I posted a book review over here of a re-release book from the early 70s about sewing and making your own clothes. It's a wonderful book. Also in that post, embroidery patterns.

Let's see.. just got home from the market. We got a couple dozen eggs, so E is very happy. We also did the pumpkin thing. E made a Pac-man pumpkin. It's super cute. We actually did a ton of shopping. Now I'm recovering while deciding between French toast or teriyaki chicken for dinner. We also found out how keep getting good local eggs through out the winter when the outdoor markets aren't happening. Because yeah.. fresh eggs are just that good. I want chickens so much!

Yesterday, we did plan on going out to one of my son's and my favorite places for lunch. I completely forgot I promised E an afternoon out for tea and cakes, just the two of us. So we discussed it, and decided on something less formal for the whole family. We went to Bear Tooth for lunch, then to Middle Way Cafe for cake and coffee. At the Bear Tooth, William had an ahi blackened steak served with bok choy and rice, E had a great big taco salad and Mike and I had the lunch special, salads served with a mushroom and chicken pasta with marsala sauce. The kids and I shared a pitcher of their wonderful cream soda and Mike had coffee.
After that we went to the Middle Way Cafe, who only had ONE cupcake left. E had that. William had a smoothie, and I just enjoyed a cup of fairly decent drip coffee. The Middle Way Cafe is in a strip mall with the biggest locally owned bookstore in town, Title Wave, so of course we had to go there. William and E both found books they wanted. William opting for a nice big omnibus of the Foundation books, and E of course, got a Dr. Who book.
I found a copy of the out of print Home Wine Making Without Failures by H.E. Bravery that was printed in 1959. I think it was originally written in the 40s. I love older books, it's not just the smell, the feel of the print under my finger tips, the creamy paper or all that. A big part of it is the language, even books that were written conversationally in tone were the sort of conversations you'd have with someone much older who you respected very much. The authors use proper English and punctuation. They wrote knowing that people would read what they wrote and form an opinion based on that so they wanted to make a good impression. Good manners in writing, even angry editorials if you read that sort of thing. I love slipping into those sorts of books, it's like being young again and wearing my best dress while I talked with the ladies at the club my grandmother belonged to and trying my very best to be a credit to her while being fascinated with their experiences, gentle laughter and kind natures. This book is wonderful and informative and it just makes me smile reading it.
I also found an out of print copy of The World of Origami by Isao Honda. Not unfortunately, the big 1960s edition, but the abridged version that was put out in the 70s. That's fine though, it was a book I didn't have on my origami bookshelf, and it's a wonderful book. Written by a master, it has a lot of functional models which are the kind I like best for origami.
After I got home, I made a new treat box template and this morning I decorated it, printed, assembled and posted it. The new printables are here if you're interested. One is a bat design, one is a cobweb design.

Long story short.. E sneaked up behind Mike and bounced a bunny hand on his shoulder saying "SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK" in a deep scary voice, and Mike said "That's one angry rabbit." at which point she put the bunny ears on the duck hand and said "Squack!"
So of course I had to do it too. Within a couple seconds all you could hear was duck bunnies saying "Squack Squack!"
My family is nuts. But I like it that way.
Recently posted at Don't Eat the Paste- a tutorial on making PDFs using Open Office Writer to create circle tags (or whatever you need to create a 300 dpi pdf of). You can find that here.
At Beadwork at BellaOnline.com, some tips on following a peyote pattern, you can find that here.
Today we headed up to Value Village for their half price Labor Day sale, and EEEK! It was so crowded. Seriously kind of scary. Fortunately, most of those people were looking for way different things than we were looking for so we weren't too crowded until we got to checkout.
I found 3 kids records, a vintage issue of McCalls Needlework I didn't have from 1978, one craft book from 1973, and one from 1977. Happy vintage crafty Shala!
I also got 3 vintage slips, the 1960's tricot-y bias cut ones? Very happy Shala. But a lot of people get all squicky about vintage lingerie, even slips. Not me. I like vintage slips very much thank you.
E and I found the coat she needed for her Halloween costume, and she was so thrilled as soon as we were through check out she ripped off the tag, and wore it for the rest of our little outing. Ick. It's like 65 which is a heat wave swimming weather here. And she's walking around in a black overcoat. She also got 2 more button down shirts, and a book from the 80s on making teddy bears. I told her she was a thrift store queen. I love that she likes thrift stores. She has her own style, and lately it's been button down shirts and ties, which are dead cheap and so very green to buy used at thrift stores.
After that we headed to Wal-Mart to get some necessities. E is running low on her allergy medication, and it's been sunny enough she's been super sneezy girl. We also got her some craft supplies. Home again home again.

