The secret of staying young.....

Hello - what a terrible blogger I've been - again! Ah well, I did warn you that autumn tends to send me into a tail spin.....I won't get into the details, life has simply been busy. However, I did promise to show you how the Halloween costumes turned out and voila - we have Harry Potter - the younger version and the slightly older version. Originally they were going to be Harry and Malfoy or Ron, but then we managed to find another pair of glasses that would work and realized that our youngest actually makes the perfect Harry! We have all been reading the series (I kid you not, even hubby is into it!) and so it seemed fitting to do the Harry Potter theme this year - that reminds me, must add the photo with my hubby as he was Hagrid. (Sorry they are all out of order...) Big thanks to Danderella's Dad for loaning the overcoat - I searched everywhere for a big dark secondhand one, but couldn't get one for love nor money, but I think this did the trick and give the basic idea, all that hair helped a little I think! The robes were not difficult, but just took some time. I'm not sorry I made them as I love how they turned out and after all a black robe can be used again for different scary costumes, so it was worth it. However, I don't think I can manage to sew the costumes every year. Kuddos to those of you who manage it!

As for the card you may recall a similar version of this that I had made some time ago and posted. Well, I thought the original design perfect for my hubby's Aunt Julie as she is very outdoorsy, but wanted to make it somewhat more feminine. So I finally found the perfect excuse to pull out and actually use, rather than drool over, my Basic Grey Lemonade pack! I finally cut into it. I don't know if I like it better than the original, but I think it did the trick. The embellies are Bella Bling of course. I stitched a little and paper-pieced and pop-dotted the owl. The "branch" is an actual twig from my front yard. I cannot claim this idea as my own as I saw it some time ago in a magazine. The sentiment is: "The secret of staying you is....to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about your age!" Lucile Ball

I couldn't leave you hanging. :) Have a great week!

Hugs,

Shanna :)

p.s. Whew - so glad to have Halloween reported, packed up and put away! Time to deck the halls!!!