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halloween costume parade

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun time at Oscar's birthday party this weekend - I have tons of photos, but I still need to go through them, so I'll share party details later this week.

Meanwhile, want to see all of our costumes? 

I made Jared a quick and easy robot costume by covering a large cardboard box in silver duct tape and cutting a bunch of vinyl decals with my Silhouette machine.  He really hates dressing up for Halloween, but he was sweet to humor Oscar (and me) for the party.

You've already seen Oscar's pumpkin costume.  It was too hot on Saturday to stuff him full, but we might try that for trick or treating tonight.  He was such a happy birthday boy.  The ear-to-ear smiles he wore all night made all the party prep worth it.

I made a pregnant pumpkin shirt with a simple freezer paper stencil and the new Martha Stewart Glitter Paint.   Not an elaborate costume, I know, but it was about all I could muster and it made Oscar happy.  We felt like a pretty cute pair of pumpkins. 

Here's our happy gang all together.  Ruby was Wonder Woman, and I am thrilled with how her dress came out.   She even wore the accessories happily, which was a miracle.   I'll post more on her outfit later.

I also made the costume for our friend Audrey (Oscar's party companion), as her birthday present.  She loves Beauty and the Beast, so I made her a Belle dress using the Crafterhours tutorial again.  Her baby sister wore Ruby's old Belle dress, so we had two little princesses running/crawling around the party.

I hope you have a very happy and safe Halloween!  Don't make yourself sick with candy.  :)

Here are the kids' costumes from previous years:

2010:  Skeleton and Baby Aerobics Instructor
2009:  Bluebird

More on a Nominal GDP Target

Christy Romer makes the case for a new framework for monetary policy.  She is kind enough to remind us of this old paper that Bob Hall and I wrote on the topic.  For more on this subject, including further links, click here.

The Impact of Economics Blogs

If this study is right, my providing you with this link will greatly increase its visibility.

My Lecture at Princeton

I gave a lecture at my alma mater last week.  You can watch it by clicking here.  It's a bit over an hour.

rollie-pollie pumpkin

Oscar is a Halloween kid through and through.  He waffled on his costume selection at first (bat, pirate, star wars guy), but eventually he had only one request: a pumpkin! 

When I asked him to try on his costume for a photo, he said, "wait! I need a pumpkin.  It looks just like me."  So cute.

The hat was made using Delia Create's hat-ette tutorial.  It was so fast and easy to put together (literally less than a half hour!) and totally completes the look.  I used elastic instead of a ribbon tie, because I wanted it to be quick to put on and take off.

For the felt pumpkin suit, I used the Rollie Pollie bean bag pattern from MADE, with the small bag pattern pieces scaled down slightly.  The zipper in the pattern makes the costume really easy to get in and out of.  Instead of adding the top and bottom pieces, I made an elastic casing.   I cut arm holes in the side, and edged them with "bias" tape made from felt.   The arm holes are cut a little too large, but you can't win them all.

Or maybe you can?

For the actual costume day, he's going to wear and orange t-shirt and his green legging pj pants underneath, and we are going to stuff the pumpkin to fill it out a bit.

I am also going to be a pumpkin, but don't require any stuffing in my costume.  Only 3 weeks to go before baby girl #2 arrives.  :)

mini cupcake toppers

The only thing cuter than mini cupcakes are mini cupcakes with mini cupcake toppers (how many times do you think I can fit the word "mini" into one sentence?). 

I used my Silhouette to cut these little cuties out from black cardstock and scrapbook paper, so other than gluing the pieces together, there was very little work involved.  All of the shapes came from the Silhouette online store.

Each topper is simply taped to a toothpick and will be popped into a mini cupcake for the kids' Halloween birthday party this weekend.

My friend Sonja and I are a bad combo for party planning, because we tend to feed off of each other's craziness.  Even this afternoon, we were discussing ideas for more things to do and make (with the party only days away) ... we have to take turns reminding each other to calm down and focus on the current to-do list.  Do you have a friend like that?  It makes me laugh.

p.s.  Just a reminder that the promo for the new Silhouette Cameo ends Monday, Oct. 31st.  Use the code JILL to get a Cameo and your choice of a free starter kit.

The Budget Deficit

A panel discussion at MIT, with Peter Diamond, Jeff Leibman, Deborah Lucas, Robert Solow, and yours truly.  It takes about 90 minutes.

The Rich Get Poorer

Here is a fact that you might not have heard from the Occupy Wall Street crowd: The incomes at the top of the income distribution have fallen substantially over the past few years. 