Well.. E wound up with something like 5 lbs of candy, which she made clear she intended to share with everyone in her family, she also got one packet of popcorn and a New Testament. No toothbrushes though!
( a bunch of pictures )
So it's over finally. But it was a lot of fun. My brother wasn't home when we hit his house, but we ran into him while E was trick or treating. W is TALLER then him now. I mean.. I probably knew it if I thought of it, but W is still a kid in my mind even if he's a young man really, and my brother is an adult.
As far as my hair goes, the beer made it very soft, and full of body, not quite as absolutely straight as usual. I wouldn't use it every time I "shampoo", but for special occasions, I think it's a winner.

Well.. the sky is not falling, and most of Hershey's offerings are still made with cocoa butter. So we got Hershey's for the little costumed beggars. LOTS of chocolate bars.
Since we went to the gym this evening, and I didn't have stuff on hand to make a quick dinner, for dinner we went with turkey smoked sausage, broccoli, instant rice, and cream of mushroom soup. Everyone knows some variation of that is the easiest meal in the world.
Sarah, at BentoTV.com has a really cute method for turning the ends of hot dogs in hearts, so I did that with the ends of the turkey sausages. You can see her hot dog heart video here. How too cute is that? Even given the rules against cute food, I arranged Mike's plate so it was rice and sausage mix, with a nice bouquet of broccoli on one side, and a heart in the middle of the rice. I did the same for E minus the broccoli. Cooked veggies you know. She had carrots. I apologized for dinner being nothing special, and E informed me that hearts were special.
I got the refrigerated crescent rolls to make Dem Bones with, but instead of raisins, I was planning to use turkey pepperoni for the eyes and mouth, because.. raisins and parmesan sound icky to me. However.. given that my darling daughter ate her french toast with taco sauce the other day.. no. I'm not kidding.Worse, it was french toast STICKS. So she looked like she was eating bloody fingers.

Tomorrow night, dinner will be light, since we are doing the trick or treat thing with E, hitting my brother's house for lots of candy, and possibly.. just maybe.. Mike and I will go out tomorrow evening after he's done at work since he has to go back in for a bit in the evening.

Dad had an accident at his job tonight, slipped, fell, open his head up some, and needed 12 stitches. And called very, very annoyed. Not because he fell, but because he didn't think it was a big deal, but his boss made him go to the dr, and told Dad if he didn't call us, he would, as Dad's medical emergency contact. AND.. he drove himself home from the dr. Which led to Mike calling him a foolish and stubborn man. So.. Mike's going to call him in the morning to make sure he feels okay for driving to work. And.. I know.. he's 60. He should be able to take care of himself, but I suspect that keeping the stitches clean is going to be a group effort with me and W reminding him.

And wow.. umm.. I HAVE to e-mail honeybeehill and majortom_thecat. I'm sorry. I get really super forgetful a lot of the time, and then realize it's been months.

