Happy Halloween!

Well today is the day! The day of my favorite Holiday!! I'm so glad it's finally here because now I can finally get back into my daily routine. Costumes are done and have been worn to parties. Now I can clean up my material and paint mess. I have successfully made a pie (HAD to be homemade) and a decorated cake (Pacen's 4-H group asked all the parents to make these) and will deliver them to the Fairgrounds during my lunch break for tonight's Halloween Carnival. Hopefully I am able to deliver them in tact. I have nightmares of dropping them.

I am planning on going to the carnival even though Pacen won't be with me. The kids didn't have school today due to an in-service/work day so he is in Harrison with my parents. He's planning on going trick-or-treating with his H-town friends. It will feel so weird not going with him.

Would you like to see our costumes and such? Oh come now, of course you do! :)

Quinn and I.  We won 2nd place!!!  Our parents beat us!  What the hell?!  :)

My little Harry Potter!  I think Pace looks so much like him!  He also looks a little frazzled...maybe he just got done fighting Lord Voldemort ... Umm, I mean "he-who-must-not-be-named".

Pacen's class.  I just now noticed Pedro!  Haha!  I knew there was a Napolean Dynamite, but somehow I missed Pedro!  Wow, I'm so observant.  :)

Now do you want to see the pie and cake I made?  No?  Well, tough.  If you don't want to see them then just close this window right now.  :)

I got the idea for the crust here.  There are a couple other crust tutorials there too so go check it out!

Do you like my little Jack-o-lantern?  :)

Before I show you my cake you must know this:  this cake is going to be in a contest.  Whether I like it or not.  Since it's going to be in a contest and since I'm freakishly competitive I had to make something that I knew would be different from everyone else's cakes.  Something that had a small chance of winning a prize.  I turned to Cake Central for some inspiration.  Oh boy was I inspired!!!  By many cakes.  Too bad I didn't have time to attempt them all.  I finally decided to make the Ouija board cake based on this cake.  I bow down to your awesomeness AmberStar1066!  Your Ouija board kicks my Ouija board's ass!  I don't know why I didn't attempt bottom corners like those! Well, here she is:

My cake.  My off-centered Ouija board cake.  My off-centered, not-very-detailed-bottom-corners Ouija board cake.  :)  Do you think I have any chance of winning?  Even a small prize?  *sigh*  I need to quit being so damn competitive.  :)  Psssshhhhht.  Yeah right. 

Well, if you want to know how I made this cake here are a bit of instruction: I  printed off a picture of a Ouija board and taped it under some wax paper.  I then piped melted chocolate on the letters and numbers and transferred them to the cake, which is two 9x9 square cakes covered in Cream Cheese Frosting (tinted light brown).  I dusted some cocoa powder over the cake like AmberStar1066 did to give it the "aged" look.   I free-hand piped the corners.  The bottom corners of real Ouija boards are very...ummmmm...cluttered?  Is that the word I'm looking for?  Detailed?  Anyway, I knew I couldn't recreate them very well so I just did some lines.  I guess tonight I'll get to see my "competition".  :) 

Well, I hope you all have a spooktacular Halloween!!!  Be safe and have fun!!

"Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,
Voices whisper in the trees, 'Tonight is Halloween!'" ~ Dexter Kozen

Wednesday Wishes!

Well folks, today is the final Wednesday Wishes Halloween Edition of this year.  Sad.  It's so hard to believe that All Hallow's Eve, Samhain, All Soul's Day, Hop-Tu-Naa, or whatever you prefer to call this awesome Holiday is almost upon us and will soon be behind us yet again.  Time has got to slow down!  This is ridiculous!  It just seems like yesterday I was getting ready for last Halloween!  Eeeeesh.

Okay, I'm done bitching now.  Here are some final Halloween loves/wishes/inspirations that I pinned onto my Pinterest (I'm so in love with that site!)!  Enjoy!

