Happy Halloween!

In honor of the holiday, I read this book to my pre-school class this week:

Froggy's Halloween by Jonathan London

When lovable, cute Froggy gets ready for Halloween, he practices the classic Halloween rhyme:

Trick or treat, smell my feet,

Give me something good to eat.

If you don't, I don't care

I'll pull down your underwear!

What did one sweet, quiet little girl learn from this story?  Well, for days, she went around shouting, "Give me a treat or I'll pull your underwear off!"  Good job teacher, good job.


Happy Halloween!  Make sure to hand out lots of candy...or some 3-year-old might try to get at your underwear.

Chalkboard Pumpkins

Why did no one ever tell me how amazing chalkboard paint is??  No, seriously.  It.  Is.  Awesome. 

I had two of these plain pumpkins that were begging to be spruced up.

I came up with this brilliant idea to paint them with chalkboard paint so that I could draw on the jack-o'-lantern face, which is way easier than trying to carve a face on a real pumpkin.

The paint went on really easy, but I needed to paint a couple of coats since the paper covering on the pumpkins just soaked it up. 

I'll be honest, when the paint dried, I expected it to have a crummy, cheap-chalkboard finish, but it ended up drying very smooth.  And you really, really can write on it with chalk!  It erases nicely, too.

I am a chalkboard paint enthusiast now.  I wonder what else I can find to chalboard-ify?  Hmmmm...

Suggested Reading...

Halloween Is... by Gail Gibbons

Sew Darn Cute

Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan

I discovered this book the way I find most good books these days--it was in the check-in bin at the library.  I find it very hard to resist flipping through the books while checking them in, and Jenny Ryan's necklace tank caught my eye. 

This project was super easy and required very little sewing.  I bought a cheap tank top from Old Navy and some long sleeved shirts from Target for my own versions.

My favorite kind of fabric is anything vintage or vintage-looking, especially the Aunt Grace line, so I pulled those out of my fabric stash to make the little fabric medallions.  For one long-sleeved shirt, I used fabric from Heather Bailey and Kaffe Fasset that was leftover from a quilt my mom made.

 

I cut out different sizes of half-circles from an old manila folder to use as a template to cut out the medallions and then used my trusty double-sided fusible interfacing to stick them to the neckline of each shirt.  The great thing about the double-sided interfacing is that it has a sticky back so you can rearrange each little medallion to get them in just the right spot before ironing them on permanently. 

On my sewing machine, I stitched around each half-circle, and did a zig-zag stitch along the neckline.  I've already worn and washed each shirt several time and, while the fabric is becoming a little broken in, I'm pleased to say that nothing has fallen off.  Yet.

Finished products:

Not to pick favorites, but I think I love this one the best.

Or maybe this one...

No, maybe this one...

Suggested Reading...

A vintagey book to go with vintagey fabric.

The Great Husband Hunt by Laurie Graham

Fall Mantel

I made this garland last fall, using a tutorial from Good Housekeeping.  Once I started, I couldn't stop.  I made yards and yards and yards of it.  I was very excited to pull the garland back out this year.  I love how the fall colors look against the subdued backdrop. 

 

My mom cleaned out her fabric inventory a couple of years ago and gave me a large chunk of it, so I was able to use some fall-ish fabric from that stash when making the garland.

Just so you know, you can buy sheets of fusible interfacing at Joann Fabrics or AC Moore that will make this project super easy.  Don't even think about cutting strips of Stitch Witchery and trying to line them up inside the two pieces of fabric to make your own interfacing because you're too lazy to go out and buy the real thing.  Not that I know anyone who would do that...


The tutorial suggests stringing the leaves through embroidery floss, but I just hot glued them to a length of coordinating ribbon. 

I bought the straw pumpkins a couple of years ago from Marshalls or TJ Maxx.  The orange candle holders are also an old purchase from Michaels. 

The rest of the mantel items (the black and white pictures, the mirror, the glass bottle, the white pots, and the oil lamps) are "permanant" fixtures and will probably stay throughout the change of seasons.

Suggested Reading...

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert

Welcome

This is it, people.  I'm blogging.  Watch me now...

I've been reading various blogs for over a year now (mostly decorating/sewing/crafting blogs) and have thought to myself, "I could do that.  I could blog.  I do...stuff."  I've slowly been working up the nerve to create my own and finally received the good kick in the pants I needed to get started: I was told I had to.  As a school assignment.  No joke.

You see, I'm currently working towards my master in library science.  Hence, the wannabe librarian.  For one of my classes I have to create and maintain a blog.  This blog is technically for school, but I'm  genuinely excited about the project.  Like I said, I've wanted to create one for awhile.  Now I can say things like, "On my blog...." or "The other day, while I was blogging..."

Here's what you can expect from Checked Out:

1.  Sewing/craft projects
2.  Exciting travel adventure stories
3.  Book lists (I am a wannabe librarian, after all)

I hope you stop by again and check things out!  Ha...get it?  Check things out??  Oh, never mind...