DIY- Oompa Loompa

It has been decided for a while that Crewe would be and Oompa Loompa for Halloween and that I would be making his costume.

 

As Crewe's momma I have the task of creating sweet costumes that DO NOT have absolutely anything that touches his head. He acts like he is suffocating and goes into panic if anything is on his sweet head. Ohhh he is so his momma's child. I would only wear elastic waist pants until like the 6th grade. The 6TH GRADE!!!! I was like 13. Sigh......

 

Last year he got to be a hamburger because it was the ONLY costume I could find that you could tell what he was without a headpiece.

 

 

Sweet boy has gotten big in a year! Tonight I actually had to battle his calic to get his hair to mohawk and last year his hair just did whatever I wanted.

 

There is a huge place in my hear for pinterest; however, I hate when I pin a DIY and it just gives me a pic and no deets of where they got the items.... the cost etc... so I will do all of that jazz at the end.

 

 Here is our 1st round of trick or treating. We will be going out again on Halloween night

 

 

This is my, momma wanted to look cute without having to wash her greasy hair, look. It works!

We weren't real wild about the train

 

 

Okay so onto how I created this little oompa cutie.

 

1) The sweat pants I actually found in the Halloween aisle at Walmart and they were a size 5. WAY to big for Crewe, which ended up being perfect because I was able to hike them up and roll the legs under. As you can see in his back picture, I just overlapped the waist and hand stitched the overlap. I also stitched the buttons on the front.

 

 

2)To stick on the white felt I just used double sided fabric tape on the brown turtleneck collar as well as the sleeves.

 

 

3) The white "suspenders" are 18-36 month old little girl cotton leggings that I cut in half on the crotch line. I stitched each leg on, exactly like suspenders would look, and them crossed them over his head after I put the "overalls".

 

4) I also used double sided fabric tape for the brown felt on the leggings he wore (I did get approval from Daddy to put him in leggings JUST for his costume).

Tip: If your kid likes to pick at stuff like mine... use the double sided fabric tape to hold the tape on and then hand stitch the top and bottom of each strip. Little man picked of EVERY single stripe off on our way to trick or treat.





I actually told him he should be ashamed of himself for picking all the stripes off and he looked at me like, "No mom, you should be ashamed of yourself for not securing these better as you know I LOVE picking at EVERYTHING."

Touche sweet boy touche!

Slow and Steady

Having projects to work on that you look forward sitting down to do is soooo... fun in my book. It makes me want to have a project constantly going.

Before Crewe was born if I started a project EVERYTHING in my life was put on hold until I finished that project.

 

Now that Crewe is here, I have tried that approach and it has not gone over so well for our family. Quickly I have come to be okay with projects taking a bit longer to complete so that we can maintain some sanity in our household.

Untightening that grip on things that are so engrained in who I am is hard, but most days refreshing. I like being able to look at myself and see that I am adaptable and capable change. ;-)

 

I would go so far to say that it has allowed me to ease up a bit on feeling like I have to clean up the toys in our house that accrue 10 times a day.

Now don't get me wrong... I still do my 20 minute shake down before guest stop by, because in my head they are going to ask to see a tour of the whole house, even though they hardly ever do... which then makes me want to force offer a house tour just so my hard work was not in vain.

 

 It is also important so that when they walk out of the door I can look at my husband with my

"SEE? It was worth the temporary insanity for me to clean the cobweb's, scrub the bathtubs, mop the floors" face.

 

All that to say I have 2 big DIY projects going on right now which makes blogging slow for me. The first one being

 

THIS

Crewe's Halloween Costume

 

And the second

THIS

DIY tufted headboard- love it? Yes! Very time consuming with a toddler? Yes

 

 

 

That being said.. here is a photo sneak of our past week-ish

 

Mommy and Crewe went to the grocery store for the 2nd time by ourselves in 2 years;
however, it will become a regular, now that Mommy expereinced 11:00am Wal-Mart
lines versus 7:00pm Wal Mart lines.



Hung out with our favs again

Enjoyed some yummy pancakes

Searched for water while being chased by coyotes



Had some drinks at a rooftop bar, which was FAB by the way

Made 42 buttons.... my thumbs are still numb

And finally slept off our late night partying ways

Hope ya'lls week is going just as fab!

Mom's Monday Mingle

Welcome to Mom's Monday Mingle!   <center> <a href="http://www.thenaptimereview.com/"> <img src="http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w433/athometake2/Blog%20Design/Link-Up_zps1ce5f4f7.png" border="0"/> </a></center>   Last week we had 253 moms ready to mingle! Please help spread the news on this growing hop! Please tweet about this hop!   RULES: 1. Please follow each hostess. They are 1-6 in the list!

