Cheapest (Favorite) Costume Ever

OK, so I completely procrastinated figuring out a costume for myself for Halloween. I was more concerned with decorating the house. But, after spending only $1.50, I was able to come up with, what I think to be, my best costume yet.

$1: aviator sunglasses at the dollar store

$.50: dark nail polish (part of a two-pack at the dollar store)

With a red bandanna, a silver sharpie, a black T-shirt, flannel shirt, jeans, boots and TONs of black eyeliner, I rocked Halloween.

Oh, and did I mention I practiced singing Poison for two weeks straight, only to sing one song twice at two different karaoke bars. Totally worth it, though.

Cooking with Pumpkin

I meant to take more pictures of the cooking part, but when I'm cooking, I get completely distracted with it.

So, I had two pumpkin's worth of innards. Separating the seeds was a draining experience. Wow...I just realized that was a pun, in fact, because there was a lot of draining that had to be done.

But before the draining could be complete, I had to separate the seeds from the, um, little stringy pieces. (I couldn't figure out how else to phrase it.)

Finally, after running them under the water in the colander, the little bits came off, but weren't big enough to be strained through the holes.

And then, I noticed that the seeds floated in water, and the pulp sunk. Ah-ha!

With the use of a slotted spoon, the seeds came out perfectly!

With the pulp that was de-seeded previously, I put it in a blender and blended...and blended, and blended, and blended (see, I knew I should have registered for a food processor). I read online once it gets to the consistency of applesauce, it's great for cookies, breads and anything else that would require the basic pumpkin from a can.

P.S. Looks nothing like what's in the can. I'm not going to question it.

So, I made pumpkin bread, which was delicious.

And I made pumpkin coconut chocolate chip cookies...but the husband got into them before I could take pictures.

One minute I saw the bowl, the next minute it was gone and I heard him running through the house and slamming the bedroom door.

When I pried it open, I found this.

But I did get a picture of the big cookie I made with the leftover dough. It was supposed to be shaped like a turtle, but ended up looking up like a manatee...or a fetus.

Nom nom nom.

My Husband's First Time

Yes, that's right. My husband had never done it before. He was nervous, but I assured him it would be fun and he'd like it. I, being the more experienced one, couldn't wait. It had been so long since I last did it and I knew I wouldn't have enough time during the week. So, I am happy to announce, last Sunday...we carved pumpkins!

(Haha, you people have sick minds if you thought I was referring to anything else...)

And, yes, now that you know what I'm talking about, it's true, my husband never did it. He grew up painting pumpkins, or not decorating at all because my mother-in-law hates Halloween. She goes to Aruba every year to avoid it, actually. I don't blame her, I guess. It's not for some anti-pagan reason or anything like that; her birthday is a couple of weeks before and, growing up, she always had Halloween-themed birthday parties.

Anyway, we went down to my the farm by my grandparent's house because I wanted to pick our own and pay three times what we would pay at the grocery store--it was the one splurge I can recall when I didn't run around looking for the best deal in town.

When we brought them home, he got right to work, breaking two of the pumpkin carving knives trying to cut open the top...then he read the instructions that say not to do that. After scooping out the innards for a good half hour, we used the stencils my mom saved (from 1991!) and gave us. He used painter's tape to hold his on, and by the time I was done, I remembered I had spray adhesive, which worked wonderfully!

Oh, and poking holes in the pattern beforehand makes all the difference in the world, let me tell you!

Another Costume!

My sister-in-law's daughter is being Gabriella from "High School Musical". I think it's the third movie because she's going as Gabriella from the prom. The dress she bought for her was a little flat, she told me. So I was commissioned to figure out a solution (I love a challenge). Easy-made tutu, here I come!

I saw this LINK from Crystal's Craft Spot and couldn't wait to try it. I could not believe how easy it was!

Oh! And the dollar store, I was thrilled to find out, sold 8-yard spools of tulle! I went through about eight of them. With a few stitches from he sewing machine I had my base.

I soon had visitors when making the tutu; the cats would not leave me alone!

Here's the finished product, including those curious little ones.

As the tutorial says, I need to flatten it out. It's in the bathroom right now, awaiting a long shower.

I'll post pictures of my niece after Saturday. I totally want to make one for me, but I don't think it'll go with my current costume idea.

Stone Candlestick Holders

I love the look the stone spray paint offers. LOVE IT! My husband now gets mad when I use it because he enjoys it so much, he thinks it's his to use. But I used it anyway.

On my trip to the dollar store this week, I bought regular glass candlestick holders.

I don't think I would have looked twice at them, but I began scouring the store for stuff to use the spray paint on because I still had a lot of it. When I came across these, I knew they'd be perfect.

And, in my humble opinion, I believe I was right.

The candles are actually red, but spray painted black so when they burn, they'll have a bleeding effect. Oh, I can't wait until Saturday!

