Halloween apothecary jar update.

I have most of my jars filled now. Here are my vampire fangs (made of Sculpey - no vampires were harmed in the making of my Halloween!) ready to bake.

Here they are in their jar. I put a bit of black cheesecloth in the bottom of the jar for contrast.

As for my other experiments...

The tapioca jar is just fine. Stable as can be, still freaking people out. As for the rice, well, I think I made sake. We first noticed bubbles in the goo, then we noticed floating rice. Then came the smell. Oh God the smell. If you left the lid on, you were fine - but heaven help you if you took that lid off! So to sum it up: Tapioca, good. Rice, a one week only decoration.

A tale of six lemons.

So my local fruit and veg market sells lemons by the threes (3 for $1). It takes 4-5 lemons to make lemonade, so I must buy six. The cheapskate in me hates to waste half of the usable lemon when I only use the juice for the lemonade, so here is the plan I have come up with to really get all I can out of my two dollars that satisfies my craving for good lemonade,  my fascination with making my own bath products and my love of baking.

First off, zest 5 of the lemons and set it aside, preferably in a large mixing bowl. I use a cheese grater and this takes no time at all.  Now cut all the zested but whole lemons in half. Next  go get your nearest three year old to  juice your lemons. Set juice aside.

Throw what is left of the lemon in your compost bin. It is the best the bin will smell, well, ever. Here are the recipes for what to do with all that zest and juice.

___________________________________________

Sugared Lemon Bath Scrub

This is great for smoothing elbows, feet and knees. The oil leaves the skin so nice and soft.

Ingredients: 

Zest of 5 lemons

1 cup sugar (adjust scubbiness to your taste)

1/4 to 1/2cup Olive, Grape seed or Almond Oil

1. Mix zest and sugar together.

2. Add oil until the consistency is to your liking. It is really a matter of preference, but I find 1/4 gives it a nice flow.

3. Put in an airtight container and enjoy with your next shower, or open the bottle and sniff for some aroma therapy.  Next time I plan on adding some fresh basil. I think it will give it a nice autumnal note, since this is definitely a brighter summery scent. 

Caveat: 1.The tub will be slippery when you use this. Be careful! 

2. I have had great success with this recipe, but you can adjust it as you'd like. It is a starting point, that is all. That is the great thing about making your own bath stuffs - make them exactly to your specifications instead of having to settle for someone else's.

3. If you can't eat one of the items in this recipe due to an allergy, then you had best avoid slathering it on your skin. I daresay the results will be the same as if you ate it!

______________________________________

Lemonade

There really is a difference between homemade and the powdered, high fructose corn syruped restaurant stuff. This recipe doesn't give me a stomach ache for starters. 

Ingredients:

Juice of 5 lemons

3/4 cup of sugar

cup of water

1/2 gallon container

1. Mix the sugar and one cup of water together. Bring up to a boil then remove.

2.  Put the juice in your container and fill half way with cool water. 

3. Slowly add the simple syrup. You don't want to shatter your  glass container.

4. Fill the rest of the way up with water, give it a good stir and chill.

Caveat: This is really just a starting point. Adjust the lemon and sugar to your taste. The original recipe we found called for a cup of sugar, but we found that to be way too much. Play with it and see what you like!

All of this takes about half an hour, but you get to enjoy it for days. And feel like you outdid Martha. 

Now you may think that I have forgot about that poor, lonely sixth lemon. I haven't. If you have guests coming to enjoy your lemonade, you can slice the lemon to garnish you drinks or you could impress them with these lovely Lemon Basil Scones.  I have done both and I highly recommend the scones.

More Halloween prep.

My husband is at the paper mache again. He loves it. He is working in a few small pumpkins, a large one and a pet spider.

The big stuff we have left to create is outside stuff. We need to make our roof spider and our human cocoon. I have already made a few egg sacs.We saw the Grandin Road version and decided to make an outdoor version.  

Pretty easy all told. I made balls out of shopping bags, newspaper and masking tape. I put those inside a clear garbage bag. I wrapped that in a bag made from cheap  affordable Ikea curtains, using the rod pocket as a drawstring. 

I cut the curtains to the desired length and tied off a knot.

 I wrapped this in cheese cloth and whip stitched it into place.

(this is the second sac sans outer webbing )


The final step is to coat  on a few these with spider webbing and stitch on a few spiders.

 It sounds really complex, but the whole process takes less than an hour and looks so cool. All of the layers of sheer allow just enough light through to look a little gross.

The total cost to make these is roughly $20, and I should have enough to make the body to match the Grandin Road set. So to sum up:
Grandin Road set cost $39 for three indoor only egg sac and $49 for a cocooned body.
I made all of this, and outdoor ready, for $20.
How's that for DIY.

Halloween prep is in full swing, or how we spent our Labor Day weekend.

I guess Halloween prep is a constant thing in out house. We are firm believers in leaving a little Halloween around the house all year. Early in our courtship my husband visited a friend's apartment and there was a skeleton hanging on the door. It was May. When questioned, the friend stated that he believed that a little Halloween should stay up all year. Remembrance. Balance. I liked it. Halloween is the one day a year you don't have to be yourself. Some days it is nice to know that Halloween is out there, waiting to release you for the day. It also is a nice counter balance -dark to light. Good to remember. Halloween also lets you give in to your dark side. Sometimes it is just really fun to scare people or freak someone out. You can't do that without nasty looks in June, oh no - only in October.

We have gone into Halloween prep a bit more prepared and a bit earlier this year. Still not early enough (see here and here to see people who go a bit crazier than I do! I will get there someday!) I have always loved Apothecary jars, so we decided to make a little mad scientist supply area on our mantle this year. Not wanting to spend too much money, I started haunting thrift stores in June to find them. I actually found too many, so we have moved the display off of the mantle and we are planning to put it on our piano. I found these silver serving pieces (pre- tarnished saves me time!) to complete the display. I got the whole thing for a whopping $21!  Love it!

You may notice that a couple of the jars are filled already. They are experiments. The greenish one is going to be "eye of newt" or eggs of some sort. It is made from large pearl tapioca that I soaked in water just enough to make slimy but not soft (5 minutes). Then I put it in my jar of choice, filled the jar the rest of the way with cooking oil and added 5 or so drops of food coloring and gave it a stir. Since I used the water based color, it sunk down to the tapioca and settled all over it. I grossed my kids out with it, so I think it was a success. I used the same process with brown rice and red food coloring to create these bloody maggots here.   In theory, this should make it though the holiday season without mold incident since the food stuffs are completely sealed in oil that is in a sealed container. I'll let ya know. So far, so creepy.

How I spent my summer vacation, part 1

I had the opportunity to photograph a Southern wedding. It was in North Carolina. The drive was amazing, the wedding was even better.

Her dress over the bed in her childhood room.

Very "Grace Kelly"