
Scrape – the first step is to get the big, flakey chunks off. Depending on the type of peeling or lifting of the paint either a chisel scraper or a wire brush may work.
Power Wash – after scraping, this is a good time to power wash. It will knock down a lot of the dust and probably take off a little more loose paint. Allow the siding to dry completely
Wood Fill – There maybe boards or edges that have more damage then just pealing paint. Wood fill can fill in those gaps and holes. Apply a thin coat and allow it to dry completely.
Sand – now it’s time to take a sander to every inch on the house. It will give any remaining paint a good surface to accept the primer and where the paint is lifting, you can soften those edges. You really just want to sand till paint chips aren’t coming off any longer. And you will be sanding down all the areas that you applied wood fill to. You will want to sand those down till the wood fill is flush with the original board.
Power Wash – AGAIN, if you have created a lot of dust with the sanding it’s good to take a power washer to the siding again. Allow the siding to dry again.
Tape and Cover – while everything is clean and dust free, tape all the panes of glass and any areas that you do not want to be covered with paint.
Set Nails – with all siding, you may notice that nails are lifting and the heads of the nail stick out from the boards. Using a nail set and hammer, hammer the nails so that they sit in the wood siding.
Caulk – this is when you will fill in all the nails that have been set and also fill in any gaps between the siding boards and details on the windows. If there is gap – fill it. Simply apply a small bead of caulk with a caulking gun and then wipe down the caulking with a wet rag to smooth out the caulk and remove any excess caulk.
Prime – we bought the primer in 5 gallon buckets, so we prepped out sprayer and put the hose in it. We primed everything and we primed it well. No thin, sparse coats, we made sure everything had a good, strong layer of primer.
Caulk More – after you have a nice even coat of primer on and it’s dried, you may notice some imperfections or areas that need a little more sanding and filling. Sand and apply caulk to those spots.
Paint – are you tired yet? NOW, you can finally paint your house. We used a satin finish for everything. I really didn’t want a lot of sheen, but I also want too make sure that all the dust in this area wouldn’t immediately stick to the house. Working in sections we painted everything and then before we put away the sprayer, we made sure to go back and do touch ups and get second coats where the paint looked too thin.
Touch Up – there will be places that need a little more attention. I found spots we missed or ever over sprayed where we shouldn’t have. I also discovered that our window sills all got a little dusting of over spray. So, I sanded them down and then brushed on a couple of smooth coats. I knew these surfaces would attract dust, so I wanted them to be well coated with paint for easy clean up.
So much taping and drop clothing. We rented a lift to reach the top of South side of the house.
And last but not least, we (my dad) painted all the foundations around the house Sherwin Williams Studio Clay. I think it really wrapped up the look so nicely. I think a white foundation would have looked off. And the darker grey of studio clay was very grounding and really just made the foundation blend in. I used that same color to paint the outside porches and stairs as well. They had been stained and painted over the years, so a fresh coat really cleaned up the back porch especially.
Here’s what the foundation and porches looked like before we painted it Studio Clay.Isn’t that soooo much better?
I’m sure I’ve missed some details along the way, but I’ve saved all the painting stories from the last 7 weeks to my Instagram Highlights (it’s called Exterior Paint).
We really felt so accomplished during and after this process. It was exhausting but such a good process to go through as a homeowner.
Ok, and are ready to hear how much paint we used? It’s a lot!!! 31 gallons – 11 gallons of primer, 16 gallons of paint and 4 gallons for the foundations and porches. Yikes.
It’s hard to believe that we have lived in this house for more than 4 years now. We’ve slowly made LOTS of improvements, one room at a time. The stairway and banisters were always put on the back burner, because it just felt like a space/room that just wasn’t very important. But, really it’s room we pass through the most. It’s kind of visible from every other room and actually, my “office” space is even in this room. We had stalled long enough, and it was time to tackle this big job. When Sherwin Williams reached out to me about using Urbane Bronze, the 2021 Color of the Year somewhere in our home, I knew it had to be this space!
Above is the plan and below is the finished product!!!
