Monthly Archives: October 2011

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National Candy Corn Day of the Day!

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I made this candy corn monster on my LiteBrite (leftover from my weddin’) to celebrate today’s holiday, which as I’m sure you’re all aware, is National Candy Corn Day.

Personally I don’t really like candy corn anymore but childhood me used to house them by the bag.  I used to eat them white-to-yellow, eating the white and orange first and then saving 2 yellows to stick together and make one big yellow piece.  Why I did that I’m not sure but it’s a clear childhood memory that comes back to me every Halloween.  
For more National Candy Day revelry here’s a clip from Unwrapped about how Candy Corn is made:
And also, as long as we’re here, a how-to video on making adorable candy corn nails!
Holler!
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Bliss in the Mail

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I am in the middle of a never-ending (and very laaaaaazy) quest to find the perfect fabric to cover the throw pillows on my couch.  Earlier this Summer I thought I had it all figured out….and then I got a new rug that threw everything off.  Damn!  This quest recently brought me to my friend Aurora’s Denver fabric store/craft shop/knitting studio website, Fabric Bliss, simply to get some ideas from her fabulous fabric selection.  That’s when I found out that Fabric Bliss now has an online store!  Shit ya!  

The 2 fabrics I decided on were this delicious grey, yellow & white Ty Pennington design that looks hand screened and is going to make a gorgeous pillow (someday)

and this really awesome Tapestry print in carrot by Tina Givens.

Now, before you point out that these prints totally clash, you should know that they’re for pillows on different couches in different houses- a friend of mine is also in the throws of pillow covering angst.  The horror!  One of my favorite things about ordering on Fabric Bliss was that you can order in 1/4 yard increments!!  Which is so rad because if you’ve ever gone to a fabric store and been told there is a 10 yard minimum on a fabric that you just want a little taste of you know how annoying that is.  I ordered 3/4 of a yard of the Tapestry print just to excercise my rights.  Love it.  The fabric came super fast, USPS Priority Mail with a cute note and a smiley face.

If you’re in the market for fabric or yarn you should go check out the site.  You’ll be supporting an awesome girl with great taste and getting some fabulous fabric.  Tell her Mandee sent ya!

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Happy National Pumpkin Day!

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Yesterday, motivated by my work’s annual Pumpkin Carving contest and by the fact that today is National Pumpkin Day (no lie!) I turned this…

…into this!

I’ve never attempted to sculpt a pumpkin, I generally just carve a 2-D face and call it a day but I was feeling particuarly ambitious, motivated by a mystery prize from work, and wanted to try my hand at sculpting my gourd this year.

I went to my local art store at lunch and blindly bought these tools to use.  What I found was that it’s important for your tools to have a sharp edge to be able to slice through the pumpkin, the wire end sculpting tools and the wood carving knives were my best purchase while the wireloop sgrafitto, though it had the coolest name, was pretty useless in terms of pumkinery. 
Next I drew a big scary mouth on the face of my “pumpkin” (which you may have noticed is actually an acron squash) and started carving.  I used a carving knife to go along the entire outline of my drawing,
and then started gutting it out with the wire-end sculpting tools until each tooth was free.  Then I took the skin off each tooth and shaped them so they’d be wicked scary, carved some squinty eyes and Viola! 
My first 3-D punkin!

It was easier than I thought it would be, I think I’m hooked. 

Stay tuned for the Pumpkin Carving Contest (this Friday the 28th) entry and results!

Happy National Pumpkin Day of America!!!

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National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day!

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This is truly a cause for celebration, National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day?  Yes please!
To celebrate, Liz and I made this deliciously simple pumpkin cheesecake last night.  
I let it sit over night in the fridge to set up
…and then, because you should always test your work, I had a piece for breakfast (it’s like a pastry, what?) and I’m happy to report it was delicious!!

Here is the recipe we used.  Happy baking and happy National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day! 
**Please celebrate responsibly.** 

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Wedding Wednesday: Tchotchke Centerpiece/Favors

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…and with a little less than 5 hours left of this beautiful, rainy Wednesday I bring you:
 
                                                                                                              Picture by Kristen Mallory
WEDDING WEDNESDAY: 
TCHOTCHKE EDITION! 
For a full year before my wedding I collected tchotchkes from junk shops, second hand stores, garage sales and of course, Etsy to create my combination centerpiece/favors. 
There were a couple of rules for collecting these hollow treasures, they needed to be:
a. planters
b. under $7 (american currency) and
c. a little “off”….not exactly ugly, just “off”.
To make them into centerpieces was truly a family affair.  We (my 4 year old flowergirl, Sister and I) planted succulents in all of the tchotchkes, put them on wooden disks (cut especially for me by my loving Father), accompanied them with precious little terra cotta pots filled with small white flowers (put together by Lady, my Mom) added hand stamped signs (Made by Liz) that said, “take me home tonight!” and then they were all artfully arranged on each table by my BFF, Gina Marie.
Pictures by Meredith Mascola
The results were 100% unique, semi home-made, adorable little bits of precious that I could hardly stand to give away!!  These were SUCH a huge hit I was blown away!  People were hiding them from each other and stealing them off tables all night.  I personally saw the squirrel change hands at least 3 times, I’m still hearing stories about who the rightful owner should be.  And now the fun part is finding out where all of them went.  I love going to friend’s houses and seeing which planter everyone ended up with (aka who swiped what while no-one else was looking!)