Candy Corn & Halloween Fun

There are sooooo many adorable Halloween applique’ designs for machine embroidery!  For granddaughter Laurel’s outfit, I finally narrowed the field down to this candy corn design, primarily because I had already purchased the spider web/candy corn fabric for fun.  This design just seemed right.  Candy Corn Cutie is from Embroitique.com

The girls A-line jumper in  Applique’, Martha’s Favorites by Martha Pullen’s has always been one of my favorites.  I bemoaned the fact that it went only to size 6 when it occurred to me that I could use the same quick and easy lining technique with any similar pattern.  I found just what I needed with a commercial pattern (on sale at JoAnn’s for $1.99!) and whipped up this piece for Laurel in no time.

It is lined with yellow cotton batiste because 1. I had it on hand and 2. because it is a relatively cool, lightweight fabric.   In Florida, Halloween season can be and usually is very hot.  Top stitching is worked around the hem, neckline and armscyes.  At the them, three rows of ribbon echo the white, yellow, and orange layers on the candy corn.

The leggings with a knit ruffle at the ankle are from Sophie’s Stitches.

NANA FUN—Our daughter, Rebecca, came for a few days with her husband and 3 year-old Alastair.  We had so much Halloween fun with the little guy.  Every year Granddad (Bob) decorates his shed which is the background for the bonfires the children love so much.   Often, they pause from running around or eating s’mores to climb up on his John Deer tractor housed in the shed, or pretend to drive the golf cart which also resides in this man cave.

It was late, so Alastair was in his jammies.

Sadly, cousins Robert and Laurel were tied up with football practice, piano lessons and Girl Scouts so they couldn’t make it over while Alastair was here.  But 4 year-old Alysha, our goddaughter’s child,  came for the bonfire and a day of fun.

Alastair looks at the obedient spider by the spooky ghost arm.

We roasted marshmallows for s’mores and the children eventually overcame their fear of the 7′ blow -up ghost.  But they were completely at ease with the spider.   Any loud noise initializes its movement up and down the web.  They loved clapping their hands and calling “Come down here!” and watching the spider creep down the web.  Just before it reached the end of its run, they shouted, “Get back up there!”  and the spider obliged.  It was fun.

Alysha joined us the next day for a play date to hang out and decorate cupcakes.  Of course, that also meant eating cupcakes.

Independently, both Alysha and Alastair developed a decorate-a-cupcake, eat-a-cupcake system.

Alysha hadn’t been to our house for some time, so she looked things over pretty carefully when she arrived.

She came through the front door, looked to the right through the living room to the closed sewing room door, to the left to the open door to my study.  She noted the French door to the dining room and the matching French door to the back porch.  After making these observations, she announced very seriously, “Your house is very door-ish.”

Kids are so cute.