Pumpkin Luminary Hanging Baskets

This idea just appeared in my head and I thought how simple this would be to construct. These pumpkin hanging luminaries are a simple way to bring some festive Halloween decor to the outside of your house while recycling some of your summer plant hanging baskets. Not to mention a super cool way to light the trick-or-treat path to your front door. 

You will need: 

• 2 Wire hanging baskets 
• 1 Strand of each orange and green lights 
• Pumpkins/coconut shell/plants/ mulch (optional) 

Place pumpkins in basket around the plant. Originally, my plan was to not leave any summer foliage, soil, coconut shell or mulch in the hanging basket, but as I played around with the idea I decided it looks quite nice in the daytime. 

Turn the empty basket over and flip chains to the outside. 

Use bottom chains and clips to fasten baskets together. 

Hook the bottom chains into the top chains. 

Slide the female end of orange lights into the bottom of the wire basket. 

Wind the lights around the wires vertically, string across the top, and then back down the other side. Repeat until all of the vertical wires are wrapped.

Finish wrapping orange and green lights to create a pumpkin and stem shape. 

Turn on the lights and Voila! A finished luminary hanging pumpkin.

Two-Faced Couch Potato - A double sided Halloween and Thanksgiving pillow

It has been a stressful day. I guess you can probably tell by the blog title. Thankfully this pillow has been on my couch for a week now, so, I am just writing today, not constructing. 

I had the idea for this a few years ago when I bought a really cute, but obviously Christmas pillow. The back side was polka-dot fabric that matched my living room. After Christmas I flipped it around and placed a smaller pillow to the front and side of it. I love that I do not have to store the pillow and I can use it year round. I wanted to at least help you through the fall season with a cute, cheap, functional idea. 

You will need: 

• Felt 
• Crochet thread 
• Wooden letters 
• Leather laces 
• Ribbon or braid 
• Leaves 
• Soap or chalk 
• Poly-fill

Layout the wooden block letters and leaves on the felt. With the soap make small dots as place markers for the lettering and then trace the leaves. 

Remove the leaves after tracing them. 

String the letters onto the leather and knot the ends. 

Sew the leather to the pillow between the knots. Allow the crochet thread to be visible over the leather. 

Lay the braid onto the soap marks. Only sew the braid down with the crochet thread at the corners or bends of the leaves. Again, allow the crochet thread to be visible over the braid. 

This is what the leaves should look like at this point. 

Measure the inside of each leaf where the central vein would be located on a real leaf and cut the leather laces long enough to accommodate the length plus knots at the end. Sew each lace to the inside of the leaf allowing the crochet thread to show on the inside of the knots. 

Retrieve the multi-purpose sign you made earlier in the week. I sewed a checkered ribbon around the edge of the Halloween side. It just helps the pillow to appear professionally made and finished. The Thanksgiving side has more color and the leaves help finish the edges. 

Sew it up! 

Leave a hand-sized hole to fill the pillow with poly-fill. 

Pin the hole.

Sew the hole shut with black thread and Voila!

Multipurpose Halloween Decoration

Seasonal decoration helps to keep me grounded in that particular moment of my life. Yes, I suppose that sounds philosophical yogi with a strange Bravo channel twist. But what I simply want to convey is celebrating and embracing the season through home interiors, quarterly fashions, baked dishes, and even seasonal gardening helps me enjoy what life has to offer at that particular moment in time that will soon become a memory. 

The project I am sharing with you today is really a two part project, but I wanted to give you some time to complete and use today’s project before moving on to the second half. 

You will need: 

• Black felt 
• Off-white crochet thread 
• Needle with a large eye 
• Chalk or a small piece of soap 
• Picture of a spider web (or use the one below) 
• Scissors 

We had a record setting hot summer. As a result we lost every tree we planted in the spring. The other day while checking on my pumpkins I noticed a spider had used one of the dead trees as his own canvas for a bit of Halloween decorating. His work rather impressed me. I decided to photograph this intricate web and copy it for my interior decoration...since I will not be allowing this spider to decorate “inside” my home. 

You may use this picture or the finished project as a template if you like. Otherwise, if you want to find a unique spider web of your own you can turn this into a fun nature project for kids. 

Using a thin piece of soap I wrote, “Happy Halloween” and the picture to replicate the image onto the felt. You could also use chalk. 

I did not use a crochet needle. I used a hand sewing needle with a large eye, but to help the bulky crochet thread through the eye I coated it with soap. You can firmly rub the thread across soap or wax to keep the fibers together and slippery enough to thread your needle. 

This project is for display in your home. You want it to look stylish and valuable. Choosing the cream versus a stark white helps keep it from appearing as a “craft” project. 

Double the thread on the lettering and the supporting web threads. 

And an hour in front of the t.v. later... 

You can use it as a placemat or... 

Attach clothes pins and ribbons to hang it as a sign. Get creative! Find many different uses for your new work of Halloween art. And come back to see my other use for it.

Sparkly Spiders

So, I saw some bendy, glittered spiders in a home store recently and thought...I could do that a whole lot cheaper. And as always, I shook it up a bit. These are very simple, do not take much time, and are next to impossible to botch in design or placement. So if you are decorating for an adult Halloween party, need a slightly messy kid-friendly project, or just want to incorporate some items into your home decor give this easy project a try for yourself. 

You will need: 

• Black pipe cleaners 
• Black pom-poms 
• Black glitter 
• Glue 

Roll pom-poms in glue. 

Dip coated pom-poms in glitter. 

