Monday, October 23, 2017

Potter Family Halloween 2017 - Disney Villains


Happy Halloween from the Potter house.  I've been waiting years to execute this theme for our family Halloween costumes.  This year I finally felt like all the kids were old enough to really make it good. 

I've been sewing non-stop since July to finish the costumes, but I didn't mind one bit.  It was a ton of fun & it was great seeing each character come to life.  The kids added their own personality twist to each of the characters, & then when I finallly added make-up, they BECAME their favorite Disney villains.

Enjoy!


Trek wanted to be Captain Hook from Peter Pan.  I actually made this costume 3 years ago when we did Peter Pan as a family theme so his costume was fairly easy this year.  I did have to pull out the hem & re-hem it, but other than that, it was already done.  He makes the cutest Captain Hook I've ever seen.  I kind of love him.



Ever since I started teaching myself how to sew SO many years ago, I've always wanted to make a Maleficent costume.  Then when the new movie came out & they re-styled Maleficent I wanted it even more.  This year I FINALLY got to be Maleficent.  I found some amazing dragon scale fabric at the craft store & a great pattern.  The dress was a blast to make.  Then I watched a few youtube videos on how to use cosplay EVA foam to make the collar which was REALLY cool.  (Now I want to use EVA foam for ALL my costumes).  I bought the headpiece & staff on Amazon.  I think it turned out really beautiful for a villain.





I'm so grateful to have married such a good sport.  Year after year, Trek dresses up in whatever I decide I want him to be.  He's my hero & I wouldn't be complete with out him.


Cadence is 14 this year & decided she wanted to be a classic Disney villian.  She decided on Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmation, which is one of my favorites.  Her costume was the easiest of the bunch.  She had the black dress for music performances already, we had the shoes & fur wrap in our costume bin, so all we really had to do was get red gloves & a wig.  Once we added make-up, she looked 10 years older (YIKES!).  She is growing up to be such a beautiful young lady, even dressed up as a villain.


"My only true love, darling. I live for furs. I worship furs! After all, is there a woman in all this wretched world who doesn't?"



Lorien is 12 this year & was completely dead set on being Ursula from The Little Mermaid for Halloween.  She chose her costume the day after Halloween last year.  She's been waiting a long time for this.  I have to admit, this was the hardest costume I've ever made in my entire life.  We had the purple shirt, black corset, & black skirt already (just from our closets) so I only had to make those tentacles which proved to be quite the challenge.  But after much experimentation, I figured out that if you sew elastic while it's stretched, it will make the fabric curl up like a tentacle.  I sewed the elastic to the black fabric & then attached purple fabric to the opposite side.  Times that by 8 & you get some pretty awesome tentacles.  I made little suckers on the tentacles with purple puff paint & then attached them all to a large piece of belt elastic.  The tentacles are easily removable & are held around her waist with velcrow.  Lorien loves to sculpt so she sculpted her own necklace & seashell earrings.  And once we put the make-up on . . . . she WAS Ursula.  I think this whole costume turned out really really pretty.


"Soon I'll have that little mermaid, & the ocean will be mine!"






My little Taya is 10 years old this year & she couldn't wait to be her very favorite villain of all time - Yzma from Emperor's New Groove.  Emperor's New Groove is probably the most under-rated, yet hilarious Disney cartoons ever made.  And Yzma is just the best.  Taya already had the black dress so all I had to make was the collar (with all those feathers), her earrings (out of foam), & the hat (again, I played with the EVA foam). . . oh & we can't forget the llama poison.  But what really made her character was the make-up.  I had a blast trying to make little Taya look SO old just like Yzma.  And Taya is such a character, that when she is in costume, she acts like Yzma.  She's HILARIOUS.


"Ah, how shall I do it? Oh, I know. I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless little flea, and then I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives... 
[laughs] ...I'll smash it with a hammer! It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius, I say! 
[knocks over bottle of poison on flower, which shrivels up and dies] Or, to save on postage, I'll just poison him with this!"