According to the most recent IRS data, between 2007 and 2009, the 99th percentile income (AGI, not inflation-adjusted) fell from $410,096 to $343,927.  The 99.9th percentile income fell from $2,155,365  to $1,432,890.  During the same period, median income fell from $32,879 to $32,396. 

These recent numbers illustrate the broader phenomenon, discussed in this paper, that high-income households have riskier-than-average incomes.

introducing the Silhouette CAMEO

You all know how much I love my Silhouette cutter.  I've used it to make wall art, custom shirts for my kids and husband, hair accessories, etched glassware, and to organize my pantry.   Most of all, I love to use it for parties and gifts - decorations, labels, treat boxes, etc.

So have you heard the news?  They have just released a new version, the Silhouette CAMEO.  She's a sleek little thing...

The biggest change is the increased cutting size.  The Cameo cuts paper, cardstock, vinyl, or fabric up to 12 inches wide (verses the SD's 9 inches) and 10 feet long.  The extra 3 inch width allows you to cut significantly larger designs - you can see the difference in the cutting mats below.  I love that I no longer have to trim down 12 inch scrapbook paper before running it through the machine.

Other improvements include a quieter motor and an adjustable cutting blade.   I'm a big fan of the new blade, because I was always losing my blade caps on the SD.  Now I can change the cutting depth with a simple click.  Yay!   I also find that it is much smoother to load materials, particularly the vinyl.  All in all, it is just a new and improved version of an already awesome machine.

The nice Silhouette folks also sent me one of the new starter kits to try out.  There are starter kits for vinyl, heat transfer, fabric ink, and rhinestones, and include all the tools you need to learn and make a new project.

So far, I've kept my Cameo busy with party prep - Oscar is having a Halloween themed birthday party this weekend, and my machine is working overtime.

First, I used the Vinyl Starter Kit to decorate a beverage dispenser for the party.  It's going to look awesome filled with colorful, Halloween punch.

I also cut a little vinyl wall decal for a blank space near one of the food tables.  The party will actually be held at my friend's house, because our kids are having a joint party.  Vinyl is great for making easy, temporary decor - I didn't feel bad plastering her walls with Halloween stuff, because I know it will peel right off when the party's over.

Paper buntings cut from scrapbook paper spook-ify my otherwise plain cake stands.  I can't wait to load them up with treats! 

If you've been saving your pennies for a craft cutter, I can't say enough good things about the Silhouette Cameo.  And since I love sharing a good deal, you can get one of the new Cameos plus your choice of a free starter kit (Fabric Ink, Vinyl, Heat Transfer, or Rhinestone) for $299, using the online promo code, JILL.

This promo runs starting today, October 25, through October 31.  There are a limited number of promotion bundles for the first shipment of Cameos, and they are expected to sell out. Maybe it can be an early Christmas present for yourself? I'm sure you deserve it. :)

doll/bear carrier

Here's my latest project selection from the Oliver + S: Little Things to Sew book:

the bear carrier!   I'm telling you, this book is gold when it comes to making handmade gifts for children.  Every project is a big hit (I've also made several explorer vests and the red riding hood cape). 

This carrier was for another one of Oscar's friends, but we tried it on his favorite bear to get the straps sized properly.  He was ecstatic - hands free bear travel?  Life doesn't get much better.   "Let's try glow turtle next!" he says.

Can you imagine the tears when I had to package it up for the birthday party?  Oh, man, was Oscar mad.  I promised to make a special one just for him, which means Ruby will probably need one, too.   My to-do list never stops growing.

Fates to Avoid

Click here to read my column in Sunday's NY Times.

Nordhaus on Energy Economics

A smart friend recommends this article by Yale economist Bill Nordhaus.  The Pigou Club endorses the conclusion:

The need for taxes on energy externalities such as carbon emissions is central to our ability to reduce the harmful side effects of economic growth. It is striking how the political dialogue in the US has ignored a policy that has so many desirable features. Perhaps, in the near future, faced with the deadline of a dire economic situation, negotiators will formulate such a policy. It would generate substantial revenues while bringing so many long-run economic and environmental benefits. Simply put, externality taxes are the best fiscal instrument to employ at this time, in this country, and given the fiscal constraints faced by the US.

After Keynesian Macroeconomics

A reenactment of a famous collaboration, starring Ellen McGrattan as Robert Lucas and Pat Kehoe as Tom Sargent.

The Latest from Merle Hazard

ruffly playdate dress

Did you participate in the Kids Clothes Week Challenge last week?  I intended to, but it didn't quite happen.  Too much else going on this month!  I'll have to look forward to it in the spring.

