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Persistence…..

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In combining old blogs into one, this draft came across as last being updated 10/19/2012. Soooooo yeah

 

My new motto for 2012… a couple weeks late.

Procrastinate… that’s what I’m good at. This year I hope to change it. I realize that I will probably not get things exactly in the order I want. But I have a plan. And I’m going to keep trying to stick with it. Every time I slack off, I’m going to start back up. Make a routine stick even if it takes 100 times of starting over! I will do it this year. ……. tomorrow :P

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

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So this is an old project that I posted photos of on Facebook, but never really talked about much. *Disclaimer, these photos were not taken with the purpose of being posted on a blog and show a “lived in” house. For Halloween in 2011, I had originally planned to just let Austin and Allie sit at the house and hand out candy to any random trick or treaters that we might get. At most, we would get 5 kids each year, so that was pretty boring. About 3 days before Halloween, a friend of mine said “Hey, come let the kids trick or treat in my parents neighborhood. They give out good candy and it’s low traffic.” Sounds great, but we had no costumes and no money. What’s a momma to do? Why make costumes, of course! After sitting down and talking to Austin and Allie, both being pretty big fans of the Disney Cars franchise, Austin decided on Lightning McQueen and Allie would be Mater. Right…. Not a problem……

I started by digging through a stash of boxes that we used for various things. One was large enough to cut out the shape of a car, so I brainstormed… If Austin can fit his waist into a smaller box, we can put cardboard car cutouts on either side, then fill in the gaps in between. I had plenty of cardboard, and kraft paper to allow for all of Lightning’s curves.

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

 

All of the little details were fun to put together. I tried to find as many of the sponsor logos online as possible and just printed them off and modpodged them to the body. For the lightning bolts, I cut them out of poster board, used spray paint to get the color gradient right, and outlined it with black acrylic paint to set it off from the red background color. Pre-cut cake cardboard made the perfect wheels. Added some shoulder straps to carry this contraption and we were good to go…

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

 

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

 

Next up.. MATER!

Being an older model tow truck, Mater had fewer curves. So one box for the cab, one for the bed and one for the front. I had an old, cheap curtain rod that I had recently taken off a window, and used it to frame up the towing equipment. Lots of rust color spray paint with small touches of the powder blue that is mostly a memory for Mater. I hand lettered his doors with acrylic paint and cut the whites of his eyes out of posterboard, painted the irises and clued on to his windshield.

 

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

 

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

 

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

Overall this was a super fun project with a quick turn around time. I miss making things like this, and really have to force myself to make time for the fun stuff. I hope you enjoyed and got some inspiration to do you own costume!

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

 

A Lightning McQueen Halloween

Who isn’t overrun with “STUFF”?

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Maybe it’s just me, but does anyone else (esp. with kids) run into an overwhelming amount of stuff that comes into the house. Kids have clothes and school projects and random little toys. We have various cages and toys and filters from random pets (cat, fish, rats). I throw so much of it into the attic, but then at some point, I have to say enough is enough. Time for a YARD SALE!

But oh my, the headache that causes too. But yet again, here I am, two years after the last, planning another one. Two weeks out, we’ve color coded the kids closets.

Austin was running into the problem of his kids hangers being too small for the neck holes in his shirts, but adult hangers were too big. after measuring and looking several places online for a happy medium, we settled on these from Ikea.

BAGIS Children's coat-hanger IKEA Flexible plastic that minimizes the risk of breaking. Pants hanger, skirt hanger and shirt hanger in one.

Since they come in 4 colors, each kid picked two (one for long sleeve, one for short sleeve) and even though I bought several packs, they both had more clothes than would fit. That means purge time. We’re still working on this part, but it will simplify things for sure. The goal is to put into place the rule of one item in, one item out. However, that is easier said than done. I’ll be following up with some yard sale organization tips, so wish me luck!

4 years….. gone!

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It’s amazing what going from stay-at-home mom to working full time can do to artistic motivation.

I can’t say that. I know it’s my fault.

 

Anyway, here I am. Back at it… for my own enjoyment. I’ve always had an artistic outlet, and have really put it on the back burner for a while. Instead of trying to hold separate projects, photography vs. various other crafts, I’ve decided to pull everything together under one name, which my URL captures perfectly. Valarie with an “A”. That’s me, I’ll blame my individuality on my momma, starting with my less-than-common name spelling.

 

There will be some digital construction at first, so watch for that. And if you notice an absence, please call me out on it.

 

I hope to incorporate work from the kids as well, since they have developed awesome personalities and area really dying to be youtube stars. Trying to figure out how to make the name “Austin and Allie” work without getting sued by Disney. Is there any way they can owe us royalties since both of my kids are older than the show of the same name?

 

If you are still around and actually paying any attention to what I’ve got going on, THANK YOU!

LST-325 (Take 2)

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