Witch Hat Makeover

Today I'm going to do a witch hat makeover using a plain black hat I got at the .99 store and a witch dog costume I got at the .99 store.  I'm going to cut all the trim off the dog costume and put it on my hat. I needed a green and black witch hat to complete my Slytherin Witch costume. I wish the hat wasn't so thin though. I've always gotten decent witch hats at the dollar store but this one seems below par. But I'm out of time so I'm going to make the best of it. 

I cut the green tulle off the hat, as well as the corset lacing leaving an inch of black satin on the side.

I sewed the tulle around the base of the cone. It wasn't laying as flat as I wanted it to so I clipped it into panels.
Then I pinned the corset part where I needed and sewed around it, turning the black edges under as I went.

I use the green parts and set the rest aside for a future project.

Here you can see the tulle fluttering in the wind.

Another witch I met at the Lucerne Valley Trick-or-Treat Event

Mighty Wind Please Go Away

Last night's windstorm knocked my Internet off line. The company in Vegas tried to fix it on their end to no avail.  So we scheduled a service call on Wed. But I'm stubborn and kept trying to open the connection and tonight it came on. So I figured I'd better make a blog post while I still had the chance because it is still really windy outside.

Lots of stuff in the yard got knocked around and we spent an hour putting more stuff away, re-securing all the tarps, moving fallen branches and trying to find the parts of the hummingbird feeders.  It's supposed to rain but the rain hasn't started yet and the wind hasn't let up any.

We had a workbench kit in the yard wrapped in tarps and the box was completely gone and one of the tabletop pieces had broken in half.  We couldn't even find the giant cardboard box it had been in. Later in the day I spotted it next door in the neighbor's chicken coop!  My boyfriend went over there to get it and his bad knee gave out and sent him tumbling to the ground. I am glad he figured out how to get up because I don't know how long he would have laid there before I noticed him missing and went to investigate. Hopefully it wouldn't have been too long, because I knew he was going to feed her chickens and come right back so we could go to the library to check our email. One big clear plastic bin disappeared altogether.

So it's been a struggling day, and not much time for art. I did make some mincemeat cookies though. And we got library books to keep us busy for the evening. But I am glad the computer came back on line, because life seemed odd without it.

Teddy Bear Picnic Bash in April

I had a bit of a brainstorm. What do you guys think about me having a Teddy Bear's Picnic Bash sometime near April Fool's Day? Price of admission would be one handmade teddy bear, a teddy bear hat or a bear themed dessert. The bears and hats will go to a local charity (probably our very active Lion's Club). For those that can't drive out here, you can give me your bears at a SCA event or meet-up. Or I could get a P.O. box.

So if you knit, sew, crochet or weave, here's your big chance. Of course if you don't do that sort of thing, you may buy your bear. 

And of course you'd bring your kids and grand-kids to the party. We'll have games, face painting and balloons. And they could win a teddy bear.

Also, sometime in February I could have a 'come work on your bears' afternoon.
For those driving a long way we do have room for tent camping. Before you say yes, look up Lucerne Valley, CA on a map.

There are plenty of free and nearly free teddy bear patterns on the Internet.

Holidays Fast Approaching

Sometimes when you are multitalented, it's hard to focus,especially with the holidays fast approaching. I've been derailed again into teddy bear land. I'm knitting a little silver teddy bear on size 0 needles. Yes, I'm crazy.

 I did some minor porch decorating for Halloween. I'm not all that motivated, because no one will really see it. We don't get many visitors out this way, and no children that live close enough to come trick-or-treating. I imagine the locals go to the Halloween tailgate event at the Lucerne market, so I volunteered to do face painting there to get my name out and so I could see some cute little kids dressed in costumes for Halloween. You just don't go door to door trick-or-treating when houses are half a mile apart.

 I am still hoping someone hires me to read tarot cards at a local event. This used to be my most lucrative day of the year, and the earnings would help me survive Christmas. I have three grandchildren to spoil and I haven't had the money to do it.

There's a fat little chipmunk scarfing all the seeds out of the birdseed bowl. I tapped on the window to scare it away and it just glared at me with it's beady little eyes.

I'm working on my Slytherin witch costume. So happy I found these poison apple green gloves at the .99 store. I wish I'd bought them in pink and white as well, but didn't have the spare change.
They probably had black too, but I imagine they sold out immediately with Halloween around the corner.

Acid Green Gloves

Remodeling My Pinterest Boards

If I have a Pinterest board on a popular topic, I don't have to try too hard to find new things to add to a board, because they show up on my Pinterest feed. That is great for fashions or recipes, but doesn't work well for some of the more obscure themes. So when I came across my Carved Stamps board, it was looking a little empty. So I added cute new stamp designs to it. And some are just downright impressive. You can check it out here: Rubber stamps.

So my Pinterest goal is to make sure each of my boards has at least 100 items in it. I think people hesitate to click on boards with 13 items.

I also noticed a funny thing when I looked at the 'recommended friends' list on my Pinterest feed. Some of my friends have zero things pinned, yet have 20 people following them. I think that is so funny.