I did manage to make this fun little dress for Ruby, using the Playdate Dress pattern from Craftiness is Not Optional (I made it once before back in July).  It is such a breeze to put together - especially with the Ruffle Fabric, which saved me the step of hemming the bottom.  It looks really sweet on Ruby, but she is walking now and won't hold still for a photo.  You'll have to take my word for it.  :)

The Distributional Effects of 9-9-9

...as evaluated by the Tax Policy Center.

A Target Path for Nominal GDP

...is a monetary policy endorsed by Goldman Sachs economists.

red riding hood cape

Last week I made the Red Riding hood Cape from the book, Oliver + S: Little Things to Sew.  I can't say enough good things about this book!  I love every project.

The cape was for Oscar's friend's birthday, but I couldn't resist taking a photo or two before wrapping it up.  Oscar was happy to oblige, and I'm pretty sure he didn't even realize this cape is meant for little girls.

This was one of the easier rated patterns in the book, and is beautifully simplistic.  I hope our little friend enjoys the addition to her dress-up box.

Speaking of birthdays, guess who turned 3 yesterday?  I can hardly believe it - feels like just yesterday Oscar was a tiny burrito of a baby.  We are so glad to have him in our family.

The Increased Role of the Minimum Wage

I am in the process of revising my intermediate macro book.  As I was updating the section on the minimum wage, I was struck by how much the data has changed over three years.  The minimum wage has a much larger role now than it did three years ago, in large part because of the legislated increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour.  For example, comparing the 2010 data with the 2007 data, one finds the following:

• The percentage of all hourly-paid workers paid at or below the minimum wage rose from 2.3 to 6.0 percent.
• The percentage of part-time workers paid at or below the minimum wage rose from 5 to 14 percent.
• The percentage of teenage workers paid at or below the minimum wage rose from 7 to 25 percent.

Question for class discussion:  In light of what is occurring with the overall economy during this period, how would you evaluate the policy change regarding the minimum wage?

Even leftists believe in property rights

...at least when it comes to their property. 

From one of the recent protests:

Photo by Elizabeth Fama
Click on photo to enlarge.

simple felt trick-or-treat bags: templates and tutorial

As promised, here are the templates and instructions for making my simple felt trick-or-treat bags.  They really are easy, and unless you have to crank out 25 (like me), you should have plenty of time to make them before Halloween.  Hooray!

First I'll show you how to construct the basic bag. 

Main bag piece: 11 x 20 inches felt
Handle pieces:  (2) 12 x 1 inches felt or ribbon
To make the felt handles extra sturdy, cut two pieces of felt 12 x 1 inches and sew them together.  A simple seam down either side will do.  To clarify, cut four total 12 x 1 felt pieces for each bag, and sew two sets together, creating two 12 inch handles.

1.  With your main bag piece laying flat, pin your handles to the inside of the fabric (on the 11-inch side), approximately 2 inches in from the side, and overlapping the edge approximately 1 inch (as pictured below).

 2.  Sew the handle to the bag.  Repeat with the other handle.

3.  Decorate the front of the bag.  Templates and more details on each bag can be found further down this post.

4.  Fold the main bag piece, right sides together, lining up the side and top edges.  Sew a 3/8 inch side seam (about the width of your presser foot) on each side.

5.  Square off the bottom of the bag:  Match the side seam to the bottom fold of the bag, creating a triangle. With the open seam at the middle to lay flat, mark a line at the 2 1/2 inch wide point.  Sew a seam across the marked line and trim off the triangle, leaving about a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Repeat with other side.

It will look like this:

 6.  Turn the bag right-side out and revel in the cuteness.

Now that we have the bag basics down, let's talk about the different variations:

The pumpkin is pretty straight-forward.  Follow the instructions above, using the jack-o-lantern face template provided.  I added a strip of green ric-rac across the top of the front of the bag (you'll need 11 inches), and then sewed a leaf on top.  The leaf was top-stitched for added detail.

For the frankenstein bag, I used buttons for the eyes, and ric rac for the eyebrow (about 4 inches long).  You could substitute felt for both details.  For the neck bolt, cut out the 3 x 1 inch felt strip and fold it in half before sewing to the bag.   I placed the neck bolts 6 1/2 inches down from the top of the bag.  Make sure you pin them facing inward (the cut edge will line up with the bag's edge), so when you turn the bag right side out, the bolts will stick out.

