Juicy Bits

167: a good witch and a fast driver

Happy Halloween!

 

I hope you're all having a fun day.  I love Halloween.  I don't often get to dress up anymore but I miss it.  Maybe next year I'll have a party?  I did actually dress up for Aurora's school party this year, but nothing too elaborate.  I didn't take pictures.  Maybe I'll snap a few soon.

But, of course, I get to channel my costuming energies into the kids.  I'll be so sad when (if?) they don't want homemade anymore.  Did you know that Aurora's monster costume is kinda famous?  Aside from the inquiries I get, my sister saw someone that doesn't know her printed the picture out as part of their decoration at Burning Man.  It's so bizarre to think something spreads around like that.

This year Aurora wanted to be Glinda.  It's much more poofy pinkness than I would have chosen, but I have to admit she looked beautiful.  

 

She helped with the design.  She wanted nothing to do with the tall crown from the movie.  And she really like the bow on a lace-up corset.  And it must be short-sleeved for the party, but have a jacket for trick-or-treating.

 

I used 2 patterns to refer to.  The top is from Simplicity 3680.  The little jacket is based on the dress pattern McCalls 5954.  The corset I just made my own muslin for and the skirt is made up.

Even though nearly everyone called her a princess, she is very appreciative and I love sewing for her.

This year, for the first time she did a little trick-or-treating with some other kids in the neighborhood.  The image of her running along holding up her skirt with a huge smile on her face is one I'll treasure forever.  I wish I had video.

Theo requested race car driver (big surprise).  He's not too big on the whole costume thing.

 
He really doesn't want to try them on before the big day.  As a result his is a bit snug.  A little short in the torso.  

I based his on these firesuit costumes.  I used McCalls 5952 as a reference, but changed it a little.

 

Sadly, he was sick today.  In no shape to go out trick-or-treating.  I was hoping I could get him into it for 1 or 2 houses, just to say he went out, but no go. 

 

Oh well, at least he was happy in the pictures.  Plenty of goofing around.

I hope you all had a great night.  There's more chocolate calling my name right now.

JT

P.S. Can I ask you guys for a favor?  Can some of you click on a picture or two and tell me if the pop-up picture is more vibrant than the one in the post?  I'm having some trouble with Typepad where my photos get desaturated when I resize them to anything but the full size in the post. It's bumming me out, but I want to see if it's only on my computer.  Anyone else have this problem?

143: odds and ends

I almost forgot to have drawing for my little party giveaway.

So without further ado, the winner is:

Kim M. who said:

My son is turning 3 in a couple of weeks and the theme is going to be a contruction party. Thank to you I have some great ideas!

Hopefully it's not too late for your son's party!  I'll pass your email along...

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I did start a flickr group for Timber.  So get sewing folks!  And I want to see...

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Finally I did guest post over at Made by Rae.  Many of you know her for her infamous Buttercup Bag pattern (seen in my Timber fabrics in this post).  She's doing a whole month of "Celebrate the Boy" and I posted some tips on throwing parties for boys.  Stop by and see all the great posts on all things boys.

That's all for today, Folks!

JT

136: in print

So, if you happen to be perusing the pages of Fon's and Porter's Love of Quilting this month,

 You'll come across this on page 63:

 

That's my very own magazine ad for Timber.  Aw yah.

I'm getting so excited, it won't be long now until it hits stores.

And, yes folks, my husband and I did carry our couch into a field so I could take pictures.  

JT

119: with the young 'uns

When I posted the portraits of me and my man, I promised the kiddos too.  I realize this is mostly for my family, but they are out there reading too, so I have to throw them a bone.  I mean my mom needs to be able to pull up the blog for her co-workers and brag, doesn't she?

So, without further ado....

All photos are by Christianne Ebel.

JT

115: me and my man

Aren't we cute?

Are you like me and you have no current pix of you and your honey?  We used to take them at least when we went on vacation (really against my husband's protests...) but now it's all about the kids.

Anyway, a while back I had my friend do a portrait session of the whole family.  I wanted shots of me, my husband and me together, the kids separately and the whole family.  Yeah, I was asking a lot.  Plus is was a crumby cloudy day.  But once you have these things planned, it's kinda impossible to reschedule.

So we went ahead and I'm so glad we did.  I'll share more of the kids and the family together later, but these are all about me and my husband.

I know I like to see pix of bloggers on their sites because then I feel like I know them better.  Plus we're always the one behind the cameras so that doesn't happen too much.

So here I am.

I love this next shot of me...but I also feel like it doesn't really look like "me".  Does that happen to you?

And here I am oh so serious...

or a little more light-hearted.

Christianne was into feet that day.

I love the mossy, grungy steps and background.

    

I'm calling this one our "rock band cover shot".

Nice smirk, hon.  :)

That's just a little peek-a-boo at us in case you've never met us in person.  

JT

91: no regrets

I have this fear about pictures of my kids.  I’m afraid I’m gonna wake up one day and be devastated by the fact that I totally missed getting a picture of them looking a certain way or at a certain event.

I know it’s basically me worrying about how fast they’re growing up and not wanting to miss it.  So you’d think I’d take pictures of them every day.  Nope. 

As typical as it is, I was much better with Aurora when she was little.  It’s funny because I think it was partly because I was worse at photography then so I just shot her on auto with whatever light.

I do want a ton a photos of them.  My dad’s a photographer so we don’t lack for shots of me and my sisters as kids.  And I love ‘em. 

I wish I could capture all their amazing expressions.  It would be like preserving their childhood for me to look back on.  But I know I can’t.

I don’t do the regular portrait studio photos.  But I do wonder if I should have.  For the most part those are pretty shots of them looking “nice”.  I certainly wouldn’t mind having them, but they’re not crucial to me.

But one thing I have done with both kids now is have my amazing photographer friend Christianne, do a portrait session of each of them.  You’re looking at Theo’s today.  Aren’t they great?  I always hem and haw at the idea of spending energy and money on this kind of thing, but I never regret it. I’ve only done it once for each of them, but I’d like to do it more.  And I’m planning on a family session this year.

My friend and I were both kinda worried that there wouldn’t be any good shots, because, of course, he did NOT want to stay put.  If some of the shots look like he’s trying to look around the camera, well he is.  We had to bust out the DVD player at some point to keep him focused. 

But they sure did come out great.  Some even brought a tear to my eye, when I first saw them.  So, nope, I surely don’t regret the hassle and I’ve got to try to remember that and do it again.

JT