Yup

Happy Halloween!

To bring an end to the endless wondering about who carved which pumpkin, I'll start tonight's post off with the answer. The one on the left was carved by L, and the one on the right is my creation. I had hoped to carve something scary but ended up making something that looked more like a simple-minded vampire. L, on the other hand, had his sights set on carving a goofy and fun Jack-O-Lantern, and wound up with something pretty menacing (at least, in my opinion). We decided that we would switch pumpkin ownership, so officially, the one on the left is mine and the one on the right is his. But you know the truth.

In honor of my favorite holiday, I spent the better part of the weekend making treats for my family and my coworkers. It all started on Friday night when L made a very innocent comment. He said, "we need to pick up some candy corn this weekend." I woke up way too early on Saturday morning, with visions of candy corns dancing in my head. As I was coming into my fully-awake state of awareness, I thought to myself, "wait ... I can MAKE candy corn!" I hopped out of bed, found a recipe (and adapted it based on my own preferences and based on the ingredients I had available), and was rolling out my colored candy ropes within an hour.

I heard L wake up just as I was cutting my last triangle, so I quickly grabbed a napkin and the prettiest piece of candy corn on my tray and ran to show it to him. I was strutting like a peacock, with my freshly-made, honey candy corn in-hand, when I first spotted him.

"LOOK WHAT I MADE!"

"Good morning," he said.

"Uh-huh ... morning ... LOOK WHAT I MADE!"

"What is it?"

I figured it was pretty obvious, so I said, "what does it look like?"

"It looks like candy corn ... what is it?"

"It IS candy corn."; My feathers were quickly un-fanning themselves at this point.

"Can I eat it?"

He did eventually eat it and love it, and he later explained that it was his lack of glasses combined with his grogginess that caused the confusion. He also told me that he had been momentarily concerned that it was a non-edible craft (along the lines of a polymer clay piece), and that he had imagined himself popping it into his mouth and me being horrified. I found that explaination to be funny enough to forgive him, despite my strut having been reduced to a clumsy stumble.

In addition to my honey candy corn, I also made vanilla bean sugar cookies and sea salt caramels. Then I set about bagging and wrapping them. It was at that moment I became very thankful that both my workplace and my family are small.

I pulled a few basic lunch bags from my back-to-school-month stash, and stamped a simple "happy halloween" on the outside of each. Then I ran a sheet of decorative paper through my printer to create some cute little tombstones to put into each bag so that the recipients would know what to expect.

And yes, I topped my list with the grammatically-incorrect "Here Lies" ... it was more important to be Halloweenily-accurate than to worry about stuff like that. Yup. Halloweenily.

R.I.P. Halloween 2011.

Our pumpkins! After much discussion and debate, they have been completed. I will share the full tale of how they came to be (and - more importantly - who carved which one) tomorrow, along with even more Halloween goodness. What kind of Halloween goodness? Let's just say that homemade candy corn is involved. Mmmm ... homemade candy corn.

In place of our weekly "Craft Night," L and I had planned to carve pumpkins (for the first time in our over 10 years together, no less!). Apparently I'm so out of practice that I hadn't taken into account that a carved pumpkin doesn't last terribly long, so L was forced to burst my bubble and bring me back to reality. To make a long story short, our pumpkin carving party was postponed to this weekend and we've used the extra time to ponder how exactly to decorate our lumpy, orange beauties. One might even say that we've been "out of our gourds" trying to come to a decision. Hey, it was worth a shot.

The debate continued over dinner this evening, with ideas ranging from traditional Jack-O-Lanterns to movie monsters to Batman-themed designs being thrown into the mix. L seems to be leaning more toward the traditional approach at this very moment, but I'm not sure that's the way I'll go with my gourd. I'm envisioning something more elaborate - something with lots of curves and thin connecting strips and intricate cuts. You know ... the kind of design I'm bound to screw up about four cuts in.

Either way, I'll be posting a few shots of our completed pumpkins tomorrow night. Even if I mess mine up (which is almost inevitable).

