Toddler jeans makeover

One of the few hand-me-downs we've received for LoLo was a pair of jeans. I didn't mind the color, but the "style" was just really terrible. I've seen many jean makeovers from wide leg to skinny and so I followed in the footsteps of moms that try to bring some fashion into their little guy's wardrobe.
Check Freshly Picked blog for the skinny jean tutorial HERE

(Story time: Right after LoLo was born I went clothes shopping to our local Duffy's. While I was finding the cutest outfits for Lola, I couldn't even locate the boy's section, let alone a single outfit! So, I asked a shop assistant if it was on a different floor for some reason. She smirked and pointed at a single rack of clothes with about 50 items hanging on it. "Over there")

So, back to my tutorial (sort of tutorial). After I followed instructions on slimming down the jeans, I dug out an unused foot file and filed the heck out of the jeans, making holes and wears all over the place ... (Hubby was like: "LV, why are you using the foot file on our kitchen table? And what are you trying to do with those jeans? You are not going to put it back to the bathroom, are you?)

I then found fabric, cut out patches big enough to cover any "ventilation" holes I just made on the jeans, so my little guy doesn't get cold; pinned the fabric to the jeans from inside out and was ready to sew ... Then I wasn't ready to sew ... I realized, that you can't really sew through such a small opening with the sewing machine .. ARgghhhhh ... you know the saying "measure twice, cut once"? That never applied to me! So, take my advice: saw the patches on by a sewing machine BEFORE sewing up the skinny legs! Unless ... 

It's funny though how things just work out at the end (most of the times that is) ...  I took an embroidery thread and needle and sewed the patches on by hand, which gave it so much character! 

Don't you think? And how about that modeling pose of my favorite man in the world? 

And here are a few pictures from our fun day out wearing the momma-made-cool-jeans :) 

Hope you are all doing well. LO(lo)V(i)E to you all, as always, LV 

HalLoLoween 2011

As promised, here are shots of our first HAlLOLOween party ... I am hoping to make it a tradition, as LoLo loves all the excitement around parties and the guests seemed to have a jolly good time also ... (Once again, I struggled with the photos, so some may be better than others. I have already spoken to Santa and he promised an early Christmas gift in a form of some camera equipment, so there is hope for future photographic improvement ... YAY! )

Once again, I used Bird's printables ... The wreath above is stolen from the front door, the cupcake stand is made of three cheap trays from Party City and 2 printable-wrapped cans of chickpeas :)

I didn't have time to carve the pumpkin, so I stuck felt eyes, nose and a mouth on the poor thing. The scarecrows were bought for 1 USD each at Michaels ... The Buddha is displayed by default and if you can see it, there is a witch hanging off from the right corner. I got it as a gift from my Czech friend, Oli, who said that according to Czech belief, every household should have one with a broom, hanging somewhere in the house. Supposedly, she sweeps out all the problems of the house ... 

(The Mr. would surely argue that there isn't a need for such a thing in our house as he's got a live-in one instead ... just a bit of trivia for you ... ) 

   

The party was pot luck so there isn't as much food displayed ... plus I forgot to serve all the 40 cupcakes that are still in our fridge :(((( .... 

Yes, I made a cupcake stand and then forgot to serve the cupcakes! I should get an award for this! 

Here are the details ... blueberry muffins, "monster treats" - Halloween pretzels, the ghosts are goody bags for the munchkins containing a notebook, an edible Halloween necklace, a wafer, pretzels, a ghost stamp and tattoos). 

I lined a plastic pumpkin with foil and used it for chips (the guacamole is not pictured here), then of course there is the Mr. making roll ups that looked better than tasted ... 

(not due to his fault, I should add here :)   

According to LoLo, there is no party without party hats ... so those orange frills are part of the hats (tutorial HERE, the bucket is wrapped in paper and decorated once again with Bird's printable pumpkin, the little orange basket contains tattoos, black and orange balloons and the old fashioned gumball machine is filled with candy corn, of course. Once I put it together, I realized that you actually need a coin to get the candy out .. How about that for hospitality? "Here is some candy, you just have to pay for it" :))) But, I decided to display it anyhow, as I love the look of it, plus it's great portion and sugar control for the kids .... 

