Happy Halloween

Halloween is finally here and my wizard sees a happy Halloween in your future.  The rogue will make sure no goblins will scare you.

Some Halloween decorations in the dining room await the carving crew.

Shayne carving his dragon pumpkin.

Cole working on his Iron Man design.

Greg & Reilly

Angela working on her Monsters Inc. design.

Carving chaos

Claudine & Kaelie

Last, but not least, Cameron got in on the carving at OSU and sent us this photo.  Can you tell we are Walking Dead fans?  Shayne and Cam both carved Daryl this year.

Have a safe and fun Halloween!

happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Momma and Daddy!

 

 

My parents share a lot of things, including a birthday! Today, my father turns the big 8-0! and my mother is 77! Happiest of birthdays, you two! I sure do love you!

 

p.s. These photos were taken at their church picnic a few days ago. 

A Seaside Affair

Tonight was our annual Halloween themed dinner.  My fascination with the Creature from the Black Lagoon inspired tonight's feast.  The only scary food was the dessert and the possible zucchini skulls on the salad.  I've always wanted to try black fettucini, but no luck finding it locally.  If purchased online, I could have had a bag for the mere price of $17 a bag!  No thanks.  I found an organic black bean spaghetti that worked, but needed extra sauce since it was fairly dry.  The boys ate it without complaint, so I guess it wasn't too bad.  The shrimp was cooked quickly in a balsamic reduction glaze and I threw in some capers for good measure.

Ah, the dessert.  Having worked with paperclay for many years, I thought molding marzipan would be a snap.  Wrong.  It was harder than expected and I have a new respect for the intricate marzipan creations found in the better candy shops.  I also have stained pink hands at the moment.  Side note- Pure Florida Cane Sugar works beautifully as simulated beach sand.  Looks exactly like it. 

Chris carved the Creature from the Black Lagoon pumpkin on a sage-colored pumpkin for our centerpiece and some Halloween music played in the background.  Thinking about it now, some soft ocean music would have been cool.

Three more days until Halloween!!!

a halloween treat!

We're having so much fun over at my Big Picture Class, Craft Happy.  Above is a bonus project for Halloween. I made them in the summer but just looking at them makes me want to make more. Maybe if we get homework done early tonight.

Alfredo is super excited to be a honey badger for Halloween since that's his favorite animal in the whole world. If you don't know about the honey badger, it is arguably the most fierce of all creatures. It fears nothing and will take on a king cobra, a lion, anything that crosses its path. I bought a skunk costume and added claws to plain black gloves. I'm not sure if the fangs will work out...he can only wear them for 4 seconds at a time. Maybe I'll sew some fangs on the costume head instead. Running out of time, though. And I still have to fashion a saint costume for the All Saints parade. You can just guess who our nature lover will be dressed as. You got it...St. Francis of Assisi!

It's not too late to join in the fun of Craft Happy! Sneak in through the back door and register here. We're getting ready to start this advent countdown project...

Throwback Thursday

Here's my contribution to Throwback Thursday.  Pretty much the best song from the 80s, at least in my humble opinion :)  They were incredible in concert.

Toast to Downton

Wouldn't it be grand to have Mr. Carson serve you a glass on a silver platter?  Available as a pre-sale on Wine.com.  Great way to start the new season in Jan. 2014!

Run & Get a Spoon!

The Walking Dead episode 2 will be even sweeter with a little zombie dessert.  Zombie sugar cookies with a purple mound of a chilly grave and headstone.    

A Spooky Specimen

Went to the nursery this morning to find some nice violas and stumbled upon these spooky ferns.  I've never seen the red one before and the lady at the nursery said that was the only one they had in stock.  Decided to put my flies to use this year.

Brain Food

For those of you not on Facebook, here's the photo I posted of our zombie dinner in celebration of the new season of The Walking Dead.  I have a special dessert planned for next Sunday- zombie-themed of course!  Chris and I found some purple cauliflower and I cooked it in a really good tomato basil bisque.  It took on a very brain-like look, but was very yummy.  Trying to find more zombie recipes that aren't too visually gross.  Not an easy task!!!

The Walking Dead premiere was great and it's going to be getting intense very quickly.  So happy to have our show back on Sunday nights.

Meet Me at the Cemetery Gates

Last night we attended the tour of Twinsburg's Locust Grove Cemetery.  Not too spooky so the younger kids could attend and just the right amount of time.  They even had nice refreshments set up in the old barn that serves as the city's historical society building.

The boys above are portraying the Wilcox twins, Moses and Aaron, who were one of the first founding members of the community.  Discovered some information on the twins online.  The Wilcox twins offered 6 acres of land for a public square and $20.00 toward starting the first school if the residents would change the settlement's name from Millsville to Twinsburg. Moses and Aaron Wilcox were reportedly so identical only their closest friends could tell them apart. They were lifelong business partners, held all their property in common, married sisters, had the same number of children, contracted the same fatal ailment and died within hours of each other. They are buried in the same grave in Twinsburg’s Locust Grove Cemetery.

There's a gentleman in the center of the photo above who was walking around playing the harmonica and then played the fiddle once it got dark.  Added just the right atmosphere.

Can't remember who she was portraying, but she was one of the town's early socialites and she's buried somewhere in the cemetery.

Fun outing and it was interesting to learn some history of our city.  Nice job high school students and adults who portrayed the founding members.

Vermont was lovely! and some other news...

I can't believe it's already been a week since I boarded a plane for our crafty getaway. It was so lovely...and, although the time moved nice and slow and we were able to savor every delicious moment, it's over and back to regular old life.

Well, not quite. Thanks to the government shut down, that sweetie pie Rich is home, repainting every room in the house. Poor Alfredo never wants to go to school anymore...I suppose he imagines us having a party without him everyday.

Meanwhile, there IS a party going on over at my Big Picture Class, Craft Happy! I hope you're not missing it. (You can sneak in if you hurry! but hurry!)

And, just in case you need something to sweeten the deal, did you know I'm doing giveaways in the class? And some really, really, really good ones. For instance, today's giveaway:

 Doesn't that make you want to PLAY? Me, too! A great big thank you to my friends over at EKSuccess for providing this fabulous giveaway prize.  

p.s. Maybe you can tell from all my square photos that I have finally jumped on to the Instagram fun wagon. Follow me: @amykpowers and be sure to check out #craftygetaway and #meleenandcharlottesvermontgetaway

 

Let Me Be Frank

A large Halloween papier mache piece has just posted to Kristen Beason Designs.  His bride is a real miniature gourd that has been handpainted.  More photos can be found on the website.

Oh Halloween Tree, Oh Halloween Tree

This year's Halloween tree.  Ornaments from Scott Smith, Marie Patterson, Elaine Thomas, Kim Hardt, Robert Brawley, Maria Barton, Lori Rudolph, Amelia Schaefer, Christine Phelps, Dept. 56, Glitterville, Old World Christmas, and a couple of my own. 

craft happy...coming up!

Isn't that a pretty scarf? It's one of my favorite projects that I'm sharing in Craft Happy, which starts Thursday.

There's still time to sign up and save...the $15 off offer plus free Happy Go Lucky class offer ends today. Just use the code HAPPYHAPPY at checkout (code expires today!). Sign up here. Then go back and add Happy Go Lucky Stitchalong to your cart, use the code CRAFTGIRL, and get it for FREE! Save a total of $30!

See you in class!