Earlier this year, I made two resolutions - send out more cards to friends and loved ones, and to stop buying cards and start making them. Of course, this came AFTER L and I spent about $40 on Mother's Day cards for all of the moms in our families, but better late than never, right? With Halloween just a few days away, I knew I had to get myself in card-making mode in a hurry ... especially since I still had four cards to make before this weekend. As soon as we finished up dinner, L put on a scary movie and I gathered together a few supplies and set about my business. The result? Four handmade Halloween cards and an Instant Craftification tutorial for this evening.

Quick & Dirty Halloween Cards

Supplies

• White cardstock or blank pre-folded cards
• Glue
• Patterned paper in Halloween/fall colors
• Black ink pad
• Alphabet stamps
• Black glittery cardstock (or regular black cardstock if you don't have the glittery variety)
• Scissors and/or craft knife (I used both ... the craft knife works really well for precise cuts)
• Bird on branch silhouette to use as template (use any clip art image or stock photo you like)
• Anything round, such as a coin or small lid, to use as a template
• Pencil

I set up an assembly line to create my cards, and had all four whipped up in less than 45 minutes. Not too shabby! If you are using white cardstock, begin by cutting, scoring, and folding your cards. The back of the craft knife works well for creating the score. Cut the patterned paper down to rectangles 1/2" smaller in both length and width than your card (this will allow for a 1/4" margin on all sides). Using a lid or coin as a template, trace round corners onto opposite edges of the patterned paper. Carefully trim the corners using your marks as guides. Next, trace the bird silhouette onto the back of the glittery or plain cardstock and cut out. Rub the black ink pad along the edges of both the card and the patterned paper, and allow to dry thoroughly. Use alphabet stamps to add the words "happy halloween" in black ink. Glue the birds to the patterned paper, then glue the patterned paper to the center of the cardstock. Allow the glue to dry thoroughly.

Depending on the color(s) of patterned paper that you use, you can create entirely different looks using the same basic format. Also, you can vary the shape of the silhouette as desired. What's really great about making Halloween cards is that imperfections like smudges and light stamping totally enhance that spooky feeling.

Just four more days to go! Halloween is almost here. :-)

For me, it isn't officially Halloween until Jeffrey Combs has made an appearance. Who is Jeffrey Combs, you ask? Well, he's probably best known as having played the fabulously pompous Dr. Herbert West in the Re-Animator series (based on H.P. Lovecraft's Herbert West - Reanimator), but he's also in practically every horror film made since the 80s. He can be spotted in The Frighteners, House on Haunted Hill (the remake, of course), and even quite a few of the modern Star Trek offshoots. Heck, he has even voiced characters in all sorts of cartoons ... Batman: The Brave and The Bold, The Batman, Justice League, and Spider-Man. In short, he's in pretty much everything that has ever been made. Ever.

What I really love about Jeffrey Combs is his ability to pull off these unbelievably quirky characters. In particular, his portrayal of Dr. Herbert West is absolutely flawless. He has this way of being hilarious with just a single glance (usually one that implies a cross between arrogance, superiority, and annoyance). And if you've ever seen The Frighteners, you know just how good he is at being really, really odd (and really, really funny).

Geeky AND laugh-out-loud funny? How could I resist a combination like that?

Sometimes, a food that is completely and fabulously yummy just so happens to be ugly. Gorgonzola cheese, split pea soup ... you get the drift. Well, I have a new one to add to the list - my banana whoopie pies. They are flat, they are irregularly shaped, and they are delicious (or so L tells me, since I am anti-banana myself).

I made both pumpkin and banana varieties, each filled with the same tasty-but-messy homemade marshmallow fluff. I have to confess - it was my first experience eating a whoopie pie (though I have fogged up the glass at my favorite bakery while ogling them on more than one occasion). I spent a bit of time comparing assorted recipes and filling options, and I decided to forgo tradition and stick with unadulterated fluff in the middle. While I can't say that my version is particularly authentic, I can say they have been a hit around here. Especially since the banana versions I made for L have including a pre-fluff application of either peanut butter or chocolate ganache. They've basically been turned into banana whoopie s'mores and banana whoopie fluffernutters.

Ugly? Yes. Messy? Ridiculously. Tasty? You'd better believe it.

