Where to begin? Next Generation gala!

I haven't had time to post in so long that I'm not sure WHERE to start.   I've been super busy this year and the last two months have been crazy.  

Dean and I  attended the "Next Generation" gala.  Here we are, all spiffy.    

we met this couple, they flew in from California for the event!  Nice people...

Here we are at our table....we didn't get a round table shot.  Boo....

So we snapped a couple on our way out~  

It was a fun night, with great friends!

Crochet Club

I co-sponsor a crochet club at our school.  It is pretty neat teaching students this fiber art.    We keep it simple and just teach the basics.     

It amazes me how many children don't know how to make a slip knot but each year we have to teach this simple knot.    Growing up, I knew all sorts of knots.  The kids I grew up with could turn a blade of grass into a whistle and weave pine needles into bracelets.  Now, kids are so wrapped up in video games, they don't have the patience for actually learning something useful.
I fear knit and crochet will slowly erode and become one of those lost arts like canning and pickling has become in mainstream America.  

The students come in every Monday and we split them up according to skill level, pass out any needed supplies and get to work.   (We supply the yarn)  They love learning and we can hear them chatting, explaining it to each other in "kid terms."  They are so proud of their creations. 

Each month we choose what to make for this little tree in the front office.   This was the beginning of our Halloween tree.  By the time they were done, it had spiders and kitties and black popcorn garland ...lots of twirlies too.  

As for me, I don't know where my time goes.   This is about the only knit/crochet I've been doing of late.    I am hoping that I'll find some time settle on the couch and create something pretty...and soon!

Halloween Night

                                                                 

Today we are busy with cross country meets and dog parks and baking and cooking Halloween treats.....so I offer up a little poem I wrote when I was a kid, just for this night!

Halloween Night

The cold wind blows on Halloween Night
Witches take to their brooms in flight
They soar through the air and across the moon
Faithful black cats, perched on their brooms.
Ghosts and goblins float all around
Shaking their chains, they make horrid sounds
Bats fill the air, with a flutter of wings
To join the others and do scary things!
They all come together, to give you a fright
Each cold and windy Halloween Night!

Here is hoping the rain holds off but that the wind does not.  Afterall, what would Halloween be without a little wind blowing through the trees to make things interesting!

Busy hands....

Last weekend my BEST friend from forever came over.  I'm talking 5th grade on up.  I practically lived at her house.  Seriously.  
We reconnected via FB and have stayed in touch.  We recently realized both of us are crafty, canning wine drinkers...so decided to craft and can and drink and rinse and repeat....

Then we decided canning and sewing was something we could do and swap so we could concentrate on crafting and catching up.

She brought me 24 quarts of canned tomatoes and I made her 11 aprons.   (Some were duplicates)  I made all but one as my favorite canning apron style.  The LSU one is a butcher style.

Here they are...as usual, this style doesn't really look cute on Ms. April, but they are precious once they hit girly curves!

and a few jars of the yummy tomatoes!

Before arriving, she had asked me to help her make some painted wine glasses and santa ornaments.....but when she got to my house, plans changed and we made several other things.

Not to worry, she brought a supply of her uncle's homemade strawberry wine, AMAZING.  And no, not even a hint of "Strawberry Hill" in it.  See how pretty the wine is...it is close to a Pinot Grigio, dry and just a tad sweet.

Here is a sampling of our craftappalooza.

Sweater pumpkins and 24 more candy corn glittery bottles as party favors for her daughter...

dotty wine glasses, Santa Starfish and a fabulous Snowman for the door....

Overall, we tore the town up buying crafting supplies and then craft and ate and drank for 2 solid days.  Oh my gosh, we had the BEST time.....

Halloween Tea Party and a Halloween giveaway (CLOSED)

A party you say, is it tea for two?  Only for witches or can zombies come too?  

So many to visit, to sit and to chat....let's just see who is in the pumpkin patch!

"Sweet" Bloody Mary, so cute to behold

but look at all the heads she made roll...

Little Estelle has a smile on her face

While Wednesday stands tall and eyeballs her space...

Miss Muffet ain't scared of no spiders y'all, she eats them all up, brains and all!

