Paint Palette Costume

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! For some reason I just had an itch to make another Halloween costume. I was thinking about fun things to be that I haven't really seen before and I was going through all the iPhone emojis and thought of the painters palette and while people have had painters palettes in there costumes before (mostly Bob Ross ;) ) I wanted my whole costume to be an artist palette with a giant paint brush!

I had all the supplies already on had. I guess it pays to keep craft and art supplies forever and also have a room to store them in.

Palette: I used a elmers foam board that I got at a craft store to make the palette and then looked up paint palette on google to get a basic idea of how they looked and then traced the shape with pencil and cut the board with an Xacto-knife. I then painted the spots on. 

Paint brush: I had an almost empty roll of wrapping paper so I look the rest of the paper off and used the cardboard roll. I cut it down the middle long ways so I could make it skinnier like a paint brush would be. I then painted the roll red and let it dry. The hardest thing to make was the paint brush tip because I wanted to get it right. I cut a little paper into a triangle shape like a mini birthday hat and then put a paper around the middle to make it look like a paint brush shape. Then I cut pieces of brown string to the length of the triangle and used double sided tape to secure it. For the silver part of the paint brush I used tin foil which I also secured on with double sided tape. 

I put a little handle on the back side of the palette so I could hold it in any direction that I wanted to. 

love, Carlee

Garden Gnome, Flower, Bee Family Costume

Our DIY family costume for this year! I love it. I honestly kind of knew what I wanted to do for our Halloween costume like last December just about 10 months early haha. I didn't know exactly how I was going to do the main flower part for my costume until I was re-watching Parks and Rec and April was a flower for Halloween one year so that I wear I got the inspiration for my flower hat (see photo below). I was actually just going to order a bee costume for Knox but all the dog bee costumes online were kind of cheesy and I figured I could make something just as good or better for less money. I think his bee costume turned out so rad although he hates wearing it. I did use my sewing machine for the green leaf flower necklace and for the bee body but I think you could most likely improvise with a hot glue gun if you don't know how to sew or don't have a sewing machine.

Flower costume:
-Main flower hat: Pink felt peddles. Duct tape pipe cleaners to the back of the peddles so they are bendable. Arrange around a straw hat or sun hat. Secure with duct tape.
-Green leaf necklace. Cut green felt into triangles and sewn together with green thread.
-Plastic flower pot cut out the bottom.
-Plastic fake flowers.

Dog bee costume:
-Yellow shirt. Sew black fabric/felt in stripes to resemble a bee.
-Sewn together felt for the tail of the bee.
-Use a mental hanger and black panty hose to make the wings.
-Headband and pipe cleaners with two felt balls on top for antennas.

Gnome Costume:
-Red cardstock for hat cut into big birthday hat shape. (used a elastic string from a birthday hat to make it so you can wear it. )
-White Beard (Halloween costume section)
-Blue Shirt
-Khaki Pants
-Boots
-Rope for belt
-White quilt stuffing for eyebrows (stick on with double sided tape)

So I love Halloween and I love dressing up. But I don't like spending a ton of money on something I am only going to wear once a year and never again so I try to keep the cost of our whole family costume to under $50. I already had a lot of stuff on hand so that helped. I only spent $27.50!

Cost:
Pink and green felt for flower: $4
Fake flowers: $10
Pipe Cleaners: $1.99
Head band: $.50
Blue shirt for gnome: $11

Already Owned
Flower- Flower pot
Flower - Hat
Flower - Green shirt

Bee -Yellow cloth
Bee - Black felt
Bee- felt balls for antenna

Gnome - Red card stock for hat
Gnome - white beard (got it on sale two Halloweens ago for $1.99)
Gnome-Khaki pants
Gnome-Boots
Gnome-Rope for belt
Gnome-White stuffing for eyebrows

