Chicken Screenprint from CourtneyCourtney

I love this print from CournteyCourtney!

Find her dresses with this fun print and others here:

Big Cartel

Facebook

Blog

Have fun!

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July!

This past weekend I took Serenity and her BFF Kayleigh to Oak Alley Plantation. 

Oak Alley sits on banks of the Mississippi in Vacherie, Louisiana.
Jacques Telesphore Roman built the house in 1837 for his wife Celina.

Several movies and TV shows were filmed at Oak Alley - including Primary Colors, Interview with a Vampire and Ghost Hunters.
Beyoncé's "Déjà Vu" music video was shot here too!

The girls got a chance to explore the beautiful grounds and I was able to shoot a few photos of them in their adorable 4th of July cournteycourntey dresses. 

I love how cute they look!

They are such great friends and have a wonderful time together!

They had a lot of fun acting silly and running around under the beautiful old live oak trees.
Amazing resurrection fern grows all over the ancient giant oaks and moss covers their knotty roots.

Some of the oaks are over 300 years old!
The magnificent double row of oaks in front of the plantation make up the oldest alley in America.

Oak Alley is the perfect spot for pictures.

The sweet one below was Kayleigh's idea.

There are several huge cast iron sugar kettles at Oak Alley.

They were used to process sugar cane.

Now they are filled with water, lily pads and lovely flowers.

Perfect spots for pretty pictures!

If you're ever in South Louisiana, I definitely recommend stopping by Oak Alley in Vacherie.

And don't forget to sign up for courtneycourtney's dress emails! 

Have fun!!

Chuck E. Cheese Coupons (expires 3/31/14)!!

Here are the newest coupons I'm using when I bring Serenity to Chuck E. Cheese on Fridays!

Just right-click, then "save image as" to save it to your computer so you can print them over and over.

Or if you're on your cell phone, simply show the coupons to the cashier at Chuck E. Cheese to receive your discount.

I like to add them to gift bags for birthdays and party favors too!



The two coupons below are good until March 31st 2014:

One large (one topping pizza), 4 drinks and 80 tokens - $29.99

and

Buy 100 tokens for $20.00!

Have Fun!

Crochet Capelet Pattern by Baca Creations

This week I tested Baca Creations' Livi's Chunky Capelet pattern.

I love the way it looks on Serenity!

Such a cute little Spring shawl.

It was so quick to work up!

The instructions are clear and easy-to-follow.

The stitches involved are simple so I think it's a good pattern even for for beginners.

This project is every inexpensive too. 

You'll only need two skeins of yarn to complete the capelet, a K size hook and a pom-pom maker.

There is no need to go out and buy a fancy pom-pom maker (but I love the ones from Clover), you can just make one out of cardboard or popsicle sticks!

Right now you can buy the pattern at Ravelry for a special introductory price.

You can also download it at Craftsy.

The .pdf download will include instructions for ages 1y - 10y.

Excellent value for only $2.50!

Have fun!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from My Family to Yours!

Have Fun!

Hermione Granger Costume for Kids

This Friday our local Bricks4Kidz is having a Harry Potter costume party - how fun!

I wanted Serenity's outfit to resemble Hermione Granger's in the first movie, The Sorcerer's Stone.

I think Emma Watson was so adorable in that movie!

Little did I know how much time and research it would take to do that - but I was determined to try.

It didn't help that I waited until the last minute to do it - only two weeks before the party.

So anything I found online, I had to consider the time it would take to ship.

Every thing about that first outfit is completely different than the other movies. 

Her tie had broad, not skinny, stripes.

The skirt and sweater were both grey, not black, and the grey skirt had many more pleats.

The stripes on her sweater were around the v-neck.

Her robe was black - including the lining.

She wore adorable black Mary Janes with long grey socks.

Even her wand was different!

Here's a picture of Hermione's first wand that someone tried to re-create:

Hermione's Hogwarts School Uniform:

Shoes:

The shoes were probably the easiest. 

I found them online at Amazon.

Next came the skirt, shirt, sweater and socks.

Finding them was harder.
The tie, robe and wand didn't take long to find though!

School Uniform:

Buckhead School Uniforms actually sells everything you'll need to dress your little one as Hermione Granger - or your older girl (boys too!).

Well - except for the tie, robe and wand of course!

But they charge more than I wanted to pay.

So I searched on Amazon and found a skirt and shirt (short sleeve because of the heat down here) from French Toast in her size, and quickly ordered to make sure they would arrive on time.

I looked for a sweater and couldn't find anything.

Then I came across a cute little grey sweater vest from The Children's Place (sold out now).

It's much lighter than I was looking for and I didn't really want a sweater vest, but I figured it would be okay considering how hot it still is here in South Louisiana.

I tried to add some stripes using burgundy and gold ribbon around the v-neck to match Hermione's sweater, but that area on the vest is very narrow and it just didn't work out.
I did find some red and yellow striped ribbon, but it doesn't quite match with the colors in Serenity's outfit.

While I was looking for a sweater, I came across a cardigan from Target that would've looked great - but they were sold out in Serenity's size.

Then I started looking around Target and found shoes, a skirt that looked a lot like Hermione's, a shirt and socks - everything but the tie.
Some of their school uniform pieces aren't available in stores and can only be bought online.

BTW, Target also has shoes like the ones Hermione wears in the other movies and a black v-neck sweater too. 

I couldn't believe I didn't think of Target first!

Also, another great place for Hermione's skirt (and one similar to the newer skirt), shirt, cardigan, sweater, cooler weather v-neck vest, shoes and socks is Next Direct. 

They have excellent prices!

I found them too late too.

