Fun Halloween Foods

 i always enjoying making fun foods for kids during the holidays.  i used to get a lot of ideas from Family Fun magazine, but there are also a ton of amazing ideas on pinterest! Here are a few of the things we made for Halloween.

 

Mummy dogs are always a favorite. These are 'veggie' dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough.  Very easy to make, and the kids love them.  i use mustard to make the eyes, then they dip them in (catsup) blood.  Spooky!

  

 Kids decorated the cupcakes, i did the cake. :)

 

 i found the frozen banana/yogurt ghost idea on pinterest.  These are just bananas cut in half, then sliced the long way, insert a stick, dip in vanilla yogurt and freeze on parchment paper. i used some candy sprinkles for the faces.  Very easy, pretty healthy and the kids loved them.

 

i found several recipes for witch finger cookies, but these were my favorite! These are unbelievably simple to make. The cookie is just a basic shortbread... flour, butter, sugar and vanilla.  Whole almonds are used as the fingernails. You can find the original recipe here.

Aren't they great!?! :)

i had a whole bunch of fun ideas pinned over at pinterest, but never made it to the store (story of my life) to get the ingredients for most of them. We still have plenty of fun treats to make the day special.  :)

Halloween Preparations and Costumes

This weekend we are starting to get in to the Halloween spirit.We have a bunch of Halloween activities planned, including the IVE fall festival and the Dugpur Halloween Carnival on Saturday.  Thee is also a Kids Fest at the Jacksonville center on Sunday and my boy really wants to go to Sinkland Farms  pumpkin festival.  

We also have costumes to finish, pumpkins to carve and spooky foods to make.  i'm not sure we are going to make it all of the local Halloween events this weekend, but we're going still going to have a ton of fun!

We have already started carving a few of our pumpkins, although we are saving the big ones for this weekend.  The small pumpkins came from our garden, the huge ones were dropped off by the Fall fairy. We still do not know where they came from.  :)

 

 The kids cleaned out their pumpkins without any help. They love the feel of the pumpkin guts. My boy designed and carved his own pumpkin. My girl designed hers, but need a little help with the actual carving.

This is my girl's cat pumpkin. :)  It had a really long, slight curved stem. So we took the stem off the top and stuck it on the back to look like a cat tail.

 

 My boy did a great job with his pumpkin!   Afterwards we roasted up the seeds and completely devoured them.  We all love roasted pumpkin seeds!

Quite a while ago my son decided he wanted to be an Ent for Halloween.  i was really glad that this wasn't a last minute decision. In the past he's been good for changing his mind the day before Halloween. :)  i love the idea of an Ent, but knew it was going to be somewhat tricky to pull off.  A couple weeks ago, i  decided i better get started on it now and give myself a head start.

 

 This is one of those things i didn't plant out a head of time. i just jumped in and started creating it.  i made a basic mask template.   Then went outside and checked all our firewood for usable bark. Several of the logs have a nice paper bark that peels off in big pieces and is very light weight. So we glued them on, layered them a little where necessary and used some Spanish moss for the beard. It came together quickly, and really looked pretty good!

 

Just to get an idea of how it would look we tried it on and snapped a picture. The bark print fabric won't sit like this in the actual costume. i made it into pants, and didn't have enough fabric for a shirt. i have a mossy green sweater that he'll probably wear and we'll embellish it with vines and leaves. 

He had an old pair of shoes that we are going to cover in leaves. i also picked up some brown gloves that we can hot glue twigs and leaves too. This is one of the costumes we'll be putting together right before we leave the house.  :)   i think it'll be pretty neat though, and will definitely post photos when it is complete.

Now my girl wanted to be a Vampire princess, and i found the perfect dress at the thrift store for $1! Of course, yesterday she decided she'd rather be a pirate...Ack!  i think with a bandana, sword, eye patch and hat we can easily transform the vampire dress into a pirate. Should be interesting! i'll be posting pictures next week.  

i was hoping for good weather, but after checking it looks like it will be bitter cold  Halloween night. Hopefully the costumes will still be recognizable under winter coats!! 

Glass Shop Progress

 

A little over a year ago, my husband moved his glass shop out of the garden shed and into a rented space. It was quite a big move, and a bit scary having to make a monthly rent payment.  The owner of the property was very kind and worked with us, providing a sliding scale until the shop was up and running. Our plan was really just to try and make it a year in the new space and then reevaluate whether it was working for us or not.

   A year later and the shop is running strong. The original work bench has been rebuild and there are now 3 permanent work stations with torches and ventilation. Sometime after the new year,  we are hoping to add two more work stations, so he'll be set up for teaching group classes.  

 Kenan has one full time shop mate who rents a space, and the third bench/torch is available for rent or for glass students to use.  The shop provides a much better atmosphere for teaching then the tiny little garden shed did. :)

  

My husband doin' his thing. :)  The man is a work horse.  He works long days, weekends and holidays.  i admit we miss having him here, although i know he gets a lot more work done without the distractions of home.