We did a costume walk at Clark's work with the other families and we won first place for best family costume! Everyone thought we were so cute. Unfortunately we couldn't bring Knox which would 
have made it even better but still we got a really cool prize and my creativity paid off. I would still
make costumes and dress up even if there wasn't a contest it is just fun and one of my favorite times of the year!

love, Carlee

Mont Saint-Michel

When going to the west coast of France we knew we had to see Mont Saint-Michel. I have seen so many photos of it and it looks absolutely beautiful. After seeing St. Malo we drove to our hotel which was right outside the causeway bridge to Mont Saint-Michel. It was the perfect location. When we got to our hotel we could see the abbey lit up from our room. The sun didn’t rise until about 8am the next morning so I knew I wanted to get up and catch the sunrise with Mont Saint Michel in the background! There was a perfect dock right by our hotel so got to watch the sunrise and snap some photos of a perfect morning. 

We then caught a bus and headed out to the island. There is a free shuttle bus that runs from the parking lots and the little village and it is free. Even though we were up and at them really early it was still pretty busy. I can’t imagine going midday. I was so glad that the weather was nice the day we went. The blue sky lining the island was so pretty. We wanted to go see the abbey first which is on the very top of the island. So we went into the walls of the city and started out climb up the cobblestone streets. We did stop for some coffee and hot chocolate and then continued. We made it to the abbey and regretted wearing so many layers of clothing haha. 

Inside the abbey was spectacular. I am glad we went first thing and it was not very busy. We even got to see some of the rooms without anyone else there which is practically unheard of in popular tourist destinations. Did you also know that it was the inspiration for Disney's Rapunzel castle? It was a step climb up and down from the abbey but it was worth it and the view from the top was great.The island was actually a prison for a while. I thought maybe it was the original Alcatraz haha 

Shirt: TJ Maxx

Raincoat: North Face

Green Coat: Rue 21

Jeans: NEX

Shoes: Nike

Scarf: Nordstrom

St. Malo, France

This was our first stop in France. We flew into Paris and then rented a car and headed directly for the coast. St. Malo wasn't originally on my list of towns to visit but once I told my old teacher, a wonderful mentor I had throughout school, that we were going to France she recommended that I read the book All The Light We Cannot See. Most of the story takes place in St. Malo so I knew I had to visit. 

The town is lovely. We visited the old part of town that is right on the sea and completely walled. I am telling you the color of the sea along the Normandy coast of France is something else. It is so beautiful and the prettiest color of blue. We walked around, stopped at chocolate shops and souvenir shops, we walked along the wall that encloses the old town and saw amazing views. It was just a cute quaint little town. Everyone we interacted with was so nice as well! We then headed up the coast in the evening and we saw the biggest full moon ever. It was a great start to our France trip. 
love, Carlee

Coat: North Face

Leggings & Shoes: Nike

Scarf: Nordstrom

Purse: JCPennys

Cliffs of Étretat

If you follow me on instagram you know that Clark and I were just in Paris and before that in the France countryside for a few days. We really wanted to see some of what the Normandy coast had to offer before exploring the beautiful Paris and one of the places that was on my list were these beautiful Cliffs of Étretat. They are right on the coast and easily accessible from the town of Étretat. Étretat is best known for its chalk cliffs, including three natural arches.

We went on a Sunday so it was probably a little busier than usual. There is parking right on the beach but we had to park a little ways up the hill on the way into town because parking was full by the beach. But still it was an easy walk. Even the walk up to the top of the cliffs wasn't that bad. 

The view from the top is amazing. I loved the colors of the green grass, white cliffs with the pretty color of the ocean. Some people were being really brave and going over the fence barriers right to the edge of the cliffs. We made sure to stay safely behind the barriers. I mean they are obviously there for a reason. There is also a golf course right on the other side of the cliffs, talk about a great view for a day of golfing. 
love, Carlee

Coat: thrifted (Rue 21)

Leggings: Nike

Scarf: gift (Nordstrom)

Shoes: Nike

Shirt: H&M

Bag: JCPennys