Sun rises and brings with it
A riot of colors. Joy.
Rainbow Sunrise Haiku
Sun rises and brings with it
A riot of colors. Joy.
Arts & Crafts
Sun rises and brings with it
A riot of colors. Joy.
Making Halloween Bags
Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. To me, it’s all about the children and just having fun in costume, being anything that you ever wanted to be. It’s the one night where we give “license” to kids and adults alike such that we can play a different role – be scared, and scare others for a laugh. It’s a night where it’s okay to “not be happy” all the time, and where it is encouraged to go up and talk to strangers and say “trick or treat”.
For me, I tend to go a bit “overboard” according to my neighbors. You see, rather than just opening the door and giving out candy, I dress up, plan weeks in advance, buy bulk candy, toys, pencils, erasers, and mini activity books and then buy a bunch of white paper “goodie” bags to give out to the little ghosts and ghouls. I find that the “goodie bag” concept lets me do a few important things:
a) Keep track of how many trick or treaters I’ve had (I know how many bags I made… and how much they cost).
b) Figure out what the cost is and how much I may need for the next year
c) Each bag is hand decorated – but also has my info on them. Parents have mentioned that they like this because it’s memorable and they feel more comfortable if their children want to have some candy while they’re out trick or treating.
d) The children are delighted because it’s a “surprise” in the package. Also, because it’s not just candy – it’s pencils, erasers, and so on, they have something they can take to school or enjoy far beyond the 2 minutes candy might take them to eat.
Most years, I opt for goodies Oriental Trading Company as they have great bulk options for candy, bulk pencils, halloween themed erasers and so on. I try to figure about 0.30- 0.50 per bag, and most years actually end up just under this because the bulk items really are cheaper.
This year, as I’m in Ireland, I bought the candy at the local 1 euro store, and got the goodies off of both eBay and two Irish party stores. The paper goodie bags are bought 50 to a pack for about 2 euros. This year, I bought 2 packages of 100, and then spent 2 evenings after dinner (about 4 hours total) decorating them with my permanent markers.
This could be done by yourself or your children to get them into the spirit. Some ideas that were quick and simple to whip up:
Written words:
Happy Halloween
Boo
Trick or Treat
Spooky
Scary
Frightened Yet
“scaredy cats”
Candy,Candy,Candy
Pirate’s Loot
Magic
Some drawing ideas:
Ghost
Cemetery
Black Cats
Bats
Wolf howling
Moon
Witches Hat
Wizard’s Hat
Witches Calderon
Broom
Pumpkins
Jack o Lanterns
Candy Bag
Voodoo Doll
Frankenstein’s Monster
Mad Scientist
Bride of Frankenstein
Pirate
Skull & Cross Bones
Treasure Chest
Zombies
I ended up with about 2 designs of each, and some were better than others. The key here is that the kids don’t expect them to be perfect but if they can get the “idea” they’re happy. If you’re not drawing inclined, I’m sure there are templates online, and also you can see what I’ve done example wise from the pictures. Once all the bags are completed, have a “fill” party. I put in 2 pieces of candy, a pencil, an eraser and one of either sticker, fake tattoo, halloween game or halloween puzzle book. I then fold down the top of the bags and stand them up in a box near the door. This makes for easy handing out to trick or treaters when the time comes.
Tea Towel Aprons
Not so long ago, I took a class for sewing. I did enjoy the class, and after checking a few of the local advertising websites, I found someone who no longer needed their machine and I bought one for 50 Euros. Since then, I have been working hard to make “friends” with it.
I’ve hemmed up a couple pairs of trousers, and then I started looking online for some simple ideas for beginning users of sewing machines. One of these was to make tea towel aprons. The great thing about the idea is that I already had a few adorable “corn” themed tea towels (a set of 3) which I had gotten from Ikea earlier and had been saving as my “good” towels. Well, I thought, I hadn’t used them because I adored the fabric pattern – and I didn’t want to get them dirty or stained. This was the perfect chance to convert them into something that I would actually use, practice my sewing, and which would also end up in the corner of my kitchen – instead of hidden in the drawer.
For this project, you need 3 tea towels to make 2 aprons, some binding or ribbon for straps (I used 1 meter & 1/2 per apron or 3 meters total). (Since doing this, I have discovered there is an easier way – but this is how I made mine).
Step 1: Ironing the aprons. I had to iron the aprons to get them nice and neat. Once ironed, I folded them in half (short end to short end) and ironed a crease in the middle.
Step 2: Choose two aprons for the bottom “skirt”, and one that will be cut in half for the top. You’re going to make these into a “T shape, where the long part of the T intersects the short “half” of the other piece.
Step 3: Cut the tea towel in half. Hem cut end.
Step 4: Pin the 1/2 tea towel now hemmed to the full towel in the middle to form a T type shape. This will form the basic shape of the apron.
Step 5: Sew together
Step 6: Now that you have the “T” shape you have the basic apron. Cut 3 – 1/2 meter lengths of the binding or ribbon. Attach one piece to either of the ends of the apron skirt to tie around your waist.
Step 7: Cut the remaining 1/2 meter ribbon or binding in half (1/4 meter) and sew onto the corners of the top of the apron to tie around your neck. (You could also measure and make it a loop if you didn’t want to “tie” it together)
Step 8: Press.
Step 9: repeat with the other full towel / remaining piece of apron.
Step 10: model your creations!
Notes: Notice that I did the necklines two different ways. This is because the one apron had the “drawer” hang on it. I thought that rather than sewing the ribbon on, it might be easier to use that and loop the ribbon through. The second one, I decided that I prefer it – because of how the ribbon was sewn into the corners of the top. It just felt more secure. I may eventually go back and re-do the one (and not bother with the hang loop) but we’ll see.
I think I’m going to be making a few of these as Christmas Gifts, as part of my homemade holiday goals.