Halloween Interview with the Author

If you can believe it I have been blogging for approximately one month and no one has ever taken it upon him/herself to interview me. Shocking, I know because I have such a wealth of knowledge to share with the world. Therefore, I have determined the best course of action is to interview myself. Intriguing concept, isn't it.

Me: You've stated in the past that Halloween is one of your favorite holidays. Why is that?

Myself: Halloween is one of the most magical holidays. It is the one day of the year the I can wake up, get out of bed, and without digging through the closet, know exactly what I'm going to wear that day. I love to dress up and I love to dress up my kids.

Me: Do you decide on costumes for your children or do they make that choice?

Myself: When they were younger, I always decided. After all, I was the one making the costumes, I have the larger share of the vote. Now as they've gotten older though, I've included them in the creative process.

Me: Many would argue that costumes are available ready-made. Why not just take them to the store and allow them to pick out one of the costumes?

Myself: I think part of that comes from kindergarten. At the time I attended kindergarten the public schools in my area had Halloween parties in the afternoon, which included a costume parade around the building. Parents would come in to help dress their kids and then stay to watch the proceedings. One year a mom smeared oatmeal all over her son so that it looked like bits of skin were falling off his mummified body. The librarian had a scary robe and mask hanging on the wall all season and on Halloween, one of the special ed. teachers wore the robe and mask and stood against the wall in the same position the creature had been hung. As students passed by, suspecting nothing more than a Halloween decoration, she jumped out and terrified them. It was exhilarating.

In kindergarten, in October, we colored paper masks. I'm sure it was part of the core standards about coloring in the lines, small muscle development, and other art forms, but it was essentially coloring a picture and cutting it out. I don't remember my costume that year, but I do remember Shelly's. On Halloween day when everyone else was dressing up in their Halloween finery, Shelly wore the same outfit she wore to school and her paper mask with a string around it to hold it on her head. I know you can't by love and affection, but making their costumes is one of the ways I demonstrate to my children that they are important to me. They have this vision of who they want to portray and I make it come to fruition. Some parents sign their kids up for every sport and lesson available, I empower imagination.

Me: Wow! You sound pretty full of yourself with all that "empowering" and "bringing visions to fruition." Do you really think you are all that?

Myself: No. As a matter of fact, there have been some years that I've not fulfilled my costume-making goals. The year we were rushing to meet the deadline on building our house my mother-in-law very generously stepped in and bought my son an iron man costume. This year he was going to be Harry Potter for the second year in a row, but a month before Halloween, his dad cut off all his long hair and he changed his mind and decided to be Hawkeye, one of the Avengers.

Me: And you made his costume?

Myself: I looked online and the costumes I found were around $40, so I sat down with him and we worked out a design together. As you can see, the two photos, that of Hawkeye and that of my son are nearly identical.

Me: What are you talking about? They aren't even close. He has no arm support for his shooting arm and his clothing . . .

Myself: One thing you need to realize is that generally I begin working on costumes in July. This year was busy and so it was the end of August before I got started. Then when he switched characters last minute, I had to scramble and made this costume in less than a day.

Me: So tell us about the other costumes.

Myself: My daughter's cheerleader outfit I made from a sheet we were no longer using and a spool of ribbon. We looked at patterns, but I'm too cheap to actually by it so I retrofitted one I already had to make it in to what she wanted. The youngest is enamored with Toy Story and wanted to be Woody. I couldn't find the right fabric for the shirt, so I bought a mustard broadcloth and drew the lines on it. His pattern was also partially made up. His hat was spray painted and then the yarn stitched around the brim. Hawkeye's costume started as a dollar store t-shirt. My son didn't want the maroon colored portion of the costume and I didn't want to spend money on the zippers required for the vest so instead I cut caprisun pouches into strips and stitched them on and added the pleather embellishments.

Me: And you felt good about that?

Myself: Initially I didn't, but then he put it on and recruited his siblings to be Captain America and Black Widow. Add to the costume the quiver made of ABS pipe and the strap from a camp chair bag, and he is as close to being Hawkeye as was Jeremy Renner.

Me: And what about your own costume?

Myself: I had leftover pieces of cow print and the black and white stripes to make the chaps. The hat I made of some fabric I'd had in the cupboard for a long time and never really found a use for. After I made it, even with extra thick interfacing, the brim was pretty weak and I ended up running a strand of wire around the circumference and then stitching it into place with the white yarn Jessie's hat is noted for. I bought a men's dress shirt and used scraps of fabric from the Woody costume and rick-rack to turn it into the western-style Jessie top.

