Fall Themed Crafts and Food

I have a couple of craft shows coming up so I needed to replenish my acorn capped beads and marbles.

My first attempt at a Dutch apple pie and can I just say, YUM!

The night 'Hocus Pocus' was on, I knew I'd never actually pay attention to the movie unless I put the computer down, so I glued some plastic fall bits onto this candle.  I made it for my friend Kathy.

I saw a project for Jack Skellington balls so I decided to make a set for Jaime, in appreciation for some CDs she burned for me this spring.  I used white glitter on the inside and a black paint pen for the faces.

Wanted to make one of these too.  The first attempt at this went in the garbage.  Finding a leaf that would stick to the glass and not leave glue all over it proved difficult.  I first used a silk fall leaf but it was too contoured and wouldn't stick.  I dug out my vinyl fall leaf window clings and used one.  That is absolutely the best way to cover the glass for spray painting.  Home Depot only had a fall-like orange (no gold or brick/dark red), so that's what I used.  Some raffia to cover the lid threads.  Some dried beans inside with a candle.

My dad used to love to cook and try out all kinds of recipes.  One of my faves that he did was a Greek pastitio.  I haven't had one since the late 80s so I decided to give it a try.  For one, it's a lot of work.  The other thing was the cinnamon.  I was hesitant to use it but I remember that my dad did and I liked his so it must be OK.  I cut it down from 1/2 tsp to just under 1/4 tsp.  I guess my tastes have changed.  Cinnamon does NOT belong in meat and tomato sauce.  If I ever make this again, I will eliminate that spice.  

I did the bechamel for the top layer and I liked that but Russell didn't.  He kept calling it 'the fuzzy stuff'.  So I scraped it off his portion and he liked the meat and pasta.  Whereas I liked the pasta and the bechamel and scraped the meat off.  I did get a chuckle out of it when he said that I should make the meat like my shepherd's pie meat, and use mashed potatoes on top.  I said, 'So basically what you are saying is, always stick to making shepherd's pie and never make this again?'  lol  

This isn't really a fall project, but I finally got around to doing this now that the wine was finished.  I taped the windows, door and the top part where the light would be in a lighthouse, sprayed with the frost paint, and put white lights inside.  It came out exactly the way I'd pictured it in my head.  I'm really pleased with it!

I'm only doing the 2 craft shows but I am still going to make some more holiday projects that I got off Pinterest and still have yet to do!

Back to Creating

Now that the excitement of the summer has wound down, I've gotten back into making stuff again.  

I baked some apple coffee cake muffins, which were pretty good.  The recipe is HERE.  I didn't have plain yogurt, but I did have some Yoplait nonfat apple yogurt that I mixed with a little vanilla to make the 1 cup.  I also used Fuji apples.  The batter was really sweet and they smelled really sweet while baking, but they came out  pretty good and not as sweet as I thought they'd be. I had enough batter to make 12 muffins plus one small loaf pan.  I didn't take a picture of them, but I also made a batch of apple brownies that were delicious too.

Finally got some gold leaf paint so I tried it on a crow feather.

And some shells.  I discovered 2 things:  First, when it says to use in a well ventilated area, do so.  I was painting in my kitchen and got really nauseous and headachy from the smell.  Second, I found out that when you spray clear sealant on gold leaf paint, it runs and turns copper.  Not so much on the sand dollar but on the shells.

I got a bunch of wedding pics processed but I couldn't find a compilation frame that I liked, and I looked in a bunch of places.  I finally went to Michael's Crafts and was shocked to see the $54.99 price tag on their comp frames! Even with the 40% off sale, the size of the pic holes wasn't to my liking so I passed and instead bought one large frame which was closer to $13 with the sale.  Then I mounted the pics on purple card stock and arranged them to my liking.  That's the poem Marsha read, in the top left corner. 

And a couple of shells with shells and microbeads.  I attached a hanger to this one but not the clam shell, yet.

Tiny bottles were finally back in stock at Michael's so I got a package and promptly made Floo Powder out of fine silver glitter mixed with heavier green glitter. Got the mini label off the internet and as always, the cork is glued in the top with an added green star rhinestone.  Now I can travel via fireplace.