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Nursing

Disclaimer: This post is exactly about what the title states and I always followed my momma when she said "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". I would appreciate if you would take my momma's advice too.

                        *******************************************************

Something that has really been on my heart lately, as my nursing days draw to a close, is how taboo nursing a toddler has become in our society. I have never been a victim of any such attacks, but know people that have.

 

Amongst my friends, I have 2 other friends (who I instantly felt connected to) that chose to nurse past what most people consider a "normal" age. It was always such a comfort to be able to hang out with them knowing that I would not be judged in my choice of nursing my little guy a bit longer than most. We can talk and relate on so many levels.

 

It was coming to a point where I was feeling ashamed for my choice to continue to nurse past 12 months, than 18 months and now he will be 2 in December.

 

I was confident with my decision to continue to nurse until the well known "TIME" magazine article was published... if you missed  it you likely live in a cave... just sayin. Not long after that article I had somebody ask me if I was going to be the next person to be featured on the cover.

 

It crushed me and gave me so much insecurity about my decision, that from that day forward I starting lying when people asked me if I still nursed. My answer was always, to chuckle a little first (you know the... trying to act like they were crazy) followed by a, "No we weaned months ago".

 

In a way it is my fault for allowing people to make me feel insecure about doing something that did not affect anyone but me and my child. The past few days it has hit me that I have absolutely NOTHING to be ashamed of. I love nursing my child and he loves it too. Why in the world should that offend anybody?? I am not asking them to watch me nurse or give their opinion on nursing.

 

A conversation I had with my husband last Sunday made so much sense to me, because I used to be the "Ew gross, you nurse and 18 month old" type of person UNTIL my wee one was placed in my arms and our nursing relationship began.

 

 I told him that it was crazy that Crewe was going to be 2 in December and it was still so normal to nurse him. He didn't seem too big or even too old for it, it just seemed like it did was he was a newborn.

 

What my husband said back to me made so much sense, he simply stated "It has been a part of your and Crewe's everyday life since he was a born, so it doesn't seem weird because he has just gradually grown as you continued to nurse. It's not like somebody just handed you a 2 year old one day to nurse". Mind blowing right? I don't know why I had never thought about it like that.

 

There are too many mommas out there who's kids are all grown and one thing I hear over and over is how much they miss nursing. That tells me something!

 

Will I nurse any future kiddos as long as I have nursed Crewe? I don't know, there's a chance that they won't even like nursing, but I for DAMN sure will not have an 1 ounce of insecurity or shamefullness about it.

 

So to any of you momma's who don't feel supported in your decision to nurse past the "normal" age (again whatever that is), NEVER let somebody make you feel ashamed for the good that you are doing. It's mind blowing to me that people will look at you like you are breaking the law if you nurse past a year.

 

 

Issues Lately and BFF's

Let me take you back a bit to my high school days. Not my favortie time in my life, not the worst, just kind of "meh" for me. Up until my junior year I was pretty content with my looks. I mean I had come to terms with the monkey length arms, not hitting purberty until about 16, but all in all and all I can't really complain.

 

My junior year I had a mean sweet friend point out to me that my left ear sticks out farther than my right. You would have thought somebody told me a family member just died with how long those 8ish words have stuck with me. Up until that day I had never noticed it and to this day EVERY time I look in the mirror I see it.

 

Ok so before you all start boohooing for me and consoling me... I have come to terms with it and it kind of makes me laugh now. Kinda.... If ya'll think I am kidding my stepdad used to give me a hard time because I can hold a pencil behind my right ear and it stays... no such luck on the right side.

 

What sticks out most to me in A LOT of my pictures are my similarities to Legolas from Lord of the rings. You think I am exaggerating?

 

Here I am with my ever so prevelant ear sticking through my hair. It.Never.Fails to show up. Next to me... Legolas

 

I'll wait until you can catch your breath.......

 

Done? As you can see I still have major issues have completely come to terms with it.

 

Moving on....

 

My sweet friend Cassie and I have boys that are 10 days apart and we are convinced they are going to grow up and be best friends, keep each other on the straight and narrow, pal around, say no to drugs and make us momma's proud.

 

Nixon came to hang with us for a bit last night and boy did we have a good time. I will let the pictures do the talking. These boys love each other.



What I would look like with twins..... see the ear?