Me: Rick-rack? I haven't seen that in use since the late 70's/early 80's.

Myself: I know. As a matter of fact I have a story about that:

My parents, in an attempt to be fitting parents, dressed me in a yellow coat one cold snowy Halloween. I know it seems as though common sense prevailed at the time, but what they seemed to overlook a the time was that I was dressed as a princess. My mom had pulled up my hair into a fancy up do, painted my face with make-up and fastened a velvet choker about my throat. I even had a beauty spot.

I grew up in a very rural location (nearest neighbor not across the street was 1/3 mile away) and to go trick-or-treating, my parents let us each pick about three houses and drove us around to each. It had snowed that week and the temperature was probably sub-zero, but princesses don't worry about the weather when it comes time to flaunt their beauty. We ate dinner and then readied ourselves to set out. Over my fluffy, pink, frilly dress, my mother insisted I wear my coat; a yellow coat with red and blue rickrack and a faux-fur lined hood.

Me: Well, it looks like we're out of time and space. Thank you for your time today.

Myself: Thank you, it's been my pleasure.

Wasn't that a great interview? So smooth and structured. I wouldn't be surprised if it is soon one of the stories advertised on the cover of your favorite magazine.

Friendship Quilt

I met my best female friend when I was very young, like five. We went through elementary school together, but I didn't really take up the friendship until about 6th grade. From that point on, we were inseparable. She got married at the age of 21 (I think) and though I liked the man she fell for, it was hard to close that chapter of my life. (Before you pull out the box of tissues, I'm still in contact with her and still consider her one of my best friends). To work through the change associated with her moving on, I made her this quilt.  Each square represents one of the memories I have with her. (In retrospect, I never should have made it white.)

I used a variety of techniques from applique to iron on transfers. It was the first quilt I ever quilted and if you were to ask a long time member of a quilting guild or something, I'm sure I didn't do it right.

My favorite memory has got to be the bubble gum machine, fourth row from the bottom, all the way to the left. She had this random tradition of buying me gumballs. Every so often, we'd pass a gumball machine and she'd plunk in a quarter and hand me the gumball. I didn't particularly like the gum that lost its flavor after less than 10 minutes of chewing, but I will say this. I can't pass a gumball machine without thinking of her.

Sometimes when I'm really stressed or really sad, I call her. I don't necessarily tell her that I'm sad or stressed because I want to be strong. Even so, she has a way of returning order to my world without even realizing she's doing it.

What a remarkable world this would be if every girl had the blessing of having such a perfect friend to get her through those adolescent years and carry her into adulthood!

Zombie Cake

I realize this post is less than timely with Halloween only a day away, but the beautiful thing about Zombies is that they aren't particular about when the emerge from their graves, ravenously searching for fresh brains.

I had a myriad of step-by-step instructions with photos, but somehow the photos became corrupted and so they've been taken out. Hopefully your literacy will make the compensation.

I don't know if the trend continues, but for a time in my childhood, the coolest cake a birthday girl could ever have was a Barbie cake. I never actually had one and continue to suffer devastating emotional and mental effects of having gone my entire life without that type of cake, but as one should do, I push forward.

The Barbie cake is a lot like it sounds. The baker makes a cake and bakes it in a metal bowl. When the bowl is inverted, the cake comes out in an almost half ball shape. Then the Barbie doll is shoved into the center of the inverted cake and frosted in a fancy fashion so it looks as though she is wearing a Civil War era Southern Belle frosted ball gown. From that explanation you can see why it would be traumatic for such an extensive time period.

I decided it was time to restore Karma and make peace with my past, so I made my own Barbie cake. But I couldn't just make a Barbie cake because anybody could do that and any girl could have that. I, on the other hand, have waited thirty-something years for my cake, so it had to be unique. One night, as I was lying in bed, it hit me; the Zombie cake!

As the initial execution of the cake is relatively similar, it makes it similarly universal. Imagine, if you will, hosting a party for the season premiere of Walking Dead, a zombie Apocalypse based cable television series. Or perhaps it's a night in, with members of your book club who have just finished reading Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (beautiful Zombie artwork inside if you ever need inspiration). Or maybe you have seven of your gaming buddies over to play Left4Dead. As host/hostess, you walk out just as the party gets going, carrying your very own personalized zombie cake. I think there are so few other honors that would be comparable to the reactions you would get that I can't even form a decent metaphor here.

As mentioned, the first step in making your cake is to . . . make the cake. I made one from scratch because my Aunt Debbie makes the best chocolate cake ever to cross my lips.

