Ethan, God of Thunder and Sam, God of Mischief!

Ta-da! I’m really please with how these turned out. I think I probably could have done better if I’d not left it so late to do, I was working on them right up until the morning of Halloween.

On to the making! Ethan’s costume was quite a bit simpler than Sam’s, because I already had the suit from Asda, leaving only the helmet and mjolnir (the hammer to you and me), which were very easy. The helmet started the same as Sam’s, paper mache and a balloon.

 Then I used this photo (found via good old google, I think it’s from the movie release posters) for reference to cut out the wings from craft foam – amazing stuff – and used my glue gun to add detail like so:

 Not too shabby! A tad wobbly, but alright for a kids costume. Then I glued wire to the back to help shape them. I could have used heat, if you heat fab foam a little you can re-form it and it’ll stay in the new shape. I forgot that until after the hot glue though. You can see the wire in the next picture.

 

 You can also see Mjolinr, which was really simple. I had the cardboard tube and a small cardboard box. Hole in the box, stick in the tube. Bang, done. I also put a layer of foam on the box because it was a little bashed. Then I sprayed, which was fun til I got some on the patio slabs and could smell it all day long.

A little more glue, and the helmet was done, really really easy. The handle of the hammer I just added some dark brown foam strips for the straps and handle. Ethan later asked me to take it off as he didn’t like the feel, but he kept it on for photos!

I also sewed a new cape for him as the one that came with the costume was pretty rubbish and thin, and had been hemmed so the shiny side was down. Simple enough job, buy a rectangle of shiny red fabric, hem the edges, sew on a bit of velcro at the top to attach. The suit already had velcro for the original cape so I didn’t even have to bother with that.

On to Sam. His costume wasn’t so much harder, but it had more details. This post shows how far I’d got with the helmet and jacket.

 Here’s the jacket after a coat of gold spray paint (which I now hate) for the armour. I didn’t end up putting more armour on the arms for 2 reasons – first, I ran out of time, and second, Sam had enough issues with the front piece! I used fabric glue from B&Q to glue it on, but I wasn’t happy it was held on enough so added some superglue, and later used the glue gun a bit to patch it up. I had some leftover green satin fabric from making bow ties, so I cut that to size, hemmed it, put velcro on it and the jacket, and voila, another cape.

Helmet. It actually turned out easier than I thought, once I decided to make it this way. I used long thin triangles of foam for the horns to make them slightly pyramid-y as that’s what they look like in most of the pictures I found, and glue gunned them in place. I looked at lots of other homemade ones, but didn’t use their horn instructions as they just didn’t look right. They are the place I discovered craft foam though which is absolutely brilliant.

 Then came the painting. Oh my goodness, how much do I hate the gold spray paint I used. I’m sure it was just a faulty can or other brands are better but grrrrr. The first can I used did the pieces on the jacket fine, and part of the helmet before it ran out (it was a small can). So I went and picked up another one. I don’t know what I did wrong but somehow that one separated! I got some gold bits but a lot of silver bits. Either way, it looked a mess. The shop I’d gone to for the paint was in Leeds and this was the day before Halloween and I didn’t have time (or the inclination!) to spend another £5 plus petrol going to get more. I looked through some shops here, no joy for spray, but in B&Q (again, awesome) I found some gold emulsion. Now, I don’t know who the heck would paint their walls metallic gold, but I grabbed a tester pot and went with it. It was ok. It was drippy and took an absolute AGE to dry, but it covered the patchy awfulness.

 Ta-da again! Here also is Sam’s staff of Loki, and of this I am quite proud. I tried to find pictures online but it’s a pain, as he has 2 or 3 different ones in the film. I eventually found This brilliant blog post where a guy has finished his own (MUCH more professional!) staff. It gave me a great point of reference for shapes and general ideas.

