Mia's Katy Perry Costume.

A few months ago, Mia told me that she wanted to be Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time for Halloween. Me, being the impulse buyer that I am, hopped on Etsy and scoured the site for the costume of my 3 year old's dreams. I bought it, it was shipped to me and Mia loved it... for a week. Levi and I also planned on being characters from Adventure Time too. But our plans were foiled. Mia loves Katy Perry or "Kerry Perry" as she used to call her. I think I might have even mentioned it on here how obsessed she is. So of course I should have known that once we bought the Katy Perry movie that she would change her mind. 

No more Princess Bubblegum. "Mommy, you can sell that costume!" Is what she said. Because she wants to be Katy Perry. Of course I was upset that I wasted money on the other costume, but I was a little more mad at myself for the impulse purchase. So Levi and I told her she could be Katy Perry but she couldn't A) wear a cupcake bra or a bra with any other kind of sweet treats on it, or B) change her mind and want another costume. That's it! She can't change her mind again! If she doesn't want to be Katy Perry, tough titties!

Okay, so I didn't say tough titties to my daughter. Or did I? 

Moving on to the construction of said Katy Perry costume.

I decided that she would wear the candy dot costume that Katy Perry wears in the California Gurls music video. Because it seemed the easiest.

I started out with two yards of felt that I bought at Walmart for $9.98 

( I only needed one yard)

I measured Mia and cut the height and width to size. Which ended up being a big rectangle. 

I hemmed the top and bottom.

Then I pinned the edges to the right side and sewed it into a big tube.

Next I made two mini tubes for the straps.

I pinned them to the outside of the dress and sewed them on.

Once that was done I turned my dress inside out and it was finished!

So easy, right?

The next step was adding the candy buttons to the straps.

All I did was hot glue them on. 

The next part was the hardest part for me. The styrofoam balls.

I had no idea how to cut them in half!

I started with a huge kitchen knife, that stunk!

Then I moved onto an Exacto Knife. I thought heating it would make it easier but it just took more time. 

(that explains the candle in the back)

It took a while but I finally had them all cut in half. Then I painted them with Acrylics, the thicker paints worked better for me. Those small pink ones took like 60 coats! (exaggerating!)

Last but not least, I measured them out precisely (no, I didn't) and glued them to the dress.

The outfit wasn't complete without some shoes! 

I hot glued candy dots to some sparkly shoes that I bought for $8 at Walmart.

Here's my baby's final costume.

...and Katy Perry.

Let me point out that I'm not the best seamstress.

 I have never attempted to make any kind of clothing before this.

So if it looks a little crooked and wonky in the photos, that's because it is. 

But that's okay, it's a costume for my 3 year old and it didn't cost me too much.

How much you ask? 

Let me break it down.

1 yard of fabric - $5

2 packs of balls- $8

Paints- $10

Candy- $4

Shoes- $8

= $35 

Did I forget something? If I did let me know. 

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did making it.

Do you know what you're going to be for Halloween, yet? 

#5 Mia's letter to Santa Clause

This Christmas, Mia has been super excited about Santa Clause.

I told her about how he leaves gifts for her if she's good and in return she has to leave him milk and cookies.

I wasn't really sure if she understood what I was telling her, but apparently she did.

Last night, I asked Mia if she wanted to write a letter to Santa and she said yes.

So I got some paper and a marker and asked her what she wanted me to write.

Keep in mind, I wrote exactly what she said so it may not make much sense, but you'll get her point.

After the letter I'll type out what it says just in case it's too hard to read my messy writing or the crappy scan.

Here's the letter.

Here's what it says.

Dear Santa, 

My name is Mia, I 

want lots of Squinkies, a 

Barbie house, a Barbie 

and Ken, Green Lego's, purple 

eyes for Christmas. I love 

you. I'm Mia (her full name but I blocked it out for privacy purposes)

Santa Clause is favorite Mia

 friend. I want to make

 Santa Clause cookies for Santa. 

Santa Clause is favorite girl 

you ever seen. You're my best

 friend. I love you too. 

Santa Clause do you have markers? 

That's it. I love you.

From Mia 

Age 2 

There you have it, a letter to Santa from my two year old.

Don't you just love her?

I know I do!

Mia's Tent Bed!!! (posted by Levi)

I have been wanting to build Mia a new bed for awhile now, 

I'm a huge procrastinator so it hasn't been done.

 But a couple of days ago I willed myself to make her one, and if I do say so myself

(and I do) it came out amazing!

Mia is always saying how she wants a play house and gets a big blanket for us all to get under.

family + blanket = playhouse 

So I had seen a few play tents online and totally wanted to "one up" those others,

I got some materials and within what felt like 30 minutes. Ta-dah!

Amazing tent bed!

 What else could be a better playhouse than one she could sleep in!?

 I didn't take any process photos because I honestly didn't think about it, but its just 

1x2's, pocket hole screws, zip ties and fabric.

Simple right? (I know!)

By the way, I am obsessed with pocket hole screws.

I feel like if your projects hardware isn't aesthetically pleasing, then it isn't at it's full potential.

Oh, and also, they're AWESOME so 1+1=2

But here it is Mia's new tent bed. Awesome, I know. 

Thank you, thank you....

Mia's new closet nook!

I've been spending a lot of time on ohdeedoh. 

It's apartment therapy's site for kids.

I have seen so many cute nooks, DIY's and kids rooms that are so awesome!

So, being the impatient mom that I am, I decided I would switch my plans from 

working on our bedroom(which is almost done by the way) to working on Mia's room.

You may remember her curtain-less window and crib turned day-bed.

The ceiling (almost) covered with pom-poms.

And last but not least, the unorganized closet complete with ball pit and Barbie RV.

Well, I had a few ideas and this is what they consisted of :

A) Retire the ball pit.

No one missed it. 

(Oh wait, that's because it's still sitting in our living room waiting to be thrown out.)

B) Move the small plastic dresser full of Mia's baby clothes.

C) Throw some curtains on that window!

D) Get rid of the crib.

I threw a few ideas around in my head about what I wanted to do with the bottom half of her closet.

Ultimately, I figured I'd make Mimi a little reading nook.

Using things we already had around the house, I pulled together a cute little room

that my baby enjoys.

Here it is:

First I painted the bottom half of the closet using paint that we already had.

The curtains are from a previous room.

We had the garland leftover from the title picture that we took.

Also, the mini-rug in there is what my husband and I took turns crocheting when we were learning how to crochet circles.

Here's the other side of the nook. Mia had one of those Dora couches that folds out 

but it didn't fit into the nook. So I did some mini couch surgery and reupholstered it with some nesting doll fabric. (Don't be too impressed, I used fabric glue because as I mentioned earlier- I'm impatient.)

We also used a small shelf that was too small to put anywhere in our house but just so happened to be perfect for this mini-room. We completed it with Mia's favorite book and some nesting dolls.

We had this pink frame sitting in our house for a while not knowing where to put it.

Originally it was gold and the mirror was damaged.

We painted it pink, cut some wood to fit the back and painted it with chalkboard paint.

You may also notice the Christmas lights that are pinned up as the lighting source for the nook.

We didn't have many options when it came to lighting in there because we were only using things we already had in the house and none of the lamps we had would fit in there.

Mia loved it nonetheless and was completely happy to play in there with Sophia and Rigby.

There was no cost for this project. Projects like this are the best because not only do we not spend any money but we get to be creative and make a beautiful princess happy!