When JoLisa & I visited the bead shop in Scituate, she bought beads to spell out her name and gave them to me to make into a necklace. 

I found a Pacman rock so I put a googly eye on it.  

Just like last year, acorns and their caps are hard to come by, which further concerns me about what the upcoming winter will be like.  But I found a couple and made owls using felt bits.  It's hard to cut felt that small and I definitely need bigger acorns.

Some acorn capped beads, and one marble (far left).

Some beach glass chips in a tiny bottle.  I hung this around my rearview mirror.

Feels good to be back at the craft table!

Update!

Update loooong overdue!!

I've been so busy the past few months, preparing for craft shows that took place at the Bourne VFW in mid-November and Upper Cape Tech the weekend of 11/23 & 11/24 that I haven't really updated on what's been going on.  I was a crafting maniac and to be honest, towards the end, I started to get reeeeeeally tired of making stuff specifically for the fairs. So I made some stuff for myself too!

I worked on a craft kit of the month project of cross stitch ornaments.  They really should've sent this kit out months ago instead of November.  They are small but time consuming.  Right now I have the Santa stitched but not outlined, and the Christmas tree almost finished.

Added beaded hangers to the blue and purple window crystals I got over the summer.

Couple bracelets which are a little too big for my wrist unfortunately.

Got the pendant at the King Richard's Faire and made a necklace.

But then it was back to crafting for the fairs.  It was next to impossible to find acorn caps this season.  I hope that means an uneventful winter.  This time I used marbles because I couldn't find beads to fit the caps.

These are so much fun to make!

Memory wire bracelets.

More of these.

Beach themed ornaments.

The VFW show was OK.....the best part was hanging out with Marsha, seeing my school bus driver, Elaine, from the 70s who makes beautiful dyed scarves, and my inlaws were there selling their homemade soap.  I made my table fee back, but my total earnings that day were under $100, which was disappointing.  

The Upper Cape Tech School sale was huge; 150 vendors!!  I had a great spot in the cafeteria and sooooo many friends stopped by to say HI.  That was the best.  Marsha, my partner in crime, was there the first day working the show with me. I think the highlight of that weekend, besides seeing my friends, was seeing one of my kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Winslow!  I probably haven't seen her since the early 1970s.  Sales were kinda slow...I made my table fee back and a couple hundred dollars profit.  My photo cards and glitter ornaments didn't sell well at all which was very disappointing.  Lots of people stopped by and admired my items, esp. the button caterpillars, but I only sold one.  There was one little girl who had $10 to spend and returned to my table after going through the whole school because she wanted one of the magic wands.  She couldn't decide between 2 of them so I sold her 2 for $10.  How could I not?  I've signed up for next year and I am going to have to rethink what I make.  There is just too much jewelry at these shows; I can't compete.

This is the view from UTC.  I'm gonna have to go up there for sunsets!  That's the Bourne Bridge, and behind it, the Buzzards Bay water tower.  It was a less than 5 minute drive from my house.

My birthday was the day before Thanksgiving and the best gift I had was that Russell was home.  It was a very windy, rainy day and I would have been worried sick if he was driving home, especially with an empty trailer.  Tons of my friends wished me Happy Bday on Facebook and that gave me the warm and fuzzies.  I am FB friends with a couple of celebrities, and I was stunned to see this one show up on my Timeline!! I've been a fan of Bill Mumy's since the 60s when I first discovered 'Lost in Space' when I was about 4!!!!!

And because I have blogger and gmail accounts, I had my own personalized Google Doodle!!!

 We visited my mom first then went out to eat at 99 for lunch.  After I got home, I baked a funfetti cake.  

The storm moved through by Wednesday evening and we woke up to a gorgeous crescent moon and sunny day on Thanksgiving.

We visited with our families in the early afternoon, then we came home and finished cooking the turkey dinner for the kids who came over around 3 to eat with us before heading over to their mom's for their second dinner at 6.  All in all a lovely day! 

Updates

 Since A-Z took up all of April, here are some pics of the highlights from late March to May.

The furkids remained goofy.