I started off with a long cardboard tube again, it had previously been a sword for a knight costume for Ethan. Sam had a blue glitter and water filled bouncy ball which I thought would do well for the stone. I wanted to stick a torch inside the tube to light it up, but couldn’t find one thin enough. Then I noticed on that blog that there was a sort of metal junction-y bit under the stone, and I had a torch small and thin enough for that. So…

There it is! the blade-like parts are all sprayed foam, the 2 sections under the ball are the torch. All glue gunned into place. It wasn’t the neatest glue job, but again, time. I made a small cut away it the top of the tube so I could turn the torch on and off as the switch was annoyingly on the bottom end, then covered it with a flap of foam.

All in all, I’m pretty pleased with the results. I thought I might have bitten off more than I could chew with this, but it was all surprisingly simple once I’d got all the plans in my head. Sam didn’t want to wear his helmet much, and it rained on us while ‘trickle treating’ as Ethan calls it, but we had a pretty good time anyway, and they got plenty of treats!

Robots and Spaceships and Aliens oh my!

It’s been a while! So, what have I been up to. I made another baby quilt, this one for my lovely friend Harriet’s teeny weeny new boy, the very gorgeous William.

Isn’t he scrummy? Also how gorgeous is this picture. You can completely see the total adoration, and it still doesn’t quite capture it. That house is bursting with love.

Here’s the blanket – I’m very pleased with this one, the fabric was such a good find, boys are difficult to shop for!

 The two materials came as a set too, perfect for a matching front and back piece. There was also a third pattern, like the front with the squares, but the pattern was much larger and so would have been great for a big blanket, but not a baby one. I’m very fussy about fabric. Even though the blankets are (so far) all for babies, I don’t like picking a fabric that’s too babyish, as my way, the babies don’t out grow the patterns too quickly! My boys each have one, Ethan’s was made by his auntie Sheri, and has dinosaur patterns, and Sam’s was made by my mum and has animals and palm trees and stuff.

Last weekend we took Ethan for a treat day – I read an article recently about how sometimes we can get so caught up on telling off our kids, that they don’t hear as many I love yous, and recommended treat days where the child gets to make the decisions and you get to just have a good time with them. I’m making it sound hippyish, but that’s basically the gist, and really, it’s about quality time together, with the focus on one child (the article recommended taking the child out without siblings if possible). It’s supposed to also help ‘reset’ the child’s behaviour and your responses to it, sort of a clean slate.

 So Ethan chose Sundown Adventureland, a children’s theme park about an hour away. We’ve been before with school so he was very excited to go, and asked if Daddy and Sam could come too, and off we went.

 First came the Santa ride. It’s open all year round and Rich was very excited, as he is a massive Christmas lover. The boys were excited too, and we went on it twice. There are actually two Santa rides there, but the second one only opens at the beginning of November. The boys were not impressed.

 Santa’s sleigh crossing the moon! The whole park is (dated) animatronics, so it all moves.

 Santa’s map. I’m not sure he’s getting the best time with this route.

 

 On the tractor ride, and apparently not impressed with my photography skills.

 Getting onto the Robin Hood ride. There aren’t any pictures of the ride in progress as I was too gobsmacked by the animatronics. At one point you’re practically flashed by Maid Marion!

Attempting to release King Arthur’s sword. There were lots of other rides and play areas, but I’m terrible in that I always forget to take pictures and end up with random insights to the day 🙂

So here’s the skinny – I’d definitely recommend it, it was perfect for the kids, the rides were not in the slightest scary or fast, and it’s not too expensive. £11 for adults and kids, and under 2’s are free. There are 2 indoor play areas with food available, again, fairly cheap, and really good. Best of all, once you’re in, the only things you pay for are food (although you can bring your own) and the gift shop, assuming you want to stop there. That too is reasonable.

All in all it was a brilliant day, we had loads of fun, there was no tellings off from us, and his behaviour was brilliant, with no whining, which recently had become pretty epic. A win I think!

Next time – an update Sam’s Loki jacket for Halloween, it’s going well so far!