I had originally thought I would paint the banister black, but when I saw Urbane Bronze, I was smitten. It’s a rich charcoal grey, but with a warm, almost green undertone. It felt so much more sophisticated than just black. I love high contrast, and in many rooms of our house, we have the original wood trim paired with white walls. I felt like Urbane Bronze would compliment the warm wood tones throughout our house. I white banister just didn’t seem right in this 100 year old house. I wanted something that felt a little historic and not out of place with our 1918 craftsman.
So, let’s take a look at the BEFORE. There was a lot of work to be done. You can see that the trim was half painted, the banister and stair backs are all a yellowed dingy cream, and the rug was so sad and worn. To give us a little credit, when we moved in there was floor to ceiling yellow striped wallpaper. We scraped and peeled that paper off for weeks and gave it a nice coat of crisp white paint (Alabaster White).
And here’s the BEFORE BEFORE! This is what the house looked like when we bought it, with the dreaded wallpaper that did not come off easily.
I think it’s pretty clear to see that this stairway makeover made a HUGE improvement to our home. Because, it’s a room we actually walk through all day long, it’s made our whole house feel fresh. Before it was a space I hoped guests wouldn’t notice, now (once we make it through this pandemic) I can’t wait for folks to see it.
Now for the how-to and what we used. First, you are going to need to make sure you have a handy, perfectionist type brother that is will to help you. My brother Ash, put in so many hours, I was just his assistant. I don’t have a lot of process images here. But, I am putting together some videos that will be on instagram. But, here’s a pretty extensive list of all the steps and materials we used.
Demo – for this project it was just tearing out that old worn out carpet runner and all the staples that got left behind.
Prep – this is the most important step in any painting job. Ash sanded these banisters for DAYS. We also knew that the runner would cover up the center of each tread, so we eliminated most of the squeakiness but screwing down each step in a few places.
More Prep – a lot of tack cloth and shop vacuuming to get all the dust from sanding under control.
Taping and Tenting – we taped and tented the banister area so that we could use a sprayer to get a polished and professional finish on all the railings. But, we also needed too leave a passageway for the kids to come up and down the stairs and also go to the bathroom at night. We knew that this would probably take 3 coats, so with at least a day between each coat, we had to create a pretty involved tent. I would say the taping along took about a day and a half.
Prime – we used our favorite bonding primer because the paint used previously on the banister was oil based. in order to get a nice even coat on all sides, it took two spray sessions. We use a Graeco sprayer with a fine tip. It’s kind of a pricey machine but, we’ve really gotten our money’s worth out of it since we DIY almost everything.
Dry Time – this was a really important step that we almost messed up. While we do live in sunny California, it was late November and our house can be pretty cold. We figured out that we had to vent the tent at both the top and the bottom of the staircase tent and then add some space heaters. Overnight, the coats of paint dried nicely.
Carpet Pad – we used carpet tape to adhere the runner pad in place before stapling it down. Most of the staples are in the back of each step and just under the nose of each tread.
Runner Installation – we used more carpet tape, a lot of it to hold the run in place. Carpets and rugs can stretch over time, especially on stairs. The tape helps prevent some of that slipping and stretching, it’s the staples that really hold it in place. We started with the very top step and worked our way down. We also stapled the runner in place as well. Because this is a very chunky weave rug, we used a wider staple than just an average carpet staple. We wanted to make sure it would grab the fibers and not just pull all the way through.
The new runner plays soooo well with the new paint.
It feels like a “real” room now. So, I even hung art! The top right piece is a photograph I took in Iceland of a glacier. The top left is a sketch of our first house and the bottom piece is a sketch of a log covered in lichen, I bought it at an estate sale in Kansas City and framed it in a clean, modern white frame.
And when I say it changed our whole house, I mean it. Every room upstairs leads to this staircase and banister as well. The banister completely grounds this space. And this dark color feels like it was always meant to be there.
We left all the stair treads their natural wood color, and I’m so glad we did. I love the layers of colors and textures with banister, treads and runner.
Wouldn’t you agree that my little “office” has a much better view now?
The post is sponsored by Ghirardelli. Thank you for supporting the brands that help make this blog possible.