Aunt Debbie's Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
1 cube margarine
1 cup water
1/4 cup oil
3 Tbsp. cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs (beaten)

Mix together sugar, flour and soda.
Bring to a boil margarine, water, oil and cocoa.
Pour chocolate mixture into flour mixture; add milk, vanilla and eggs.
Beat well.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes.

A cake from a mix would work as well, but in my experience it tends to crumble more than a cake made from raw ingredients. I baked it in my kitchen-aid pan that had been greased with shortening and floured. After baking, allow the cake to cool about 10 minutes, loosen from the edges from the sides, and invert it to remove it from the "pan" and to allow it to cool completely.

To improve the cake to frosting ratio, I then sliced the cake into thirds and put a layer of orange frosting between each layer. I then wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap and stuck it in the freezer. If you are going to use a whole Barbie rather than a doll pick (the top half of the doll on a pick; available at stores that sell baking items) hollow out the center prior to freezing or you will never get those legs through the cake. It matters less if using a pick because the pick is much smaller.

Also, if you plan to use a Barbie doll, make certain it is sterile by running it through the dishwasher or boiling it for several minutes. If it is new, you spent a lot of money for something you are sticking in a cake, and you might still want to sterilize it. I happened to have a Barbie left over from when I was teaching 6th graders about mummification. The information I was given at the time said that part of the mummification process included shaving the hair, so that is why she is bald. I never bothered to check if that was accurate, so if you stumble across this, don't bother commenting about inaccuracies in the process. I freely admit, I may have been wrong. You can leave the hair if you like.

After it had frozen solid, I pulled it out and put it on a platter, then changed my mind and put it in a shallow salad dish. I hadn't remembered to put the Barbie in before freezing, so I ended up breaking the legs off and hollowing out a small spot in the top.

 

If frosting from a can is used, it can be microwaved for about 20 seconds to make a glaze. I drizzled the glaze around the hem of her skirt and then immediately sprinkled it with "soil". To make the soil, grind up dark chocolate cookies in the blender or food processor. I wish I really had soil like that. My plants would be so, so happy.

 

Next, I worked on her dress. I imagine after being beneath the ground, she would have torn it in a few places as she worked her way out and that it would have soil and debris in it. I saw some great leaf sprinkles at the store, but failed to buy them and didn't want to go back for them. Chow-mien noodles make great branches. So the dress draped over one shoulder and had an uneven and shredded hemline.  If you want to take the time to make it fancy and ball-gown like, use multiple tips for differing effects.

Next I added the green skin. I covered her head to toe so that when I added the hair, the "skin" could show through. I also left one eye visible and crafted a second part way down the face as though it had fallen out.

The last step in frosting her was to add her blond locks. Some of the strands broke off and fell onto the dress, but it is only natural for a being removing itself from the ground to suffer some damage.

I made some instant pudding and poured it around the base of the dress. It might be better to use cooked because I think it has less of a tendency to separate, but I didn't think of that until later. I put the whole thing in the fridge to cool for a time.

 

The final step is to add those things one would be likely to find in the soil; insects and plant life. Generally available are the go to gummy worms. I also found two variety packs of gummy insects. I'm not product pushing, but these are what I used. I really liked the Black Forest version because the insects are filled so when one bites into them, guts come squishing out. Perfect! The red beetle is my favorite.

I sprinkled a thin layer of soil over the pudding and then a drizzle of the glaze made from canned frosting to look like slug and snail trails. Then I arranged the rocks, insects and pumpkins. I also added a headstone made from a trimmed graham cracker. Then I finished up by making the pumpkin vines. (You know how the undead are always buried and later emerge in pumpkin patches. It is a common part of zombie-lore; look it up.)

Keep it in the fridge until you're ready to serve it so the pudding stays set. Serve it with a knife and a spoon; the knife to cut the cake and the spoon to dollop a scoop of pudding over each slice. Deliciously disgusting!

Three simply delicious autumn treats

I should begin by writing that I am not a culinary expert. I would say I enjoy kitchen crafts in the sense that if there is some creative process involved I enjoy developing my culinary skills. However, I have little interest in following a recipe and am seldom able to replicate the intended food item. My brother sent me the following chart of substitutions and though I'm sure it was as a joke, I can honestly say I'd like to make some chocolate chip cookies using all these substitutions.

 

I explain that to you only because I want to communicate that any successes in the kitchen are not only purely coincidental, but are often under the direct supervision and/or by the guidance and recipes of others.

 

Around the Christmas Holidays, my parents always had a tradition of making treat plates for neighbors, coworkers, etc. It is a tradition I would like to maintain, but it always seems to be so busy by the time December arrives that I almost develop a certain hostility for neighbors and coworkers because who are they that I should have to think of something I can make and then make it and deliver it. It creates animosity. The spirit of Christmas, right?

