A holiday dinner in a galaxy far far away...

The full body bib for our perpetual sticky mess and the highly entertaining chalkboard placemats were completed just in time for a holiday dinner with all the wee cousins.

The placemats were a smashing success with the wee ones aged 1.5-4.5 (the.5's are very important to our young men). Eight more are in progress for Ravine's future patrons who need a little creative outlet with dinner.

Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright

Mom and Dad got in on the costume fun this year as a Jedi knight and Padme in battle mode. Zoli modeled a few of his old costumes to help Ruby get in the proper Halloween spirit.

Can someone get this walking carpet out of my way?

My costume was a quick combination of white jeggings, a boat neck tee, a cozy shawl and a few felt arm cuffs and homemade belt.

Dan's Jedi outfit was a toasty fleece robe and simple vest made following this awesomely easy pattern.

Lando gets fresh with Leia, Cloud city style.

Surrender to your inner Rebel.

You look absolutely beautiful.

Rowan wanted to be Boba Fett and as Zoli refused to be frozen in carbonite we decided to dress him up as the dashing administrator of cloud city: Lando Calrissian.

 Lando is light blue pillowcase, strategically cut and coloured with a sharpie around the collar. The cape is safety pinned in place when worn.

 Fett is a long sleeved tee with fleece armour and utility belt sewn on. I also stitched some "battle damage" on bits of the armour. The shoulder armour is made from left over bits of Lando's cape.

I added a cape of the same green fleece with velcro squares for warmth. The knitted "helmet" is my own creation and I will post the pattern once I scan the paper or re-create it digitally.

This halloween we decided to put Ruby in the classic Leia costume from ANH. I made the whole kit from fleece. The dress is basically this pattern plus a hood. The hat is a simple fleece hat with two tubes stuffed, coiled and sewn onto the side seams.

Marvel-ous Star Wars find!

Found some cute SW and Avengers material at our favourite crafty store. Out of the Avengers I made a couple of simple football bags for 2 of our favourite mini heroes to hold their kits and shoes.

Out of the first SW pattern I made a cute valance ruffle for our padawan's new big boy room and a lovely "pillowcase" dress for our rebel princess. From a few other patterns I made a few chalkboard/placemats and am now in the process of making a body bib or two... I have a few more metres of everything and am on the lookout for some other (simple) stellar projects.

Front walkway

It started out as a simple remove and replace job, but of course escalated each day. In the end the walkway was expanded levelled and re-levelled in the summer of 2011

and the gardens were expanded and then completely stripped and re-planted in the summer of 2012

BunkBeds!

The whole family pitched in to construct the new Coaster bunkbeds. Instructions are for wimps, but Dan made sure we were all wimps as Rowan's new beds came together. As usual Zoli was our foreman.

Since intial construction the beds had to come apart and move a room over and be re-assembled as Luke decided that sharing a room with Leia would be too noisy. I am now in the process of Star Wars-ing up the library/Rowan's room.

Halloween is as good a time as any to go to the dark side...

This year Dad joined the boys in our costuming fun as the emperor to Rowan and Zoli's vader and stormtrooper (and our daughter and I joined in as the death star - maternity style)

Dad wore a black cape and twisted blue and silver pipe cleaners to his fingers for sith lightening.

Zoli wore a white t-shirt with the sleeves removed and widened. I sketched on the trooper armor (a throw back to the old R2 costume from his first SW halloween). The helmet is a cake package lid cut and covered in white hockey tape, a small black ribbon and white ribbon to keep it in place (for the most part).

Vader was fleece pants (x2 as potty training is still in progress) a black long sleeve t-shirt as the base. A cape was made from a small rectangle of sheer black material held in place by a snap tacked to each shoulder for easy detachment throughout the day/night. The panel was made from foam and a few pieces of red sparkly pipe-cleaners. The 'helmet' was a simple fleece hat with a frill strategically attached. The ensemble was completed with a build-a-bear lightsaber complete with sounds!

Mom and baby were in an old white maternity shirt with death star and tie fighters drawn on with a sharpie.