 

Kenan's shop mate, Darren C. has been blowing glass for around 15 years. Originally from Oregon/Washington area, he came to Floyd around a year ago and met up with Kenan quite by chance. He's been renting a space in the glass shop for almost 5 months.  You can view some of his work here. 

    This display counter is our first step towards turning half of the space into a retail store.   Kenan found this lighted display counter/case on Craigslist.  There used to be a corner stage on the floor here, carpeting and mural on the wall. So he had to take apart the stage, rip up all the carpeting and paint over the mural.  The new work benches were made from the wood that came from tearing out the stage. It's been quite a bit of work just to get the area cleaned up a bit. Adding the display counter makes it feel a bit more real. One day soon the shelves will be filled with glass work and jewelry.  We are hoping to also eventually paint it something other than white, and decorate the walls with the artwork of local artists.  Ideally beside just blown glass we will also have artwork, clothing, jewelry etc on consignment giving local artists another outlet for their work.

 It's a slow process, but ever little step forward is quite exciting.  Ideally we will have the retail store open in the spring.

Canning Burn Update.

A few weeks ago you might remember, i sustained a pretty good burn while canning apple sauce in a water bath.  i accidently poured scalding water down my arm.  i was wearing a tight fitting sweater, and literally dumped the water down my sleeve.  So the boiling water pooled right above my elbow, and it took a few extra second to get the sweater off which was sticking to me, and get my arm under cold water. 

 

Originally, the burn appeared to be mostly first degree, with obvious second degree at the bottom where the water had pooled.  i took this picture immediately after getting burned and within an hour, the blister had doubled in size and  was at least 1" thick.

 

 Within a couple of days the burn really began to present itself.  What i had thought was a very minor first degree burn, turned into a second degree burn.  The upper part of the skin that was a light pink, i was expecting to just fade.  Instead it began to darken eventually blistering and seeping like the lower part of my arm :(   This is when i actually began to feel pain from the burn. Rather than feeling a pain on the burned skin, i felt a deep throbbing ache similar to tendentious. i kept the burn covered with sterile pads and loose gauze, but as the blisters popped and the burn seeped it constantly stuck to the bandages. My skin was literally falling off where the worst of the burn had been.  Although it didn't appear infected, i was feeling a little depressed about the severity of it.  i've never really had a serious injury of any kind and i definitely didn't expect it to get worse before it got better. 

i had several folks recommend Silvadene (Silver sulfadiazine) but i could only find it as a prescription drug, and being that we are uninsured, i did not want to go to the doctor unless it was totally necessary.  My friend Kathy had recommend gel cooling pads, and so i headed over to CVS to see if they had any in stock. i was able to find anti-microbial Silver gel and Moist hydrogel pads.

Oh my goodness, what a difference that made!!  Within days i could see/feel a difference on my arm.

 

Less than 3 weeks after getting burned, my arm is almost back to normal and there is very little scarring.  The majority of my arm looks good as new. At the base of the burn, where it was the worst is just slightly pink. It's barely noticeable enough to even consider it a scar, and i wouldn't be surprised if it fades even more!  So we will definitely be keeping both the silver gel and the cooling gel pads in our first aid kit!  The difference they made within just a day of using them was incredible!  i am really glad that my burn healed as well as it did and i didn't have any complications. i'm really amazed that the scarring isn't worse and i definitely learned that i need to be more careful when canning!


 

Witches, Pumpkins and Autumn fairies..oh my!

 Between processing apples, volunteering at the school and my fall garden i've also been working on new bendy dolls.  i'm having fun making some seasonal dolls, and wanted to share a few of my favorites.

 

 i've been making lots of little witches. i make these in different colors, orange and black tights, purple and black etc.  These little ladies have been very popular, and i only have this one available as a pre-made. If you are interested in one, just let me know.

 i've also been making lots of little pumpkin girls. :) i don't have any of these pre-made at the time, but am happy to make more if there is interest.

 

i'm loving the Autumn fairies. These are what i am working on now.  The wings are made from artificial leaves, and the acorn cap is real.  i have several of these ladies available for $12 each shipped first class (US). i can ship internationally, but i would have to add the shipping charge.

 

These have been really fun to play around with different color combinations. i just love them all. 

 

 

Inspire by all of our apples i decided to make an apple fairy. She came out pretty cute, but i think i should have had a bit more color variation. Her dress is a medium brown, and her apron a dark brown and there isn't really enough contrast for my taste. Still pretty adorable though, i think.  She is also available for sale.

If interested in any of these girls you can email me at enchantedtree (at)hotmail .com  or visit my facebook page   to everyone that is available for sale.

i've had a few inquiries about snowflake fairies....but i'm not ready to go there yet!! i'm just slowly accepting that autumn is here, so lets not rush into snow just yet. i will have lots of winter/holiday themed bendy dolls a bit later in the season. What would you like to see? i'm always open to suggestions and new ideas.  :)