I'm a little Dutch girl dressed in blue...

Since several people mentioned these Dutch girl costumes from a previous post, I thought Blue Monday would be a good day to post about them.

(My little Dutch Girls at the Pumpkin Patch - circa 1990)

These are my favorite costumes from Halloweens past, and they were pretty inexpensive and simple to make (a necessity for this bumbling sewer)...

They almost became sailor girl outfits after Mom & Dad bought sailor caps for the girls during a trip to Florida. (Here are the girls during an early skirt fitting.)

But in the end, the Little Dutch Girls won out (seen here with Nana & Grampa before I'd had a chance to stencil windmills onto their aprons, which were actually clearance priced cafe curtains with ribbons through the rod pocket to tie them around their waists).

That's better, now they're stenciled... And the skirts were easy enough to make with clearance calico from Wal Mart, simple sewed in elastic waistbands, and iron-on hems. Making the hats was the tricky part. I sewed heavy duty florist wire into the side flaps so I could curl up the ends.

The girls already had cable knit tights and cardigans (after all, this is New England!)... I remember they were sooo excited to be sitting on top of a real live pony!

This photo was taken at a local apple orchard's Halloween Fair. That day, several people asked if we were of Dutch heritage, which we're not. But I have such warm childhood memories of my mom reading us fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen and of hearing stories like Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates or the Little Dutch Boy, that it just seemed like a great choice for costumes!

These are some of our favorite Hans Christian Andersen books... (I know, I have a serious problem/love affair with beautifully illustrated children's books!!!)

Don't forget to stop by Smiling Sally's to see all the other Blue Monday posts!!

I'm a little Dutch girl dressed in blue,

Here are the things I like to do...

Salute the Captain, bow to the queen,

Turn my back to the submarine!

Donna (who remembers jumping rope to that!)

Fun Photo Pumpkin Project!!

Try saying that 3 times fast!! (Click here if you want direction son how to create your own photo pumpkins)...


As I was going through old family photos (thinking some might make cute Halloween blog banners), I got a bright idea for a Halloween decoration… Photo Pumpkins! (I love the one of Frankenstein holding the girls up by their ponytails!! Needless to say, it's the girls that are family, not Frank:)

(click on any photos to enlarge)

So I printed out some favorites of my girls and my Halloween kitties, painted up some pumpkins, and voila!


I made them double-sided, putting photos on both the front and back of the pumpkins. On one of them I used my photo software to change the color pictures to black & white


They look nice arranged in a group, but they really take center stage when displayed alone (especially on a pedestal dish with some Spanish moss!)…


I made one for each of the girls and one for me… I painted them in three of my favorite cottage colors – creamy white, soft green, and pale robin’s egg blue, but they could be done in any color.


Tomorrow I’ll share how I made mine in case any of you would like to try this project…

And don’t forget – you have until midnight tonight to enter the autumn/Halloween giveaway. Good luck to everyone who enters!

Comments update... Wow! Thank you so much for all the compliments on my photo pumpkins! I had one comment request, asking me to list the supplies today since the instructions will be posted tomorrow (good idea!!). So here are the specific supplies/brands I used (but definitely adjust to fit your needs - different sized pumpkins, different paint colors, etc.)
1) Fake pumpkins (mine were from Wal Mart: tall pumpkin 5" across/8" high; short pumpkin 7"across/5"high (I would have bought white or black pumpkins if I could have found them but had to settle for orange, which is a harder color to paint over); 2) Family photos (sized down to fit pumpkins and printed out on my HP ink jet); 3) Sealer (Delta all purpose craft sealer) You can skip this if you are not changing the background color of your pumpkin; 4) Acrylic craft paints (whatever colors you choose... I basecoated all my pumpkins Black (for distressing purposes) before painting the 'finished' colors... I used Delta Light Ivory, Delta Village Green, and My Studio Robin's Egg Blue (mixed with Light Ivory), and black for stems and decorative trim around photos; 5) Brushes (foam brush for overall painting, medium round for easily painting around stem, long liner for painting decorative trim around photos); 6) Decoupage Finish (Plaid Royal Coat); 7)Varnish (Delta Gloss Varnish); rag strips or ribbon for stems (optional)...

See you tomorrow!!

Donna