Nesting gone wrong

Ever since Sadie got pink cowboy boots for Christmas she decided she wanted to be a cowgirl for Halloween the following year. Our favorite book 'round these parts is Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse.


Chase and I are accustomed these days to reading the book in full Texas drawls and we're big fans of Miss Nellie Sue and her similar obsession with horses. In fact, it was because of this book that Sadie assumed we would automatically have a horse when we moved to Texas. Nellie Sue had a garage and that solidified the fact that because we too would have a garage, there would be a horse inside.



Miss Nellie Sue's outfit was my first inspiration when I thought of how I wanted Sadie's costume to look. However, I DO NOT SEW! My mother didn't sew, but both my grandmother's did. They also crocheted. I have since picked up crocheting in my spare and diminishing time so why couldn't I pick up sewing as well.


I brought out the sewing machine Chase gave me when I was pregnant (and also nesting) with Sadie. It had collected some dust over the years but I could still remember how to string the machine and thread a bobbin. Basics. I can do the basics. All of my previous projects had either been making baby blankets for the kids (sewing in a straight line happened to be very hard for me at the time:-), embellishing burp cloths (don't ask), an attempt at making Sadie a dress with bloomers (another sore subject you shouldn't bring up), and that's about it from the budding seamstress inside me.


One of my favorite blogs is http://www.dana-made-it.com/. I'm sure you've heard of it. She makes everything look really easy to accomplish and when I saw a link to a cowboy vest I was sold. I told myself "I can TOTALLY do this." Before I dove into the project of my second attempt at making "wearable" clothing, I searched online for cowgirl costumes that resembled Nellie Sue. There wasn't one and most of them were either too short, too cheap looking and had the WRONG color scheme. We needed pink!!


I gave in and got all the supplies. No turning back now. It must be the nesting mother inside me that wanted to do this because I only gave myself a week to whip these puppies out thinking I could do it in an evening like Dana did. I was WRONG!!


This mama bird was FUMING at the end of the week. I thought I had until Halloween which was a Monday but Chase kindly informed me that the ward trunk or treat was actually on Friday so I'd probably want to get them done by then. I know he meant well but I almost threw the felt fabric and needles at him. I wanted to scream..."YOU DO IT THEN" but then the little annoying voice inside my head told me, "you wanted to do this...remember?"

I finished the costumes about an hour before the trunk or treat. I ended up measuring Sadie's chaps with the wrong jeans so they were WAY too big. Jack's ended up being too big as well so I had to shorten those too. In the last hours I felt like a contestant on Project Runway racing the clock before it was too late.


Next time (if there will ever be one of those) I will try the outfit on BEFORE the last day. Sadie's outfit was WAY more time intensive than Jack's. I added sequins and realized halfway through that I was really pushing my luck. I was just beginning to work with fabric. I shouldn't have attempted the sequins. Sadie also mentioned a few days before that Nellie Sue had riding gloves. RIDING GLOVES?! No problem sweetie!!


I found some polyester white gloves in the dollar spot at Target. I just sewed felt on top of those and called them "riding gloves." They were hard to get on, but worked splendidly!! Maurine and Sara must have been guiding me from heaven because I finished right in the nick of time, well not really. We barely made it on time for the parade and most of the yummy dinner options were gone.


We took the kids to a field by our house with cactus for a real "western effect" photo shoot. It was all hunky dory until Sadie decided to touch a cactus and everything was downhill from there. Oh well, it was time to leave anyway. Candy was to be had!!


The best part of the Trunk or Treat was having Macy Robinson there to take pictures of everyone in their costumes. She's an amazing photographer in our ward and brought all her studio supplies to the ward stage. In between the chili and cornbread, we ran up there and got a few shots taken of our little lone stars.


We were sadly disappointed to not be able to find our billy bob teeth for the pics. You know you're getting old when you can't find your teeth right? The truth is I found about three (yes, that's right, I have three) of my own pairs but we couldn't find Chase's anywhere. I wasn't about to wear them if Chase wasn't going to wear his. I guess I'm not as brave as I used to be.


You can clearly see Jack's disappointment at not winning the best costume prize (I like to think he's making that face on my behalf:-). The bishop's family ended up winning (figures) and all they did was put white tape on red shirts to resemble a "Where's Waldo" get-up. Oh well. We know who the REAL winners are.



Happy Trails everyone!!