The bat bag has a slightly different shape because I tapered the main bag piece 1 inch on either side (starting from midway up the side of the folded main piece) to give it a rounder appearance.  Otherwise, construction is the same.  Ric rac was added to the handles for a little extra color, and the mouth was stitched on with contrast colored thread.  Buttons for the eyes.  The wings are a single layer of felt, but you could make it a double layer for added stability (they are a little floppy).  Use the template piece from the jack-o-lantern nose for the bat's ears.

Click on the images below to download the pdf templates:

Happy trick-or-treating.  :)

The Monetary System of the Future?

A friend sends me this photo from some of the recent protests.

The sign says, "1. End Debt-based Fiat currencies. 2. End Fractional Reserve and Compound Interest Banking. 3. End the Fed."

Question for class discussion: What kind of monetary system would satisfy these demands?  What are the pros and cons of this alternative system?

simple felt trick-or-treat bags

Oscar is having a double Halloween birthday party with his little friend, Audrey.   It has been a lot of fun to plan, especially since I have a friend to work with (double the mom-power!).   We have been busily sewing felt trick or treat bags as party favors.  Here are the first three prototypes:

So far, we have a little army of pumpkin bags assembled, and the Frankenstein bags (my personal favorite) are all cut out, ready to be sewn next. 

These bags are ridiculously easy to make, and I'm putting together some templates for you ... they will definitely (probably, maybe) be ready sometime this week.  How's that for a vote of confidence?  Blogging is getting harder and harder by the day - Oscar doesn't nap in the afternoon anymore, I'm exhausted by the end of each day, and have thoughts of newborn preparations looming over my head (less than 6 weeks to go!).   You understand, right?  Thanks :)

UPDATE:  Find the templates and tutorial HERE

The Nobel Prize

Congratulations to this year's winners of the Nobel Prize in economics: Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims.  Richly deserved!

Nobel Speculation

Here and here.

A Fun New Search Tool

Google's Ngram Viewer has been around for a while, but I just learned about it, so I thought I would mention it to my blog readers.  This new search tool allows you to track and compare how often words or phrases appear in published books (at least those books in Google's database, which I gather is quite large).  For example, here you can see how often Irving Fisher and John Maynard Keynes are mentioned, and here you can you see how several words associated with my career have risen over time.

Krugman on IS-LM

Paul defends the IS-LM model.  I agree completely!

In some circles, there is now a push to skip the IS-LM model in intermediate macro courses and teach students more modern dynamic macro.  Like Paul, I think that is a mistake.  In my intermediate macro book, I have added a chapter with a dynamic macro model (which one might consider a baby DSGE model).  But students are best equipped to appreciate this model after they understand IS-LM logic.

Updates: Mark Thoma reminds me that I have written on this topic before.  Steve Landsburg weighs in.

Policy Uncertainty

Scott R. Baker, Nicholas Bloom, and Steven J. Davis report:

A major factor behind the weak recovery and gloomy outlook is a climate of policy-induced economic uncertainty. An index we devised shows U.S. policy uncertainty at historically high levels.

Solow on the History of Thought

Bob reviews Sylvia Nasar.

Obama versus Clinton on Tax Policy

One of the common memes about tax policy is that President Obama just wants to return the tax code to where it was during the Clinton years.  The problem is, this is just not true.

This table from the Tax Policy Center is useful in dispelling the myth.  Compare the far left column (Clinton-era tax policy) and the far right column (Obama's proposed tax policy).    It shows the following: Compared to President Clinton, President Obama would cut the effective tax rate by about 2 percentage points for the bottom 99 percent of the population and raise the effective tax rate by about 2 percentage points for the top 1 percent of the population.

You can agree or disagree with that policy choice.  But the facts are clear.  President Obama's policy preferences are more focused on income redistribution (aka "class warfare") than President Clinton's tax policy ever was.

Advice for College Freshmen

Click here.  Produced for Princeton students, but lots of good advice here wherever you are enrolled.

Fantasy Nobel Picks

From NPR.

David Brooks on Mitt Romney

Brooks defends my favorite candidate.  He says that Romney has "the gold standard of adviser teams." 

I presume David did not have in mind that Keynes once called the gold standard a "barbarous relic."

Alan Blinder and Glenn Hubbard agree

A joint op-ed, from a D and an R.

Sin Taxes on College Sports?

The University of Chicago's Allen Sanderson makes the case.

crafting memories: Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts winners

Thank you so much for all the thoughtful comments left on last Tuesday's giveaway post.  It has been fun to read about all of your crafting memories!

Some common themes:  crafting with sisters/mothers/grandmothers/friends is always special.  My sister reminded me of the time my mom sat down with us and taught us how to weave baskets (she makes the most amazing baskets).  My mom can make anything - I always loved making projects with her growing up (and she was the one to get me hooked on Martha Stewart).  We still end up crafting together during visits.

