halloween '16

The Hallead Squad dressed up as sushi this year, and my mouth was watering all night.

Jaina was a little salmon avocado roll, Fiona and I were a piece of shrimp nigiri, and Zach was... a bottle of soy sauce.

I love coming up with family outfits where we can have fun, but still be comfortable and wear jeans. Zach already had the Kikkoman shirt, and the only hard part was convincing Jaina to be a sushi roll. ;) She quickly got into it. What kid doesn't want to dress up as food?

I used 1" foam for the circles on Jaina's front and back and glued pieces of thin kid's craft foam on for the salmon, avocado, and cucumbers. I cut strips of black trash bag to be the seaweed and crumpled it up before gluing it around the sides to give it more texture. Then I glued big orange beads to the top for masago (caviar). Finally, I cut strips of black felt and sewed two on for shoulder straps and a pair on each side to tie together near her waist.

 Little Stinker kept ripping the wasabi out of her hair, but later I tricked her.

For Fiona's outfit I completely covered her baby carrier (a Beco Gemini) with white felt tacked on with a million safety pins. Then I cut out a quick shrimp shape from pink felt, glued orange stripes to it, and pinned the shrimp onto the baby carrier as well.

I wore a white shirt to be the little blob of rice, and once she was settled in her carrier I wrapped a piece of "seaweed" (garbage bag) around us. Ta-daa! Cozy and snug. 

Jaina, Fiona, and I all had little hair pieces that were supposed to be wasabi and pickled ginger. I used spools of tulle for both. For the wasabi, I used my large pom-pom maker and just wound the tulle around like yarn. And for the ginger I made loose bunches of the pink tulle and tied them to a barrette.

Jaina with her good buddies, Waldo, and the cutest little lion!

This was the first year Zach actually got to trick-or-treat with us the whole time, and we had a lot of fun. I love dressing up as a family, and I hope I can keep convincing everyone to do it for a long time!

fiona's camping birthday!

Fiona turned ONE this summer, and we celebrated with a camping birthday!

It was a vintagy Moonrise Kingdom/Camp Wandawega inspired party, and we had planned to have it outside at my aunt and uncle's house. We were going to do a campfire, a nature walk, and have their beautiful old yellow canvas tent set up and decorated.

But all the rain from the WHOLE SUMMER decided to fall that morning, afternoon, and night, and we had to move it into the garage. The kiddos had a ball, but it hurt my heart a bit.

Cute little bear from Target's Pillowfort collection, and play fire by me. ;)

I had more than one person tell me the unexpected rain was somewhat of a metaphor for the year Fiona and I had. They're not lying. ;)

So I guess it's only right that I had to scrap everything and rethink the day. This little girl keeps me on my toes!

All the s'mores we never got to eat. :( We still have marshmallows and chocolate. 

If anyone wants to do a campfire call us up.

These fruit skewers turned out great! Just sliced some melon and pushed cookie cutters through. Bada-bing.

There are tiny washers glued to the back of each pennant on this banner. 

I actually remembered to weight my banners this year, and we weren't even out in the wind!

There was a lot of family memorabilia on the table. We had my mom's moccasins, my grandparents' lantern, compass, bobber, roasting sticks, and kiddie lawn chair. We also had Zach's grandpa's fish knives, and this sweet old thermos I found at my aunt and uncle's house the day of.

The party favors for the grown ups were "s'mores-to-go" with mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, and Teddy Grahams.

Instead of cakeballs, I put energy bites on a stick! If you do this, keep them in the freezer till right before cause they did start to fall off.

I really love life-like animal figurines. You know, the little rubber plastic ones like these. It's so hard for me to not buy all of them at the craft store, but I got a couple for the cake and the kiddo favors. ;)

My mom made three ah-mazing cheesecakes! S'more, Hawaiian, and Root Beer Float. I got my s'mores somehow!

We always have the party guests sign a book for the birthday girl. This year's was Curious George Goes Camping.

Favors for the two baby guests were little birdies. ;)

And the big kiddos got packets with animal figurines (heart eyes), little woodland critter tattoos, coloring pages, and a cute little chart of how to make shadow puppets. (Which we would've done in the tent, but you won't hear me complaining about it!)

 Our nature walk checklists!

