"you tried" halloween crafts

Before we get to the *big reveal* of all the Halloween decorations  put together, here's a list of the crafts that almost made the final cut.

1. Halloween Mummy Jars: Instead of using cheesecloth, fabric stiffener, and jars like the tutorial, I was going to use streamers and battery-operated candles. Too bad those candles got commandeered to light up my origami jack o'lanterns. (via Plaid Online)

2. Witch Parking Sign: Puns are my life. (via BitterrootDSign2)

3. Happy Halloween Chalkboard Art: I had the hardest time figuring out what to do with the front door, and was contemplating a typographic/calligraphy poster like this for a while. (via Lily & Val)

4. Front Door Mummy: This project is basically lots and lots of streamers, some tape, and two construction paper eyes. Couldn't be easier. (via Honey & Fitz)

saggy pumpkins, and replacement origami ones

My cat, the once shy scared-of-everything little cat, has now taken to sprinting out of open doors, which is clearly a problem. I've had some close calls where I've just barely grabbed the end of her tail to drag her back in, but the adventure on Saturday just takes the cake. For some reason, she managed to sneak out the door without me noticing. Oh no, right? Thankfully I felt something was off when I went back inside, and I eventually found her in the rose bushes outside the front door, just chilling. And after I brought her inside and wiped off her paws, she immediately plopped down in front of the door, wanting to go outside again. This cat, I swear.

Anyways, I carved a pumpkin for the first time in about 5+ years, and it went surprisingly well. My tip? Use a sharp serrated knife. I had my leatherman on hand, and the saw blade slid right through the pumpkin. Since I'm only a novice pumpkin carver, I only have one tip to offer. Sorry.

My pumpkins ended up with my last initial (Z) and my Chinese last name (周), and I spent about an hour trying to find the right font for each character. They turned out pretty swell if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, (because of the warm Cali weather?) they've started the shrivel and sag. Oh no!

I ended up shoving a couple toothpicks into each one to straighten out some of the saggy pieces. But I ended up chucking these this weekend, which is how my cat escaped. Lose-lose situation all around.

I think next time I'll paint instead of carve. There's a great idea for a chalkboard typography pumpkin, glitter monogram pumpkin, a glow-in-the-dark pumpkin, and a puffy paint pumpkin. Ugh, I can't believe I'm collecting ideas for next year's Halloween already!

But for this year, I folded some quick origami pumpkins, following these instructions (also mentioned in this post). Her directions say to use A4 paper, which is slightly thinner and longer than regular printer paper, but I found that her template works just fine with regular printer paper as long as you uncheck the "scale to fit" box when you print; you'll lose her logo, but the template comes out unscathed. 

I first tried it on orange construction paper, but for some reason the printer ink smudged all over the place, so I ended up flipping the whole thing over and drawing my own jack o'lantern face to compensate. That might actually work better, though, so your pumpkins don't show the black grid lines that tell you where to fold.

But I wanted big pumpkin-sized pumpkins, too, so I scaled up her project and made larger pumpkins out of kraft paper, and then medium-sized pumpkins out of black butcher paper to round out the set. 

awww, what a happy family

Pics on the entire set of Halloween decorations to come later this week! (aka after I've finished crafting them and putting them up...)

the last time i'll talk about chanterelles i swear

{a (welcome?) break from Halloween...}
A couple weeks ago, I posted a recipe for baked chanterelles with egg (it's delicious. and simple! you should try it), that only used up 1/6 of that humongous basket of mushrooms I got from Costco. Here are some instagram snaps of what I did with the rest.

(ugh I just saw this recipe for chanterelle hand pies and now I wish I had more mushrooms...)

mini chanterelle tacos {chanterelles, onion, serrano chile, garlic, and oregano, topped with avocado and shredded kale}

{slight more in-depth recipe here)

fettucini with chanterelle, kale, and parmesan {fun fact: I had no fettucini, so this is actually lasagna noodles cut into strips}

chanterelle and baby kale sauté, with zucchini chips and sriracha lime mayo

panzanella {mixed greens, chanterelles, grilled chicken, bulger, parsley, lemon, and parmesan-toasted bread cubes}

witchy diy envelope template freebie

Lindsey over at The Postman's Knock creates the cutest illustrations and prints for sale at her Etsy shop, but every once in a while, she puts up a freebie up on her blog, like this witchy envelope template just in time for Halloween. Just print, cut, and glue. Easy peasy.

You can download the template right here, and check out all her freebies here. While you're at it, you should look at the rest of her blog; it's pretty fantastic.

halloween tickets

Now that I'm living in an area with tons of kids who go trick-or-treating every Halloween, I'm loving the chance to get to decorate, and dress up, and do all kinds of awesome Halloween-related crafts. I'm pretty sure that during my four years of college, October 31st was an ordinary night just like October 30th and November 1st, and so all those ideas are bursting forth and finally getting their chance to shine.

With all these decorations, I didn't want to cop out in the candy arena. A bowl of Costco candy just seemed a bit... underwhelming. And so I came up with the idea to make some special treats for the neighbors' kids. Nothing's been nailed down yet, but I'm thinking marshmallows on a stick - chocolate for the kids and maybe a small batch of pumpkin (or boozy?) for the adults roped in to wrangling the hyped-up kiddos.

But then came this super long thought process* that eventually ended up in me making tickets to put in the neighbors' mailboxes for the kids to "redeem" for a special treat. Now that I've written it down, it seems a bit extraneous. But it makes complete sense! I think...

at least I had fun making the coupon...

CLICK HERE to download 

*my thought process: I've heard stories of parents not letting their kids eat candy that's not completely sealed (aka Tootsie Rolls), so I figured my homemade treats might fall under the category of "it might not be safe" and end up in the trash, which would be totally sad. Plus, kids have all kinds of allergies as well, and I didn't want anything to be triggering. So, I came up with the idea to send a note to each parent letting them know that I was planning on making some extra treats, with these ingredients, and if they were okay with letting their kids have some, then they could pass along the ticket to the kid when they went trick-or-treating. Ugh, whatever, we'll see how this plan works out.

happy friday

Important news first: I have finally finished an Expert-level game of Minesweeper. It has taken me approximately 10 years, but I have finally done it. I am now invincible.

a screenshot for posterity

This weekend is shaping up to be a good one. Tonight, we're heading to Oh, Hello Friend's 5th Anniversary Party, which sounds like it's going to be a blast. And then the rest of the weekend will be for Halloween crafting. I've got my costume to make, Ruby's costume to make, and then the rest of the house decorations. Nothing too complicated, but it will require quite a bit of time with a pair of scissors. Good thing the 'Hawks are playing this weekend to keep me company =]

Posts to come on how it all turns out! Have a wonderful weekend.

link love

Vinyasa Flow - Dylan Werner

This video is one of the coolest things ever. Now that I've seen this, I really want to add "learn how to do yoga inversions" and "go on a yoga retreat" to my 101 list, but clearly I can't because it's 101 things in 1001 days and not 103 things. Rest assured that I will not forget about those two goals, though! I will do those crazy handstands and inversions eventually. He also has a super awesome couples acroyoga video as well; I did not know that was a thing, but maybe that needs to go on my list as well... I think I need to find a boyfriend/partner first.