I usually find that I am far less productive while crafting with friends than alone, but it is always a good time.   Years ago in New York, my friends and I had an impromptu sock-animal sewing party:

I loved hearing all of your stories!  They reminded me of good times I've had crafting with loved ones, successful projects, and funny failures.  It was nearly impossible to pick favorites, but here are the five comments I chose as the giveaway winners:

Danielle said...

One of my favorite memories was when my grandmother was teaching my cousin Eric and I to embroider (we were both around 8 or 9 yrs old). I was working on a pillow case and he was making a pillow for his mom. I accidentally stitched my pillow case to her bed quilt! I ended up cutting the quilt to get my stitches out and tried to sew the quilt back. It looked terrible haha. Those stitches are still there today though, so I must have put them in pretty well!

Amy said:
When I was a kid we were making come craft for our moms for mothers day.  My friend Tanya (a tomboy) was doing an awful job at hers so she turned to me and said "Amy, make mine for me, or I'll beat you up!  And make it blue."  I would have done it for her anyway!

Tish said: 
My favorite craft moment was learning to sew not from my mom, but from my younger brother who was in high school. He learned in Home economics. He stayed up until the wee hours of the morning teaching me the basics. Since then it has opened more windows in my craft world. So thank you to my brother Nick!

Aunt Nancy said:
My favorite crafting memory goes way back to when I was about7 years old. I made earrings for my mother in my school class out of big, dark red buttons. I glued little crystal clear beads in the center of the button and glued a screw-on back and I was ready to give the most amazing christmas present ever to my mom. I wrapped the earrings all by myself and couldn't wait till she unwrapped them Christmas morning. Well, needless to say, because the package was so tiny and not in a box, it got lost for awhile in the ton of wrapping paper all over the living room floor. I was devastated! But thanks to my mom, we finally found the treasure and true to my imagined joy...she loved them!. My mother was my inspiration for growing up wanting to make my home more beautiful by creating things myself. When my mother passed away and I was going through her jewelry box, I found the beaded earrings that I had made for her with love. She had kept them for all those years....a very tender memory for me of a mother's love and inspiration!  

myemye_12 said:
I was still fairly new to sewing and my husband asked me to make him a ninja turtle costume. It was only a week before Halloween but I told him I could do it(I really wasn't sure I could!). He went to the fabric store with me to pick out a pattern and the perfect ninja turtle color fabric and we worked on it late together every night that week, even staying up until 3 the night before Halloween. Our daughter was just two months old, and boy were we exhausted but we had the best time together. He would trace the pattern and cut the fabric and I ran the sewing machine. Oh man when that costume was finally finished he was so excited. I have never given him anything (except our daughter) that he thought was that awesome. It was like he was six years old again. And he was so proud of it, he told everyone at the Halloween party that we made it. I'm pretty sure they could tell we made it with it's odd proportions(we blew up a toddler sized pattern) and crooked seams, but he was convinced it was THE BEST costume at the party. It is still hanging in our closet and I smile every time I look at it. 

Congratulations to the winners!  Please email me (homemadebyjill@gmail.com) with your shipping address so I can have the book mailed out to you.

Thanks again to everyone who shared a memory!  

kid craft: easy pipe cleaner spiders

My son, Oscar, loves Halloween.  Whether that love stems from his October birthday or the fact that we did like 4 trick or treating sessions last year, I'll never know (I have my suspicions), but he really looks forward to it.  Last week we started decorating the house at his request, and one of the new items we made was a set of easy pipe cleaner spiders.  We stick to the fun and friendly side of Halloween around here.

They couldn't be more simple - the only supply you need is black pipe cleaners.  The project is easy enough for school aged children, and quick enough to keep the attention of observing toddlers.

1.  You'll need 7 pipe cleaners for a large spider.
2.  Twist 2 pipe cleaners together to make one large strand.
3.  Wind the long strand around your finger to create the body.  You want it to look nice and round, but still have a hole through the middle.

4.  Take four more pipe cleaners and twist them together in the center to create the eight spider legs.
5.  Thread the legs through the hole in the body so there are four legs on each side.
6.  Bend the legs on either side, and spread them out a bit.
7.  Twist the end of each leg to create a little foot.

8.  Using your last pipe cleaner, wind it into another ball, leaving a slight tail at the end.  Tuck the tail into the body of the spider towards the front, creating a head.

All done!  We made a little family of spiders to add to our mantle.   Have you started decorating for Halloween?