It’s definitely a weird year and I feel like I have to reinvent traditions with each holiday that comes and goes. But, one thing is for sure, everyone need lots and lots of treats. So, this year instead of hosting our friends and neighbors for our annual open house, we are delivering treats to their front doors to spread a little cheer. Holiday Door Hangers to the rescue!
I enlisted my daughters to help me make these cute Holiday Door Hangers. Olivia especially LOVES a craft and with all the time we are spending at home, we need activities to keep little hands busy. She loved painting these and drilling out the holes all by herself. And then when the paint was dry, we loaded up with the BEST holiday sweet we could think of – Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Squares! It feels like the perfect covid safe way to leave a gift. And after all the chocolate has been enjoyed, this door hanger can be used to tie a little bunch of evergreen or holly to their door.
We decided to keep it really simple and painted the wooden door hangers to match the colors of ribbon we liked. But, you could get really creative and definitely paint polka dots or stripes or add a Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas message.
wooden chipboard door hangers (available at any craft store)
craft paint
paint brushes
velvet or satin ribbon
a few fresh green or florals
gold jingle bells or little ornaments
masking tape
pencil and ruler
drill and 1/4 inch bit
sand paper
Start by marking off where you will drill your holes. Place a piece of masking tape across the door hanger, this will help the wood not to splinter when you drill it. I placed my two holes 1 inch apart and 1 inch down from the bottom of the door handle hole. Using a power drill or just a simple hand crank drill (perfect for kids), drill two holes for threading the ribbon through.
We gave the door hangers a good sanding before painting both sides with craft paint to match the ribbon.
Then, using little clear treat bags, we filled them with the chocolate squares. We fit 10 squares in each bag. Thread the ribbon through the holes and tie it in a bow to hold the little bag of treats in place. And add a sprig of fresh green and something shiny, like jingle bells or a little glass ornament.
Wouldn’t you like to find one of these on your front door?
How are you delivering a little cheer to the friends and family you can’t be with this year?
This post is sponsored by Sherwin-Williams. Thank you for supporting the companies that help make this blog possible. And thank you to Sherwin-Williams for providing the paint for this project.
After weeks of scraping, sanding, priming and painting. I’m so excited to share with you Dylan’s fresh new bedroom. This is such a good example of the power of paint to transform a space. And you can see already that we definitely had some FUN with paint. And I have some new favorite Sherwin-Williams colors that I want to share with you.
Before I share all the AFTERS with you, let’s go back and look at the BEFORES. And, I need to explain, we bought the house with it this way, we just hadn’t had the time or money to tackle it before now. So, for more then 3 years, Dylan has lived with dingy, army green trim and windows ( and not a pretty shade) that was peeling and chipping everywhere. He definitely didn’t complain, but it wasn’t a room I was proud to show off either.
You can see right away that Dylan’s room is HUGE. We bought an inexpensive futon/hide-a-bed sofa when we first moved in to use as an extra guest bed. He even has space for a TV (because I didn’t want video games in our living room). I’m going to be a little bit of a tease and not show you ALL the room quite yet, because while we didn’t replace everything, we did make a couple of really cool upgrades to the space. And I have to say that this was probably the best timing for a room makeover now that Dylan spends most of his days in here. While he can’t be hanging out with his friends or even attending school, at least he has a clean, bright spot to live in while we are sheltering in place.
Ok, now let’s look at that after again. Ahhhhh, it’s like a breathe of fresh air. Above and below you can see the real difference. This is the same window and trim, but with a brand new look.
Now let’s talk paint and PREP. I can’t emphasis enough how important prep is when it comes to painting, especially in a 100 year old house. When I say I’m going to “paint” a room, the actually paint-brush-in-hand time is really is only about 20% of the time, the rest of the time is spent sanding, tack clothing, priming, sanding again, tack clothing again, taping, painting, maybe sanding a bit more, then painting another coat, and then hours of taking down tape and scraping windows.
Prime (if you have an old house, don’t mess around with a cheap primer you may be painting over oil based paint). Sherwin–William’s Extreme Bond Primer will cover EVERYTHING!.
After I have primed, then I go back and look for areas that might need to be filled with caulk or sanded a bit more.
Tack cloth again to remove any dust.