My bff/sister Michelle up in Maine told me she sent an 8 lb package to me.  What could be in it? OMG! It was my DREAM package!  Full of marbles, flat back glass blobs, tumbled glass, a glass etching kit and a huge bag of embroidery/cross stitch floss.  Plus 2 wire wrapped pieces of beach glass and a handful of abalone shell, tear-shaped pendants.  She's all about the fibre arts and knitting now and wanted to give her craft supplies a good home.  The marbles in particular are fabulous.  One of her friends did the glass tumbling and they look like beach glass.

In late March, I took my stepdaughter to Falmouth to pick up the awesome new ride she's leasing. These new cars are like Knight Rider "Kit" cars with all the touch screens, a back-up camera and futuristic key!  We had to wait for it to be registered, so we went to lunch and then for cupcakes at Cupcake Charlie's in Mashpee.  She had the lemon, I had the carrot cake and they were deeeeeelish!  I haven't yet obtained her permission to put any pics of her on my blog, so all you get are the cupcakes.  :-)

Years ago in CA in the 1990s, I'd made a sugar egg and always wanted to try another one.  I decided to do it kind of late: The day before Easter.  I had the wrong frosting and my toys weren't that good. I should have done it with vintage Easter ephemera images and next time I will.  I will also be sure to make the royal icing recipe because that will dry faster and much harder than the canned buttercream.

I also shouldn't have used pink sugar because the bunny was also pink.  Then I tried to dot frosting flowers on the back wall with limited success.  My icing piping bag sucks.  I need a better one.  It's been a month  and the icing points are breaking off, rather than hardening, so I may have to salvage the toys and scrap the eggs.

A baggie of Fimo clay canes surfaced when I was reorganizing my craft room for the umpteenth time.  I got them in about 1996.  I'd made a bunch of beads back then, but moved onto other projects and the canes got bagged & stored.  They have now dried out, so making beads with them was next to impossible.  The canes split down the center.  However, I was really delighted with what they looked like!  Reminded me of "Fordite", a faux gem made from layers of automobile paint that accumulated in chunks in the old auto factories.  

I was only able to make a few beads, which all had to be thick and all split when I ran a headpin through to make the holes.  But I love how the flat cross section pieces came out.

My stepdaughter also spent a great Sunday afternoon at my house, making cupcakes and watching 'Shawshank Redemption' and 'Erin Brockovich'.  I made her homemade mac & cheese and broccoli for dinner and of course we nommed the cupcakes for dessert!  It was her idea to make the batter purple.  She is the one who did all the work with them, including piping the frosting.  I was in charge of sugar.  I love that she likes to spend time with me. 

My job at the Wareham schools in the cafeteria is really pretty good.  I was dreading it at first but I like the fact that it's so fast paced and the time goes by wicked fast.  I've been called a few times now and it seems that I'll get called a lot as the school year comes to a close; I expect the kitchen will be brutally hot when June gets here. I also did my very first photography job for a friend of mine who had remodeled a cottage he & his wife bought last year.  It'd be cool if I could pick up more shooting jobs like that.  

After the snow finally melted, I scavenged some acorn caps from my mom's yard and made some more acorn capped beads.

And sprayed some shells silver. 

And made a supply caddy for my craft table out of a metal paint bucket covered w/ paper and ribbon, with a soup can covered with paper, and hot glued to the bucket.

And made a beaded bubble blowing wand, that works so-so.

In baking news, I attempted my first pineapple upside down cake, sans maraschino cherries because, well, we don't like them.  The way to my man's heart is through his stomach and I've been doing a lot more cooking and baking.  He lights up like a Christmas tree when I cook for him, too.  He mentioned liking this kind of cake and I decided to make it for him, from a Duncan Hines mix.  I was afraid of the flipping part but it worked without breaking.  It was so freakin good too.

This was another quick project.  Just use a punch on coloured tissue paper and decoupage to a votive cup.  I used the decoupage on the glass too because I thought it was supposed to dry with a matte finish but it didn't.

The year started off with some bad luck, but things have evened out for the time being.  Let's hope the rest of the year goes well!