I pulled out my plain black t-shirt the other day and decided it needed some kind of pizazz.  So, since I’ve had my sewing machine out from making costumes, I thought I’d have some fun with pretty scraps of fabric and some free motion sewing.

First thing that came to my head was a sugar skull, which is what’s in my mind this time of the year. I’ve been seeing so many fun DOTD things over on Pinterest that I couldn’t help myself.

Check out this pretty face, awesome painting, this sugar skull cookie (YUM!), fun skull eggs,  pretty hair thingy, this bead and cool filigree skull.

The kids are really buzzing with the excitement of Halloween.  I’ve been working on a robe and owl wings today, for one Harry Potter and one Hedwig costume.

“The wand chooses the wizard”

The mask is made from felt feathers glued onto a children’s white mask.  The wand is made from an old paint brush. I took the brush off and added a bit more length with tightly rolled up heavy-weight paper. Then I wrapped a bit of twine here and there and mod podged the whole thing with tissue paper, covering the twine too.  After it dried, I painted it dark brown.  I tried to make look as much like Harry’s as possible.  I made paper wands before, but they were quickly destroyed.  I have a feeling I’ll be making another wand very soon.

Please, don’t forget to check out the Sponsor Highlight post for Creative Peace and leave a comment for a great giveaway!

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Also, JCasa Handmade is hosting a giveaway for $25 gift credit in my shop!!!

Please go check them out!!

Here are my two little cute guys. Their store bought costumes were a huge hit. Everyone did their best Italian accented, “Mario…Luigi” whenever they saw my guys. It was funny. Although, they were once mistaken for two railroad guys.

They had fun going from house to house, but they didn’t have as much steam as would be expected from a 9 and 5 year old. Lucky for me, because I was very much out of steam too.

I didn’t get to take pictures of our ghoulish dinner, which is good since nothing really turned out as expected. I made :

* monster finger bread sticks, easy enough.
* mashed BOOtatoes. Mine turned out to be a more rustic versions, lumpy but still very yummy. And I used black olives for the eyes.
* And I tried making this into a brain version as a savory veggie pot pie. That didn’t really turn out at all, but it was real tasty.

Anyway, it was fun, but I’m sure glad it’s over.  Hope yours was good too.

We finally carved our pumpkin today. I was looking for ideas with the kids and we found THIS ONE. They just loved it so much, we copied it.  Ours is a much smaller pumpkin, probably less than 10 pounds, so that makes it a baby owl.

I also made cheezy vegan pumpkin seeds. They were so good.  I didn’t rinse them after scooping them out. I just picked out all the big pieces of pumpkin and laid them out to let them dry. Then I sauteed them in a bit of coconut oil until the were brown and laid them out on a paper towel to catch the excess grease.  I made vegan Parmesan by mixing raw cashews, nutritional yeast and salt in the food processor  until it was finely ground.  I just sprinkled some on and we ate them all up.  You can use this same mixture for popcorn too.

I don’t have anything to post about except the winner of my little haunted owl ATC.   I can’t do that without some kind of picture, so I did one of my favorite things and I scouted out some lovely pictures over on Flickr. They are all bursting with Halloween magic, don’t you think?

So now, the magic number for my giveaway is….. lucky person #8! Penney is the winner!!!  Thanks every for all your sweet words!

And  for all you owl lovers, have you seen this most awesome free Owl calender yet!  I have my owls all picked out and ready to print.

Instead of making my children their costumes, I opted to quietly stress about it and make little witches instead.

I bought some cool digital images from Tumble Fish Studio and had a load of fun playing, cutting, gluing and sprinkling glitter. Much better than making costumes, don’t you think? Didn’t take me too long. I did most of it while watch Witches of Eastwick on Netflix.

They went to some of the little witches in my life–the good ones. My sisters and my mother and then some friends at work.

Now for the Halloween costumes? Nope, I’ve thrown in the towel for the first time ever.  I went and bought some. The kids want to be Mario & Luigi and I just couldn’t face my sewing machine. Plus, I have to work all week and prepare for a school party.  All of it would have put me into scary mommy freak out mode, which would have not been pretty.  I know Papa Kismet is happy about eliminating that.  I feel bad, but I’m sure I’ll get over it. Sigh…

These little owls were made for Amy’s Haunted ATC swap.  If you don’t know what an ATC is, it’s an artist trading card. They are only 2.5 x 3.5 inches big and are so fun to swap.

This will  be the 5th year that I’ve joined Amy’s swap. It’s absolutely one of my favorites. Six of these little guys went to Amy, one is for me and the last one is up for grabs (the little guy on the bottom left of the bottom pic). Leave a comment and I’ll pick the winner on Wednesday morning.

I guess I am totally on a Halloween kick. I’ve been having visions of our kitty dressed up for Halloween, so rather than dressing her up (and getting my hands ripped to shreds) I painted a dressed up kitty instead.

Our kitty is actually black, so she is already dressed up. So I made this little guy gray.  He’s not too happy about being dressed up mostly because he is also wearing knickers. Poor guy.

And, the winner of that very cool Halloween Book is….. Sarah : Love in the suburbs.   Thanks everyone for participating.

I was sent this great Homemade Halloween book from Fox Chapel Publishing for review. It’s got some really great projects for Halloween costumes, some cute face painting how-to,  games and tricks, food recipes and home/party decor. All perfect for having and planning a Halloween party.  The  projects are easy, no sewing involved. Hot glue gun is a must! Who doesn’t love a little hot glue gun action, right? Many of the projects are great for getting the kids involved too, which is what I love the most.

My little guys and I have looked through it  many, many times. Each time, they find something new that they like. Their favorites are the fun recipes, of course, but they also really like the games, tricks, the front door & window decoration ideas, the head stone project and Frankenstein’s Monster porch sitter.  You can see more of the book at this link if you click on ‘google preview’ on the book’s front cover.

I’d love to give this book to one lucky reader.  Just leave a comment below and I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday, so I can get it into the mail asap. I think it would be a great source of inspiration for Halloween.