Paint the trim and windows first. I had to do 2 coats on everything.
Finally, paint the walls.
Here’s the paint sheens and colors I used. NUMBER 1 – only buy the BEST – Sherwin-William’s Emerald. I trust Sherwin-Williams products because for more then 150 years, they have been an industry leader in the development of technologically advance paint and coatings. And if you have ever gone into one of their 4,000 neighborhood stores, you know that you are going to get expert help and advice.
For the windows, trim and doors, I used Emerald in a satin sheen in the color Alabaster. If I was painting trim in a kitchen or bathroom, I would probably step of the sheen a notch and use semi-gloss.
For the walls, I love Emerald in a matte sheen. And I used the color Gossamer Veil SW 9165.
Gossamer Veil is my new favorite grey. It’s perfectly soft and even a little warm. I really didn’t want a blue or cool based warm at all. This is actually one of the only rooms in our house that does’t have Alabaster White on the walls. I had a grey and charcoal moment about 10 years ago and stuck with it in our last home. But, when we moved here, I was ready for crisp white walls. Dylan really wanted grey though, so I gave the boy his desire and I’m actually really glad I did. His room has AMAZING windows. And now that they are all white, the soft grey walls really help them stand out.
Now, let’s talk about the Arch Mural. I have know for a good year, that I wanted to do something like this is Dylan’s room. Dyl is 16, but he’s very artistic and I knew he would appreciate it. He has opinions all colors and patterns and really has pretty great taste. We drew up so many different shapes and ideas, but I really wanted a retro 70s 80s vibe for him and you know I have a thing for Arches. We played with lots of color combinations, and finally landed on this one. Every time we added too many colors, it just felt like a rainbow, and we really wanted something kind of masculine. For the longest time, I assumed there would be the color green in this room, but when I found that cute orange lamp last month the whole color scheme shifted.
This really was not that hard to paint. I didn’t even use tape, I just drew the lines on with a pencil and painted in each stripe. I started by making 4 inch wide stripes with a level. I made them all 5 feet tall. Then with a thumb tack, a pencil and a string, I drew half circles to line up with the stripes. It’s definitely NOT perfect but when you step back it looks really pretty great.
I kind of liked the idea of tucking this mural behind the dresser a little bit. I originally thought maybe there should be more to this mural, but once I got it up I decided it really was a bold enough statement as is.
There is lots more to share with this room (it’s a big room). Stay tuned, I’ll be back with more.
The post is sponsored by Ghirardelli. Thank you for supporting the brands that help make this blog possible.
I feel like we need Easter and Spring more than ever this year. A sign of hope and a reason to celebrate is definitely what I need. This is definitely going to be a weird Easter, I don’t know about you, but I want to make sure my kids really have some fun to wake up to Easter morning.
This year I had a lot of fun with my kid’s baskets. I started with their favorite Ghirardelli chocolates and then ran with a monochromatic color scheme for each basket. I took each of their favorite colors and customized the basket and then selected Ghirardelli treats to go with that color. It was really such a fun challenge, and my kids were really excited when they saw their baskets for the first time.
To start, I purchased some chipwood baskets and some fabric dye. And really, dying the baskets took just a couple minutes. I simply filled a large plastic container with hot water and about 1/2 a bottle of fabric dye. Then I immersed the basket in the dye for just a minute to achieve the desired colors. I was pleasantly surprised, because the color actually turned out more vibrant and saturated after the basket had dried completely out in the sun.
Here’s what I used for dye to get the colors I did:
Once the baskets were completely dry, I added a complimentary ribbon around the center of the basket. I’m not a huge bow person, but these basket’s would look adorable with a big bow as well.
And then the fun part began, filling the baskets! I used the bright orange, green and teal bags of Ghirardelli Easter Chocolates to inspire the color of the baskets and all they other treats I added. I started with coordinating paper grass and then layered in Ghirardelli Easter treats and a few little toys and treats for my kids.
My kids are at 3 very different stages of life, so I’ll share some of the gift ideas I put in their baskets. Mostly just some yummy chocolate and then a few items that I know they will use.
THE ORANGE BASKET – Olivia is 8 years old and in 2nd grade:
And then finally I added some fresh flowers to each of the baskets.