Bladen is 8 this year & couldn't wait to be Gaston.  His costume was super easy.  I just made the tunic/shirt, threw on a pirate belt from our costume bin, put on some yellow cleaning gloves, & bought a wig.  For make-up I just added some eyebrows since my kids literally have SEE THROUGH eyebrows.  ha ha ha  Isn't he the cutest Gaston you've ever seen.


“Were you in love with her Beast? Did you honestly think she’d want you when she had someone like me?”




Craiger has been dying to be Jafar for Halloween for ages.  He is 6 this year & has been talking about this for months.  I made his costume top to bottom & it was fun.  His "tunic" was made from my leftover Ursula fabric & I made the sleeves & sash out of some old red satin pillowcases.  I sewed a basic black & red cape to the tunic because we all know Jafar needs his cape.  The EVA foam made the perfect pointed shoulder piece & hat.  All I had to do was add a feather & some trim to make it like Jafar's hat.  And for the staff I found a hilarious snake gear shift that I spray painted gold & glued to a large wooden dowel.  He really wanted lots of make-up too, so I did my best since he was one wiggly little boy.  But overall I think he's the cutest Jafar ever.


“A snake am I? Perhaps you’d like to see how snakelike I can be!”



And Canyon, my little spitfire of a little boy (4 years old) wanted to be Hades which fits his little devilish personality SO well.  I literally just draped the rest of the black fabric (that was leftover from Ursula & Jafar) over him & somehow made it into a toga.  Lorien sculpted his skull brooch & I painted it.  I sewed a blue collar to an old grey shirt of his & added triangles with black puff paint, then sewed tulle around the bottom of the costume to make it look like he was floating on a cloud like Hades does.  And then of course we had to top it off with Hades' flaming blue hair.  He looked adorable.


“The names Hades, Lord of the Dead. Hi! How ya doin?”



It was a fun group of costumes.  All together they look great.  I was very happy with how they all turned out.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!






Saturday, September 30, 2017

Lorien's Fall Orchestra & Choir Concerts


The night of Taya's birthday was Lorien's first 2 concerts of the year.  First she had her orchestra concert where they played "Chariots of Fire" & "La Petite Dances."  As soon as I get those songs uploaded, I'll add the video links to this post.

After the orchestra concert was her choir concert.  This year Lorien is in the musical theater class which puts on a play each year (this year it's Annie & Lorien has the part of July for the play), & they also practice as a show choir type group.

They've been working on 2 songs this month.  .  .  "California Dreaming" & "Seasons of Love" from the musical RENT.  I will upload those 2 songs & post the links to the videos below as well so watch for the links.

Lorien auditioned for & got one of the two solos for Season's of Love.  She did AMAZING.  It must be SO scary standing up on that stage in front of an audience & have to sing a solo, but she just does it like it's no big deal.  She makes me so proud.  :-)

















Great job Lo.  We are SO proud of you.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Taya's Birthday Breakfast & School Celebration

Happy 10th Birthday to this little ray of sunshine.  I love her so much.

For her birthday she wanted me to do her hair in the curlers Mimi had given her for her birthday.  They were SO easy to put in & I couldn't wait to see her hair all done in the morning.



For her birthday breakfast, Taya picked toaster strudels, bacon, sausage, & pears, & of course a birthday ding dong.


She was happy to have her favorite breakfast foods on her plate.



I can't believe Taya is 10 years old already.  Where does the time go?



After breakfast I took out her curlers & her hair was GORGEOUS.



I had her get dressed & then I broke up the curls a bit.  Her hair looked beautiful.





Canyon & I visited Taya in her class for a birthday celebration.  Her whole class sang to her.



And then I made chocolate suckers for her class.  Taya really wanted "photo booth" suckers so I found some molds & had a blast making lips, mouths, bow ties, glasses, & mustaches out of chocolate.  The class thought they were SO cool.



We even went outside & did a photo shoot with their chocolate suckers.






It was really really fun.

Happy Birthday Taya!