While new love is spreading throughout the land

Raggedy has HER man's head in her hand.

And this sweet bride has no man at all....

Will this guy do?  He's not very tall....

Pumpkin Head and Estella are happy at home

While Little Red seems to be alone...

Not to worry, she has this mummy

While Dorothy's dog, Toto fills her tummy!

             Thank you for coming and spending some time, now I must ask....Who needs tea when you can have wine?

In your comments, let me know!  Is it tea or wine...or a little of both!    

I'm giving away a zombie virus handbag, a Halloween hand towel, owl salt & pepper shakers, a cute pumpkin plug in with fragrance.....

Make sure to leave me your contact info, one lucky winner gets this fun little package.   The drawing will be October 31st!

The winner by random drawing is DESIGNING FAIRY!  I will leave a comment on your blog notifying you!

Thank you to Vanessa for hosting this year's party!

Spookify me! Amaretto drippy bottle

Several years ago, I did this same craft with another bottle.  ( Here is the post.) 
The bottle looked great but I either accidentally threw it out or stored it so well that I can't find it.  Either way, I needed a new one!
 I cleaned an Amaretto bottle a friend gave me and added a spooky sticker.  

Then I used some taper candles I bought last year after Halloween.  I used them to build up the wax around the neck.  It would be SO much easier just to light a candle and let it just drip like crazy.  But finding drippy candles is next to impossible.  Throw in that you want them to drip actual COLOR is even worse.  Most candles nowadays have a coating that burns away and leave a whitish wax behind, no color at all...including this black candle in the photo.

 That being said, once I built up the wax, I melted crayons over it for the color.  If you do it, be careful, I held them with tongs and then just cleaned them up afterwards.

Here the bottle is in a lighted area (sorry, I did this at night)
Just a note: when the candles burn down and need replacing, a lot of wax gets broken off.  Just put in a new candle and then fill the gaps up with new crayons.  Easy.

Right now, "Werewolf Drool" sits on my bar....awaiting Halloween night......

Years of "wax build up" took me about 2 hours to achieve, while watching a couple reruns of Boston Legal.   *Denny Crane, Alan Shore, Shirley Schmidt-ho*...the BEST!

Spookify me: repurposed Starbuck's Frappuccino bottles!

All summer long, Kaela drank those Starbucks fraps that come in bottles.  She LOVES them!   The bottles are so cute that I just couldn't bring myself to pitch them (this area doesn't recycle...boo!)

So, I washed them and stashed them in the hall closet to "play" with later.  

Now, is later!

Here is what I made!  So cute, if I do say so myself.  This is one of those projects that looks exactly how I envisioned it.

These are super easy to make and look adorable when filled.

Here is what you need:

Frap bottles.  Cleaned and dried.  (Just a note, the stickers come off but if there is any residue it is easily removed with rubbing alcohol.)
candy, scissors, glue, stickers (optional), cupcake liners, glitter and ribbon!

Start by putting a cute Halloween sticker over the Starbuck's logo (not that we don't LOVE her)

You could paint it or cover it with paper too...I just had these and they fit perfectly.

Now, take your glue and run a fairly thick line around the edge of the neck of the bottle, right above the body of the bottle.

do this around the bottle, then set upright and let the dripping begin.  If it isn't drippy enough, add a little, but start small.  It is easier to add glue than to clean up excess.

Once the drips have run a good way down the bottle, sprinkle LIBERALLY with glitter.  Make sure to have something to catch all that glitter to save it.  I used fine black glitter and a chunkier silver glitter for mine:

Now, set your bottle UPSIDE DOWN for about 10 minutes.  This sort of sets the glue to keep it from running off the bottle.
After 10 minutes, flip it back rightside up to finish drying.  When you flip it back, you can add the other color glitter if you'd like.  I did a mix.

Once dried, you can blow or lightly brush the excess glitter off  easily.

Now, fill the jar with candy and put on the lid.  It is cute just like this....but not cute enough!

Now take your cupcake liner and place it on top to cover it.  

Then take about a foot of ribbon and criss cross it once and then tie it.

Now you are done!  

These are so easy to mass produce and the best thing is that you can do this with SO many holidays!  I've already got Christmas ideas swirling....