Almost done!

I'm almost finished with the boys' Halloween costumes. The theme this year is... drumroll, please... Phineas and Ferb! All four of them (including the biggest boy of them all, my husband) are HUGE fans of this Disney Channel show. Of course, there are no sewing patterns for Phineas and Ferb (or their pet platypus, Perry) so I had to construct everything myself. Perry is a mash-up of my animal and Donald Duck costumes that can be found in my etsy store. The hardest part has actually been locating a brown fedora in case he wants to shift into Agent P mode! We found a great black one at Target which I briefly considered spray painting, but then my middle guy started wearing it around the store and he looked so cool! I didn't want to ruin an awesome hat! So, Perry will be sporting a black fedora this year. Deal with it.

Phineas was easy- commercial patterns helped me crank out a striped t-shirt and cargo shorts in no time. My Ferb will be wearing a store-bought short sleeve button down shirt, and I was able to modify an overalls pattern to make his quirky high-waisted pants.

And then there are the heads...

I learned a lot last year when I used felt to make the Animal mask for our Muppets theme Halloween, so I decided to try my hand at designing my own mask patterns for Phineas and Ferb's heads. Phineas is so angular; it was pretty easy to assemble. Ferb's head mask awaits me tonight. I'm thinking it may end up with an oatmeal canister inside it. Wish me luck- I've got less than 24 hours left to pull everything together! I'll share pictures tomorrow when everything is done.

Halloween... a whole lot late!

Life is finally settling back into a normal routine after all of our holiday celebrations & travel, and post-holiday clean up. With the CPSIA legislation becoming effective on February 9 and no loopholes in sight for Monkey Doodle Designs (or other homemade clothing & crafts), I've had to seriously consider what direction my business is heading in.

While I took a diversion for a few weeks of making bibs for my niece (for sale on my new etsy account, *bibidi*), I received several costume requests from local and online customers. And that made me remember- I love making costumes! Part of what is really important in the world of custom boutique sewing is creating your niche... something that I have not been very good at previously. I love to make EVERYTHING- new Euro patterns for girls, purses, boys tee and shorts sets, applique, jewelry, etc. So while I don't plan to stop dabbling in clothing altogether, I will be changing my focus for Monkey Doodle Designs to a stock of costumes that I can keep stocked in my store, and add special OOAK seasonal clothing as I have time and desire. I currently have 3 in my etsy store, with 2 amazing girls Narnia costumes underway.

With all of that out of the way, let's talk about Halloween, LOL! My new computer is set up and fully operational and the missing photo editing software has been returned and installed. So without further ado, I would like to share my very, very belated Halloween photos with you. Meet the Muppets (and a cute little tuxedo cat)!

a post without a name

Hello, bloggy friends! Have you missed me? I have missed you! It's been a sad two weeks, computer-wise, here in Monkey Doodle land. You see, my computer crashed and burned a few weeks ago. Well, only the fan did. Everything else could be salvaged, so DH dutifully took it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy to clean everything iside the box (I am oh-so-technical about all things computer, LOL!) and replace the fan. That was the plan, anyway.

The reality was, they called us a day later to say that while they were cleaning it some statich charge built up and fried the motherboard. Yikes! As you may have guessed, I really don't know much about what is inside that big computer box. And don't even consider telling me ram and gig numbers. My eyes will glaze over faster than a Krispy Kreme donut. Computer numbers are like a foreign language to me, and my semi-fluency only extends bits and pieces of Latin, Spanish, French, and Zulu (that's a story for another day, my friends).

A fried motherboard, to me, sounds like a REALLY bad thing, but I have been reassurred repeatedly that my pictures and files are all still "alive" and somewhere in there, but for all intents and purposes, the box is dead.

Luckily, my boys have a computer that is also connected to the internet.

Unluckily, it sucks, which is why it is theirs and not mine. It's very temperamental and freezes up at the most inopportune times, like when I'm in the middle of a long post (I've got my fingers crossed that this one is going to make it!) and I have to restart it seeminly 20 times an hour. Not a happy Monkey am I.

Nor a very rich Monkey, otherwise I would have impulsively bought that cool new touch-screen computer I saw at Best Buy last weekend. So here I sit, and wait, and type on the old crappy computer.

It has cut down on my internet usage significantly, which is a good thing because I have been doing a LOT of sewing. Halloween time is here, and I have been working on costumes out the wazoo. I'd show you, but, well, that would hurt the brain of this very sensitive computer. Someday soon (I hope!), there will be a post overflowing with pictures of the many lovelies I've created lately. But until then, just imagine a tuxedo cat for a 2 year old boy, and Animal from the Muppets for my 8 year old son (with Gonzo & Kermit joining him soon).