 

So this year I am being proactive and making and taking the treat plates early. Also, I'll be hosting a small Halloween party for around 30 people tomorrow and if you're going to make the mess, you may as well make it worth it.

 

My kids and I rolled, cut out, and baked over 150 sugar cookies. Sugar cookies are a lot of work and we didn't even frost all of them. For the other treats, I looked to simpler means of mmmm. . . mmmm. . . yummy.

 

For example, this first recipe comes from my sister, who probably got it from someone else.

 

Corn Flake Clusters

 

1 cup sugar

1 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
6 cups cornflakes

 

Cook sugar and corn syrup until sugar dissolves and mix is clear.

Mix in peanut butter and vanilla.
Pour over corn flakes and stir.
Drop by tablespoon onto waxed paper and allow to cool.

Simple recipe, delicious results. To make it a little more festive I stuck pumpkins in the center of the cluster. If you opt for this embellishment, note that you'll need to sort of nest the corn flakes around the pumpkins to keep them from falling out when the cookie is jostled to be put on the serving plate - otherwise you have pumpkins falling all over the place like a low-budget version of the headless horseman.

 

Another classic recipe is that of the rice crispy treat. Surprisingly, today is the first time I have ever successfully made them. For the last eleven years the emphasis has been on the crispy and they shattered as I cut them. Several weeks ago I finally made a soft batch, but it ended up being too soft and as my husband put it "they were like eating bubble gum."



So this batch was truly remarkable in its consistency, texture and surprisingly, taste.

1/4 cup butter

4 cups miniature marshmallows

5 cups crisp rice cereal

 

Melt margarine in large sauce pan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until melted and well-blended. Cook 2 minutes longer, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add cereal. Stir until well coated. Using buttered spatula or waxed paper or clean, buttered hands, press mixture evenly and firmly in buttered 13 x 9 inch pan. Cut into 2 x 2 inch squares when cool.
 

Well, as the story often goes, I didn't have one of the main ingredients, mini-marshmallows. I had a handful of leftover sizes and flavors from summer camp outs. Most of the marshmallows were the campfire size; those that are the sizes of four marshmallows or more. I also had a partial bag of caramel flavored marshmallows. Naturally, not wanting to store them, I chucked them all in. As I stirred my pot of brew, the scent of caramel wafted through the air and I considered that it might be delicious to have caramel rice crispy treats. I acted impulsively and tossed a handful or two of the individually wrapped, manufactured caramels in (I removed the wrappers before throwing them in).

Once the cereal had been added, I also threw in some candy corns. There was a time in my life when popcorn balls were the big thing. They were given out at church functions and on Halloween and at Christmas time. You knew you were something to somebody if you were give a popcorn cake. Currently, however, I can think of few confections more revolting than popcorn. Don't get me wrong, I love the flavor; the butter, the salt, the caramel. What drives me away is twofold.

1. The husks of the kernels get stuck between my teeth and between my gums and the roots of my teeth. Though I brush regularly, it seems these non-biodegradable, plastic like kernel coverings will emerge from seemingly nowhere.

2. No matter the process of separation, there is always an unpopped kernel or two left behind. This imperfection is compounded in the production of the popcorn ball. There you are, gnawing through sphere of sweet and salty brilliance like a beaver attacking its first hardwood tree when suddenly your molars splinter as they encounter what seems to be gravel inside this plastic wrapped gift.

No, my friend, popcorn balls are not for me. One of the techniques of the popcorn ball was the add-ins; gumdrops, cinnamon-flavored red hots, and candy corns. When I finally swore of eating the popcorn landmines, I still tore away at the flesh on my fingertips as I dug through to get to the candy.

Rice crispy treats don't have unpopped kernels and adding the candy corn just made them all the more desirable. The final step before cutting them into squares was drizzling candy melts haphazardly over the top.

The last treat of this post is also simplistic in the initial phases. The recipe is also from my sister and I'm guessing she got it from elsewhere.

1 large can of pumpkin
2 spice cake mixes
12 oz. bag of chocolate chips

Mix pumpkin with spice cake. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoon on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

I followed that recipe except I used half chocolate chips and half butterscotch. Then, instead of making cookies, I made cake balls that I turned into pumpkins.

My mother-in-law got me this fancy device last Christmas. I never would have purchased it on my own, but I've actually used it on several occasions. My family and I made 93 cake balls for my grandma's 93 birthday and stacked them much like the Mayan temple formations. I made a caterpillar birthday cake complete with tennis shoes for my nephews birthday. When I read The Princess Bride with my English class I made edible ROUSes complete with swords stabbing them through the back. As I am hosting a Halloween party tomorrow, I made the pumpkins.

