Journeys- moonlit graveyard tour

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Homemade Halloween Costumes

     
    

Learn how to make Halloween meaningful and affordable with homemade halloween costumes like a baby dalmation or an extravagant homemade tutu.

It seems that each year as Halloween draws close, my younger sister and I reflect upon costumes of Halloweens past. We chuckle at the many trick or treat events to which she, my sister, wore the same costume that I had worn a couple of years previously. This infamous costume was that of a rabbit. Mom was blessed to be the recipient of a rather large hand me down fur coat to which my she added a pink sun dress and a rabbit mask. Voila, the costume was complete.
While my mother is a woman of many talents and abilities, creativity is not her forte and Halloween certainly never seemed to be her first priority when caring for her own Super Seven. Because of these Halloween experiences growing up, I try to mix things up a little bit on Halloween. In fact, I love Halloween. There is just something about this “Spooktacular” event as it mixes with the autumn breezes that ignites my creative juices.

However, you must realize that I myself am not crafty nor am I a seamstress, so for me, the costumes must be creative and simple. My first Halloween as a mother found my husband and I penniless. Thank goodness for the magazine or TV show which I stumbled upon that guided me through my son’s first Halloween costume- a Dalmatian. The process was simple and cheap and the product has been worn by all four of my sons. I simply visited my local K-Mart for the following items: white sleeper pajamas, white snow beanie, one pair of black gloves, one pair of white gloves.

The process: take a potato and cut it in half, dip it in black paint and potato press the white pajamas and white gloves so as to create black spots on the Dalmatian costume; Second, sew black gloves onto white snow beanie; Third, paint child’s nose black. He was simply adorable.

One year our entire family dressed up as scarecrows. Everything we needed for our costumes we found “in house” including raffia. That Halloween, we were definitely “outstanding in our field.” Another Halloween, I visited our local thrift store and found the necessary items needed to dress our brood as a band of pirates. It was a fun and memorable “All Hallow’s Eve.” Then there was the year I attempted to sew small portions of my son’s batman costume. Thank goodness my husband came to the rescue. I gathered the remaining necessary items as he sewed them together. We were one cute bat family that year – complete with Bat Woman, Baby bat, Batman and of course Robin.






Below is a list of creative and simple of ideas to help you create costumes which are meaningful and inexpensive:
We also consulted our resident tutu expert on how to make your own tutus this Halloween. Tutus make just about any little girl’s costume look spectacular but they can be pricey when bought from the store. Tutus can also be custom made to go with many of the homemade costume ideas found below. Make your tutu pink and white for a bunny or red and black for a ladybug.

Kara Miller’s No Sew Tutu

Cost: Under $10

Things You’ll Need:
Tulle: 6 yards
Elastic: 1/2-1 inch wide
Scissors
Stapler
Ruler
1. Lay tulle out across a large flat surface with fold toward you. Cut 6inch wide strips using all of the tulle. You can use a cutting board and rotary blade or just cut with scissors. It is not important that the strips be perfectly straight or exactly 6 inches wide.
2. Wrap elastic around child’s waist and cut where edges just meet. Overlap elastic 1-inch over the other side and staple together along both edges. Make sure staples are running up and down, not from side to side. You can also hand stitch the elastic together or sew on a sewing machine.
3-Open a strip of tulle and place the center over the back of the elastic. Pull tulle around to the front and tie until snug. Depending on the length of your tulle you may want to keep it folded for a shorter tutu.
4-Repeat with all tulle pieces. Add any bows or flowers on clips in the front to dress it up or leave it just the way it is. Add fake spiders for a with or flowers for a butterfly.

Other costume ideas

Story book characters: Alice in Wonderland, Pippie Longstocking, Tweedle dumb and Tweedle Dee, Little Red Riding Hood, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.
Nursery Rhymes: Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Little Bo Beep
Animals: peacock, bunny, tiger, lion, monkey, elephant, turtle, black cat, mouse
Food: raisin, Hershey’s Kiss, grape, M&M’s, carrot
Other: Crayon, Gypsy, Clown, Cave Person, hippie, nerd, magician, Zorro, Old person, alien, scarecrow

Makeup Recipe:

2 tablespoons shortening
4 tablespoons cornstarch
Food Coloring of your choice
Directions: Mix all ingredients together.
Add a bowl of chili to your after Trick or Treating festivities, an old scary movie, and of course for the bedtime story “The Hallowiener by Dave Pilkey. Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch

The crackle of leaves underfoot along with the bright orange pumpkins remind me that fall is most definitely here! I have had fun reading from my journal and have included a few snipets from it in my blog ...