Christmas Decorations for Halloween

Last week when I went to the dollar store, they were still stockpiled with Halloween goodies. When I went this week, however, Christmas had arrived, leaving only a few sad shelves of paper plates with pumpkins and ghosts on them.

Ha! Like that would stop me!

Found some cute birds that would go on a Christmas tree.

Sorry, but birds do not represent Christmas to me. They are dirty creatures. Dirty, I tell you! And, one of them stole my bagel once while I was walking down the boardwalk in Atlantic City. Flew right by my head to do so. OK, maybe not any bird that looks like the ones pictured...but my dislike for any member of the bagel snatcher's species are not nice!

See? Even Beth and Buster know of their evil!

Anyway, I'm on a spray painting kick lately. So, what did I do? I brought the evil out in these birds!

Even the feathered tail looked even more evil with the weird spray paint effect.

I used some magenta nail polish on their eyes to really bring out the evil and my chandelier is now evil-ized!

Oh, my Halloween dining room is really turning out to be great!

Oh! I Keep Forgetting!

I ran out of spray paint, but I finished one of the end tables I bought a few weeks ago. And I love it. I'll love it even more when its mate is done.

I almost hate to admit it, but at the same time I have a love/hate relationship with her. The paper is from a Martha Stewart collection I found on clearance at Wal-Mart.

You can see a little hint of it in the staging of my photography project.

Oh, and I absolutely love those specialty scissors!

We Interrupt Your Normally Scheduled Blog Post...

So mad about "Project Runway" right now. Nicolas was one of my favorites! He reminded me of one of my friends from college, and I would text him telling him the status of his "gay doppleganger" whenever he did well. Now, I had to text him tonight with the sad news. He, of course, did not care.

OK, not to vent my sadness over PR through this whole post, so I'll talk a little about what I attempted tonight.

I had the ambition tonight to drag one box of winter clothes down and go through them all.

Well, since I rarely throw anything out, I found six things I still want (four of which still fit well, but I always lose weight in the winter, so I'm not concerned). Then, there were two much bigger piles of clothes I didn't like any more and clothes I bought when I was about 50 lbs. lighter.

I don't miss those days: I was the typical broke college student and lived on Diet Coke, Caesar Salads and Ephedra (well, I do miss the Ephedra, I'll admit). But, hey, I graduated college, got a full-time job, started eating full-time again, not to mention I married into an Italian family where the carbs are as plentiful as the love.

(Ooh, look at those hips! Any other woman would probably crop this photo. Me? Nah! I love it! I think those are what some would call "birthin' hips"! Bring it on!)

But, this does leave me with the dilemma of "What the hell can I do with blouses that are too small?" Really, I wanted to figure out a project I could do to repurpose them into clothes I could wear again...that didn't end up looking like a patchwork quilt of random fabrics.

So...after watching a very unfortunate episode of "Project Runway", I still had no ideas. Er, actually, I still have no ideas, I should say. Oh sure, I could make pillows, bags, curtains, table runners, stuff for the house. But these are MY clothes. I want to make something for ME! (Yeah, I'm having an only child moment right now.)

Oh well. If any of my three readers have any ideas, let me know!

Point and Shoot. I Can Do That!

I consider myself a less-than-amateur photographer. At the same time, I consider myself a professional picture taker. I took one photography class in high school and I don't really remember a lot from it, other than the smell of the darkroom chemicals, which I came to appreciate. But when I do take photos, I'll catch them at an awkward angle, or I'll haphazardly find some good uses of light. Most of these accidents occur when I'm trying to balance a drink in one hand, and take the picture with the other.

I decided to stage some fun shots around an old book of poetry, including Poe's "The Raven", I found at the library, and spice them up for Halloween.

The wine with the funky label I happened to find the week before. And I used the leftover fabric from Lenny's cape as a backdrop.

After taking the pictures, I cropped and edited them with the photo software on the Costco Web site, where I then ordered the prints.

Here's what the full staging area looks like. Scotch tape holding the fabric up, and a corner of it tied to a chair. Oh, how classy.

I used scrapbooking scissors to cut the edges of some scrapbooking paper and black mat, then some spray adhesive to get the layered look.

I found some tea light holders at Ocean State Job Lot for $1 each. They used to have stained glass decorations on the back, but most of them had been stolen. It was a perfect holder for the pictures, especially since I knew I would be using battery-operated tea lights, so there would be no fear of fire.

(Ahh, look at that crafting mess all over my dining room. That only means one thing: It was a successful craft weekend.)

At Least I Didn't Put It On a Box of Wine...

I saved this empty jug for a few months, not knowing why I didn't have the heart to throw it away. There's something about empty bottles that makes them difficult to part with.

Finally, I found a way to add it to my Halloween decor.

Found the stickers at the dollar store, which was much better than the $7 A.C. Moore wanted to Martha Stewart wine stickers.

After cleaning the label off (found out eye make-up remover works well for that), I stuck it on and added it to my Sideboard O' Halloween.