If you don't happen to have a cake ball iron (it's a waffle iron, so I'm assuming the word transfers), I know there are alternate means to make cake balls. Search a bit, you'll find something.

Once the pumpkin balls were removed from the cooker, I gently pressed them between two plates because pumpkins aren't perfectly rounded. For most, it worked. Some cracked beneath the pressure.

And some just. . . not sure what happened there.

I trimmed the flanges of cake crust and stuck all of them between sheets of waxed paper and left them in the freezer for several days.

Side note: If you are going to insert stems, do it before you freeze the cake balls. I thought I was being quite clever by not putting them in because it made them easier to stack. However, pretzels are not solid enough to penetrate frozen masses and I ended up having to use a drill to bore a hole into the cake and insert the pretzels. Before you get all up in arms about it, I washed the bit in soapy water and then boiled it. And although there are certain male parties of the residence that might disagree, power tools should not be limited to the garage. Don't food processors, blenders and mixers all have equivalent motors? Don't you use your hair dryer to dry paint? Don't limit yourself by the department in which an item is sold in stores.

Once the pretzel stems were in the pumpkin balls, I began to dip them in the candy melts. I would have taken pictures of the process, but it's always too messy, so I don't. I've found that what works for me is using a fork. I allow all the excess melt to drip off through the tines of the fork and then gently easy the covered ball onto the waxed paper.

My daughter then placed a slivered almond at a 45 degree angle next to the stem to serve as a support for the leaf. (Okay, she's five, and not in geometry. Some of her angles were a bit off.) It is important to do this while the candy melts are still in a semi-liquid state so that the support can be cemented in as the coating hardens.

As I progressed in the process, I began to run out of candy melts. I would estimate that the above recipe would need 3-4 bags of candy melts and I used just 2. So I began making orange lines to represent the creases in pumpkins. I would imagine this makes for a healthier treat because it has less of the coating.

Finally, partly out of boredom with the process and partly out of hmmm. . . I wonder what that would look like, I stopped with the orange all together. After all, I needed some to drizzle over the caramel-flavored-candy-corn-laced-rice-crispy-treats. I would imagine this to be the healthiest of the three pumpkin ball treats and I think it has sort of a natural beauty to it. (You don't see it? Brown isn't beautiful on a pumpkin?)

The final step is to pipe the leaves onto the almond supports. The green leaves make all the difference in the world, so to speak. The orange was too pale and the brown too blackened, but that green, OH THAT GREEN!

 

As you can see, the three treats together create quite a winning combination of Autumnal/Halloween desserts. It is a bit monochromatic, but if you opened your door to your neighbor standing holding this plate, wouldn't it make your day even if only in a small way?



Pumpkins aren't the only thing orange at this time of year!

This weekend, on our return trip from Eastern Utah, we were stopped at a wildlife checkpoint. The purpose is to check the carcasses of hunters to make certain that they are appropriately tagged and that the hunter (usually dressed in florescent orange and camouflage) has a permit for the dead animal he or she is toting. While I understand that the officers at the wildlife checkpoint were acting in accordance to mandates, is it probable that a person would return from hunting carting an elk in the back of a mini-van?

'Tis the season

After eating possibly her weight in candy, my five-year-old daughter came to me last night and told me that every time she burped it tasted like she ate a skunk.

Bewitching Skirt - More than meets the eye

Would you believe a skirt . . .

could be made from pajama bottoms?

(Consider for a moment; would I take the time to write about it if it could not?)

Probably I should give a little background into this whole project. Several years ago, I purchased some witch fabric from Wal-mart. I didn't have a particular idea in mind for the fabric, but I adored it instantly and knew that it completed me, so I bought a few yards.

Fast forward a few months from the purchase. I had determined pajama bottoms to be the best use of the material and having made that decision, I began to sew. I made my first pair of pajama bottoms as a child (before the age of 10) and have made multiple pairs since. They are not a difficult item to sew, but as fate would have it, somehow I screwed up with the proportions and the legs ended up a bit high in the ankles and the waist hit me somewhere below the hips. Not attractive as you might imagine, which is why I have no picture of them on me.

It was, at this point, past the holiday season and so my return to the store for additional fabric yielded no results. I waited a year, but it wasn't stocked the following year or the year after or the year after that. I looked in other fabric stores for the same print and browsed using search engines Internet wide, but with no success. The fabric is apparently out of print and much like an out of print book (at least for me) has become irreplaceable and all the more valuable.