 

 

   (October 20, 2003)- "Fall is knocking but no one seems to answer.  Although the mountain are dotted with the most amazing colors of red, orange, and yellow, the temperature resists the change which is inevitable.  I am aching to pull on a sweater, but find that shorts and a t-shirt are more comfortable in the heat."

The air is changing outside and fall is looming in the mountain tops.  The mountain is exploding in colors of orange, red, and yellow.  It is absolutely illuminating.  Our life is equally full of color- a whirlwind of color has transpired in our lives.  Presently, I am five months pregnant with our 4th child- due January 19th... "(September 15, 2004)

 

The Hansen pumpkin patch in Elsinore Utah boasts the most beautiful and shapely pumpkins to be found in Southern Utah. Top it off with a hay ride and a train pulled by a tractor and your harvest visit is complete. Even though you may not be a local, you will be treated as one. It is what is known as Southern Utah hospitality. The Hansens know how to create the perfect pumpkin patch with the ambiance to match. It is certainly worth the drive to Elsinore which is located on I-70 just outside of Richfield.

Elsinore is not a booming metropolis . In fact, it is found in a cluster of small towns alongside Anabella, Joseph, Monroe, and Central Valley. These small communities create the very essence of Sevier County.

Finding the perfect pumpkin is "almost as important as finding the perfect Christmas tree!  If I could freeze time, I would freeze it during Autumn.  These pics  show how our family has changed in just two short years.  I wish we were back at the Hansen Pumpkin patch  RIGHT NOW! 

Grandma's vintage sewing machine

Scroll down to Vintage Finds to hear the story of this White Rotary turn of the 20th century treadle sewing machine...

vintage chair redo

I found this vintage chair at my local "eye candy" antique shop.  It was the perfect price and size for me to "redo."  scroll down and click on vintage finds to see the transformation!

September according to the iphone...

Maleck, football games, and corn dogs!

Elsie, Reagan, and Emma

Emma meets the author of The Janitors-- whitesides

 /b

Hurrah for Gma and Gpa

finding Jacob... Chicken Creek Cemetary

Maleck's 1st soccer season

Storytime at the Rigbys

Miss Forbush becomes Mrs. Bybee

Madsen plays baseball

Stories with mom

the walk a thon

Can't stop believing

Santa Clara

Stock plays football

Autumn rain

Emma plays soccer... finally

roasting marshmallow at Woods Ranch!

Out on our weekly hike with Spencer Newman and Hudson Springer

nothing like being a boy!

my honey's pouty lip!

 

 

 

I love Autumn.. the weather is gorgeous and the air is crisp and I want to remember everything.  September's top 5

1.  After $1000.00 at the physical therapist Seleck is back on the football field

2.Daddy gets a big buck

3.Madsen gets his first buck

4.  Grandma and Grandpa celebrate 50 years

5.  All 5 of our "Fab Five"  get GREAT  marks in school!

Tasty Traditions- homemade

My dream of living in Maine and making Jam---

Check out how my dream came true in an unsuspected way.... scroll down and click on tasty traditions.

In search of Jacob... for Josh

"Our ability to endure in righteousness will be in direct proportion to the strength of our testimony and the depth of our conversion" -Elder Richard J. Maynes (of the Presidency of the Seventy) October 2013

                                                            In search of Jacob
                               dedicated to his great, great, great, grandson Joshua Rick Roberts
                                                      who has been on his own journey

Preface:

          Last week, I completed a journey, a mission so to speak.  The call came somewhat inadvertently.  In the spring of 2009, on a whim, my mother and I decided to stop at the Chicken Creek, or Levan Cemetery en route to Orem to spend the day with my grandfather.

          Because of our time constraints, our stop at this little cemetery was hurried.  We searched, we wandered, but we did not find his grave.  When we left there, I knew I would be back.

          For four years, my journey has continued.  During this time, I have been in search of information on my grandfather  Ora Cleve Hofheins’  grandfather, Jacob Hofheins.  In the beginning, all I knew about the man was that he was a Captain in the Mormon Batallion.  This was just a small particle, a sampling of the faith of a great man.   

          I am never sure why I am summoned by any particular ancestor at one time over another-  whatever the reason, at the end of my mission I am left invigorated- I know I can do hard things.  My husband teases me for calling myself the “grave whisperer.” All I know is that I am drawn by the stories I find at the headstones of my kindred dead.

