A Sew and Sew Saturday

Saturday is a special day.  Today it is the changing of the month since I was in Maryland at the first part of the month.  I have been distributing my one Xerox paper box full of November decorations.  Not so much as the two totes and one paper box of Halloween stuff.  I cannot use too much of that one because they are colored and styled for black and ghouls and goblins.

Here is my Bombay chest with the HOF cornucopia and ceramic pumpkin from the ceramic shop a few dozen years ago.  I still have the pilgrims, too. I plan to make a leaf banner from the fall leaves I have been collecting for the mantle and will show that soon, and a new wreath for the door--today, hopefully.

My main activity today is sewing up some new pillow covers for the fall and a new brown skirt with fabric from my stash.  You don't work for the fabric store for several years without amassing a bit of fabric. That is more like a six or eight tote storage.  I really want to sew some of it.

Catch up photographs:

I brought in a lot of houseplants that were lounging around outside before my trip.  Many are still out--job for a Monday.  I purchased a nice pot holder this summer for this moving indoors project. 

It now houses my herbs and my pineapple plant in the sun of the South window.  It smells so good to bump up against the Rosemary and Thyme when cleaning around the area.  I also have a pot full of ginger that is filling up with roots to eat.  The leaves smell so fragrant when they are rubbed, too.  Oh, I love herbs.

I brought in the more tender houseplants.  One is my Jade Plant.  Two springs ago I potted up all my houseplants that had been neglected for several years because of my mission.  I brought them in last winter and then back on the front porch for the summer. My Jade plant grew a lot in that time and looked quite pretty.  Then this Spring when I put it out a bit too soon, it got pretty sagged and sunburned.  See my blog on July 11, 2015 poor neglected Jade plant. 

                                     

When I brought it in this Fall, the improvement shows.

Also, before I left I dried some of the Asian Pears.  I had five bowls full, dried four in two batches in my food dryer.  They are as sweet as candy.  Yum!

Above are three of the bowl of pear-apples and below is  one load of dried fruit.  I have a large food dryer with nine trays and that holds a lot of fruit.  The problem is my husband can eat a trayful without batting an eye.  I try to gently remind him how many whole pears he is eating and he will get a tummy ache if he fills up on water.  It is an age old concern so I usually hoard it until it is about a decade old.  

Halloween bits and pieces:

I have a linen closet full of colorful towel sets and odds and ends.  I decorate for the season as much as possible.  My orange towels are a wimpy soft color and not a great POP for Halloween so this year I decided to use the grey ones and duded them up with ribbon for a festive look.

As a parting farewell to Halloween we had a fun trunk-or-treat evening and decorated up the back with my pillows and another piece of "candy corn" fleece to use for something fun next year.

We had a surprise visit from the headless horseman and that was a great hit.  He was followed around by Laura Woolston on a motorcycle so we knew the probable identity of our mystery ghoul.

HAPPY SATURDAY

BLOG'nGRAM

All that was October

 I would like to finish up October before I begin moving forward.  I had a lot of October stuff that I wanted to post, but my time was taken up with personal things and vacations.  I neglected my blog.

HALLOWEEN:
     

Attempted Selfie

Halloween Pillow Covers:

I had some remnants of Halloween printed fleece and decided to cover my sofa pillows;  one is black with ghosts and the other is crazy yellow.   There was a little more fabric so I made some small pillows, too, that fit the leftover fabric.    
They all have velcro openings so they can be stored easily in the Halloween totes and I can make other covers for other seasons.


I have lots of pillow forms from my days clerking and store managing at House of Fabrics.  The small 12 x 12 is supposed to be a gift and the narrow one I filled with a used pillow that I brought home from the mission and washed up. [See link on washing pillows: washday whites on February 2, 2015.] I cut one of these former Walmart pillows in half and sewed it closed then used it as my filler for the narrow yellow pillow.  Voila--recycle, reuse, repurpose.

Crazy Yellow pillow cover with velcro

This was a last minute project I threw together just before Halloween.  I have more to make next year.  See next October.

Halloween Jewelry (a small sample):

Gravestone Bones from Fusion Beads.com

Nightmare Before Christmas Tree Earrrings and Black Swirl Necklace

Fang You Very Much Necklace from Fusion Beads.com

Pumpkin Earrings

Swarovski Skull Earrings

Dare to Scare Bracelet from Fusion Beads.com

Dare to Scare Bracelet from Fusion Beads.com

Halloween Wreath:

And finally, my Halloween Wreath that was hurriedly put together from my grape vines late in the summer

fresh grape vine wreath

when I was supposed to be picking elderberries.  Dan spray- painted it black for me and I hung some Halloween stuff on it quickly including one of my necklaces--Halloween Bones.

Remember my little spiders, kids?

It was not that impressive, but it is all mine.  Perhaps I can fix it up more next year.  I love the black leaves on it, but they keep falling off.  Oh, well.

That is all the pix I took, but there was so much more.  It is all put away now.  See  you next OCTOBER. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

BLOG'nGRAM

Top Chef-a-la-Palooza

What a night!  The second annual Top Chef-a-la-Palooza event was tonight at the church.  Everyone was invited to enter the Cook-Off contest in the categories: Bread, Appetizer, Salad, Main Dish or Dessert.  There was also a best Costume or Witch Hat contest.  

I WON!  with the best appetizer:  Bacon Wrapped Jalepeno Poppers. (thanks to  Pinterest's Sally/Sally's Baking Addiction at http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/09/25/bacon-wrapped-cheesy-stuffed-jalapenos/.  They are a proven winner!  Dan said it was because the judges were all men.  Hey, women liked them, too, at least they were all gone.  And guess what?  I didn't get a picture of the finished product because I was running out the door as they were coming out of the oven to get to the church on time.  

I made two pans full and this was what was left of the second pan when I got home (minus a couple that I ate because I wanted another one--they are soooo good.)

This was a full half-sheet pan of poppers. You may notice that some are not bacon wrapped.  When I ran out of bacon I dusted them with bread crumbs to complete the pan full.  The little bacon wraps are sort of slipping off the popper, too. It happens when they are moved around while hot.  They should be like the center one.

I was not going to go.  There are always too many tempting carb filled dishes and I am not strong into my carb restrictions yet.
By late morning I changed my  mind because I wanted to share this delicious dish.  It was a big hit.

I needed more cream cheese and while at Wallmarts I bought a witch's hat so I could dress up.  I do love to dress up in costume.  I didn't expect to win anything in this area (and I didn't), but it was too fun to pass up.  These pix were taken the next morning.  I forgot.

Walmart--$4.98

Selfie in the mirror.

Selfie up close.

You cannot really see my jewelry in these pix, but, of course, I made them myself.  I will need to feature these separately.
It was a fun night.  I will talk more about the poppers tomorrow on Windsday Pinsday.  They are a favorite Pinterest post.






HAPPY A-LA-PALOOZA



BLOG'nGRAM