Planes were flown

 

Motorcycles ridin

And the boys were totally into my posed photography session.
 

Love those sweet boys. We are headed to the apple orchard/ pumpkin patch on Saturday... which is sure to result in a video. It's just how I roll!

 

The Good Stuff

A lot of times in my life the things that don't go as expected turn out to create my favorite memories. Now, why I haven't just learned to go with the flow more when there is a change in plans??? Maybe when the plans change for the 1,561 time.. I will learn to just be cool with it.... not be so... what's the word... uptight, maybe??? Stick up my butt??? Possibly.... You get what I'm saying.

 

We had big plans of pumpkin patching it Saturday until the hubby and I got into a bit of a disagreement and I did some retail therapy instead.

 

Pumpkin Patch 2011

 

 I had played up the pumpkin patch in my head too much to have it go anything but perfect. The disagreement passed but the pumpkin patch will happen next weekend.

 

Instead Friday night entailed a long excurrsion here... swoon. Two glorius hours of uninterrupted browsing and mentally decorating. A little piece of heaven.

Surprisingly, Daddy and Crewe opted out and stayed home to create this.

 

 

Followed by, what Daddy calls "Club de Moran"

 

 

I have a feeling this big little gem will stick around for a while.

 



I also cleaned out a moldy garage fridge in my pajama pants, a tank top and no bra (for 3 hours) WITH the garage door open. Our neighbors love us! It turned out marvelous and would have made for a helluva before and after picture. No pic though ;-(

 

Sunday was total family time with church.. where Crewe decided to dirty his diaper as we were walking out, shoulder to shoulder with other church goers, causing us to leave a not so pleasant trail and getting some strange looks like we don't bathe.

 

 

Followed by lunch

 

 

Which led to more shopping.....

 

Now I am not the one that my friends, family, pretty much anyone.. turns to for fashion advice. Most likely if we hang out you will find me around 2 years behind in the fashion world UNTIL... today. I closed the gap in my fashion statement by about a year today. So, so proud!

 

In fact I came home and put these babies on with my black tights and a t-shirt and wore them the rest of the night. You know, just to break them in a bit ;-) My husband thought I was crazy. Of course I am just adjusting to being more fashionable.

Notice the nice paint and bleach stains on my knee. Just shows I have
a ways to go before making ANY kind of fashion statement.

We finished off the day with painting in the backyard, wine, steaks and sweet potatoes.

 



Then we stepped in dog poop, got our feelings hurt and refused to walk on the grass the rest of the night. Can't say I blame him.

This weekend rocked and next weekend has a tough act to follow!

 

Oh and what programs do you use to make collage pictures for your blog? I need some help!

Insignificant

It is amazing how wrapped up I can get in the insignificant happenings of life, that seem so huge at the time.

Crewe has been waking up again at night and it has utterly thrown me for a loop. I love my sleep and felt so blessed when, at 14 months, he decided to start sleeping through the night and I feel I live in fear any night he wakes up that we are going to start the cycle again. It is not so much the getting up that bothers me, it is the fact then when he goes back to sleep around 4, I am wide awake. Losing sleep is not my favorite.

I am not greatest at segwaying (don't really  even know if that's a word) so hang with me on this.

Loss seems to be a prevalent happening right now. Just this week I have learned of a sweet baby girl who was born early and lost her battle and was taken far too soon... to a young man who's life was  lost in a car accident just 2 days ago, leaving behind a wife and precious 11 month old daughter. 

It really has put some perspective in my head about what the signigicant and insignicant things of life are. How that momma that lost her sweet newborn would give anything to hear a crying baby through a monitor wanting to be rocked or how the wife who lost her husband would  love to crawl back into bed, after rocking her baby, to her husband peacefully sleeping.

THOSE are significant, life changing, tragic events.... no matter how much I would like to think a waking toddler is.

 

It causes me to question the decisions God makes for our life. I know that God is soveriegn and would never make a wrong decision, but I just don't understand and know in this lifetime I never will. All  I can do (and am called to do) is trust and work daily not let fear dominate my thoughts.

 

THAT is a daily battle for me... when there are people on this earth that I cannot even fully grasp my love for or thought of them not being here.

 

This statement that I stumbled upon calmed my heart a bit in my fear of not fully trusting God.... 

 

"Faith is not the absence of doubt, but still walking towards the presence of God so He can deal with the doubt.."

 

Just some of my thoughts before bed. I will definitely have a different perspective when my sweet boy whines through the monitor at 3am.