Ghosts of Halloweens Past

We love love love Halloween around here. Because we live in West Michigan our Halloween consist of planning a costume that can fit over a snowsuit or trick or treating inside one of the hundreds of churches in our area. 

With that being said, I started making the kids costumes about four years ago. My first costume was for my oldest.....A cereal killer. Clever right?? It was a very simple, easy costume that won him a 25$ gift card in a costume contest :). So, from then on I have made most all of their costumes. 

My wonderful sister found a pea costume at Meijer on clearance for $1.00! Since I make tutu's already, the girls went as The Princess and The Pea. Most of the time I really just want to save money and that's why I make their costumes. Although, over the years the costumes have become more elaborate and I don't save as much money but I do enjoy making them and they're always a great conversation starter.

Here is The Princess and The Pea with their brother, The tuxedo skeleton, and quite possible the cutest little cow you ever did see!!  

 

Last year the girls and I went as Minnie Mouse!!! They turned out so so cute!! I wasn't blogging then so I didn't get a lot of pictures of how I made them. Here are a few of the ones I did take of homemade Minnie Mouse :)

 I told you it was cute!!!!

Here's a few of the things that I used to make this costume:

• Red tulle
• White felt
• Yellow spray paint
• Second hand shoes 
• Black headbands
• Black fabric (I picked out a sequin one for a little added sparkle!!)
• Red polka dot fabric for the bow  
• White socks and gloves
• Black leggings/tights and sweatshirt 

When making the ears and bow I found that it was much easier and faster to use hot glue.....I can sew a bit but this just made more sense to me :). 

Find some cardboard and make your circles as big as you want the ear to be. Cut a small half moon shape in it so it can sit on the headband nicely. 

I cut out my black fabric about a half inch around the cardboard cut outs and glued them together sequin side in. Then I just turned them right side out. 

I put a little batting in them to make them more full. 

The bow is two rectangles, pinch them together secure it with something (needle and thread, florist wire) then add some ribbon to finish it off. 

The tutu is a basic style knot tutu and all I did was add felt dots to it with hot glue.

I went to a second hand store and found some old shoes that fit my girls. I used some sand paper on the shoes before I painted them just to help the spray paint stick a bit better.....Not sure if it helped. The paint didn't stay on that well but it worked for what we needed. 

Lastly, I added white socks and white gloves. We already had the black leggings and sweatshirts so that saved us a few dollars :)


So there you have it!!! Hope this tutorial helps you next time you need to make a costume for your kiddos or yourself. If you have any questions please comment!!! And don't forget to follow me :)

Jennifer 

The Kamps House

It's been way to long since my last post. We have lots of new things happening around here and are very excited to share them.

First and for most....WE FINALLY CLOSED ON THE KAMPS HOUSE!!!!!! YAY!!!! :) :). Can you tell I'm excited? It was a very long and sometimes dramatic few months getting this closing done but we now have closed and own two houses.....yay?!?!? 

Second....This now means that we get to start remodeling The Kamps House. There's an endless list of things that need to be done before we can move in. Good thing making lists is one of my favorite things to do ;). 

Third......It will soon be time to say goodbye to my Hudsonville house :(. This is the house that my son has lived in since he was two. It's where I brought both of my girls home, from the hospital, to. I bought this house when I was 19 years old!!! Crazy right?? I have put my blood, sweat, and many tears into this house....I love this house and will be very sad to say goodbye. 

Four.....The main reason that I started this blog was to document our journey in Setting Up the Kamps house, all of our DIY projects, thrifting, Decoration, and Homesteading.It is my hope that it  help you out in some part of your life and inspire you to create something of your own.     

Thank you in advance to all the people that will be helping us in this adventure we love you and couldn't do it without you.  

Before

The first thing that we did was start our orchard. The Outlaw got a killer deal on peach and apricot trees at TSC so this is the start of our orchard.

Everyone pitched in and help plant their own tree.

We had a trick-or-treat event before we did this, and there was no way we were getting her to take that off :)

This picture was taken by an 10 year old..... not bad!

The Kamps House