Pregnant Halloween Costume

So I have been searching around for a good idea for my Halloween costume this year and I thought it would be fun to incorporate the baby bump.

 I saw several different versions of this pregnancy skeleton costume online and the one pictured above I thought was cute and not creepy looking so I decided to model mine after it.

I found a tutorial from Make It-Love It blog that gave step by step pictures and instructions. She also made a matching outfit for her husband, but instead of a baby on the belly there is fries, burger and drink... :)

If you are interested in making your own skeleton costume check out Make It-Love It blog:

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/10/our-last-minute-adult-costumes.html

I thought I took more pictures then this, but apparently not!

Here is my finished product! I think it turned out pretty cute and it was easy/fun to make!

I wish baby would have turned out a little better, I used the freezer paper like she recommended, but still had a hard time with the paint not smearing while doing baby's arm.

Car Seat Canopy

I finally finished my car seat canopy. I don't know why I let it take me so long to get done. I still consider myself a beginner at this whole sewing thing. Mine is more simple then the one tutorial I posted back in August, but I think with the big floral pattern it works.

Here is the link for the tutorial I used:
http://www.make-it-do.com/sew-it/baby-car-seat-cover-tutorial/



Here I  have my fabric cut to 35"wide x 42" long

Here I am tracing the corners of the two big pieces shown above. You will then want to cut those corners off so the canopy won't hang down to far on the corners.

Sew your backing and your top inside out together 1/4" seam, but leave a little opening to be able to turn it right side out and then hand stitch your opening shut.

I then cut 4, 4"x9 1/2" strips to create the straps on top. I just used the one fabric color on the straps, the same fabric that was used on the backing.

I then sewed 2 of the strips together, leaving one end open to turn it right side out. I bought the non-gooey Velcro that was recommended in the original tutorial and it worked out nicely.

In order to get the strap placement I ended up draping the canopy over and pinning the straps to the canopy where I thought looked good, then took the canopy off and measured them, to make sure they were even (Mine were pretty close, just had to move one down an inch) and then pinned and then sewed them in place.

Here is a final picture of my simplified car seat canopy! I love the bright colors!

Hot Mulled Cider

My mother used to make this every year around the first of October. I continue to make it every year. It's such a nice way to welcome Autumn and it makes your house smell so yummy from the spices!
You will need:
1 gallon of apple juice
1-2 oranges
Cinnamon sticks
whole cloves
First pour your apple juice into your sauce pan (I only have small ones so I could only put about half of it in at once)
Next, slice 1 orange in half (2 if you are pouring the entire gallon into on big pot)
poke holes into the orange peel.
insert into one of the holes a Cinnamon stick
then insert in the rest of hole 8-12 cloves.
put oranges into pot and heat up.
I try to let mine sit for at least a 1/2 hour for the flavor before we start serving drinks.
I usually end up leaving the oranges in there for a couple hours so that the flavor gets really strong.
You kind of have to adjust the time and the amount of cloves to taste, this is just what I like.

Car Seat Canopy Tutorial

First off let me just say I feel bad about ignoring my blog for awhile. Life has been busy, but I'm going to try to recommit to more consistent posts here on Color Coated!


Since my little one is due at the end of December I wanted to make a car seat canopy to help shield her from the cold. I found this tutorial and bought my fabric and will be making it over the next month or so when I have time. I'll post pictures when I'm finished!

For the tutorial click on the link below:
http://www.make-it-do.com/sew-it/baby-car-seat-cover-tutorial/

Make It Do is a cute blog that has some great tutorials so you should take a little look around while you're there!

Paper Lantern Obssession

So I have always thought decorating with paper lanterns looked so cool! They add such a neat dynamic to a room or party.

When I was young my mother taught me how to make this type of lantern and I made hundreds of them. I just thought they were so stinkin' neat!

Now I am day dreaming of designing my baby's nursery. Although we are crammed in tight living conditions right now, I still day dream about how I would decorate the nursery and I keep imagining these paper lanterns hung in the nursery. I just think it would look so awesome!

I found a tutorial online to make these paper lanterns. The demonstration shows Christmas paper and I think they would make adorable Christmas decorations too!

I figure I will try my hand at making some of these and see how I like them!

If you want to try to make your own, check out this blog link: http://thecreativeplace.blogspot.com/2009/10/tuesday-tutorial-paper-lantern.html

Images pulled from Google.com

Missing Ralph Lauren Paint

This is a sob post about Ralph Lauren Paint.

The Home Depot use to stock it, but discontinued carrying sometime last year because they were making space for their new Martha Stewart Paint (which really isn't that impressive of a line I might add)

So the first place my hubby and I owned after getting married was a little town house (that I love and miss so much even to this day) and we were allowed to paint the walls when we lived there.

I loved that I could paint the walls, I felt like since it was my first place I could try something new and different.

Ralph Lauren has a line of faux paint that I fell in LOVE WITH. It was called Suede and it looked just like the name. It was awesome.

Now this faux line could not be painted in bathroom or kitchens, but I did paint it on my dining room side wall. It looked wonderful. The color was Clay Red

The accent wall was pretty easy to do, and once complete looked really good.
For the first coat you just roll on the paint with a roller.

I started to panic when I finished the first coat, because it looked terrible, but I told myself that I had to finish it!

For the second and final coat you apply it with a 3" brush and do varied crosshatches. This was a lot of fun, and took next to nothing to complete this one wall.

Here is the finished wall! I still drool a little when I see this picture, and this wall isn't even complete with out my wrought iron clock from Hobby Lobby.

So if anyone ever discovers where to find Ralph Lauren paint. Please let me know. Die hard fan here.

DIY Baby Bird Mobile

I have been following the number of hits each blog post recieves and I noticed that my nursery ideas post gets way more views then any other post.

So I thought it would be fun to occasionally post a baby craft project. Since I have no need to make baby crafts right now, I am simply going to share my fun findings!

I thought the birdie mobile was very cute idea! The URL below gives directions and even has a link on the sidebar so you can download the pdf pattern for the birds.

http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/2008/05/16/bird-mobile/

Happy Crafting!