I got most of my Instagrams from the past year printed and hung them on this fabulous frame Zach made. It's supposed to be for our bathroom mirror, but I'm stealing it.

I had a little play area for the kiddos with books, "sleeping bags", and toy food to cook over their pretend fire. The kids loved it, and I'm so glad since we were all kinda squished inside!

We also made binoculars for our nature walk. So easy to prepare, and the kids really seemed to like doing it.

Fiona was hamming it up. She had such a great evening. She loves people, and likes to be silly.

Her "Happy Camper" shirt is from LilMongo's Boutique on Etsy, and the moccasins are from Trendy Ends - also Etsy. And she actually left her kerchief on the whole evening!

Those eyes!

Cake time was hilarious. She really has not had sugary stuff, so she was VERY into it.

Proud big sissy!

She got immediately CAH-RAZY, then powered down just as fast. Oh, sugar. What a wild ride.

We love you so much, Fiona! From your time in my belly, to your birth, to this intense year we've had, you've come through so much. You have the best smile, and make us laugh every day. ONE! We made it!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out on that rainy night with us! We loved celebrating with you!


Party Credits
Party Styling: Kara Hallead
Photography: Faith Zimmerman
Cheesecakes: Carol Scheuerman
Tablecloth: Hobby Lobby
Log Cake Stand: TJ Maxx
Instagram Prints: Shutterfly
Favors: A.C.Moore
Wood Font: Wood Sticks from Dafont
Decor: Vintage
Plush Fire and Logs: Kara Hallead

fiona's boho indian room

Welcome to my favorite room in the house!

Fiona's nursery is basically all of my favorite things in one room. India! Saris! Pillows! Wicker! Elephants! It's all about the textiles in here, and I love how lush it feels. The paint color is peach/salmon/pink - depending on the light - and is inspired by Hawa Mahal or the "Pink Palace" in Jaipur, western India. I visited Jaipur with my dad during my junior year of high school, and it was my favorite place in India.

Take a tour with me!

Jaina helped me color in these elephants before Fiona was born.

And she gladly donated her wooden animals for her baby sister's room.

Crocheted wall hanging and pom-pom garland by me. 

Photograph by my sister, Faith! Gorgeous, no?

Kind of obsessed with my new pom-pom maker.

I could make these things all day. They're a ton of fun. 

Possible future Etsy business. ;)

Fiona's first Christmas gift. Jaina also has a print by this artist.

The good old Rockasan got a new cover.

Both the lamp and the shade were from a local thrift store, though bought at different times. 

I added the pom-pom trim.

The sari over the crib is mine that I wore a few times. 

It's hung on three hanging plant hooks from Lowes. 

I sewed a few ties onto the fabric to secure it to the side of the crib. 

That way she can't pull it all in on herself.

I made the crib skirt from fabric that was on clearance at Joann's for around $2 a yard!

Stuffed elephant from Pier 1. Pillow and matching quilt brought back from India by Mom.

The mobile is from Thailand, brought back by Aunt Grace & Aunt Faith.

The curtains were from Pier 1 a long time ago. 

I've had them in this room since it was the guest room.

Cute little elephant hamper from good old Wehrly's Auction!

The fruit crates were my dad's. 

He used them to keep his records in while he was in college, and so did I. 

The painting is by my sister, Rebekah. 

The clothing pieces were either mine or the girls' from India, China, and Thailand.

I bought this clock at Wehrly's years ago. 

Beka stole it for a while, but I got it back and finally get to enjoy it. 

The Salwar is mine and is what I wore to see the Taj Mahal!

These pictures were taken over two months ago. Little Missy has grown up quite a bit since then!

Headband, bloomers, and stuffed elephant from Aunt Natalie brought back from Russia and Thailand.

"I don't do stuff on my head, Mom. You know this."

I've gotten to spend a looooot of time in this room, and I'm so glad I took the time to make it pretty. Sweety-Peety can't concentrate to eat unless she's in a darkened room, so a couple times a day I get to curl up and spend some quiet time in here.

Because we already had all of the furniture and most of the fabrics and pillows, I hardly bought anything for this room. I think the hamper, changing pad cover, and papasan cushion are about it. Someday we hope to move the girls into a room together, and I hope I can convince them to keep the boho-Indian theme cause it makes me very happy. ;)