Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Haunting!

This month, I hosted a Zombie doll swap and sent my partner Alice in Zombie Land.
my partner sent me this adorable mummy doll in return...



I was still in the mood for zombies but didn't think I could make anything as creepy cute as Alice. I finally decided to just make SOMETHING because a few of my friends challenged me (thank you Kerry, thank you Jill!)

So I made Griselda. She isn't quite as creepy as Alice...but I am still very happy with her.


Besides, she looks so happy with her little pet spider crawling up onto her shoulder, how can I not love her?

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Spookify Me Saturday

Over the course of the month, I've made several sweater pumpkins using this tutorial from Small Fry & company.

It is so easy and the pumpkins turned out soooooo cute!
I made enough to fill out my piano pumpkin patch nicely.



I made some big ones....


some medium ones...


and some little ones....

I love the way they turned out and how I can use them all season long...

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Last Saturday, Matt went with this young lady to her school's homecoming...and that smile never once left his face.


I don't know why the colors are off in the photo but her dress and his tie match perfectly. I drove around all over town to make sure of it!



Monday, October 24, 2011

Pumpkin carving contest

Read to the bottom for giveaway information!

Each year we have a family pumpkin carving contest with the kids.

When we first started, it took forever. We would use the templates you get from the store and help the kids pick theirs out. We've long since ditched the templates. Some of us draw a design on, some of us just wing it as we go.
Something that used to take half a day now just takes a couple of hours...start to finish!


Everyone is secretive about what they are making (especially Dean!)


he always doodles ideas before getting started


the rest of us aren't nearly as competitive!



Leo jumped the fence when he heard us out front and came to hang out with us. He is so much happier now....


These pumpkin seeds are already toasted. Kaela is taking some to one of her teachers.


So what did everyone make?

Let's see what we have here....

a "toothsome" jack o' lantern





Jack from "The Nightmare Before Christmas"



Frankie, the monster



and a black cat with eyes that glow


So, this being a contest and all, we need your help!

In the comments, tell us which pumpkin is your favorite! I'll put everyone's name in a drawing for one of my Halloween cell phone cases from my etsy shop. (The contest ends 10/31/11.)
Be sure to leave me a way to contact you...

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Spookify Me Saturday

This week's ironcraft challenge was "imaginary friends."
In keeping with Halloween, I used a sweater that had seen better days and made
Gunter a little friend he could hang out with while passing out candy.

Here is Frankie:



Here they are watching Gnomeo and Juliet together!


Gunter got so exited, he jumped up on the chest to get a better view....


Later, I overheard Gunter and Frankie discussing Halloween.
Gunter told Frankie (quite proudly) that he was going to be Owl-man.
Frankie said, "I'm going as myself, I'm already a monster!"

Friday, October 21, 2011

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Wicked Word Wednesday

Today's wicked word is:

Zombify:

"The overwhelming urge to join a dance class where the end result is high velocity sweating and fatigue."

Once a witch/warlock casts the spell to zumbify you, you will be addicted to Zumba. (well, they couldn't name it ZOMBA, could they...even an idiot would have figured that one out.)

At the end of each class the spell caster will wait until the weakest soul collapses from exhaustion. At this point, the unsuspecting person will be "helped" to his/her car, never to be seen from again.....alive.

They will be seen however, in popular music videos because even in death, they continue to have the urge to dance.


before...

photo

after:

this particular dance is so popular, they even have t shirts for members:

Zombie Dance Crew

Monday, October 17, 2011

costumes....

Back when Dean and Matt were at this game, I took Kaela costume shopping.

I usually make her costumes but every now and then she wants me to just buy her one....which we did.
It is a bit large but once I take it in, she will be the perfect Dorothy!



Gunter asked if he could go because he wants to dress up for Halloween this year. First he looked at some suits...

Then he tried on a mask...

Then he disappeared....of course we found him with the party mixers .

At this point, he said he wasn't going to be Batman, he was going to be Party man.
I told him no and he got mad and sulked all the way home.

Luckily he saw the owl mask Missy made me last year and asked me to make him a costume around it. So a bit of orange satin later, and Gunter is now happy and announced he is (drum roll)



Owl-man, defender of the forest!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Spookify Me Saturday

This week's ironcraft challenge was to make something spooky for Halloween.

I saw a perfect tree shaped branch in the yard so I made it into a scary little tree:

I love what you can do with paint, glitter, and glue.

Friday, October 14, 2011

boys...

Last Saturday, Dean had to work a football game about 2 hours away. He let Matt bring a friend along and off they went.

The boys planned to go in order to check out the college girls.....too bad for them, Dean put them to work pulling cables. Hard to look up to check out girls, while looking down pulling cables!

they did have fun though, talking with the sports people and football players.....




watching some of the younger kids...


Doesn't Matt look serious here!

