ruby's dragon costume + happy halloween

Happy Halloween! I was scrambling to put together Ruby's costume earlier today, but I think it turned out pretty swell.  She's not too happy with it, but at least she cooperated long enough for me to snap a couple pics. It's surprisingly difficult to take selfies with a DSLR in one hand and a squirming cat in the other.

I used this tutorial as a starting-off point for her dragon costume,  but used an old t-shirt instead of felt, got rid of the head and stuffed tail, added some wings out of foam, and hand sewed the felt spikes because I ran out of hot glue. I also didn't bother measuring any part of Ruby's body, and just held the fabric up and estimated. Worked well enough.

Isn't she the cutest?

Hope you have a wonderful, safe, candy-filled night!

chocolate marshmallows

Marshmallows are surprisingly simple to make, as long as you have a stand- or hand-mixer and a candy thermometer. And the results are a definite crowd-pleaser. One batch makes up a ton, but at the rate they'll get eaten, you'll be glad you made so many in the first place.

neighborly notes

They're finally done and ready to be slipped in to mailboxes. Hooray!

maintenance day

The website is going through a teensy little facelift, as I dust off my coding skills and try really really hard to translate my vision into reality. So it might be a little laggy for a little bit, but any wrinkles should be ironed out by the end of the week.

Also, the recent influx of posts are because I'm doing #91 of my 101 in 1001 list, which is to blog daily for a month. It's definitely been a challenge trying to come up with posts while keeping some sort of quality control, and while I've definitely learned a lot about how I blog, I can't wait until I can go back to my regular (irregular?) posting schedule. Today's day 12 of 31.

Happy Halloween Week! Thank goodness the weather's supposed to be nice on Thursday. I can't wait.

paper bag princess crown

I can't believe I forgot the most important part of any princess outfit - the crown! Thank goodness it was an easy problem to fix.

I tried to keep my crown pretty close to the original. Using kraft paper once again, I traced out the design, which was essentially a long band for the base, and long squiggly lines topped with circles for the spokes. I was too lazy to line this part with packing tape like I did with the dress, but I think it will hold up just fine. I cut it out, crumpled it up a bit, and punched two holes for bobby pins.

I've seen people spray paint their crowns gold, which is a splendid idea, but unfortunately I have no gold paint =[. But it looks fantastic nonetheless. Halloween here we come!

P.S. Apple picking today was a bust, because apparently the crop was unusually light this year. Boo.
P.P.S. I edited this photo with PicMonkey, which was the first time I tried it. For some reason my computer was a tad slow, but it was really easy to use, and had a lot of features (although some are only available to paying members). I think I'll be using this until I develop my own PSDs to use with Photoshop.

diy paper bag princess costume

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch is definitely one of my favorite children's books. I mean, a princess story with a feminist twist - what's not to love? If you've never read the story, it's about Princess Elizabeth who loses everything she owns to the fiery breath of a dragon, who also steals her fiancé. Dressed in a paper bag, she follows the path of destruction towards the dragon's castle to rescue her prince. She outsmarts the dragon (without violence! another plus), and releases Prince Ronald. Ungrateful Ronald is unhappy that Elizabeth doesn't look like a real princess, so Elizabeth calls him a bum and dumps him. The end.

It really is such a great story, and a wonderful change to all the traditional princess stories. It'll be so hard not to preach my feminist ideals to the little kids coming by =P
Plus, the costume wasn't too difficult to make, and I had all the supplies on had already. The plan is to sew together 2 sheets of kraft paper, and then cut a slit down the back to make it easier to put on and take off.
This is how I put it together (although fair warning, I am pretty inept at making my own sewing patterns).

link love + happy friday

When I'm Able to Find You - Me & Mr. Cassidy

I mentioned Oh, Hello Friend's 5th anniversary party last week, and Me & Mr. Cassidy was there to provide live entertainment. They were absolutely fantastic. Their cover of Drops of Jupiter/I Try is also pretty special (song starts at 1:02). You should definitely check them out! You can watch their videos here, or sample some tunes on their website.

We're going apple picking this weekend in Oak Glen. We'll see how it compares to apple picking out East =P

Have a lovely weekend!

Articles:
- ff you're not a politics sort of person, but still want to know happened with the government shutdown, the NY Times provides a great summary
- a fascinating article on alcohol as an escape from perfectionism for women
- it's interesting to see what older people think about younger people, in this case about spending, or the lack thereof
- scientists are finally figuring out why people need sleep
- this really resonated with me for some reason. experience matters.

Food:
- I've never had a cronut, but this apple pecan pie version looks pretty tasty

Cool Finds:
- want: a disco ball pizza oven
- not sure if this qualifies as "cool", but a photographer takes portraits of the men who catcall her on the street in Philadelphia
- cats napping in cute places. now say it with me, "awwwwww"
- Kelly Clarkson covers songs and absolutely kills it. (my fave is "I Will Wait." That's a lie. I can't choose. "Lose Yourself" is def pretty epic though.)
- coffitivity gives you coffee shop background noise without the distraction to boost productivity. win-win.
- this portland library turned home is absolutely swoon-worthy