rainbow fish

The Daisy Scouts sewing project went well and it was really fun to get the group excited to sew. When teaching Roxanne and Stella to sew the most difficult part for them is always remembering to put the needle back down through the same side it came up through.  They instinctively want to wrap the thread around from the back to the front and then insert the needle.  To teach this concept to the Daisy Scouts, I did a little demonstration with a kid's lacing card. It was nice and large and easy to see and it was also useful to demonstrate the concept of hiding the knot on the back of the project.  20 minutes was not quite long enough to finish sewing the pencil cases so we are finishing them at this week's meeting.

This weekend I spent a lot of time sewing Roxanne and Stella's Halloween costumes.  They are finished now and they will be revealed in a few weeks in time for the school Halloween parade.  Each of my kids chose to dress up as something very unique to them and it was so much fun to all work together to create their costumes.

In between costume making,  we visited Dowse Orchard for apples and pumpkins

and I made these three rainbow fish.

I have entered the chili cook-off at Roxanne's school this Sunday.  We are making Western Three Pepper Beef Chili.  I won a chili cook-off with this chili several years ago so I'm feeling good about the recipe. 

We have to decorate our table, too, and part of our score will be based on our table decorations. Because our chili reallly features beef, we are going with a Western theme.  We made a sign detailing the ingredients, etc., of our chili in the style of a Wanted poster. I have collected some burlap and denim, bandanas in the school colors, brown fake-suede fringe, and an awesome bull skull Charlie brought back from a trip to the Southwest many years ago.  Besides making some table runners, do you have any Western-themed decorating ideas?  I want our table to really stand out.