       

                              A brief History of Jacob Hofheins

          At 18 years of age Jacob Hofheins, a German boy, boarded a ship bound for the new land of America. Perhaps, he was a stow away, a young boy seeking adventure.

          Jacob was the son of Johann Michael Hofheintz and Elizabeth Magdalena Kornmueller.  He had 3 sisters and four brothers.  He grew up in Karlsruhe, the capital of Baden, near the Rhine River.  It is supposed that it is here in his youth that he learned the trade of Mason.   Little did he know what those hands one day might help build.

          Jacob had only one brother, Peter, who came to America as well.   Peter was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints on November 15, 1840.  He married Sarah Ann Mode November 25, 1835.  The two made their way to Nauvoo between 1838 and 1844.  Jacob was baptized by the prophet Brigham Young’s brother, John on August 23, 1841 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

          Little is known of Jacob’s life from 18 years of age to his baptismal date in 1841.  He did marry Mary Ann Elizabeth Stevenson in 1835.  It appears Mary joined the church in 1835 prior to Jacob’s Baptism.  His trade as a stone mason learned in Germany no doubt was a great advantage to him in his new life. 

          Jacob was fully committed to his new found faith.  He endured much hardship and persecution.  As a mason, he helped build both the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples.  He was a bodyguard to the prophet Joseph Smith and witnessed his assassination on that ill fated day in June at Carthage Jail.    Following the martyrdom of the prophet and his brother Hyrum, Jacob witnessed firsthand the grieving hearts of the “Mormons.”  But still they pressed forward.

            It was eleven months following the Prophet’s death before the capstone of the temple in  was laid on May 24, 1845. Jacob as a mason must have been engulfed in this work of great frenzy as the persecution of the mobs continued.  The work was not hastened but strengthened.  Every available building became a workshop for the building of the temple.  Jacob received his own endowment here on January 5, 1846 and was sealed to Mary Elizabeth on January 31, 1846.

         

          With the completion of the temple, the great exodus from beautiful Nauvoo began.   En route to Zion in the hill tops of the Rocky Mountains, the same US government which did not aid the Mormons in Nauvoo summoned 500 Latter Day Saints to March to California and defend the United States in the war with Mexico.    On July 16, 1846, at Council Bluffs, Nebraska Jacob Hofheins enlisted in the “B” company.  His feet again moved forward.

          His feet marched with faith against all odds in blistering hot temperature with feet and body worn ragged from the rugged terrain, hot days, and cold nights.  Jacob was made a captain and as such he was paid $50 a month.  This was sure to be of great benefit to his wife Mary who made the trek to the Rocky Mountains alone with the other Saints.  The Batallion arrived in San Diego on January 29, 1847… the war was over.  While some men were tempted by the California Gold Rush of 1848, most heeded the call of duty and religion over the appeal of riches. 

          Jacob was one of those men.   He joined Mary in Salt Lake City where he is credited for building the first adobe house in the valley.  They later went to Parowan where he met and married his 2^nd wife, Amanda Lucretia Braffet.    They were the parents of 13 children (I am a descendant of his son John Michael Hofheins). Shortly thereafter, Jacob served a mission in New York .  After completing this mission, he was issued the charge of a company of saints on their journey to Utah.  The colonization of Utah was not easy.  Reaching Utah, was just the beginning of toil, death, disease and war with the Indians.  Life in this dessert was primitive and harsh.   Faith was a necessity of everyday life. 

          Jacob was instrumental in the settlements of 7 town sites including Salt Lake, American Fork, Pleasant Grove, Levan, Salina, Kanosh, and Parowan.

          It was at Levan, or Chicken Creek that Jacob spent the remainder of his days.   Today, the adobe home he built with his own hands still stands.  His body is laid to rest at the Levan Cemetery- the same cemetery for which he was commissioned to choose the site. 

Epilogue:

          I knelt at the headstone of Jacob’s grave and I heard his whisperings.  I stood before the house he built with his very own stone mason hands.  I meandered the streets of Chicken Creek of which he he too meandered more than a century ago.  He whispered to me the end of his story.  I shall not forget….

****Next to my treasured barn wood from my Great Great Grandfather Albert Dickson’s homestead  now rests an adobe brick from the house Jacob built from faith and fortitude… I shall  always remember…

-special thanks to those who helped me on my journey.... the sweet woman in the Levan City offices, my mother, Janet Hofheins Weaver, my sweet husband Travis, the one with whom I love to wander, and and of course my nephew Josh who Jacob admires so much!