End of May! You know what this mean?

 

Fantine from the broadway production of Les Miserables

It is the end of May, and in this house, it has typically mean 3 things... School is almost done!! (We are all teachers or students!) hockey and basketball playoff is full own! AND the most important of all.... time to start thinking about Halloween!

Hello Kitty (can't see the tail in the picture)

Yes! I know, for most of you, it is way to early to start thinking about this "one day" step out of the routine at the end of October... but for me who loves to sew, Halloween is the focal point of every year (that and the few "con" we attend). And off course, with Hudson's birthday being just a few days before Halloween, it is now EVEN more important!!!

Unfortunately, last year, with Phenix being just born, I ended up *gasp* BUYING costumes.... (that was a really sad day for me...) Still my sister rocked a homemade Mary Poppin outifit!

So, as I scavenge around for ideas... Here are pictures of past costumes I made (most wigs and accessories, were made by my sister)

 Our most notorious round was without any doubt 2007-2008 as a full assemble "Bleach" group! We even won some prizes! I know I have somewhere laying around a great professional photograph picture of all of us...

 

 We also had all the Eito Rangers in 2009! (Yellow is the one taking the picture!)

 

 And a bunch of Ouran Host school girls! (Also in 2009)

This one is near and dear to my heart... Made in 2007 from an actual pattern from the 17th century!!! (Most of it was hand sewed with hand embroidery (which you can't see on the picture)










In 2010 Marie and I painted our own Zukkoke Otokomichi outfit! This was a labor of Love!!! As it was grueling!













Then there was the Naruto crochet outfit for Hudson! I spent close to a year (or more precisely my whole pregnancy working on this!! I had never crochet before! I am particularly
proud of the hat!











These are just some of the many many costumes from the past few years!!!! 

Party Time!

 

I love October! I love Halloween! You can only imagine how exciting it was for me to be due at the end of October! For the whole pregnancy, I kept telling my OB that the baby could not come more than a week late! The baby had to be born in October!!! And as you know, Hudson was born the day before my due date or exactly a week from Halloween!

I have been sewing costumes for years (theatre, cosplay, Halloween....)! Off course, Hudson's birthday was going to be a costume party! Now I have to admit, it was hard to get everyone excited about it! I guess most people are not into wearing costume... (That truly makes me sad!) Anyway, I was going to make sure Hudson had an awesome costume, so I started working on it back in April! I crochet a whole Naruto outfit (including the hair). I used wool because I wanted to make sure it was going to be warm enough to go trick-or-treating! I was going to make the outfit of the 4th for my husband (since you know he is Naruto's dad) and Tsunade-sama for me, but I ran out of time. So instead we wore our old Bleach costume from 4 years ago.

My sister came down for the weekend and was kind enough to make a cake that would go with Hudson's outfit. We googled Naruto Cake for some inspiration and were surprised at the amount of cakes! (So much for being original). At first we wanted to make the Nine tails, but we ran out of time and decided on something a lot more simple!

 

I also had a special candle holder, cake topper made for her birthday! This great local artist made it for us! It's a paper crane (off course ;-) She is also the one who made my mom's wedding cake topper and the clay-photographe of Hudson I received at my baby shower! Here is her website, if you want to check it out!

So here are some pictures!

A little by little

I never underestimated the life changing aspect of having a baby! So in a way I was prepared. Two weeks ago, Hudson was born! My life has been a Topsy Turvy of diapers, doctor's visit, sleepless nights and laundry washing... and I love it! 

What I was not ready for is how much love goes into all of these task! Even worst, how much it hurts to be sitting helplessly on the bedroom floor with a baby that for unknown reason won't stop crying. Last night for 4 hours, I tried to figure out what was wrong! It broke my heart to see her like that! I felt so useless as I was unable to figure out what she wanted!! I was not ready for that! In the end she fell asleep on daddy's laps... We will probably never know what it was... it will probably happen again... and once more I will be broken hearted. That is the real hard part.

So two weeks have gone by. Everyone is getting use to a new schedule. The first few days I was overwhelmed by breastfeeding. I took so much of my time. Hudson would nurse for 40 minutes every 2-3 hours... But after the first week I came up with an awesome plan!!! 40 mins x 8-9 times a day = a j-dorama a day! Time to catch up on the last 3 seasons! And I also decided to watch the Taiga dorama Yoshitsune (all 50 episodes)... I hope Hudson will forgive me to split my attention in half...

On Halloween, Hudson was 1 week old! Months ago, I had crocheted the Green Eito Ranger sweater for her as her first Halloween costume. But it was way too big. We still decided to take some pictures. Daddy carved a plastic pumpkin in honor of her first Halloween. He went to great length to carve a Tuna on one side and then a stylized version of her name on the other side. We used a plastic pumpkin so we could keep it for the years to come (kind of like those first Christmas ornaments).

 

In the past week, we decided to make imprints of her feet. The first attempt was a complete disaster! Plaster + Vaseline + 9 days old baby does not go well together. We had a good laugh still. 

Then yesterday we opted for the ink version. It was easy, not as messy as first thought and yield great results. We got the ink pad at Walmart for 4$ and the card stock at Dollarama. We made enough prints so that both aunts, and the 3 sets of grand parents could get a copy.      

Today Hudson is 2 weeks old. The weather outside is beautiful. 15 degree and sunny. The trees are still full of colors. This is not your typical grayish November! It truly feels like the calm after the storm. Hudson is finally sleeping, and soon I will go join her ;-)

    

Crochet madness!!

Crochet madness! Yes! I say madness because just a few months ago I had never crocheted before!! As I found myself on bedrest a while ago, to challenge myself I decided to try something new! I watched many youtube tutorial, and started to crochet! Here are some of the finish product and a few useful links if you want to learn!

First off I strongly recommend Crochet Geek to learn! The youtube video are easy to follow and offer clear instruction.

For patterns, I strongly recommend signing on Ravelry. It's free and offers more patterns that you will ever need!

A little pair of overall. I couldn't find a pattern I liked so I had to improvised here. In the end, I am very happy of the results!

This little sweater is a mix between 3 different patterns. It was fairly easy to do and took about one afternoon. It turned out a bit big so it might not fit until baby is 1 year old.

This little outfit is a mix of two pattern. The pants and hat are from Mint Green Set. The sweater is from SandiAngels.















This is a basic double crochet blanket! Nothing fancy here.










This blanket took for ever and leaves so many holes, I am unsure if it will ever be useful ;-) It is from a learn to crochet little booklet.

These two hats are from the same pattern which can be found on Ravelry. I had to learn to do a double post crochet which can be complicated if you don't know what you are doing. But I am really happy of the results! Both these hats were given as gift.

 

This was one of my very first project!! Amigurumi are easy, fast and fun little things to do! There are hundred of patterns available on Ravelry from cats, to octobus... There are even some Starwars ones to be found.