Pumpkin Science and Dead People

I finally bought one of those beautiful Fairytale Pumpkins for Halloween this year. I just couldn't bring myself to carve it into a Jack-O-Lantern, so it's been sitting on the counter with other decorative squashes waiting to become pie for thankgiving. I cut into it Monday afternoon and look what I found!

No, those are not tapeworms! They're pumpkin seedlings! I let the pumpkin sit on my counter for so long the seeds sprouted right inside! How cool! They all had big healthy roots and a couple even had fully developed leaves. None of them had any color, though, because they've never seen sunlight. This is called etiolation. Science rocks!

I was very excited about my Fairytale pumpkin seedlings, and I thought for a second about trying to grow them, but I decided to just wait to grow pumpkins until Michael and I have some dirt of our own. At least I have pictures of them. They won't be forgotten.

After roasting my Fairytale pumpkin, I finally put my Dia De Los Muertos fabric to good use. Kimbra gave me the perfect apron-sized piece of some GORGEOUS fabric called "Los Novios" (The Lovers). I used my favorite apron pattern . And, as usual, I made it even simpler.

I bound all the edges in bias tape, and I also used it to make the neck strap and ties. I rounded the bottom corners, so the bias tape would go on easier and I added a pocket for my cell phone. Although the pocket is not too easy to find because of my ninja skills in matching the print! :)

First Christmas Gift Done!

 

Last night I completed my first Christmas gift for this season! I made a Ruby Doll for my Grandma. Ruby has turned into quite a sensation with the online sewing community. She even has her own Flickr group. In case you haven't heard of Ruby, she's an adorable little soft doll that was offered as a free pattern from the very talented Jhoanna Monte Aranez at One Red Robin.

I love stopping by the Ruby Flickr group every once in a while to see what kind of cute Ruby creations people have made.

My latest Ruby is a Christmas Angel for my Grandma. I added some sequin holly berries with felt leaves, I stitched some beads and sequins on her green shirt to give it some sparkle, and I gave her wings with a little bow-shaped button in the center.

 

The 7th Annual

The 7th Annual Halloween Party was great! The night before, which was actually Halloween, Lindsey and Cornbread and Justin and Kelly came over for some pizza and Jack-O-Lantern carving. I was hoping we'd get more trick-or-treaters than last year, but we only got one. :(

This year's party set-up went really smooth and stress-free for me. Thanks to Michael for making me take a nap so he could play garland elf, and Kelly for getting all the decor up to Esco in one turbo trip, and of course Lindsey's magical spiderweb skills. It was so nice to have the party all set-up and ready to go with plenty of time to get our costumes on. Thanks to everyone who made it happen!

We didn't have a huge turn out of party people, but what really matters is that the RIGHT people showed up. We got to be treated to a quick little appearance by Elliot in his monkey costume from his beautiful and talented Fairy Godmother. Alex and Kimbra won their second Pussy Award and brought the most delightfully awful-looking meatheads! And we had lots of new-comers to the party; even Aunt Gina Lola Zappa and her fortune-telling cards.

The pictures will be added to website soon!

Have A Happy Halloween San Diego!

Just A Sweet Transvestite

 

"I'm not much of a man by the light of day,

But by night I'm one hell of a lover."

Would You Buy This?

 

It's a Gothic Spider Bride costume made by me! I started this costume last year with intent to start up Boo Couture, my costume design business. But with being evacuated during the Witch Fire and then whole craziness of the holiday season, it ended up in the UFO pile. I finally put all the finishing touches on it last night, and I plan to try and sell it once I get some better pictures of it.

It's a size 16/18 gown (I need to take some more accurate measurements) with with a headband based veil. The whole gown is constructed from a polyester satin and trimmed with metallic rick-rack, tulle bows and plastic spiders. It'll look great with some goth makeup and fishnet stockings. I'm really, really happy with how it turned out. It's going to be hard to part with it. I hope whoever gets to be the Gothic Spider Bride for Halloween takes really good care of it.

 

 

Friday night Lindsey and Cornbread came up to our house for dinner. Lindsey made some wonderful pasta for dinner and I've been enjoying the leftovers all weekend! I wanted to put out some seasonal appetizers since it is now officially Halloween season, so I tried out my new eyeball mold. The green zombie eye dip is kinda like french onion dip and the blue zombie eye dip is garlic and chives. I just dumped some dip type ingredients in blender then added a packet of Knox dissolved in hot water. After the eyeballs set-up over night I painted the veins and iris with gel food color. The blue zombie eye dip was definitely the yummiest. Onion flavored eye ball dip is just a little too creepy for me. But the garlic and chives eyeball dip is a keeper and is fabulous on buttery Keebler Club crackers.

Happy October Everybody!

YIPPEE! It's October 1st! That means Halloween season!

For our engagement Gail got Michael and I this really cool Halloween Bat-globe. It's a very affectionate skeleton couple going for a ride in their dead mobile with bats flying all around. Plus, it's a music box that plays "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead"! Momma Gail always finds the coolest stuff!

We also were very privileged to receive a donation to the Halloween party from Alex and Kimbra. The newlyweds found a really cool skeleton candle holder while they were on their honeymoon cruise and immediately thought of the Halloween party. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Castillo!

Michael brought home two "Wee Bee" pumpkins for me yesterday and I think they look fabulous on our table. I can't wait to get carving on some squash this year. I've decided that I'm not limiting myself to just pumpkins. I want to try some other produce. Any ideas?

I've been making progress on costume construction and the party invites were mailed out today. If you don't get one in a few days send me a quick email and I'll make sure you get one.

shannie@hhhsd.org