So ... I missed a couple of days of posting. I feel a bit guilty, but I was just totally busy. I did manage to do a couple of blog-worthy things though, even if I wasn't able to actually post about them. The good news is that I crossed a bunch of stuff off of my have-to-do list and I'm almost ready to start checking some things off of my want-to-do list! And best of all, it's almost Halloween, which means I have even more reasons for crafting and baking. Mwahahahahaha! (That was my best attempt at an evil laugh.)

Here are a few of the things on my want-to-do list for the week leading up to Halloween:

1. Finish my dress! I'm oh-so-close to finally wrapping up the much-discussed pattern I've been working on. Give me a good, solid hour or two, and it'll be all done. So excited!
2. Pumpkin carving party. For the first time in our ten years together, L and I will be carving pumpkins! We picked them up this evening, and though they are lumpy, bumpy, and misshapen, they'll be masterpieces come tomorrow night.
3. Baking, baking, and more baking. I plan on putting together a few Halloween goodie bags for friends and coworkers, which means lots and lots of kitchen time. Woo-hoo!
4. Bloggy catch-up. I do plan on blogging about the one or two things I did during the couple of days that I was missing in action, and I may even try to squeeze in an extra post or two to compensate. One of the highlights to come ... making my own marshmallow fluff!
5. A Halloween-inspired Geeky Love. He's so awesome, it's SCARY!

Happy almost Halloween!

I have a real soft spot for science-fiction. My Dad grew up on Star Trek and Robert Heinlein novels, and passed his love for them on to me while I was still pretty young.; I, of course, was more interested in cartoons than Captain Kirk (though I did really like the tribbles), but there was something about those early sci-fi shows and movies that I found really intriguing. Now that I'm old enough to appreciate science-fiction for what it is, there seems to be a very limited supply of good science-fiction. The problem with most modern sci-fi is that it has been swallowed up by big Hollywood budgets, and clever story-telling has been replaced by big explosions and female scientists who divide their time between nuclear physics and bikini modeling.

Enter The X-Files. In my opinion, it's the perfect combination of classic sci-fi, suspense, humor, and even horror, with a splash of conspiracy thrown in for good measure. I like the inventive cast of characters (which range from polished and professional to downright goofy), I like the story lines, I like the creatures and monsters. It appeals to my inner-sci-fi-geek, but it also makes me laugh and makes me think. And isn't that what a good television show should do? It's not simply a passive viewing experience with a canned laugh-track ... it's mentally-engaging and really, really fun.

Now, say it with me: "I want to believe!"

I woke up this morning feeling mildly better. Still a bit of a tickle in my throat and a teensy-weensy sniffle, but not terrible. I showed up to work and found that one of my coworkers had caught the same bug, and was full-on sick. Like fever/chills/hacking/sneezing sick. I felt bad for her, of course, but I also felt like my regimen of vitamins and water - in addition to my "meaner than the germs" approach - had totally saved me from facing a similar fate.

I had to miss my workout again this evening, but the nap that I took in its place was just FANTASTIC. I woke up feeling like a whole new woman - or, at least the same woman but a bit less buggy. I had a big bowl of soup for dinner (and had one for lunch too), and now I feel like I'm almost back to normal. Normal for me, that is.

Tomorrow night will hopefully be my return to my sewing project, so I should have pictures to share this weekend. Happy almost Friday!

Whenever I got sick when I was a kid, my Dad would always tell me to be "meaner than the germs." Unfortunately, I'm having to put his words to use today ... I totally feel like I'm coming down with something. Luckily, I've been preemptively "mean" - I've been really good about taking my vitamins and drinking lots of water for the past month or two in anticipation of cold season - so I'm hoping it will pass quickly. So far, I'm just in the tickle-in-the-throat phase. With any luck, that's as far as it'll go.

I decided to swap my workout for a lengthy, pre-dinner nap and had a piping hot bowl of soup for dinner. I let L do the baking for tonight (mmmm, chocolate chip cookies!) and took it super easy. And now, I'm going to head to bed for a full night of sleep (for the first time this week). Meaner than the germs, indeed.