angry chicken

halloween charms

I made these charms last night with Lydia instead of dealing with my epic to-do list. Sadie and I leave for Japan tomorrow for 2 weeks and writing down the schedule for the other two girls— carpools, rehearsals, gymnastics, and then trying to get food in the house before we go, is daunting. Oh, and pack for Japan. It's a whole lot.

So, a charm break was sorely needed and I am so happy I just chilled out for an hour to make these. The bat was inspired by a you tube video and the others I just made on the fly.

I had an unexpected costume deadline that I have been working on too, so my brain is a buzzy. I'm looking forward to just sitting on a plane for 10 hours with my eldest daughter and two good friends— I can't even wrap my brain around the whole "Japan" part until we get there.

I will be posting photos during the trip on Instagram. Sadie and I have already talked about documenting this trip for her album, she's going to mix it up with journaling, voice-to-text dictation, photos, drawing, and video. I always do a voice-to-text at the end of each day when I travel and then dump that text into a photo album. It's so wonderful for getting in all the details that are so easy to forget, especially when I make an album months after the trip.

costume work

I have been designing/sewing up a storm the last few weeks getting ready for the girls' holiday ballet production. It's been so fun and a lot of work. This is for The Portland Ballet's piece Gift Box, by Anne Mueller.

Some early sketches. We are going with white tights on the men. I am making the headpieces now for the ladies, which I love to do. I will show them soon.

Some pieces in production

Unrelated to all this ballet and costume work we have been watching some great videos on you tube:

Seeker Daily: Topical world issues. Short and easy to follow with a lot to talk about after.

The Kids React to Food series on the Bon Appétit channel: Okay, these are so great. I think we have watched them about 5 times each.

Short science based videos on Life Noggin.

And thank you so much for all your teen reading suggestions. I got quite a few at the library. And I finally read Eleanor and Park. Haunting. And Sad, but hopeful, too. I can't stop thinking about it. I had no idea what is was about until I read it. I love it when I don't know, I feel like I come to books with a better state of mind that way.

halloween peg dolls

We made some spooky peg dolls last week. I never tire of making these. I helped, but it was pretty much all Lydia. We have been watching some scarey movies to get in the mood—The Addams Family, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Sleepy Hollow, Nightmare Before Christmas, and the Corpse Bride. These are good for all the girls, although Sleepy Hollow is pretty bloody and gross and had some torture creepiness that I had to warn them about.

Halloween costumes are being prepared a bit early this year because Sadie and I are going to be gone in Japan during Halloween so I need to get the others ready before we go. Words can't describe how excited we are to go on this trip. All the girls get to choose a big trip to take before college, (with no siblings and taking one parent) and she choose Japan and I could be more thrilled! This is an understatement. It's been hard to even research because I get too excited to focus. We are going with close friends who know Japan well so I will not be left wondering the streets distracted by everything.