These are probably the prettiest Easter baskets my kids have ever gotten. And I’m actually excited to use the baskets for storage and farmer’s market shopping once they’ve enjoyed all the treats.
One of my goals for 2020 was to really invest in my blog again. The last couple of years I have explored ways to take my work more offline and experimented with a lot more local design work and freelance photography. I’m definitely a 42 year old that is still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I TRY a lot of things. And one thing I have really discovered after dipping my toes in a lot of different waters, is that I LOVE blogging. I am almost 9 years into this, and I’m not ready to give up on Oleander + Palm yet. I know folks don’t read blogs as much as they did even 3 years ago, but I’m proud of this little corner of the internet that I’ve put so much time and energy into. So, let’s have some fun again, and I think I want to start a new series.
My goal is to share a floral arrangement every month here. I am NOT a florist and definitely don’t think I am an expert in this field at all. It’s just a medium I want to play with more. So, I thought I would take you along with my little creative experiment. Because, who doesn’t like flowers? Even if I mess it up, how can it not be pretty when you are working with flowers?
In the future, I will shoot a lot more step by step for you.
I’m going to do my best to share the “recipe” for this arrangement I put together. I used my favorite vase which has a floral frog top to it. I love this vase because I can get a full, wide arrangement without using floral oasis (which really is not great for the environment).
It’s February, so all I wanted was to add PINK to our home. I went to my local floral wholesale shop and just shopped for inspiration. The sweet peas where the first thing to catch my eye. We got married in the summer of 1998 in Alberta, Canada. For our table centerpieces at the reception, we gathered sweet peas for neighbors yards. So sweet peas feel nostalgic and familiar to me. Sweet peas are delicate and fragile without being too exotic. They are wild and untamed and that’s really how I like more flowers best. And is there really any better smell on earth than sweet peas in a garden? Once I had the pink sweet peas, I just started adding layers of colors and textures that seemed to work together. I like the idea of breaking rules, so adding a protea felt a little quirky. Poppies and sweet peas feel a lot more country garden than the tropical vibes a protea gives off. So, I went with it.
I started off by foraging boxwood stems from our yard. Most arrangements need a base of green foliage to help them look full and alive. This is the part of an arrangement where I feel like you can save some money. Greenery can often be gathered from shrubs, trees and even weeds. I added 6-8 branches of the boxwood to the vase.
Next I placed the Protea just the the right of the center. This is a very large heavy flower, so I kept it quiet low.
My florist had very long stems on the sweet peas, this not always the case, especially when you grow them yourself. But, I kept these as long as I could and placed all 10 stems and started to create the shape of the arrangement. I like one side to be a little heavier then the other.
The Astilbe is a fantastic filler and this blush adds so much color. I kept most of these stems a little shorter than the sweet peas.
Because poppies can have a fun quirk or twist to their stems, I chose to add these right at the end. I wanted them to stand out and add a little architectural interest. And then at the end, I added a few pink roses from my yard. I don’t even know if they really were necessary, but any excuse to add something that we actually grew is fun.
Here’s the flowers I used:
White Iceland Poppies (10 stems)
Pink Sweet Peas (10 stems)
Boxwood (foraged from my yard)
Protea Ice Pink (1 stem)
Blush Astilbe (10 stems)
Optional – Pink Roses (3 stems)
As the week has progressed, this arrangement has just gotten better with time. A lot of the poppies where still just buds when I assembled it, but they have all opened now. I’ve had this arrangement on my mantel for 6 days now and it’s still very pretty. It is out of any direct sun, so I feel like I’ve prolonged it’s life a little.
So, here’s the question, do we like this as a new series?
Sometimes I just get to make fun stuff. And while my spices are tucked away in a cupboard, I was challenged to come up with a creative storage idea for spices for small spaces or someone just looking for something a little more unique. I love a DIY and especially one that is an IKEA hack as well.
IKEA’s Dollhouse is such sturdy, generous sized piece of furniture and it can be used for so much more than just toys. I love that this spice rack can sit on the counter, or you could mount to on the wall to clear up space a little more space. And with different sized cubbies, olive oil and vinegars can easily be stored in this DIY Spice Rack House.