So there I was, three days ago, wearing the pajama bottoms, feeling the elastic waistband cinched across my backside and at a crossroads. I couldn't really wear the pants (though I did) but I couldn't part with them. If you'll look closely you'll see some of the scenes that make the material so endearing.

Do you see what I mean? It's the off duty witch. It's like running into your school teacher or doctor at the store and there is this sudden parallel universe where you realize that your teacher/doctor is human and does things like shop. (Probably even goes to the bathroom and eats too, but those are boundaries one should not cross).

 

There is another scene which I failed to capture showing her relaxing in a bubble bath. In addition to the images depicted, it is laced with silver sparkles so it has a slight shimmer to the fabric.

 

 

As I was saying, three days ago, lying in bed, my fashion crisis brought about a vision; one that at 3:30 in the morning when my son fell out of bed and woke me, I couldn't go back to sleep and finally got up and started working because the very thought of it, the conception of this idea was consuming. 

 

The first determination I made was that what had once been the crotch of the PJ bottoms were now going to be the side seams of the skirt. Once that was decided, the next task was to trim the legs off so that the distance from the waist all the way around was uniform - 11 inches in this case.

  

The only issue being that the curvature of what had been the mid-seam was too pronounced for a side seam and thus it had to be trimmed to take out a little bit of the flare. (Maybe it's time to wash my ironing board cover).



Once the skirt had been trimmed to an appropriate proportion, I measured the distance around the base so I would be able to figure out the pleats. Then I split the center seam on the legs that had been cut off to open them into flat panels. At this point the process turns very mathematical and whereas math has never been a strong suite of mine, you may want to double check what you are doing as you replicate this process. For the ease of explanation I will use the actual numbers I used.

 

The base of the skirt was 60". In order to make the pleated panels then, it stood to reason that by making 10 of them at 6 inches, the span would be covered. The pieces actually had to be cut to 7" to accommodate the seams. (Realistically the seams should have been 5/8 inches, but that is an extra 1/8th of an inch on each seam to figure out mathematically. 1/2 inch is easier to me.)

The length was determined both by the amount of fabric available and the desired length of the skirt; 10 1/2". I then used a rotary cutter to make the rectangular panels. Where possible I cut around the design on the fabric because what use is half of a witches face?

Then I doubled that number for the black pieces between that probably have a proper name that I cannot at this time think of and do not have the ambition to look up. So the black panels were cut to 14 inches wide and 10 1/2 inches long. During construction, those panels were stitched alternating between a witch print and a black panel.

 

The next step is difficult to explain. Essentially, the two witch panels are brought together so that the seam of the black panel and witch print is brought to the center of the black panel on both the right and left sides so that the two witch fabrics rest side-by-side essentially covering the black piece. See what I mean? Maybe it's a lot like making a dessert. If it seems off or funky, add more stuff to it.

 

If you've done the math correctly and the construction correctly, what you should have would resemble what you see above. Obviously one doesn't have to use contrasting fabric, which would eliminate a lot of the seams and maybe there's a better way of making a pleated look. I'm just explaining what I did.


Hopefully the top of your pleats measures equidistant to that of your skirt base and then all you have to do is stitch the two together and hem the bottom. If not, cotton burns well and is useful for binding up large wounds due to bloody battles like the civil war or French Revolution.

The last thing I did before sewing the skirt to the pleats was I added some netting with bats and spider webs on it. It gave the skirt a little bit of a lift and it makes the overall look even more bewitching. So the long story short is I salvaged my losses and made something that I love for the season!

The Wonder of Lumber

I must begin again with a confession. I have an obsession with boxes. It isn't logical, it isn't something I can explain, but there is something unforeseen about an empty box. One can wrap gifts in a box, one can organize small objects in open boxes, one can use a box for storage. When I married and moved from my parents' home, I found no fewer than 37 boxes beneath the bed, behind the dresser, in the back of the closet and in other obscure locations. I packed in some of them and recycled others and, I hate to admit it, but I may have moved a few of those boxes. It is something I have to keep in check.

In a recent inventory, I realized I may once again have fallen into this habit. One of my drawers is as full of discarded soap boxes as it is articles of intimate apparel. (The good news is that once they were wrapped in yellow cellophane they became gold bricks and had not been stored in vain.) In the basement I have a cupboard of boxes that used to house checks and slides (remember slides? It was like a PowerPoint before the computer became so readily available and widely used.)