LoLo's t-shirts were also made by momma. You can make them also in about 10 minutes! Felt eyes, nose and mouth sewn to the shirt and voila! Lola's shirt has a feather collar for extra glam. I used feather string bought at Wallmart, cut the rim of the collar and sew the string to it ... That's all!

 Now, what's for entertainment?

Everybody loves crafts - even if its all secretly made by parents :) 

Part 2 and 3 of the entertainment ... 

A special guest ... Serafina, the sock monkey tutorial coming up soon! 

Hopefully by then I will have made her ballet shoes also. 

 There is no party without candles and a big blow .... pffffffffffffffffff pffffff pfffffffffff

LoLove, LV

Not another Halloween wreath?!

I know you've seen them all, but bear with me ok? This one is so easy you can make it with your eyes closed! ... hmmmm .. ok then One eye closed ... :)

Our apartment building is never decorated and I keep walking past these buildings with mums and skeletons, pumpkins and spider webs and then there is our entryway - empty and sad!

Well, this year I decided to change this ... 

I thought about making a wreath from little orange and black pom-poms, but that never happened because the craft store was out of foam wreath and the only one I could buy was the one from tree branches, which I like but none of my other wreath ideas worked with it. 

THEN I thought of my friend Bird's amazing printables! (This girl is so talented I am green with envy every single time she posts something new on her blog.) The only thing I wish she was making is printable clothing .. just imagine how much easier my morning routine would be, how much space we'd save in our NYC closets and how my hubby would be freed from any shopping for clothes duties - we'd cut them out in front of the TV watching the JETS ... LOL

Well, this is what I came up with at the end using Bird's Halloween collection .... 

No, it's not a bicycle decoration, but the glass on the door made it impossible to take a good photo and I didn't want to sneak around the neighborhood hanging my wreath on other people's doors ... 

I will be using the printables also for our "Boo at LoLo's" party this weekend so stay tuned ... 

There is still time to get your scissors (I mean hands) on these printables HERE.

LO(lo)V(i)E to all ... LV

Bringing home the pumpkin patch

Seven seasonals you may not know about me (us): 

1. I own a pair of orange pants (the same exact color as those pumpkins below ... 

uhmm not a surprise? :)

2. London's favorite Hungarian word is "orange", which is also probably one of the most difficult Hungarian words to pronounce "narancssarga" 

3. When I was a little girl my grandma used to bake pumpkins for me and I never liked them.  

Ever since I moved to the US I bake pumpkins every year, so that I can relive many of my childhood memories that remind me of her. 

4. I love pumpkin spice latte despite of the fact, that the flavor has probably more to do with some artificial flavoring than the pumpkin itself ...  

5.  I would love to get lost "for real" in a corn maze (preferably not alone and not in the dark :)

6.  Though it seemed romantic at the time of our wedding photos, rolling in hay is really, really really not a good idea

7. I would love to bake a pumpkin pie .. Anybody with an easy recipe?

Last weekend we took LoLo to a pumpkin patch and apple picking in NJ ... 

After a wonderful day spent with nana and papa, I decided to bring the pumpkin patch home. 

LoLo had these two pullies full of building blocks that they never used. The building blocks ended up in some toy bin and the wooden trays (one from Ikea for 7.99 USD - I have their older version and another one from Target) just kept taking up space ... I've been experimenting with Mod Podge (decoupage glue and sealer) lately and so I decided to mod podge the pulley ...

The process is easy ... clean the surface of your object, put a layer of mod podge on the object, spray water onto your paper so it's just damp, put the paper carefully on the tray and smooth. Let it dry and repeat the top layer of MP as many times as desired. (I did two layers). See the last photo? I bought the rolling tool at Michael's and it's an absolute must if you are going to mod podge anything or everything just what I am doing these days ... 

Our toddler group is having a Halloween party, 

and I think I will make cupcakes and serve it on this tray ... 

Check out the tutorial for the acorns HERE if you'd like to spend a night sewing these little buggers :) 

Did you get scared? :))))

Boo, LV