Author name: Karla Nathan

We managed to fit in one trip to the Pumpkin Patch before the season ended. Sugarwings and I spent almost 3 hours there, just talking to pumpkins and meeting new fuzzy friends. She certainly is a nature child and is happier playing with dirt than toys most of the time.

 Here she is in a quickie little video of her naming her newest buddy. 

We found a few little pumpkins to adopt, and it was hard to convince her that the caterpillar couldn't come home with us too.  She was satisfied when I told her that next time we went there, she could visit him again and he would be a butterfly.

 

  We did a little shopping at the local Salvation Army too, where I got her a big bagful of new clothes for 20 bucks. Isn't this little outfit cute? It was a pale blue, but I dyed the shirt and floral overalls in a fuchsia dye to brighten them up.  The whole outfit cost $2.00.  (I'm not counting the cost of the dye, because I bought it to dye the sheets for the Gypsy Fairy Wagon Bassinette and just threw these in with them)

Kids clothes are so expensive, and fit for such a short period of time, that I am always on the lookout at thrift stores and am thrilled to get hand me downs for her too.  Plus, since she is such a dirt aficionado, its nice to not worry about what she is wearing. I might not be as quick to let her wallow around, happy as a pig in mud if I'd spent $20 on one outfit instead of on a whole bag of outfits. Plus, have you looked at the price tag on kid's clothes? $20 wouldn't get me very far!

This has been a particuarly fun Halloween season, with Sugarwings big enough to really get into it all. She loves the Monster  Mash as much as I do, we've been singing and dancing to it all week.

 For our party, I set up a caramel apple making station in the treat cabinet, and I think that the adults enjoyed making their treats as much as the kids did.

My fairy grand baby was as happy to make a caramel apple as she was to do her very own witchy  face makeup.

Pixie Pie liked them too.  Seems like anytime you give kids an oportunity to do something themselves, they are pretty happy.  We do a lot of "make your own" parties- mini pizzas, cupcakes and tacos are all fun for kids to put together.   And with 4 little dorkies in the house, the floor doesn't get too bad while kids are creating their plates.  The dogs hang out under the table and are enjoying the party more than anyone else.

We set up a pumpkin decorating station outside the kids were given paints and brushes. I had big plans to clean off all the seeds and roast them, but there was just too much going on and a bit too much paint mixed in with the pumpkin guts to do it.

When Sugarwings and I carved our own pumpkin earlier, she helped me pick out all the seeds. I'd never roasted them before, but there wasn't much to it, here is how we did it:

  First, we washed the seeds and got all the strings off.

Then, tossed them with sea salt and a splash of olive oil, then spread them out on a cookie sheet to bake at 350 until they started to look about half way done.

 I melted a 1/4 stick of  butter, added just a little cinnamon and sugar and a cup of pecans,  Sugarwings stirred them altogether and we both spread the mix back out on the pan again.  I cooked them till they were crunchy.

I wasn't sure how long they needed to bake, so just checked on it every few minutes.  When the seeds started to explode and pop, I figured they'd gone long enough! I wasn't expecting that. 

We've been eating them on salad all week.  They are only lightly sugared, and its pretty tasty that way.  They'd be good on ice cream too.

It started to turn cold later, but was still pretty nice for this part  of the evening.

We still haven't had our first frost yet! I'm thinking about hauling my potted topiary rosebush into the studio while it is still blooming.

My aqua eyeshadow as face paint was popular, lots of us ended up with an unearthly blue glow.

The kids painted mini pumpkins and made ghosts too.  Its always funny to me, how serious the kid's faces are while they are working.

Yep, it was a fun Halloween week for us here at the cottage.  Now, if only I could whip up a magic spell that took away all the sticky hand prints from my door knobs… I've been finding remnants of the caramel apple extravaganza everywhere!

Today, I'm still scanning and printing images for the Romantic White Christmas, and Beth and I are working on a banner for the class.  Its still in progress, but here is a peek.

While I was scanning images for Christmas, I found these pumpkins for you. Just right click, save the larger image in the window to your computer and print.