dress up to the next degree...

(UPDATE: lori's website has better visibility of the pictures :) little red riding hood )

this post is entirely overdue but i wanted to wait until after christmas and then i just got a little carried away with life.  all of this started well before halloween this year.  harper wanted to be little red riding hood so i started looking all over the internet for possibilities for her costume.  most of what i found was sexy little red robin hood costumes...not exactly what i had in mind...maybe next year.  finally, i found a cute pattern for a trench coat on etsy.  i bought the pattern and then went and bought the fabric. once i made the coat i decided that it would be a shame to wear the coat with just one of her regular dresses underneath so i decided to make her a dress to wear.  the dress was 100% improvised because i didn't want to buy anymore patterns.  i used one of kyle's shirts and added the skirt.  when i tried it on her it was incredibly boxy so i added the waistband and elastic.  i found a drawing online that i loved and so i printed it out and used it as an embroidery pattern onto brown felt.  i changed out the buttons on the shirt with some vintage flowery buttons.  i loved the whole look, but after i was done i felt like i had put too much work into the costume for it to be used for one night and then cast off...thus the evolution of a book.

1. i decided that i would make all the kids the different characters.  calvary would be a perfect wolf. oliver jack was born to play the role of the lumber jack. and finley would make the most wonderfully ironic grandmother ever. 

2. i didn't like any of costumes for wolves because most were too scary.  so i decided to make one.  i wanted it to be more max-like from "where the wild things are" so i bought a gray sweatshirt and sweat pants.  i bought gray fur and made a hood with ears and a tail.  then i made simple mitten things with white felt claws and shoe coverings.  it was exactly what i wanted. 

3. oliver jack were much more simple.  i just used things we had around the house with the exception of finley's glasses and white hair spray.  oliver jack's beard was made out of the face paint we used for calvary.  and i picked up his axe at the party supply store for super cheap. 

5. once i finished all of this i decided that it would be so fun to make a story book with all of them in their costumes. 

6. i decided that i would be even more awesome if my friend lori, at unfolding photography, took the pictures.  she is amazing and i knew that she would be able to role with this concept with ease...all the while not making me feel like i am crazy for going through all of this work to make it happen :)

7.  lori came over one saturday morning and i created the setting in our backyard incomplete tree house using a crib mattress, curtains, harper's night stand, vintage style books that jacob has bought for harper, and pictures from our family.  it took lori 45 min to get all of the pictures. 

8.  i wrote out the book and waited for the pictures.  at this point i decided that this would be a great present for grandparents for christmas. 

9.  once lori gave me the pictures, which were so unbelievably perfect that i just looked through them for hours, i put the book together.  i was surprised that she was able to get any usable ones of oliver jack because he was not cooperative AT ALL.  just another testament to her skill.  she caught enough frames of the 20 seconds here and there to make it look like he enjoyed the process :)

10.  the book arrived in the mail and i LOVE it.  it is such a treasure for me as their mom to have this book.  i am excited about one day when i have grandchildren sharing this book with them and pointing out each of my children to them and laughing at how silly they are.  i am tentatively thinking about another book...this could potentially be a fun way for me to preserve our family's history. 

here are a few excerpts from the book...these are just pictures of pictures and don't really do the photography the justice it deserves, but just know that it is better than i imagined...and i imagine big :)