                                                      Source: burtonavenue.blogspot.com via Brooke on Pinterest

Can you believe this Witch's hat is made out of paper?!  Seriously.  Check out the tutorial.  So amazing that it really does look like hammered copper.  I think I am going to have to try to make a few next year.

                                                     Source: alabamaslackermama.blogspot.com via Brooke on Pinterest

I love what Alabama Slacker Mama did with these mannequin legs!  Genius!  Now I have to find some.  Haha!  I also saw another project similar to this except the tops of the legs were sticking out from under a welcome mat on the front porch.  Also a cute idea! 

                                                  Source: dahlhartlane.blogspot.com via Brooke on Pinterest

I love vintage things...or even vintage inspired new things!  :)  These are paper mache and I love the vintage look to them!  I think this would be a fun project for Pacen and I to do together.  I haven't worked with paper mache since grade school and I don't know that Pacen has ever even heard of it.  He would love the mess it makes!  Haha!  I would love the awesome vintage-ish pumpkins to put out next year! 

                                                                 Source: None via Brooke on Pinterest

How adorable is this costume?!  I love it!  I imagine this would even be a good last minute costume idea.  It looks like most of the stuff could be found at home, with exception of the balloon, but I imagine that can be found at almost any store that sells toys and such.  You could maybe use one of those punch balloons.  Remember those?  They blew up big and came with a large rubberband  that you tied to one end.  Aaahhhh, memories.  Haha!

                                                              Source: None via Brooke on Pinterest

Here is another sugar skulls idea.  This would be good to use for a Mother Nature costume.  Paint your face like this and wear a big puffy tulle green dress.  Wrap some vines around an arm and a leg and maybe put a bird's nest in your hair.  Hmmmmm, idea for next year?  :)

                                           Source: sweetcheekstastytreats.blogspot.com via Brooke on Pinterest

Ogre toes!  I imagine if Ogres were real this is exactly what their toes would look like.  Well, maybe there would be hair, but these are darn close to what I picture an Ogre's toe to look like.  :)  These are made out of those orange peanut shaped candy things, green candy melt, and fruity tootsie roll candies.  These would be fun to take to a Halloween party for kids. 

Well, I hope you all have a very spooky and fun Halloween!  Be safe!

Source: None via Brooke on Pinterest

Chocolate Covered S'Mores On Sticks

One day I stumbled upon a cool Halloween treat over at Eighteen 25.  Chocolate covered S'mores on a stick!  I knew I wanted to try them, but I wasn't sure what I would make them for.  I mean, I could've made them just for home, but I knew I would eat them all and then my ass would grow even larger and that is just something I don't want.  Then the perfect opportunity to make these hit me!  Pacen's 4-H club has a monthly meeting and I was in charge of snacks for the October meeting.  Yessssss!!  I gathered all the supplies needed and set to work.  Pacen was in charge of the sprinkles.  :)  Here is how ours turned out

Well, these were a HUGE hit at the meeting...with the young and old!  Parents were asking me how I made them and kids were walking around saying, "Mmmmmm!  These are sooooo good!"  One parent (who wasn't at the meeting) sent me a comment on Facebook telling me her daughter got home and said, "Mom!  Pacen's mom made THE BEST snack!"  Haha!  I'm so glad they were a hit.  Luckily there were a couple left so I got to try one, and I must agree...AWESOME!!

 I almost couldn't quit eating long enough to take this picture!  Haha!!

Head on over to Eighteen 25 to see the full tutorial!  One tip I have: when microwaving the S'mores, make sure the marshmallows are at the gooey/sticky phase before totally assembling and putting in the freezer...I mean really gooey...or they will fall apart when coating with chocolate. 

Here is one of my all-time favorite dialogues about S'mores and it's from one of my favorite movies, "The Sandlot"!

Ham Porter: Hey, Smalls, you wanna s'more?
Smalls: Some more of what?
Ham Porter: No, do you wanna s'more?
Smalls: I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have some more of nothing?
Ham Porter: You're killing me Smalls! These are s'more's stuff! Ok, pay attention. First you take the graham, you stick the chocolate on the graham. Then you roast the 'mallow. When the 'mallows flaming... you stick it on the chocolate. Then cover with the other end. Then you scarf. Kind of messy, but good! Try some!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

Last week's weekly photo challenge over at A Step in the Journey was "silhouette".  I've always liked silhouette photography, but I've never really experimented with it much. 