And I am afraid that this obsession, for can I call it anything other than that, has spilled over into other areas. I believe one of the psychologists studied in my college Psychology class had a name for it, where a concept or a fear spills over into like objects as well as clinging to the original object. It's like over extension, but that isn't the word.

I have developed a love of cubes, wood cubes to be exact. There are so many purposes for them that I find it difficult to toss them into the burn pile for future camping trips.

 

With a cube (commonly called a 4x4 but actually measures 3.5x3.5ish) one can create centerpieces. I used some for my sister's baby shower. It was themed on Winnie the Pooh and as such had small figurines of Pooh characters glued on the top center.

The blocks, scrap parts of 2x4's also have a vast numeration of applications. Some have been painted to use as bases for the cheap scarecrow picks. I liked that project because all of my children ages 2 and up could participate. There is a good chance I went back and did a few touch ups on the block painted by the two year old, but he wasn't left out.

Then I like them because they can become freestanding decorations. I bought stamps for $1.00 at a local craft store and then imprinted them on card stock, which was colored in colored pencil and permanent marker, and then affixed with mod- podge onto craft paper and onto the block. Actually it was the opposite order. I painted the blocks and allowed the craft paint to dry. Then I used the mod-podge to adhere the craft paper onto the block (2.5x2.5 squares). Lastly, the colored, stamped pieces were fastened in a like manner. It was inexpensive, but easy enough that I could do it with a group of 2nd grade students and have them be successful.


In my house there is a ledge between the kitchen and living room. The blocks sit there. Having stamped them as I did, it made them one sided so that the view from the kitchen was colorful, but not season appropriate.

So this year I added lettering, created in a similar fashion except I drew the letters rather than stamped them, and I used glitter mod-podge rather than a matte finish. (Do you see how it says Halloween? I tried taking a picture of all the letters together so a reader could jump to that connection, but it was difficult to see the letters.) I realize there isn't two A's in Halloween and that I pictured the candy corn "A" twice, but that is because I snapped it in two pictures; make the leap.

I made a set of Elves for my brother and sister-in-law using Christmas stamps, Christmas colors, and wrapping paper scraps.

 

Lastly, created in the same way, I made the candlesticks. While I wouldn't recommend wood as an appropriate medium for candle holders, I don't intend to light the tapers and therefore the flammability issue is a non-issue.

Autumn Wreath

I know this isn’t the most amazing tutorial and that the concept as well as the execution are rather simplistic. The point, however, is not how to make an autumn wreath, but to teach myself how to blog. I know, so 10 years ago, right? I’m usually about 15 years behind technology, so I’m pretty excited about this up and coming transition.

I bought the wreath second-hand, multiple years ago. My original intent for it I have forgotten. Several years ago I was given a bag of an assortment of wood cutouts. Among the treasures I found the moose heads. I don’t know if they were actually intended to be moose heads or not, but I like moose, especially at Christmas time, and so I created the wreath you see. Fast forward about 5 years. One of the moose appears as though its ear was eaten by one of the other moose, the ribbon has become crumpled, strands of glue are visible and worst of all, all the entry doors to my current residence have glass panes in them. While I could hang a wreath on them, those entering and exiting through said doors are not always cautious in the amount of exertion used to close the door and this creates forceful motion absorbed by the wreath, which then pummels into the glass. So far nothing has been broken, but I’d hate to loose a several hundred dollar door over a less-than-ten dollar wreath. So I have one hook to the side of the main entrance where I display door hanging type decor. Short story version: it was time for an upcycle.

The first step in the creation of this wreath was to remove the old glue and outdated adornments.

The supplies to update the wreath cost me $4; two clusters of flowers and two strands of artificial autumn leaves at $1 each.

The only tools required are a hot glue gun and a pair of wire cutters.

Once the wreath had been stripped, I wound the strands of leaves around the twigs.

Next, sunflowers in various sizes and colors were woven into the creation.At this point I’m out of supplies and it looks as though I’ve wasted $4, but this is where the magic happens. Using the glue gun, arrange the leaves to conceal most of the twigs on the wreath. Also, work with the flowers to fluff the petals and have them face in a visible direction. You can use glue to hold them in place, but make sure to disconnect your strands. If there are any leaves on the back side of the wreath, snip them off and glue them on the front. You aren't destroying them, they're not real, remember? And they won't be visible if they are located behind the wreath so their beauty (as beautiful as synthetic gets) is lost.

