Milkymilk

last minute Bat Garland, yo

I was looking though ohdeeoh the other day, for inspiration for Harper's & #2's new rooms.  I was so charmed with mer mag's security envelope cupcake/sandwich toppers!  So smart and cute and inspirational. 

 

We have not been saving the envelopes our bills come in, and I do not have any toothpicks.  But, we had enough to scrounge together a spooky-ish bat garland.   

You will need:  envelopes, a pencil, some tape, a needle & thread, and a sheet of card stock for the template.  (I found this bat template on Martha Stewart's website, and used 1/2 of the small bat from page 1.)

I was able to fit three bats onto one envelope.

I highly recommend apolhstery thread for garlands.  All purpose can break, and button is a bit clunky.  Fishing line always just looks like fishing line, and far from invisible, to me.  

I cut about 5 or 6 feet of thread before stringing the bats.

 

Thread the bats about where the body meets the wings.  This allows the wings to open up nicely.

For my finished garland, above the mantel, there are 5 stands of bats, with between 3-7 bats per strand.  I just taped it to the ceiling with scotch tape.  We only need it to last up there for a few days, and it is very light.  To keep some of the bats in place, and to keep their wings a little bit open, I put an itty bitty bit of tape on the top of one wing where it met the thread.  It is hidden that way.

Ah, pregnancy hormones hard at work.

A New Room and a New Love (of Motorcycles)

 

Harper's big girl room has stalled out before it started, to be honest.  Thankfully, we had not moved all her things in from the nursery before we hit a wall.  The hiccup is the dreaded big girl bed.  She loves it, really loves it.  Will she sleep it in?  Nope.  Not when she can get out of it and play. 

So, we could put her crib in there, too, as a nice transition and to keep her trapped for a bit longer.  The thing is that the crib is too big to fit thought the door.  We would have to take it apart, put it back together, and then take it apart and put it back together again before the baby arrives.  Preferably well before the baby arrives, so Harper is not mad at the baby for taking 'her' crib.

Or, we can wait a couple of months, and hope as she grows older and wiser she will listen to us when we ask her to stay in her bed.  I think the age of reasoning is not far off.  Every day she surprises me with how much she knows.  Today, it was that she knows the word, "motorcycle."  

In fact, she LOVES motorcycles...  Um, there is a bright big world of trouble ahead of us, but we'll have to take that one day at a time.

Any-who, this all gives us longer to put the room together and fuss over the little details of decorating.  That is the best part, any-way.  Let's just hope that we get around to preparing the nursery for the new baby sometime before March.

One more thing...

I can't believe I left my mom's shot of Harper & my pumpkin picking shoes out of that post.  Let's just blame it on the pregnancy brain.

Yup.  As you might have already guessed, open toed shoes with socks are not the best for tromping through a muddy New England field in the fall.  Practical?  No.  Cute?  I obviously thought so.  The Today Show said everyone would be doing it this fall.  

Little Bits

Hayrides have been had.

Pumpkins have been picked.

The leaves are turning.

 

Black cat & pumpkin sugar cookies have been packed for shipping.

Halloween is almost here.  We finally bought a costume for Harper.  Her favorite thing to do is to take it off.  After careful consideration, I have decided not to exchange it.  Hopefully she will be too distracted by the festivities to take it off on the big day.  If not, her striptease will be what memories are made of anyhow.  

Oh, and the fever was ROSEOLA!  That is right.  On the 4th day she broke out into a rash, poor girl.  To add insult to injury, she also got another tooth.  19 down, 1 to go!  She is all better now, thank goodness.  Sleep is awesome.

Speaking of which, a sneak peek of Harper's big girl room is coming soon!  (Skylar did some painting over the weekend.  My hero.)

Musical Thursday

Not that every Thursday can be musical.  Some Thursdays are spent with a 23 pound hot fever child glued to your body, keeping you up all night as you wonder why you taught her the word "Mommy," or a your name at all, in the first place.  Sure, it was cute at first "Mama", but screaming it at 1 a.m., or even 10 p.m., is far from adorable.  

Not this Thursday, though.  It is musical Thursday, and Harper's mystery fever has disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared.  Voila!  Poof!  She is even napping, by herself, in her crib.  Let's not worry about tonight, let's celebrate the nap with song.

Have you seen Color Me Kate?  It is a happy vortex of awesomeness and the source of everything good and inspirational in this world.  Really.  I do not exaggerate a bit.  She was even part of Improv Everywhere's Grocery Store Musical.  See, look: