Buzz Buzz

Happy Halloween!

(A little late, I know, but it has been a crazy week so far. Hmmmm, I feel like I say that every week!)

I had grand plans of making a ‘spring chicken’ costume for Charlotte (a la this Martha Stewart example) but as is typical around this time of year I ran out of time (and patience). I found this bumblebee costume at the thrift store and was ecstatic… until I saw the size: 12-18 months. womp. womp. Charlotte is almost 3 months but is just now fitting in to her 0-3 month clothing so some alterations were definitely required, but I couldn’t pass up the costume for only $4.99 (plus as an employee of the children’s hospital that runs the thrift store I get an additional discount). I am so proud of myself – this is, to date, the most difficult sewing project I have ever engaged in, but it was SO worth it! In the end I took each side seam in by about 1 inch, the hem up by about 3 inches (and was able to salvage and re-use the elastic to form a stretchy ‘bubble hem type thing’ – official terminology up in here), and I actually detached the hood and RE-ATTACHED it to make it smaller. I know right?! I may put her back in it so I can snap a pic of the back side because there is the cutest little stinger you’ve ever seen. for serious. Here is Charlotte visiting Papa at his work (everyone was excited to meet his new granddaughter).

Chris borrowed my dad’s bee veil (we are SO legit) and was Charlotte’s bee keeper. melt. I had big plans to wear a ‘queen bee’ costume but ran out of time in the end (I painted yellow stripes on a black shirt, ironed the word “queen” on it, and made a tiara to adorn my head). My yellow scarf and bumblebee rain boots stepped up for the win! Maybe next year I’ll get to sport the whole get-up.

Trunk-or-Treat at our church was so much fun. I love that our church meets in the middle of a neighborhood right now – so many trick-or-treaters… so many new people to meet… so many opportunities to step out of my comfort zone (after all, God did not call us to be comfortable). It was a busy day and we barely made it. So ‘buzzy’ (see what I did there?), in fact, that I barely snapped any photos of our bee! So glad one of my dad’s coworkers snapped the one above!

Never can have too many photos. never. I’m just sayin’.

DIY {Princess Tiara}

I remember using this technique for a Miss America halloween costume I made when I was younger.

Supplies:

– Headband (I used a narrow one, but a wide headband would work fine for a giant crown)

– Tinfoil (I used maybe a foot, if that)

– Inspiration photo

 

First,  I went on the interwebs to find my inspiration piece.

This one looked nice and gaudy and seemed simply enough to replicate.

Tear a few 2 inch-ish wide strips of tinfoil and begin wrapping the headband. There really is no technique – just wrap the tinfoil at an angle so you can keep it sort of smooth, but you can’t really mess it up. Be sure to wrap the tinfoil with the shiny side OUT throughout this project – you want your crown to be as blingy as possible!

It took me only one of the long strips to wrap the entire headband. It should look something like this when you’re done:

Once you have your headband wrapped, take the remaining strips of tinfoil and begin twisting them into long strands. Again, there’s really no technique to this, just begin rolling and twisting at an angle to get your pieces nice and long.

 

After I made a few I lined them up by order of size because the design on my inspiration tiara had larger pieces in the middle and they got smaller as they moved out towards the sides. Begin shaping some pieces and attaching them to your headband – tiara base.

I just wrapped the ends of each tinfoil strand around the headband and then wrapped another small piece of tinfoil around the wrapped ends to secure. I might add some glue later and smooth out some of the ‘joints’, but it’s fairly sturdy as it is.

OOOWeeeeee, that’s FANCY!

Then, give yourself some giant poufy hair worthy of a princess and pop on your fab tiara. TADA!!!

Yes I am still in my jammies – don’t hate. I’m jus sayin’.