Monday, October 29, 2018

Scarecrow, Corn, Tractor: Family Farm Costume DIY

Happy Halloween! My favorite holiday of the year. I love to dress up and make costumes and celebrate the weirdness that is the Halloween holiday. Italy doesn't really do Halloween all crazy. It is becoming a little more popular but not as much as I would like. I will enjoy being back in America next fall to enjoy all the autumn things America loves! Anyways the military base here does try and do Halloween all up for the kids and Italians come too which I think they really enjoy. So I reserved a spot in the Trunk or Treat festivities and our theme was farm and we dressed up like a scarecrow and corn on the cob. Unfortunately Knox couldn't come to the event but I still made him a costume and then added a front panel to use the tractor with our trunk decorations too. We had a blast. 


Corn on the Cob:
9 - 12 egg, egg cartons
Paint
Big felt
Green leggings
Green long sleeve shirt

Felt part:
1. I bought 3 large pieces of felt at my local craft store. They measured 27 x 20 inches. Two green and 1 yellow. 2. I sewed the three pieces together. Overlapping the green a tiny bit on the yellow on both sides (this comes in later.) 3. I measured and cut armholes. 4. I then cut six more pieces of green felt (I had scrapes) into long triangle shapes and hot glued them to the sides of the green/yellow felt.

Egg carton part:
1. Cut the back side of the egg carton off. 2. Paint each egg carton yellow, might take a couple of coats of paint. 3. Once dry, tape the egg cartons together in two rows of four. I used duct take and takes the edges together on the back side. 4. Hot glue the egg cartons to the yellow felt. I hot glued each side under the little flap of green felt that overlapped the yellow. I also went back and glued in a few other spots to give it more strength.

Hat: 1. Sew two pieces of felt together and either sew or hot glue rope and/or fake hay to the top.




Scarecrow:
2 Jeans to make overalls or 1 pair of overalls
Boots
Plaid Shirt
Straw Hat
Sunflowers for pockets
Bandana
Hay
Makecup for face: eye liner, blush, lipstick,

The scarecrow was rather easy.
1. I hot glued hay on the inside of my shirt sleeves and pant legs and hat. I also added hay to my pig tails. 2. I followed a similar tutorial to this one for the overalls. But if you already have overalls then no need for that. 3. I hot glued fake mini sunflowers to my overalls. 4. I used this makeup as inspiration for the scarecrow face.




Tractor:
Big cardboard box
Paint
Toilet paper rolls
Duct tape

1. I found one big cardboard box that I painted green. Leaving a thick strip down the side for the yellow. 2. I can't give to much detail on this as I didn't write down my exact directions. But I cut out a big horse shoe shape for my dogs head so we could kind of just set the box over top of him. 3. I had painted the yellow stripe and then the letters for John Deere. 4. I cut out wheels and painted those and taped them to the side of the tractor. 


Total cost for our farm family costume:
Egg cartons: $0 (Been saving sense July from eggs I would have bought anyways)
Felt: $4.50
Hay: $1.50
Overalls: $2
Paint: $4
Bandana: $.25
Hat: $0 (from last year)
Sunflowers: $0 (from last year)
Makeup: $0 (already owned)
Plaid shirt, green leggings, green sweatshirt: $0 (already owned) 
Cardboard box: $0 (got out of recycle bin) 

Total: $12.25 
This has been one of my favorite costumes so far, it was actually very simple but effective and those are my favorite kind. Let's take a look back at costumes from Halloween's pasts.. all DIYed by me I might add.

2013: Princess and the Pea couples costume
2014: Ketchup, Mustard, Hotdog.... and our most popular family costume to date
2015: Castaway costume : Tom Hanks, Wilson, and Fedex box
2016 : Smore's family costume
2017: Gnome, Flower, and Bee family costume


love, Carlee

Monday, October 22, 2018

Capri, Italy + a video

Just some photos from our day spent in Capri, Italy yesterday! Plus a fun video I put together at the end. Clark convinced me to get the new GoPro and it is awesome. It is so small too that you can just set it up and it is not like obnoxious. So that is the real gem of this post… scroll to the bottom for that.

We did this trip with a  tour offered via an organization on our base and I am glad we did. We had a tour guide most of the time although we had time to ourselves as well. But he gave us lots of good information and we handled all the public transportation for us which was awesome. Beware the island of Capri is expensive! It was like 4.50 for a soda and 3.50 for a coffee which in Naples both of those are under 1 euro. But it was still a lovely day and we had a blast and it is so cool that we have such a beautiful island just a short ferry ride away. 


This is the only time we have been to Capri before so we hadn't really explored the mainland so this was a great trip. Also the weather was nice. A little cloudy in the morning but by the afternoon the sun came out and we were glad we wore shorts! If you ever get a chance to visit Capri, I 100% recommend taking the chairlift to the top for 360 degree views of the island and the sea! Breathtaking. 




Tank: Thrifted
Shorts: Old Navy
Cardigan: Thrifted
Shoes: Adidas
Glasses: Firmoo
Purse: JCPenneys

Friday, October 12, 2018

Eiffel Tower, Paris

I wanted to dedicate a whole post just to my photos of the Eiffel Tower! I spent a lot of time taking photos of it so it was just easier this way haha. Even with this being said I am sure it will pop up other photos from different areas about Paris. The first time I visited Paris last October with Clark I kepted thinking I would be able to see the Eiffel Tower from everywhere but that really wasn't the case. This time though it seemed that I really could see if rom all different locations. Like walking from the Pantheon to the Luxembourg Gardens or watching the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier ceremony at the base of the Arc de Triumph or from the Pont Alexandar III. 

My friend and I also enjoyed a picnic on Champ de Mars which was awesome. I so want to visit Paris again and take it in even slower than this time. It seems the more you visit the better because the first time you run around trying to get all the major sites which is awesome but really the best is the laid back sunny Saturday. 





So enjoy a few photos of the most iconic landmark in France ... actually it's probably the most famous one in the world. 
Jacket: Lucky Brand
Jeans: NEX
Shirt: American Eagle
Shoes: Adidas
Purse: JCPennys
Camera Strap: MochiThings
Glasses: Firmoo