Tie:

Now for a tie you can find both the skinny and broad striped ones at ties.com.
Did y'all know that American and European ties have stripes that run different directions?
The stripes on the ties you can purchase at ties.com for a Hermione Granger costume run the European direction.

Robe:

Amazon has them in sizes small-medium-large that will fit little and big kids. 

Make sure to get the nicer robe that says "embroidered Gryffindor emblem" in the description. 

The other robe has an emblem that is sewn on and, according to the reviews, isn't as nice.

ClockQuirks has a robe with a pocket for your child's wand!

They also have a Quidditch robe and other Harry Potter gear.

Robes and some of the other gear are made-to-order.

I found Serenity's robe from E'ra of Make Believe on Etsy.

It's beautifully made and will last a long time.
It looks wonderful on Serenity too - I love the v-shaped sleeves!
Customer service was excellent.

The robe arrived super fast too!

You can't see it in the picture above because of the way Serenity is standing, but there is a very nice Hogwarts patch on the robe.

I thought about sewing a robe that more closely resembled Hermione's in the first movie (all black), but I really hate store-bought patterns since I'm not all that good at following them!
You can find Gryffindor patches here on Ebay if you decide to sew your own robe.

Wand:
Alivan's has a big selection of handcrafted wands.
If you're looking for a wand like Hermione's vine wood wand, Alivan's has a vine carved wand that is very similar.
But if you'd like a wand that is more like her original wand (but darker), you can get the Holly/Ebony wand.
You could also try this inexpensive wand or this one, sand it, and then restain or paint it to resemble Hermione's first wand.

Below is one that I've sanded down and restained.
It's actually Serenity's wand that I got on sale for less than $10 a couple of years ago from Alivan's - it's shape and color was similar to The Apprentice Wand.
Serenity's played with it so much (even put little bite marks all over it), that I didn't think about doing this until a friend of hers decided to come with us to the party and needed a wand quick.
I wanted it to look like Hermione's first wand.
So after I sanded the flaws (bite marks and I think she used it as a drum stick!) out the best I could and removed all the old stain, I used Rust-Oleum in sunbleached and black cherry to restain it.
The handle of the wand appears almost white in the cell phone picture below, but it's actually more greyish-brown. 
Not quite what I was going for, since I wanted a white handle that looked well-worn - maybe a whitewash technique would've looked better.
I used Shellac in a spray can (from Lowe's - Amazon's prices are crazy!) to seal it.
You have to be very careful to spray a little at a time and not get too close or else it becomes tacky and gummy looking.
I think it would've just been easier to paint on the sealer.

I wasn't too sure this would work and hide most of the flaws (bite marks), but I was very surprised and pleased how nice it turned out!
I wish I'd gotten a before picture of the wand.
I'll try to get a nicer picture of the wand - the colors in this cell picture aren't quite accurate and it was taken before I sealed it with the Shellac.

UPDATE:
Here's a better picture of the wand:

Alivan's also has handmade Wizard brooms, Harry Potter candy, Faerie Scopes, and Wizard Wear - but not in little kid sizes.
And every month they give away a wand!

If you're looking for a wand that looks like Hermione's first wand, Magical Alley has one!

Orchard Works has a huge selection of wands and unfinished ones that you can stain/paint too.

You could make a wand using a sheet of paper!
Who knew?!

There are a ton of helpful videos if you want to try to make it yourself.

Serenity's wand came from Violet's Buds on Etsy.
Their wands are beautifully made by hand, the perfect size for little kids and very reasonably priced.
Shipping was super fast and customer service was excellent.
They also have nice handmade stands for wands.

Socks:

I bought her grey socks from Ebay (shipping was fast).

I just pulled off the black bow.

Amazon has grey socks too - but I only found them in a 6-pack and they aren't as long.

--------------------------

I guess with all my searching I was hoping to come across a blog or something that listed a bunch of helpful links so would be a snap to put together Hermione's outfit for younger kids.

But I never did - so I decided to post one.

I didn't get everything exactly like Hermione's first school uniform - the grey in Serenity's outfit is much lighter, but I don't think I did too bad with the time I had.
And she's dressed for our still-Summery weather.

Serenity likes it and that's all that really matters!

POST-IT NOTE:

I'm still working to get a tutorial for the little lego necklaces together.

Hope to have it ready soon!

Have fun!!

Happy Friday!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Dress from courtneycourtney

Have fun!

Summer Fun on the Bayou

Serenity had such a great Summer with her BFF Kayleigh!

It's so nice to have a close friend to share secrets!

Hope y'all had a wonderful Summer too!

Umbrellas from Kidorable

Have fun!

Remington Tangle Tamer GIVEAWAY!

Today I'm giving away a Remington Tangle Tamer!
It's a rechargeable comb/brush that detangles all hair types.
A single charge will last a long time too!
The Tangle Tamer comes with a power cord, stand, and cover.

I love this comb/brush and use it everyday.

Yes - it's LOUD!

But it's amazing how easily it goes through Serenity's curls while doing an excellent job of detangling those knots!

Check out my blog post, Biracial Hare Care for more of my review on the Tangle Tamer.

Here's an older video review Serenity and I did a couple of years ago:

And here's one that we did today!

The Giveaway starts today and ends next Friday.
Continental US only please.

Earn 17 entries by clicking the Rafflecopter below!
If it doesn't load right away, wait a few seconds.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck!
&
Have Fun!

Happy Friday!

Umbrella and boots from Kidorable

TShirt from Baby Big Hair

It's a was a hot and rainy Friday down here in South Louisiana.
We needed that rain to help keep the temperature down - so I'm totally not complaining!

Loving the rain!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Have fun!