What are you going to be for Halloween?

A Pause for Blogging

Sometimes I just get too busy to blog.  My energy is going in a hundred different directions this month.
I signed up for a local art show in November. They want paintings and gourd art so I need to get some things framed and priced and organized.

But before that happens I volunteered to do face painting at the Lucerne Valley Halloween tailgate event on Halloween. So I'm working on my costume for that.

I also ordered new business cards that are due on the 30th. I hope they get here in time for the Halloween event.

Today I focused on sewing beads and sequins on my skirt panels. When it's done I'll list it as a custom order on Etsy for like $1000. It's all labor practically. But this skirt is for me. I'm not willing to go through all this beading again for a lower price. Sometimes you just need one big fantastic time consuming project to really push your own limits, and this is mine.

I'm also baking a lot. I just finished doing mincemeat cookies which I talked about on my kitchen blog.

A cookie that turned out like a heart.

Fall leaves on the apricot tree.

Apple Apocalypse

I had been babying my apple heads for three days. In the hot daytime, I’d put them outdoors to dry on the roof of the truck. In the evening, I’d heat the oven for a few minutes and leave them in there. But then we had a stormy day, and I didn’t want them to mold. So after dinner that night I put the apples in the oven and left it on the default, which is 350 degrees, and set the timer for 3 minutes. On our oven, when the timer dings, the oven turns off. So after I set it, I went in the living room, and heard the timer, and didn’t give it another thought. But it is a good thing I didn’t go to bed early that night. At midnight I was on my computer when a sickeningly sweet smell entered my awareness. After a time I grew curious and tried to identify the smell. Kind of like burnt sugar or…baked apples. OMG. I ran into the kitchen and as you can see in the photo, it was an apple apocalypse. I was so bummed because I really wanted to see the way the faces came out.

I don’t know if I forgot to set the timer, or if the oven malfunctioned. But I figure they baked for 2 ½ hours at 350.

Apple meltdown.

I let a couple of days pass and then I went to buy more apples. Here are the new guys. 

This time I soaked them in lemon water and sprinkled them with salt.

My man and I.

Fun apple head photo manip.

Broad nose.

Love the mouth.

I can't wait to see how they look dried.

Indian or witch nose.

Experimental Amigurumi Style Face

Apples and Indians

The weather today was absolutely perfect. So I decided to go out in the yard and carve my apple head dolls under the mulberry trees.  The neighbor's chickens loved the apple peels. The two of them were in hot competition to get the next one that flew through the fence. I wrote more about the apple head dolls here. My poor apple doll blog hasn't seen any action in a long time.



Can't wait to see how the faces turn out.

 

Yesterday we went to a PowWow down the street. I didn't take many photos because they want you to ask every single person in the photo if it's okay to take their photo. Being basically shy, that's not gonna happen.

So these are the photos I took before the MC said that.

Crafting and Baking

For some reason my Youtube sound isn't working. Very annoying, especially when I'm trying to watch crochet tutorials!  Two friends from Facebook were trying to help me for 3 hours yesterday. I figured I'd give it a rest and try again today in case the problem is on Youtube's end, but still no sound. Garrrrrr.

A little chipmunk is on my porch hoarding the peanuts we put out yesterday. I've almost finished an autumn elf hat I'm crocheting. This one is for me, but I'll use it as a custom order sample in my Etsy shop.

My boyfriend is making apple butter in the crock pot, so the house smelled amazing when I got up.
I've only had jarred apple butter from stores. This stuff tastes amazing, though too tart to eat by itself. I'm thinking on toast would be awesome. The apples came from my next door neighbor's trees. I think they are called wine sap.

Two days ago I made chocolate chip cookies. And I have a few chips left and some mini m-n-m's so I'm going to put those together in a cookie experiment. Something about the autumn air just makes me want to bake. It's way too hot in the summer to bake so I'm making up for lost time I guess.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Without Nuts

I also got 6 Gala apples from the market to use for apple head dolls. That is going to be a big project. I wish I'd started it sooner because they take a while to dry and may not be ready for Samhain. But I'll do what I can. With our new oven, the drying should be easier than with our old temperamental oven in Anaheim. That thing never did work right.

Punkin Cat Ghost Gourds for Halloween

The wind wasn't cooperating today but I did get 4 Halloween gourds finished, except for the protective spray coating. But it's definitely too windy out there to spray. But I want to show you anyway, in case you want me to save any for a reserved Etsy listing.

A kitty with blue eyes over a smiling jack-o-lantern.

Kitty with a pink tongue over a smiling Jack-o-lantern.

Mousie on back of cat pumpkin.

I saw the ghost idea on Pinterest, but came up with the cat punkins all on my own.

 I love to make each one different.

Halloween Gourds

It looks kinda like a Santa but it's not.

I'm painting Halloween gourds for my Etsy shop. But the sun set and I can't paint in the dark. Silly sun, going down right as I was making good progress.




Gourds with their tan under painting.



Sneak peek. Come back and see what happens next.

Cinnamon came over to check things out.