A new kitty

Another cat showed up at our place yesterday (as if I needed more!). This one was even black - quite appropriate for Halloween. As a matter of fact, this cat was trick-or-treating, too... just a day early. Isn't she about the cutest cat you've ever seen?

Tonight she has plans to go trick-or-treating with a friend, so to prevent it getting too late on a school night, she went to both her grandparents' places yesterday. Smart move, Miss Kitty!

I offered her some of Josie's kitty treats (Annabelle doesn't like treats, can you imagine?!), but she wasn't too keen on that idea. So Josie got those treats, and I gave her what I'd made as her 'real' Halloween treat (she gets enough candy otherwise, so I don't give sugary treats). Here it is.

Courtney loves tiny things, and I'd come across a tutorial (found here) for making these tiny zippy pouches that I thought she'd find lots of possible uses for. The tutorial calls for laminated fabric, because the pouch is unlined and the seams are unfinished, but I suppose you could get by without it if you fused woven interfacing to your fabric. However, it wouldn't leave a very nice view through the vinyl window, plus you'd have to zigzag or serge the seams. I happened to have some scraps of one of Jess's older fabrics that had been laminated, and it worked out very well. It maybe took me all of a half hour to make it. I have a few more scraps left and might even make a couple for myself to hold sewing notions like empty bobbins or something. Fun!

You can see how small it really is in the pic above where Courtney's holding it. Yep, pretty tiny!

Just to make sure she'd have something to put in it right away last night, I also got her a couple of Shopkins to go with it. They are pictured below in their little backpack cases before Courtney opened them.

The trouble with Shopkins is that you don't know what you're getting in the 2-packs. That's also a good thing in that you don't have to worry about whether you're picking something they already have. As it turned out, Courtney did have both of the ones that came in the pack above. However, she didn't mind, because that gives her two to trade with her friends who have ones she doesn't! Win-win!

Halloween "treats"

I couldn't show you Courtney's Halloween "treat" until after the fact, because I didn't want to take a chance on ruining the surprise. I always give her something besides candy, because she gets PLENTY from trick-or-treating, plus she isn't that much of a sweet eater in the first place. So here's her "treat" for this year:

I've been getting a lot of free American Girl doll clothes patterns from Pixie Faire (former Liberty Jane Patterns), since they give away one every Friday. I have so many good intentions to sew them up, and finally I got something made.

The top was from the free pattern. The leggings were from a pattern I'd gotten somewhere else and used before. The belt was one I'd gotten on a pair of denim capris for myself, and I knew I'd never use it, so I cut it off and punched a new hole, and there it is! I forgot to take a close-up pic of it, but it's navy with tiny dark pink dots.

Then I decided to make a little pouch to "wrap" the doll clothes in. It's another Open Wide Pouch. They're pretty quick and easy... and could easily get addicting. ;)

The brown fabric is a piece that Jess brought back for me from Japan. Here's a closer picture of the cute kitties on it. The ribbon was designed by Jess, and I figured since Courtney now has 2 cats and a dog, the ribbon would work on the kitty fabric.

Yes, I remembered to put one of my lovely labels on it. That was what Courtney said she noticed first about the pouch!

So now I've made two of these. More? Maybe!

Here's my little genie trick-or-treater!

Yeah, she looks a little chubby there. :) It's because of all the layers she had to wear to keep warm. It was COLD out there, although not windy, so that helped a lot. When she came in the door, I thought she had makeup on, because her lips were so red and her cheeks so rosy, but it was all natural coloring due to the cold. She'd been out and about quite a bit before she arrived at our house.

Doesn't that look like makeup, though? And it goes perfectly with her outfit!

Here she is with all her loot!!

She's very generous, and she let me pick a few favorites for myself and Grandpa. Yum!

Happy Halloween!

This gorgeous little witch appeared at our house tonight!

If the doll in her arms looks familiar, you're right... it's this one. That was her no-sugar "treat". But hahaha, you can't see its clothes! Gotta wait..... ;)

Halloween goodies

My little nurse came trick-or-treating last night, of course. She came complete with a real stethoscope and her pockets full of other medical "equipment" (the toy versions). The first thing she did was give me a shot! I guess that was her "trick". ;)

I did have a treat for her, despite the shot. I'd made another nurse apron!

This one was very tiny.

And here it is, modeled!

Here it is again, for comparison.

Courtney loved it. "This is better than candy." Ahhh... the perfect compliment! :)

She got plenty of the candy, too, of course (besides the few pieces of candy corn that I managed to fit into the pockets of the teeny nurse apron).

She proceeded to sort it all out. Then she shared nearly half of it with Grandpa and me! How generous she was! (And how happy Mommy was - heheh!)