Ambient Temperature Tapestry.. I really really have to try some of that techy embroidery at some point. But I do love this so much.
Dem Bones really cute bone biscuits made with refrigerated crescent rolls, the example is sprinkled with parmesan cheese, but you could use a little butter and cinnamon sugar.
Lela Davidson suggests piping meringues in bone shapes, and 101 Cookbooks has the cutest meringue ghosts I've ever seen. Ghosts are a natural for meringue though, so if you google you'll find a bunch of variations.
NotMartha has wonderful handpies made in the shapes of leaves. So have to try this, even if Mike said no more cute food. Besides.. when he smells them baking.. he'll have to try one!
But tonight.. we are having left over s'ghetti for dinner. I really made entirely too much. Fortunately, my family isn't anti-leftovers. I was talking to a high school friend who told me he dislikes leftovers, and the thought just boggled me. I just got off the phone with Dad who told me his boss had a sweatshirt E might like, what size did she wear.. and he explained to me his boss always buys new clothes for his kids. I think I should ask Dad if there is a nice way to let his boss know that we'll always take hand me downs. I kind of understand where his boss is coming from, he came from a big family, and new clothes were a treat, but thrift stores, garage sales and yes, even on occasion, dumpster diving, are such a part of how I grew up that I can't imagine buying everything new. My kids feel the same way. They love thrift stores and garage sales. The only reason we have been buying so many *new* shirts through the last few years is that I can find new shirts for 1-5 dollars shopping at the right time.
Poor E got sick, she's feeling a lot better now thank goodness. It was starting to look like maybe trick or treating in sub freezing temps was going to be a really bad idea. It's about 25º F here right now, and a bit cooler in the evenings. She's very excited about her costume.
Well.. off to.. um.. do something productive. I'm not sure what yet. I'm having a lack of inspiration today. Maybe I should clean. That always gives me lots of great ideas of other things I can be doing!

We went out and did the trick or treat fund raiser for the Imaginarium we do every year, even if it does seem the kids are too old for it, it's a family tradition on Friday. Now, this year, the kids costumes were completely up to them. The both asked for and received a black reaper's robe to use for their costumes, and other then that, they made them up themselves. And I had NO idea what either of them were.
As we were living, someone asked E, "Are you a nobody? I'm a nobody too!" and E was thrilled, and said "Yes! I'm (whoever she was. I'd need to ask her to spell it)" and they talked happily about nobodies. I had Dickinson going through my head.
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

In fact, I recited it out loud, to my family's intense embarrassment. Apparently the cool moms don't recite poetry at the drop of a hat, but really.. it was too perfect not to.
( the costumes )
I talked to a local artist about my "I've actually stuck to the gym thing for a year" tattoo. I was planning on Wonder Woman, but couldn't decide precisely on the art. So.. it will be a custom piece. I finally figured it out. A head or bust in semi-profile done in a Mucha style.
Today we watched Lost Boy: The Tribe. Wow.. umm.. it was awful. The comic Reign of Frogs was a whole lot better. I'm still reeling from the badness.
And! Well.. I know I'm not the only fan of corbies. So here's a ( magpie and raven )

Blame it on my dad. Mike certainly does.
When I was a kid, there was a place we could buy Ghiradelli chocolate by the lb, it was a huge slab of chocolate, and they chipped it off with ice picks, so you got a fist sized chunk.
For Easter, Dad would never get "chocolately flavored candy" or hollow bunnies. He thought hollow bunnies were a rip off, and was deeply suspicious of anything "chocolate flavored" unless it was actual chocolate.
Well.. the end result is that I'm chocolate snob. Kim and Mike both keep telling me I'm really unfair to Hersheys, and just not giving it enough of a chance, but it's waxy and awful to me. The chocolate bars I like usually only have 3 or 4 ingredients.
Cocoa, Cocoa Butter, Sugar, Lecithin, and sometimes vanilla. That's it. The first 3 are clearly chocolate, the lecithin makes the bar really smooth without having to hand temper so it's the reason my tiny bars are 3.00 instead of 6. My standby is Fran's Chocolate. I love the crunch bars with little nibs of cocoa in them instead of puffed rice for the crunch. I'd rather have one bar of chocolate I'll really enjoy then 10 for the same price of chocolate that isn't as good, so I have one chocolate bar a month, but I enjoy it, savor it, and it's my time.

