Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cake

Last summer, I was very excited when I went through the pans my grandma had given me to find this teenage mutant ninja turtle pan. When Alan was growing up, he used to re-enact scenes from the movie with his brother, so I decided to surprise him by making him this cake! I also thought it would ease the pain of turning 30 to have a cake designed for a 10 year old.

                    

Here's a picture of the cake while it was cooling. You can see most of the indentations from the pan, which I used to outline all of the different sections. Once I had everything outlined, I filled it in with lots of little stars. 

Here is a picture of the finished cake!

 It took a long time and my hand was tired by the end, but it was worth it. Alan knew I was making his cake, but I wouldn't let him come in the kitchen to see it. I kept it hidden until later that night when we had a surprise party for Alan and Andrew.

Here are the birthday boys!

(They didn't dress alike on purpose.)

Here is a short video of them blowing out their candles:

Alan and Andrew loved their cake! 

I think everyone else liked it too because almost the entire thing was eaten.

Rolled Edge Baby Hat

I just finished knitting a baby hat for my new nephew! 

I found the pattern in a book called 60 Quick Baby Knits. 

 This was my first time using double pointed needles to knit in the round.

Once I started decreasing at the top of the hat, I used a ball of yarn to make sure the size was right. It was the perfect substitute for a baby's head!

Here is Owen wearing his new hat!

Owen is making his best Elvis impression--"Thank you...Thank you very much."

House Painting: Before and Afters

We finished painting the house this fall and here are some before and after pictures:

You can tell that it took along time to finish since there are no leaves on the trees in the after picture! Actually, I just had to wait awhile for a cloudy day to take the after pictures because there were too many shadows on sunny days. 

 The back of the house looked the worst before we painted...

But now it looks so much better! The white windows and door really stand out. I can't wait until we can paint the patio next spring. Some other outside painting projects we have to complete in the spring are painting the soffits all the way around the house and the metal piece above each window. You can't really tell in these pictures, but the metal is painted red right now and is very rusty. We're also going to paint the steps leading to the basement door. Once the weather warms up we'll have lots more painting to keep us busy! In the meantime, I think there are some inside painting projects in our near future...

Men's Shirt To Cute Skirt

Last week, Sherry from my favorite blog Young House Love issued a "Pinterest Challenge" to create something based off an inspirational picture found on Pinterest. I wasn't able to make something for the last Pinterest Challenge this summer, so I didn't want to miss out this time. I decided to turn one of Alan's Oxford shirts that didn't fit him anymore in a cute skirt!

Here's a sneak peek of the finished skirt:

These were my inspirational pictures from Pinterest found here and here. 

                                 

First I cut the shirt straight across underneath the pocket.

I tried it on to make sure it would fit, then I turned it inside out and pinned the side seams at the waist. I sewed the sides to create an A line shape, then trimmed the excess fabric.

Next I cut off one of the sleeves at the shoulder seam, removed the cuff, and cut along the underarm seam so I ended up with a flat piece of fabric. I cut two pieces about 4" wide for the waistband and ironed on fusible interfacing to make it sturdier. I sewed the two pieces together, and pressed under 5/8" on one of the long sides of the waistband (this makes it easier to finish the inside of the skirt). The stripes on the skirt are vertical, but I wanted the waistband to have horizontal stripes, so using the sleeve was perfect!

I sewed a gathering stitch along the back of the skirt, then aligned the seam of the waistband with the center back of the skirt. I pulled up the stitches to make it fit, then sewed on the waistband.

To make the corners of the waistband along the front of the skirt, I folded the waistband with the right sides together, and stitched along the edge. After trimming the excess waistband off, I turned it right side out.

Now the folded under edge of the waistband covered the seam on the inside of the skirt, and I slipstitched the inside by hand so it doesn't go all the way through. 

I added two hook and eyes to the top of the waistband. I could have used larger ones like you usually see on pants, but I only had the smaller ones on hand.

Here are pictures of it all finished from the front and back. This was a quick project that was a lot of fun!

Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of the tombstone cupcakes I made for our Halloween party on Saturday. First I used chocolate frosting to write RIP on Milano cookies.

Then I used a cupcake plunger to scoop out the middle of the cupcake.

I filled each cupcake with a scoop of cherry pie filling.

And then I put the piece of cake back on top, with one end sliced off for where the cookie will go. 

I put a spiral of chocolate frosting on top, then smoothed it out with a knife. I stuck in the cookie, then sprinkled crushed Oreos on top for mounds of dirt! Here are some finished cupcakes in my new spiderweb cupcake stand.

For the party, we created two haunted rooms. The first one using my dress form, costume, pumpkin head, and a wig to create a scary pumpkin lady. For my sewing room, Alan taped up all of our painting tarps and on the table he placed saws, duct tape, bleach, a "bloody" rag, and a mask. 

With the lights dimmed at night, they were very spooky!

Here is a picture of our dining room table. I bought a piece of lace from Joann Fabrics with skulls for the table cloth, used all of our candle holders, and spray painted some leaves silver. 

We had lots of fun this Halloween. I hope you did too! 

Another finished costume!

After my last post about making Alan's costume for the Renaissance Faire, I had made the shirt, but I still needed to finish the pants and make his doublet. Here is a close up of the fabric for the doublet:

And here are some pictures of it all finished:

Here we are ready to go to the Renaissance Faire. 

While we were there, we overheard people saying we looked nice together and several people wanted to take our picture. We had a lot of fun!