The little zipper pouch above is what I'd made to put the little apron in. I finished it about 5 minutes before she arrived. I'd had another idea earlier, but it didn't work like I'd planned. Jess had posted some little Halloween printables on her blog yesterday, so I printed one, intending to put the apron it it. Alas, it was too small. But it was cute, and I gave it to Courtney, too. Here's the "monster kitty".

The head... er... mask, I guess... comes off. The little "box kitty" is only about an inch and a half across or so, and it wasn't nearly tall enough for the apron. Yes, very tiny!

It was a fun evening. How was your Halloween?

Halloween sunset

It couldn't have been a nicer evening for trick-or-treating here in Minnesota... no wind, clear sky, and relatively warm (50-ish). The sunset was quite stunning and unique!

(Click either photo to enlarge.)

Our favorite (well, actually our ONLY... but would still be our favorite even if we had dozens) little trick-or-treater was here, of course. I'll show you photos from her visit tomorrow!

Halloween crafting with Courtney

About a week ago, Jess posted about some free printable Halloween paper dolls. They looked like something Courtney would have a lot of fun with, so we printed some of them on Tuesday. Here's how they looked:

Courtney went right to work and cut them all out. This is what she ended up with:

She decided we should make the bat first. He turned out pretty cute... for a bat!

Next we glued together the dolls. That photo bomb eye looks pretty familiar, doesn't it? I guess it's her "signature" on her craft photos.

Then the costumes were quickly put together. Here are some of them, plus the bat and a black cat. So cute!

Courtney started dressing up the dolls. This must be a princess(?).

A witch:

Even a mummy!

I guess this next one is a pumpkin... a polka-dotted pumpkin! Courtney didn't want to cut too close to the stem, for fear it would tear, so it ended up standing up straight. It's actually supposed to be curled when just the narrow stem is left, but yes, it would definitely tear off easily.

And finally....

(Those are hats, too, in case you wondered. Again, Courtney didn't want to risk tearing them, so she didn't cut too closely.)

Courtney loved all of them! Changing the costumes was lots of fun, but I think she was even more excited that they could all be stacked together, which made them very compact for storage, plus it helped to keep them from getting bent. Yay!

I was going to save this for my post on Halloween, but I thought some of you might have little ones around that would enjoy making these dolls and costumes ahead of time, too. There are also a lot of dress-up outfits that the dolls can wear. They all come from Mr. Printables, where there are all kinds of fun things to print for kids!

It was Strawberry Shortcake!

Look who showed up at our house last night! She already had a pot full of candy.

Smiles were kinda hard to come by at first. She'd had a long day and was sooo tired! Look at those eyes!

Nice pose... smile... blurry picture. Way to go, Grandma.

She'd informed me a couple weeks ago that she really didn't want candy for Halloween. She had enough already from parades, etc. :) So she didn't get any candy from us. I sent her on a little treasure hunt, and this is what she found:

She was very happy with the treasure she found! More details on that (and what's inside) later this week... maybe tomorrow.

Happy Halloween!

Thanks, Uncle Dale! We had fun with these!

Whoa... I'm really running late today! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I spent the morning at the dentist getting fitted for a crown. Yeah, I'm going to be a queen! Ha! Anyway, it was lotsa fun. Okay, not so much. But I was extremely impressed with their state-of-the-art equipment! For real! I didn't know they could make impressions without sticking goop in your mouth. All done by computers... amazing!

Then I no more than got home, and a repairman showed up to fix our water softener which refused to finish regenerating. He no more than left than a stove repairman called to see if he could come out in the next few minutes, so he did that. My oven decided to lock me out, y'see. Lotsa repairs needed around here, including these aging teeth! Ha! But nice to get so many things done up at once! Now we'll await the bills.....

Well, it's getting close to the trick-or-treating hour. I'm expecting one awfully cute little trick-or-treater. Can't wait. I'll show you pics tomorrow.

Meanwhile, enjoy these lovely pics I took last night, and imagine witches and goblins out and about. ;)

(Click photos to enlarge.)

Grandma's little fairy

Yep, Halloween brought a pretty little fairy to Grandma's house.

She liked to twirl around and show off her wings.

Did you notice the cats checking her out? The one on the floor and the one on the desk? The one on the desk was actually the one that held all her treats from trick-or-treating in town. Courtney was very generous in sharing those goodies with us!

She also liked to sit in Grandpa's lap and check out what was in his pocket.

Must've been interesting stuff!

I think they're keeping it a secret.

Or telling each other funny stories!

That little fairy flitted around all evening. Something to do with sugar consumption, perhaps? We had fun... and pizza, too.

Halloween evening was so pretty

We actually have been having a little sunshine lately! I took this pic just before the little elephant arrived. In fact, I was still outside with the camera when she and Mommy and Daddy drove in.

Enjoy the serenity....

(Click either photo to enlarge.)