They had a great day.....and yes, they plan on going to the next game in a couple of weeks. Maybe they'll get some girls to help with those cables!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Wicked Word Wednesday

Today's word is:

BOOTIFICATION:

"The process of beautifying an old witch/warlock in order to snare some unwilling young man/lady."

Bootification is much like dehagification except the spell is 2 fold:
Not only can it be used by witches and warlocks, whereas dehagification is for witches only, it has the added benefit of creating a dream like quality to the person using the spell which causes people to actually
swoon.

Before:
this warlock would have a rather hard time getting a date with ANYONE






After:
this man is now known as
McDreamy on a popular tv show.......

Patrick_dempsey2

I usually refrain from commenting but I think this particular spell must be very effective.

Monday, October 10, 2011

this n that

Lookie what I got!

A Frankie pincushion!


My sweet friend, Kerry sent it to me as a surprise for hosting the Zombie Doll swap.
I've always had a soft spot for Frankenstein's monster and this one is wonderful!


Here is the zombie doll I made for my partner...complete with dead white rabbit...well, part of him ...

Matt can eat an incredible amount of donuts all in one sitting........
more cell phone covers for teachers......

oh, and the "dog bone munching' squirrel is back...

I would have had a better photo but Mojo picked that exact moment to throw up so I had to open the back door to let him out.

Needless to say, the squirrel thought Mojo was after him and took off!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Spookify Me Saturday

This week for ironcraft, we were supposed to do something crafty with bottles or jars. I decided to do something that I could use for October's Spookify Me Saturday posts.

I found a neat bottle and added the spooky label (from Dollar Tree) and then Dean and I took turns burning candles all over it.


Why did we do that?

Because all we could find were drip less candles. I eventually went to a local party store to find Halloween candles that actually drip.

Here it is on the mantel with some other decorations

adds just the right touch of spooky to the mantel.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Wicked Word Wednesday


Today's Wicked Word is:

"Felineification"

Defined: The act of changing into a black cat to gain access into the human home. Particularly useful when stalking animal lovers such a the elderly and veterinarians.

ex: Witches often use the feline form as a way to gain entrance into the human home.


Before:

black cat on pumpkins

After:

Catwoman Costume

Meow....

Monday, October 3, 2011

September's Dessert of the Month

September REALLY got away from me. I had bronchitis for about 3 weeks. Kaela had a stomach flu, Matt and Dean both had a bad cold.

With all the illness and work, I didn't get much of anything else done! Sooooo, I pulled out a family favorite for Dean for his dessert this month.





I thought I'd share it with you all. (I came up with this because I hate pie crusts that get gooey and I hate mushy overly sweet cooked apples.) This pie does NOT use lemon juice because granny smith apples are so tart so pay attention to the part with the apples.

Granny Smith Apple Pie

Ingredients:

4 regular pie crusts, thawed...yes FOUR.
8 granny smith apples
1 cup sugar
2 tbls flour
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
2 tbls butter, cubed
1 egg
1/8 c. milk
cinnamon/sugar mixture

Take out your pie dish and spray with pam. Take 2 of the pie shells and carefully tear in half. Press into the bottom of the pie dish, being careful of the edge, you want it to stay intact. It WILL break so just press it back together as you go...no biggie.

Poke the bottom and sides with a fork and bake until light brown (350 oven.) This can take awhile because of the double crust in the bottom of the pan. Check it in 5 minute intervals. Mine usually takes 15-20 minutes.
Remove from oven and set aside.


Mix dry ingredients and set aside.
Beat the egg and milk together and set aside.
Get out a LARGE bowl to have handy.

If you do the apples this way, none of them will turn:
Peel and core the apples. You don't want a mushy pie do you? Neither do I, so instead of making thin slices I use an apple sectioner. ( If you don't know what that is, click HERE.) The best part is this goes FAST and you don't have to clean a food processor up later.

As you cut up the apples, throw them into the big bowl.

When you have half the apples in the bowl, pour half the dry ingredients in the bowl and mix them up. Repeat using the other half of the apples. Once ALL apples are in the bowl, add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well.

Carefully pour/arrange the apples into the crust. They will mound up like a volcano. Once placed, put the little cubes of butter in crevices between the apples.

Then take the other 2 shells and tear them in half and arrange the crust over the apples. Try to match up the edge as you go.
Don't worry about the tears...this isn't a beauty pageant. Besides, it bakes up really pretty anyway.

Also, it is OKAY that the pie is a towering volcano...as the apples cook, it will settle. Go around the pie crust edge and press the two edges together.

Don't forget to make little vents in the top.

Brush the crust with the milk, egg mixture. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 350 for 1 and 1/2 hours depending on your oven. Periodically check to make sure the crust isn't getting too brown. About halfway through the baking, put foil around the edge of the pie crust so be safe. You may even need to cover the entire pie crust.

Enjoy!
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