A few years ago I was sitting on the dock on my dad's pond when Pacen and my boyfriend at the time, were walking past on the hill above.  The sun was at a perfect angle for a silhouette shot so I yelled, "Stop right there boys!"  They stopped and looked at me with expressions that said, "We are busy!  What do you want?".  (Okay, I'm pretty much positive Pacen voiced this annoyance out loud.)  I explained my reason for stopping them and then their expressions changed to, "Ugh!  Not more pictures!"  (He probably voiced this one out loud too!)  Well, the mission they were on was a hunting one.  I don't know what they were hunting for, but they had a couple BB guns with them so I told them to move the guns so I could get them in the shot.  That changed their attitudes and they posed in a proud manner with the barrels of the guns angled so they were noticeable.  I snapped the shot and it has been one of my favorites ever since.  That was the first and last time I really experimented with silhouette photography. 

I am so glad silhouette was one of the challenges on the challenge list!  It was nice to experiment with it again, and to make it even better I was house sitting for a co-worker this weekend who lives in the country so it was the perfect setting for this challenge.  I also got lucky on Saturday evening, as the skies were nice and clear!  Here are some shots I got:

I wanted to get a windmill shot, but the closes one I could find was too far from the road so the picture turned out rather blurry and grainy.  :(  Just in case you were wondering how the shot turned out I took a few years ago, here it is (I did it in black and white):

 

Want to see lots more silhouette photography?  Head on over to A Step in the Journey and check out last week's photo challenge! 

"To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them." ~ Elliott Erwitt

Halloween Mantel and Decor

As I have mentioned once or twice or maybe even a few times, Halloween is my favorite holiday!! :)  I love the eeriness, the mystery, and the fun that's packed into Halloween.  I love to decorate the inside and outside of my house with all kinds of Halloween decor.  This year I didn't do anything outside because I didn't feel like dragging the homemade headstones and spiders down from the garage rafters.  Lazy, I know.  Also, my headstones have seen better days/Octobers.  I need to do some work to them.

The inside of my house is all decked out with pumpkins, spiders, webs, skeletons, skulls, etc.  The dining room portion of my living/dining room is really sporting Halloween spirit.  :)  Even more so this year since I moved my faux fireplace to that side of the room.  Here's a peek at what my dining area and mantel look like during the month of October (not the greatest pictures in the world):

 Here is the dining area.  The lighthouses and such look out of place, but oh well.  I turned my great-grandparent's china hutch into a sort of witch's work area.  There are specimen jars, a voodoo potion book (the real deal), and a picture of Marie Laveau, amongst other things. 

 Here is a closeup of the witch's work area.  There are spiders randomly placed on the cheesecloth, but for some reason you can't see any here.  Note:  This is the ONLY time I allow spiders in my house.  Yes, they are fake, but still really creepy.  Ick!

Here is a close-up of one of the specimen jars.  I made a bunch a couple of years ago using old canning jars and some empty drink bottles.  I used those little foam capsules that expand and turn into a creature when submerged in water.  I chose the bug ones.  I also had some little toy skeletons and rats laying around that I used in other jars.  I tried to make the labels look dirty and old using tea and food coloring.

My mantel!  I covered all the pictures on the South wall with scary pictures I printed off the internet.  You can only see one here and it's the creepy puppet from the Saw movies.  I put candles, fabric, a jack-o-lantern decoration, and some jack-o-lantern lights in the fire area of the fireplace.  The two black thing to the right of that are two vintage-looking frames with a black vintage-looking shawl draped over them.  

