Halloween 2012

This year's selection of pumpkins are ready to be gutted.

So, how was your Halloween? After a whole month of planning and decorating we had rain at just the wrong time. It started in mid-afternoon and continued all night. Not that it was really coming down hard, just a fine continuous mist. I'm not really sure if it was factor or not but we only had three groups of trick-or-treaters for a total of eight kids. They all came by car so I'm sure that they didn't get too wet. It was a bit anticlimactic for us though. We were prepared for about twenty or so and now we have all this leftover candy and chips sitting around the house. Who do you suppose will have to eat it all?

Our Halloween display in all its glory!

 We didn't need the kids, we had fun anyway. Hubby was on vacation the week of Halloween so he was able to get all the pumpkins gutted the day before and they had a chance to warm up before carving time. I hate working on them if they have just come in from outside. Brrrrr! We carved five pumpkins this year. I did my traditional "Miss Kitty" and he did an owl, a spider face, a toothy guy and the moons and stars. They took a long time but it was worth the effort. Miss Kitty was the most talked about again this year. Poor Hubby, some day he will carve a pumpkin the kiddies like.

The pumpkin seeds were nice and plump. They made great Devil Seeds!

 

The "October" woodcraft got finished the day before Halloween.

One thing that we appreciated this year was the size of the pumpkin seeds. They seemed to be extra plump for some reason. Maybe the pumpkins were a new variety or maybe it was due to the hot dry summer but the seeds were nice and fat. They made great Devil Seeds. I'll probably be eating them until Christmas!

We've been busy in the craft room again lately. Hubby made this cute October sign from a design we found on the net. It turned out pretty nicely but it was almost November before it got finished. I'll give it another week or so until I pack it away for next year.

I'll leave you with a few more pictures of this year's crew. Bye for now.

Almost ready to go outside for their début.

"Miss Kitty 2012"

"Spider Face" and "The Owl"

"Snaggle Tooth"

Okay, now let's have some kiddies!

Thanks, fellas. You did a great job!

Glowing together for the last time.

In the sunshine the next day.

Spring is coming this week!

The Easter Bunny Says Welcome Spring!

Spring is here already on the Witch’s Island and all the snowmen had to go! Well actually it isn’t truly here until March 20th but I’ve decided that the house needed a spring up-date, RIGHT NOW!! I love to decorate for the seasons and this one is another favorite of mine. Well, okay, they’re all my favourites for different reasons. So the snowmen are all packed away and look what has taken their places. There are bunnies and flowers everywhere! Hubby brought me a beautiful bunch of tulips and they have been displayed in the centre of the coffee to help set the mood.

Two dozen Tulips barely fit in my vase.

A close-up of my Tulips.

This little Easter Bunny figurine is pulling his cart around looking for eggs.

This Easter Bunny is apparently hiding the eggs from the guy with the cart.

This guy looks sweet and innocent but he turns mean when his bowl is full of treats. Watch your fingers!

All Ears stays on the kitchen counter as long as possible.

Man, that is either one giant carrot or two tiny bunnies.

This bunny is on the back of the front door and welcomes us back to the outside world after a long hard winter.

A close-up of the front door bunny.

The All-In-A-Row wall hanging is from Country Feelin'. It has multiple sets of pieces to change back and forth for the seasons and, if you're interested, you can see some of them here. This is a set that Hubby and I made a few years ago.

My spring set for All-In-A-Row.

Spring is also the time that we start to see more wildlife around the Witch’s Island. Last week we saw four foxes in the field just on our way to work. We had an interesting visitor to the backyard, too. We took some fast fry steaks out of the freezer early in the week previous and then for some reason we just didn’t get around to cooking them (shame, shame, shame). After a week in the fridge they were too old to eat so Hubby tossed them out onto the snow for the crows. The crows found them almost right away but so did this Bald Eagle.

The eagle was very nervous about being on the ground in the yard and the slightest movement from us at the windows of the house was enough to send him scurrying up into the treetops. The crows didn’t care though and might have even have appreciated the scaredy-cat behavior of the big bird. They worked as a team bullying the eagle and grabbing as much meat as possible. In the end I’m not sure that the eagle actually got any of the steak but it sure was impressive to watch him flying through the yard. Sorry for the poor qualities of the pictures but these birds are fast and he was a long way away when he was in the trees.

This Bald Eagle apparently loves fast-fry steak, especially when it is free.

He may love steak but not enough to fight the crows for it.

Another nice thing about spring is the smell. You know that damp earthy smell that tells you that the soil is no longer frozen as hard as bullets? Sometimes spring is the smell of skunk or the sign of raccoons walking across the remains of the snow. Sometimes it is the first time that you are able to hang a load of laundry out on the line without it freezing into chunks of plywood. Don’t let the fine weather make you forget about your clothesline etiquette, though. You can’t just hang things out willy-nilly. What will the neighbors think? People are watching, don’t you know.

It is also the sight of the first of your perennials poking through the soil, even if they are being paced by the dandelions and other weeds, or the first time you spot the soil of your vegetable garden poking through the scrum of the snow. A week ago we thought that it would be June before the garden was exposed but it is now visible and getting more so every day.

The dandelions are on the way back, too.

Look! That seems to be garden soil poking out from under the snow.

Unfortunately, Herbie, our garden mascot, didn’t make it to spring. The combination of the violent nature of the fall storms and the miserable conditions of the past winter conspired to rip his poor old head off. He was retired from his post this afternoon. Poor Herbie.

Poor Herbie seems to have lost his head.

Enjoy the pictures and close your eyes. I think you may even smell the signs of spring in the air. Yup, it is just around the corner.

Pie, Anyone? My First New Recipe of the New Year.