Well.. that said, every Halloween I do buy those 25-50¢ candy bars for the neighborhood kids.They think it's awesome we always give out full sized candy bars, and I feel a little guilty for giving anyone bad chocolate. This year though.. it's going to take some thought. I'm seriously considering springing the extra to get Newman's Own Organics or Endangered Species chocolate because even though I always felt a little guilt over giving the kids Hersheys, it was at least supporting jobs in American, but I'm not sure how I feel about their replacing cocoa butter with vegetable oil, and I'm absolutely certain how I feel about M&M/Mars doing animal testing, and even if I weren't sure, E is definitely on the boycott bandwagon with that, and since she didn't cross our boycott lines during the Olympics, we will respect hers as well.
It's kind of depressing as well. I remember when I was a kid getting popcorn balls that people would attach address labels to so everyone knew where you got them and knew they were "safe". I wish I could bake or cook for Halloween too, but it's not even an option anymore. I could make treats for the kids in my family, but not for the few trick or treaters we get every year. Of course, we get more now then we used to. Since word gets around so fast "The weird people have full sized candy bars!"
I was thinking of doing a cake for the cakewalk at the Y Halloween party, but Mike said he would rather donate 30.00 dollars to the Y then give up any cake I baked. So I guess I'm baking a cake for us, and he's donating. *grins*
But tonight is that annual science museum fund raising safe kids trick or treating event we've gone to every single year since it started. Also known as the "Warehouse of Torture" for people like me who get headaches from screechy kids. So I'm going to think about that now.

( the bat amulet bag )
Pattern is up at Beadwork at BellaOnline.com.

Last night at the gym, I watched Martha's podcasts for Halloween, and some of her projects were great, some.. well.. a lot less so. The Styrofoam and glow stick spiders come to mind as incredibly bad for the environment. Disposable chemical glowsticks. STYROFOAM. Oh well.. so even Martha isn't perfect. But one of them was for a window silhouette of a witch, which I thought was just nifty.
I decided to make a wall decal instead, using the bat that I drew years ago and have in a couple of my dingbat fonts.
( picture, and download )
Other then that, working on an article for BellaOnline. More bats.

Pic heavy.
( Halloween costumes )
( stockings E made )
Time to carve pumpkins and get superballs.

On the hook- a little black doily. But I should be working on the scarf. It's getting colder.
On the needle- Emily's cordial bottle. I hadn't meant to bead it, there are some great gold "leadings" and stuff we were planning to decorate one with. So how did she wind up getting me to bead it?
It's my fault really. I was messing around with one of the bottles I have on my desk, I have a lot for beading on my desk, and I had these big golden filigree saucer shaped beads I got clearance marked a while back, and I had some gold filled head pins, I keep them on hand for stuff for Kim, since she loves gold. So I used a sharp needle, poked through the cork, and threaded the bead on the head pin, then pushed that through the cork, coiled the bottom of the pin so it would stick, put the new glitzy bead decorated cork back in the bottle, and asked Emily "How does that look?" and she said "PERFECT!"
But it's hard for me to look at a bottle with just one bead. So it will be beaded. I'm using s/l amber beads for the gold, and it will have some s/l ruby for decoration. The top is peyote stitch, and the body will be netting or some other open stitch, and the bottom will be peyote. I am doing it in 11s though, rather then 15s. So I'm still being somewhat lazy.
So we have an old green Indian dress of mine, a flower wreath for her hair, the bottle, and she's borrowing my old brown sandals if it's warm enough. If it's not, well, she won't be the only one in the wrong footwear for her costume.
I dreamt I set up my serger last night and sewed one of the old teddy bears I used to make to get Emily to leave me alone while I was sewing when she was little. They are this super simple pattern and it would take me about an hour to make one, and she'd always be so thrilled, she would play with it while I was sewing. I think it's my mind's way of telling me I have to set up my sewing machine sometime, and re-draft all those old simple patterns I used to make up for friends and children so I can post them for the sewers I know.
On my mind: Reviewing a couple more books, some work I need to do on my webpages, and earwraps for Halloween since I'm fairly sure I don't have the only 11 year old who doesn't have pierced ears. I was against piercing them when she was little, holes stretch et cetra, and I wanted it to be her choice. I'm not a big fan of involuntary body modification. Even things like piercing a little girl's ears while she's a baby. Now she's old enough to make that choice, and has chosen not to at least for now.
-Shala