Hanging with my Gnomies: the Costumes

 LAWN ORNAMENTS UNITE!

*Girl Gnome Costumes*

They're done! And photographed:) I'm really happy with how they turned out and the girls seem to like them. 

The run-down on where everything is from:

1. The hats are acrylic felt (used this tutorial to make them). The fronts are folded back. Make a test one out of pattern-ease first!!

2. The dresses are Oliver + S Music Box pattern and made from Kona Cotton. Both size 5 but with different seam allowances and lengths.

The Dresses were altered (see back photo) to exclude the buttons going all the way down the back and gathered at the waist instead of pleats.

3. The blouses are from Old Navy.

4. The aprons are made by looking and measuring an apron from a Raggedy Ann doll I've had since I was little. The fabric is bleached muslin.

5. The "eyelets" (Dirndl lacing guides) on the backs of both dresses are purchased from this Dawanda seller.

6. The wide ribbon on each dress is vintage ribbon purchased on Ebay.

7. Flamingos from amazon, ceramic mushroom the the PX many years ago.

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I bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 for super cheap off some guy working in the PX!! I am in Heaven. It's  my very 1st big girl phone; meaning one that can text easily and you can watch movies and all that good stuff like surf the web but most importantly is takes Instagram photos!!!! So be prepared to see a lot of those. I have wanted to do this since the 1st one I ever saw. They make everything look cool.

This was taken on the way to take the pictures. It's snowing here already!

Oktoberfest

October 23rd will be 9 years in Germany. 9 years!!!! 7 in Stuttgart, 1.5 in Schweinfurt and 6 months here. I still can't believe we live in Europe. What's even harder to believe is that we've never been to Oktoberfest In Munich. THE Oktoberfest. I never knew the difference until moving here so I'll explain it (if I get it wrong just pretend I know what I'm talking about). There are Fests through out the country and at different times of the year but this is THE fest. It's like County Fairs all over the states and one place having the biggest one (Texas?). Oktober fests and all the others over here are all like fairs in the states; games, rides, food, souvenirs but here they have these huge buildings they call tents (and at smaller fests they are in actual tents I'm sure) that are sponsored by beer companies. You go in there and drink and party and listen to live music, etc. (I'm sure I'm not explaining correctly but you get the gist, right?). The tents get so crowded and crazy and people dance on the tables and it's just crazy (I bet there are videos on youtube!). They get so crowded that you have to reserve tables ahead of time. I think this mostly applies to the evening though. We have been to many fests since living over here and even reserved a table in a tent with some friends and experienced a tent so I was ok not ever going to the official FEST. But Jon kept saying he wanted to go so we finally did it. We drove two hours then parked about 30 minutes outside of Munich and took a train right to the fest. It was awesome! So cool to actually be there. We did not go in a tent though because we have children.

This "pop-up" food/beer tent was so cool looking I had to take photo. These "tents" are made only for Oktoberfest. I wonder where they store them till next year?

The girls enjoying the train. They had to stand for the whole ride there. Because that's what kids find fun:)

The coolest Ferriswheel. Look at those cars! Boxes? what do you call those? So typically German and cool.  Like a gingerbread house.

The wait was long and it cost us 19 Euro to ride it but the view was amazing. I wanted to see just how big the fest is (and these two photos aren't all of it).

 Those big buildings are the beer tents.

I had to take a picture of Ava eating her favorite German food: Leberkäse mit brötchen. That girl can MURDER some Leberkäse!! I buy it at the butcher here and it's just a piece of meat (warm, sliced off the slab when you ask for it) on a roll (see better photo of it here). And the other photo is of a very very common scene and it was only noon when I took this photo: drunk men wandering around holding each other up wearing their lederhosen. It was only noon and I can't tell you how many guys we saw like this! And some girls too!

The train ride home.

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 All about Ava!

Ava had her 1st day of German Kindergarten . She LOVES it. Can't understand a word they speak but loooves it!

 Threw in these 3 photos for no other reason than just to show how stinkin' cute she is!

Shark hoodie from OldNavy but I really think this could be made yourself.

Mädchen

Aren't they adorable? We got them Dirndls yesterday in Regensburg. They are lined, very well made and only about 54 Euro each. The other girl is my friend Connie's daughter, Cheyenne. We went shopping in Regensburg and stopped in a fabric store! But it was so expensive. The knits were averaging $23 euro a meter (so about $28 a yard and a 1/4). But they did have a really cool book on making Dirndls (in German of course). I didn't get it but I would like to make my own.. I've seen patterns out there so maybe one day.

 We visited Connie in her hometown of Meßnerskreith (she is waiting on her Visa before her and her kids move to the states). Her dad owns a couple of tractors and took the girls on rides. they loved it! Her father also fixed my Phil & Teds Stroller and made my month! Someone had pushed our stroller down the stairs when we lived in Stuttgart (they were pissed we parked it where we did. I just realized that was karma for something I did. dammit!) and it messed up one of the back wheels bad. Still drive-able but any day now it was going to pop off. Anyway, he fixed it!