Make holes in a piece of thin plastic with a hole punch for cleaning the excess glue from the pipe cleaners. 

Roll the coated pipe cleaners in glitter and tap off any excess. 

Hold four glittered pipe cleaner halves over one glittered pom-pom. 

Wrap the pipe cleaners around the pom-pom and twist. 

Bend the pipe cleaners. 

If you want to add a red spot cut a piece of red ribbon and glue it to the spider’s back. 

Voila! Not so scary sparkly spiders.

Finest Fly-out-the-door Fudge cookies

These were a huge hit both times I have made them in each of the three different flavor varieties. These cookies are super soft and succulent be ready to run that extra mile in the gym. They are worth it! The fudge cookies are great for fall football parties, the teachers’ workroom, and backyard cookouts because of their accessibility and pass-around-ability, while still sophisticated enough in taste to impress most any chocolate lover. And make sure you have enough ingredients for a second batch...they will disappear fast. 

You will need: 

• 3/4 c. butter 
• 1/2 c. butter-flavored Crisco 
• 1/2 c. brown sugar 
• 1 1/2 c. white sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 2 c. flour 
• 3/4 c. cocoa 
• 1 tsp. baking soda 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1/2 bag dark chocolate chips 
• 1/2 bag chip flavor of your choice - mint (shown), peanut butter, butterscotch, nuts etc. 

Bake about 8 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Voila! Scrumptious, gooey, chewy, fudgey cookies! Yummm...

Halloween Decorative Platter - Heads will roll...

This is a ridiculously simple idea, but so easily attainable. I am always creating ways to use those great wedding gifts...like this silver cheese and cracker tray...you know the ones you just had to have, but at most serve food on them a couple times a year. Pull them from the confines of the kitchen cabinets and proudly display them over the next couple autumn months. 

You will need: 

• 3 Decorative skulls or small pumpkins 
• Small - medium oblong serving tray 
• Scrapbook paper 
• Tape 
• Scissors 

Measure the bottom width and length of the serving tray. 

I chose this great faux-antique handwritten sheet music print paper to give it that “Phantom of the Opera” feel for Halloween. Choose any paper you like, but keep a few things in mind. How is the color going to look with my three decoration pieces and the silver tray. Will it show up against both? Will the colors jive, are they complimentary colors, monochromatic? Buy a color wheel to keep on hand if your unsure about color pairing. If the colors are right next to each other on the color wheel, like a shade variance, for example, blue, blue-green, and green then you have monochromatic. But let’s say you have a basic primary blue and a basic green, typically this will not give you the look you want to achieve. Why, you say...I like blue and green. Well, I do too, but if you want your blue to look really great add a touch of orange to make it pop. The orange is it’s compliment or opposite on the color wheel. If a compliment color is not an option choose a contrast, like a dark color if you already have a light color. As you can see the skulls are shiny black so I chose an antiqued, off-white, matte paper to ensure the sculls visibility. If I choose to change from the sculls to pumpkins after Halloween the aged or burnt yellowey tones will give a monochromatic feature to the orange pumpkins. 

Measure the width at each end of the paper and make a small cut with your scissors at each end. If you want use a straightedge between the two points, draw a line and cut. Or do what I did and fold the paper between the two points. Then use that as your cut line. I had to cut a separate piece and fit the two together to achieve the length. 

If you want to prevent your paper from sliding fix it to your tray with a piece of tape. 

Add your glitter skulls or mini pumpkins and Voila!

It’s My Party and I’ll Bark if I Want To - Dog Birthday Parties

From Dash’s Point of View: 

I know I’m quite a lucky dog to have a birthday party, but really, let’s be honest here. I’m rather sure my parties are just as much for my parents as they are for me. Well, let’s just say, I’ve checked with the baby humans that live with my parent's friends and their parents do the same thing to them...like serving steak when they don’t even have teeth yet. Ya, we’re on to you. So, this year’s was pretty chill...really just a family affair, but I got great gifts and everyone...dogs, and people too, seemed to have a good time. 

In preparation for my parties my mom spends some time on the internet searching for new dog-friendly recipes. I think she enjoys the chance to expand her baking skills. Here’s a site where she found some good one’s: http://kooldogkafe.com/recipes.html. She knows all the dog-safe ingredients I really like so she googles recipes that call for those. If she can’t find what she’s looking for she looks for things with similar moisture content to substitute, for example, carrots instead of apples. If she needs to remove a moist ingredient, but doesn’t have anything to replace it with she just adds a splash of water (or low-sodium meat broth) instead. Water’s a safe ingredient and I’m not that picky. Speaking of safety, I can’t eat all the same foods as humans. Some people food is toxic to animals. You will want to check the ingredient list before beginning a pet-baking project. Here are a couple good toxic animal food resource sites: 

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/people-foods.aspx

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/ask-the-expert/ask-the-expert-poison-control/people-foods.aspx

My mom chooses a different theme for my party each year, as you can see, this year we did fall colors and pumpkins...she really loves fall! She thought it would be a good idea to label the pupcakes for the party goer's doggie bags. Then my Grampy had to cut out little labels and glue them to each paper pumpkin on a toothpick. He was a good sport. The people always get a different treat. Like this year they ate a pie decorated with bone shaped cookies. It makes her happy to entertain pets and people alike.

My dad was not sure about throwing a birthday party for me the first time, but as usual around here, everyone knows the crazy flamboyant ideas are typically concocted somewhere deep in my mom’s mind. We just go along with them, but I will say they often turn out just right, especially when it comes to a party for me.