Well, here’s it is, the start of the second week of the new year and I’m following through on one of my resolutions. I made my first blueberry pie last weekend and it turned out great. It was easy too, in part because I had my pie crust already made. Back in October when I was doing a bunch of baking I made up a whole batch at once and then froze the extra in disk shapes, enough for one pie each. They are so handy and convenient to have on hand.
Here’s the recipe I used. It is my adaptation of one I found in the summer 2006 edition of Homemakers magazine.

Blue Berry Pie

Ingredients
5 cups blueberries
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
2tbsp orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
2 tbsp butter
2 pie crust doughs

Directions
Roll out dough into 2 rounds, ¼ inch thick and press 1 into the bottom of your pie plate. Toss the berries with the rest of the ingredients and pour into the pie shell.
Dot with the butter and then top with the 2nd piece of dough. Trim the edges and then crimp them together. Cut some steam vents in the top.
Bake in the lower third of a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 degrees until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbly, about a further 40 minutes. You’re done!

My first ever blueberry pie!

This is the easiest pie ever to put together and even better, blueberries are supposed to be great for your health! Look at that beauty, you know you want some. With the snow falling down around us today it helps to think about late summer when these August Blues were harvested. Oh August, that’s vacation time right? Sorry, memory lapse, I was thinking vacation already, sigh.

Yesterday we took down the Christmas tree. It’s always a sad thing to see it going away again, the living room looks so bare. We also put away all the decorations pertaining to Santa Claus. Snowmen get to stay because, well, um, they just do. That’s my rule and I’m sticking to it.

Here are some of the guys who will be hanging around for awhile. Try not to think about that pie while you’re looking at the snowmen. I bet you want some pie.

Warm Winter Wishes

This is the wall hanging I bought in the Big City last fall.

This is one of my all-time favourite decorations.

What do you suppose snow actually smells like?

My brother gave me this skating snowman for Christmas this year.

Over The River

This guy usually carries a Merry Christmas banner but it has been put away for now.

I don’t necessarily agree with this sentiment.

I love this little snowman lamp!

This guy will play Jingle Bells when you press his belly.

This guy is on the back of the front door.

This was a fun craft to make!

This star is made from dogwood branches.

He should be saying Let It snow Like Crazy SOMEWHERE ELSE!

Husbands, too.

This is one of this year’s Christmas presents from Hubby.

This guy is actually a candle holder.

Okay, thanks for looking. Here’s your piece!

It was as tasty as it looks.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

I love Thanksgiving weekend! Especially this year as I was able to convince the boss at work to give me an extra two days (Thursday and Friday) off. Five day weekends sure beats five day workweeks! I used both extra days just for me (at least as much as I could convince myself to do so). On Thursday I slept in as long as possible and then had a nice relaxing day around the house. On Friday I took myself to the Big City for a fun day of shopping at the Boutique (Value Village) and elsewhere.

Saturday morning I was all rested up and raring to go. Hubby and I made a quick trip to the Small City to visit the Farmer’s Market and do some grocery shopping. Hubby needed some more (!!) plywood for the gazebo so we picked that up, too. When we got home he went off to build and, with him out from underfoot, I settled down to some serious baking time. I made all my fall favourites; pumpkin pie, apple pie and butter tarts! The apple pie was made with Honey Crisp apples that we picked last weekend at a local orchard. They make a surprisingly tart filling and I’ll definitely be using them again. I made all the pastry a couple of weekends ago and then froze it to ease the workload this weekend. That saved me a lot of time. My KitchenAid was a great help, too. This is the first year ever where the pumpkin pie filling didn’t get sprayed all over the walls by the hand mixer!All told I made 1 deep-dish apple pie, 1 pumpkin pie with pastry decorations, 3 pumpkin tarts and a dozen butter tarts. Not bad for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon!

We picked these Honey Crisp apples at a local orchard last week. This will be the first time I’ve tried them in a pie.

I sure am glad that I made and froze this pastry dough last month.

This pastry mat is the perfect device for rolling out dough to the right shape.

The dough is rolled out and is ready for the pie pan.

The apples have all been sliced, spiced and added to the shell.

My pie is ready for the oven.

I used a set of fall-themed cookie cutters to make these decorations from the left-over pastry.

The pumpkin pie filling was mixed in my new KitchenAid!

The KitchenAid did a great job. No splattering of filling on the walls!

Butter Tarts were next.

The KitchenAid was great at this, too.

I wish I had a shop window to display all my lovely baked goods!

After all the baking was done we finally had a chance to break out the Halloween decorations. I have 3 great big plastic tubs full of Halloween-themed stuff and I still manage to acquire more every year somehow. It’s gotten to the point now where I have to pick out just my favourite items to put on display and I end up leaving the rest of it in the tubs. Some of my things haven’t been out for years. Maybe one day I’ll have a yard sale and everything on sale will have something to do with Halloween. Man, would I ever love to come upon a sale like that!

Here are a few of my best pieces. I hope you like them.

This witch welcomes everybody who comes to the front door.

We made this happy pumpkin family years ago.

I found this guy at Winners a few years ago. He’s kind of a cross between W. C. Fields and Humpty Dumpty. He was so creepy I just had to buy him.

This big ceramic pumpkin was another Winners find.

My Dad bought this for me at a yard sale because he knew I would treasure it.

I saw this craft on the ‘net years ago and I just had to make one for myself. This is my favourite set of hangers but I have 3 others, too. One for Easter, one for summer and a birdhouse set.

This is one of Hubby’s efforts. He found the pattern in a book he bought.

I took a stained glass class twenty years ago and this skeleton hand is one of my favourite efforts in that discipline.

The saying goes “Two heads are better than one.” but it seems that three heads just leads to confusion!

Here’s a little Halloween wish for you.

Ratty says that he just wants to give you a little kiss good-bye!