The full instructions for this DIY Spice Rack House is over on Hunker. And while you are there, check out their latest posts, you are sure to be inspired.
Last year I started the year with a full month of cleaning out, sorting, organizing, and purging different areas of my home. It felt so good to give myself that challenge and stay on task everyday. So, I’m doing it again this year! Everyday, for the month of January I am tackling one area or space in our home.
Mostly, this is happening over on IG stories. I’m sharing in real time, each space as a work through them in my home.
We just finished Week 1, but it really isn’t too late to join in. You don’t have to do all the daily tasks, you can pick and chose – no judgement here. I just want to encourage you and help you find a little more order in your life.
I know for myself, my mental health and stress levels are very closely related to the state of my home. If my house is messy, I’m usually feeling overwhelmed in life. And the less stuff I have to worry about, the better. I really believe a clean and tidy home is where a stylish home begins. And I think a lot of us want to have stylish homes. So before you go shopping, let’s donate a load to your local thrift store and make a little room.
I’ve created a check sheet here for you to print off and keep on track with all the daily tasks. You can done load it HERE.
I’m pretty much just looking for any opportunity to share cute pics of my kids here! And somehow I didn’t post this year’s Halloween costumes, and I always do. So, we are just going to put this here so that next year, when you are looking for some DIY inspo for your kid’s costumes, this blog post will be here and ready!
This was a weird year – ONLY 2 KIDS! With Denali off to college, it was a little strange to not think about including her. If you are new around here, I’ve always dressed my kids in matching or go-together costumes for Halloween. We love a good theme around here.
Here’s a look at some costumes from previous Halloween’s:
This year we decided on a Toy Story theme and figured Olivia would make a pretty cute blonde Jessie. Dylan is 16 and wasn’t sure if he really wanted to match his little sis, understandably. So, Lonnie and I decided to go as Mr. + Mrs. Potato Head with her. And then at the last minute Dylan asked to go as Woody. And I’m so glad he did. He’s a very handsome Woody and Olivia had a very rough week leading up to Halloween.
If you missed it, we had a bit of a bummer month in October. To make a long story short, the week leading up to Halloween Lonnie broke his hand on a field trip and had to have major surgery on it, our kitty Pumpkin died, Olivia broke her arm and then Halloween morning we woke up to Olivia’s bunny, Pepper, dead as well (we know think a raccoon tore into his cage). Anyways, that just the tip of the iceberg, pretty much everything that could go wrong did.
Needless to say, we wanted this Halloween to be a GREAT one for Olivia and Dylan choosing to dress up with her was a big help. She adores he brother, and Dylan is really a great big brother.
So, literally the day before and the day of Halloween I SEWED! And by some miracle we pulled off 4 Toy Story costumes. They were very simple, but I think they worked.
For Olivia’s Jessie costume. I made her shirt and chaps. I used a long sleeve white T for the base and stitched on some yellow fabric and red rope trim. Because of her cast, I had to add the cuffs of the shirt just with safetly pins, but it totally worked. For the chaps, I lined some cow hide print cotton with white felt to make them a little stiffer and then just attached them to some elastic around her waist and also at her knees. The hat we found on amazon for $6 and she wore her own jeans and boots. We wanted to make a red yarn wig, but we just ran out of time and steam, but I think our little blonde Jessie is still pretty darn cute.
For Dylan’s Woody costume, I just made him a super simple vest with the same cow hide cotton and felt that I used on the chaps. He wore his own jeans, one of his Dad’s yellow checked shirts and my hat and red bandana. You really don’t get easier than that with a costume.
And Lonnie and I went as Mr. + Mrs. Potato Head. I ordered two camel colored sweaters from amazon and then cut out all the face parts in felt. Olivia decided we should wear our faces all mixed up because of the crazy week we had just experienced. Because I didn’t want to ruin the sweaters, we just adhered the felt eyes, ears, lips, etc. with duct tape and everything stuck all night.
Anyways, thanks for humoring me with these very late Halloween pics. I hope yours was memorable. Now, do you think I can get one more year out of matching costumes with Dylan?