 Here is a close-up of one of the mummy heads that scattered on both the mantel and the china hutch.  My friend made them a couple years ago when we hosted our first annual Halloween party (no party this year).  She made them out of styrofoam balls, black tape, cheesecloth dipped in an Elmer's glue/water concoction, and scary-ish googly eyes.  Pretty nifty, eh?  :)

My Grandparents bought me some eyeball lights a couple years ago so I put them in a cloche stand by a skeleton. I made that stand using a cheese dome cloche and a candlestick from Hobby Lobby.  I actually made two.  The other is taller and on the right side of the mantel.  I put a skull and mummy head in it..

 

Close-up of the frames and shawl. 

So there you have it.  Most of my indoor Halloween decor!  Today I'm linking up to Home Stories A 2 Z  Beth is hosting a Halloween Mantel linky party!  Head on over and check out all the awesome decorations and mantels! 

"Halloween is huge in my house and we really get into the "spirits" of things." ~ Dee Snider

Wednesday Wishes!

Only a week and a half until Halloween!!! I haven't even started my costume yet and I'm also making one for my sister! Eek. I'm going to work hard on them this weekend. Pacen finally decided what he wants to be. Harry Potter! :) We've been watching all the Harry Potter movies via Netflix and are hoping the final one is available through Netflix when we get to it. We just finished the third one and I'm ready for the next one to be here! I'm really enjoying them...except when ginormous spiders occasionally appear. Ick!

Okay, moving on to the actual reason for this post. This week's wishes/likes/loves that I pinned on Pinterest!

                                                     Source: doodlecraft.blogspot.com via Brooke on Pinterest

Last weekend FWB and I stopped at a Halloween store and I saw some "bleeding" candles.  I thought they were awesome, but I didn't dare look at the price cause I knew they would be outrageous.  A couple days later I stumbled upon these homemade "bleeding" candles!  Awesome and so so so easy!  I won't get any made this year, but bet your bottom I'll have some next year!  :)

                                                         Source: familyfun.go.com via Brooke on Pinterest

How cute and simple are these?!  I am definitely going to make these for Pacen's school party!  I'm going to go beyond men and cats though.

                                                     Source: craftysisters-nc.blogspot.com via Brooke on Pinterest

I love this decoration!  So adorable and fairly easy to create!  Next year I'm going to have to give it a whirl, but first I will need to purchase a jigsaw (or just borrow the one at my dad's store like I normally do).

                                                            Source: parenting.com via Brooke on Pinterest

I love this costume!  Okay, it may be because I'm a Scuba Diver, but you have to admit it's pretty cute.  I tried to talk Pacen into this when he was still trying to decide, but he didn't want to.  Maybe next year.  :)  Here is another take on this costume:

                                                            Source: parents.com via Brooke on Pinterest

                                                              Source: google.com via Brooke on Pinterest

WOW!!!  This is amazing!!  A LOT of work went into this.  I'll chalk this up on my ideas for next year list.  :)

                                                   Source: justthebeesknees.com via Brooke on Pinterest

I'm totally digging this front stoop display!  I love how they drilled holes in the pumpkins to look like stars!  I need to invest in some urn planters so I can do this!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this week's Wednesday Wishes!  Maybe you gained some inspiration like I did!  :)  The quote this week may end up going on my "quote wall" as it fits every day of the year, and not just Halloween!

Source: 1.bp.blogspot.com via Brooke on Pinterest

Weekly Photo Challenge: Bokeh

Last week's photo challenge over at A Step in the Journey was "Bokeh".  "What the heck is bokeh?", you ask.  Well, the easy to explain answer is:  it is the blur in a photo.  Many times the background is blurred and sometimes most of the picture is blurred with just a small portion in focus.  There is a great post about bokeh over at The Pioneer Woman.  She has MANY great photography tips and tutorials!  I love experimenting with bokeh.  Here are a few bokeh pictures I have taken in the past couple months:

Some wildflowers in Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park

Horny Toad

My "niece"!  (Not much bokeh in this, but there is a little.)

Go on over to the bokeh photo challenge and check out all the photos!  There are some great ones!!

"You don't take a photograph, you make it. " ~ Ansel Adams