The final step is to add anything else that takes the wreath from common and off the shelf to uniquely and distinctly yours. One could add glittery sticks, which I’m sure have a proper and elegant name, or artificial gourds and pumpkins, ribbons, bows, vinyl lettering, whatever it is that suits your fancy and allows for your expression. I’m simple, I stuck with the flowers and added a gold bow out of ribbon I had leftover from when I taught about Ancient Egypt to my 6th grade class (Trust me. It is impossible to teach 11 and 12 year old students about Ancient Egypt without Gold Ribbon. My heart bleeds for those who have tried). Ordinarily I don’t care for gold, but I liked the way it worked with the colors, so it is in there.

I know this next image seems somewhat out of place. Although Halloween occurs in the fall, the decoration doesn’t speak of Autumn with the black and orange and the black spiders attached throughout. I included it because it is lighted. As the days grow shorter and the nights cooler, I love to come home to the orange glow emanating from my porch. My Christmas wreath is lighted as well for the same reason. It would follow form for me to add a string of lights to this wreath, though I did not as of yet because I didn’t have them on hand.

Lastly, keep in mind that a wreath doesn’t have to be limited to the front door. Whereas I have my Halloween wreath in the wreath spot at my house, the Autumn wreath (I should think of a different word for wreath because it’s starting to sound weird as I type it from having used it so much) has been combined with other autumn decorations in a festive centerpiece.

Overall it makes for an inviting atmosphere, almost one where a reader would look at the picture and deep down wish that I had extended an invitation for Thanksgiving dinner. Too bad I don’t cook!

There's no place like home - ruby slippered witch feet

These were made for a function at church involving young women ages 12-18. (a.k.a Young Women's).The whole premise of the activity was the importance of doing that which would allow one to return home (as in an eternal home with God.) In order to drive home the concept, I made these favors to go along with the theme.

I had the striped fabric from a previous project. The fabric was sold in a 5 yard bolt. I used it to make trim on a Toy Story's Woody vest twice (two separate years) and to make a convict outfit for my one year old. Surprisingly, I still have some left. Back to the project. I sewed the "stockings" into tubes with one end stitched shut and then stuffed them with Hershey's treasures (gold bricks from the yellow brick road).

The shoes I purchased online, but are also available at JoAnn in the wedding section. I imagine you can find them elsewhere and I'm not attempting to product push, that's just where I've seen them. After buying them, I spray painted them red; inside and out. When that had dried, I smothered them with glitter glue, which dried and left the sparkle. (Note: glitter glue is not waterproof, so if you plan to have them around water or hold them in your hot sweaty hands, you may want to coat them with a clear coat)

The final step was to tie off the ends with a thin green satin ribbon and then tie on the two quotes, in this case applicable to the theme of the event, but you might want to insert your own. The quotes I used were:

1. By President Gordon B. Hinckley, Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1995-2008. "When we save a girl, we save generations. No one can foretell the consequences of faithfulness in the life of a young woman."

2. By the Wicked Witch of the West. "Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?"

The Truth Fairy

On a scale of one to eternity in purgatory, how bad is it if after
missing the tooth fairy opportunity with my son I discovered I had
several pennies, two dimes and a nickel in my purse, so I took a
quarter from his (same son) piggy bank and put it with my change
beneath his pillow this morning while I busied him in the kitchen
setting out breakfast.

Side note: What does one do with a tooth? It seems a shame to throw it
away like garbage when he spent so many years growing it. Bury it in a
special spot in the yard?

I couldn’t determine what to do with the last tooth, so I kept it in my
pocket, where it went through the wash and he found it when we folded
laundry. Ooops!

Skulls are not just for Halloween

I don’t have step-by-step photos for this particular item. I collected the actual skull one day when I was out wandering through my grandpa’s cow pasture. There are two strong associations with that day; the first is memories of my grandpa, who spent so many of his retirement years with the ancestors of the cattle now roaming his range land. The second is, I was there on that particular day with my cousins who are now caring for the cattle. I could go more into detail about all that, but I don’t want to get too schmaltzy and irrational.

Once I had collected the skull, I brought it home and left it out in the sun for a while. You see sometimes I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do with a piece only that it attracts my attention and that I am going to do something.

When I had finally determined the course to be taken, I cleaned out the skull by vacuuming it out, washing it out, and using compressed air to blow it out. One can never be to cautious when working with carcass parts. When I finally determined it was clean enough to be housed in my home without creating incidences of infestation by flesh-eating creatures and/or vermin, I painted it with white paint. arguably, one could use a brush, but I opted for spray paint for more even coverage in the various nooks and crannies.

When it had dried, I penciled in the sunflowers; sort of Georgia O’Keefe-esque. Then I painted them on using several shades of each color to mimic some degree of depth. Were I true artist I would have incorporated light and shadow to a greater degree, but whereas it was experimental evolved into crafty, I walked away satisfied.