Pumpkin Picking

Over the past six years we haven't created much of a tradition about where we buy pumpkins- we have picked them up at the grocery store, farm stands on the way home from Granddad's, pumpkin patches- all over the place, but we do have a tradition of buying pumpkins. 

Pumpkins are one of the more labor intensive traditions I have forced on my family- mostly labor intensive for me because I do 90% of the pumpkin carving and gutting (except Cordelia actually carved her own this year!). However, I really love the non permanent art that is pumpkin carving, and I find pumpkins just as fun to carve as it is to watch the squirrels eat them.  

This year my sister Shauna took the girls and I out to Larriland Farm to pick our pumpkins, and while we were there we picked apples and broccoli. 

Of course I took this opportunity to dress the girls in the matching shirts my mom gave them! 

Adeline enjoyed crawling in the dirt, putting everything in her mouth, and being dubious about the pumpkin cart.

Cordelia enjoyed picking everyone else's pumpkins, huffing,  

squishing her sister, 

and playing with the slugs. She has always really enjoyed slugs. 

Adeline was perplexed by the fact that we wanted her to take the apples off the trees when she could just as easily pick the apples up off the ground (this is a tree apple not a rotten ground apple, for the record).

Cordelia is concerned that there will be more pictures of Adeline than there are of her- so she really likes to jump in Adeline's pictures. 

By the end of our trip both girls were perplexed that we didn't just pick apples out of these buckets! Fruit and veggie picking is hard work! 

Does your family have a pumpkin picking tradition? If you are curious about how we carved our pumpkins (this year and in years past) check out the hashtag #tocknellpumpkins on instagram. 

Going Batty

Throughout Cordelia's life it has become apparent that I believe all children should wear clothing with animal ears on them- I honestly think it is the cutest thing ever. I was particularity excited when Hayley of Mouse House Creations released a sneak peak of her latest pattern- The Dress Up Hoodie, and put out a tester call.

I knew that even if I didn't get accepted to test this was a pattern I needed to have because there were soo many options! And I absolutely love giving novelty hoodies to kids for birthday gifts.  

The Dress Up Hoodie comes in sizes 6 months to 12 years and gives you the options of making a plain raglan hoodie, or making a dinosaur, horse, unicorn, bunny, cat, mouse, shark, bat, owl, or a butterfly. You can also mix and match any of the pieces to create whatever animal your imagination comes up with. 

I made Cordelia a size 7 bat. The pattern goes together in a very straight forward way, the instructions make sense and all of the pieces fit together well. The fit of the base hoodie is really great too, it's the perfect length for Cordelia, and the hood is nice and large. However, if I were to make this hoodie out of a bulkier fabric I might grade out the forearms a bit more so she could still fit layers underneath. That said, they are the perfect size in this material- which is actually a cut up unisex sweatshirt (size xl, and the pink is a second sweatshirt).

This pattern gives you the base of every animal, but it is up to you to embellish it the way you want. For example, the butterfly markings are for you to put your mark on, and fabrics are suggested for the animal accessories, but there is a lot of leeway for personal interpretation- for the horse mane you could use fake fur, or yarn, or cut fleece. If you aren't sure what materials you want to use, take a look at all the tester photos- it was fun and inspiring to see all the different combinations. I think the pattern is written well for this and I think it really lets your creativity run wild, which I love. 

 I differed from the regular wing construction by lining my wings (so you could get the flash of pink) and I used the split back piece so the wings were attached in the center. I also choose to add pink stitching to mimic the bone structure in a bat's wing. 

I used the same pink stitching on the arms, hood, and pocket. 

The inside of her ears I used the inside of the sweatshirt fabric so they would be fuzzy, and I used very stiff interfacing to help them stand up well. 

Cordelia is so dramatic she was all about this project- and when she wore it to school I was so happy I made a black animal because it didn't show as much dirt as all of her pink and blue sweatshirts! 

This was a fun make, and a good pattern- and I even have three more cut out on my desk now that Halloween sewing is done!