There's a Halloween party to be had

I made rice krispie pumpkins to take to my cousin's Halloween party tomorrow. I forgot what a pain in the ass making rice krispie treats are. I got the idea from a recipe on a coupon for the cereal. The orange color comes from adding orange food coloring to the butter/marshmallow mixture and then adding that to the rice. I don't have orange food coloring so I used red and yellow. I also used the little hole-in-the-side-of-the-plastic-bag trick to accomplish the vines.


Gum drops for the stem!


I finished the owl wings this weekend. I didn’t really have a plan going into this. I just thought “make some wings and add some feathers.” I didn’t plan out how I would attach the feathers, or what the end result would look like. I just got started.

What I used:
Black fabric
Gray fabric
Feathers
Hot Glue
Scissors

First I cut a strip of black fabric the length of my arm and tied a knot at the end with a finger loop. Smart! I'm most proud of the finger loop idea!


Next I cut long rectangular strips and shaped them into feathers. It was neat, but boring-looking. I needed to add some real feathers.


I attached them to the fabric by gluing them to the strip and folding it over. It's pretty secure.

I cut smaller rectangular pieces of the gray fabric, wrapped and glued them, and then glued feathers underneath. I started feeling like I had ran/walked for miles and realized I went too far…. That I still had to turn around and go back. IOW, I had another wing to do. This wasn’t supposed to take so much time! There’s other stuff I wanted/needed to do!


I finished it up and I'm pretty proud of the end result even though I should have made the gray stripes more even. This is just the left wing. It's so big I had to take a picture from overhead. I'm excited to wear these!

I had a lot of feathers left over so I have some pieces for my hair or something. And since I'm an ever-resourceful crafter I even have pieces that will be Christmas tree ornaments. Feathers on the Christmas tree!

Peanut butter candy eyeballs- The messiest ever!

I'm convinced that these are meant to be made, sampled, and then taken to a party or something. You can't eat more than one because they're SO rich and sweet.


That's because they're just peanut butter, powdered sugar, and butter rolled into little balls. So bad!


..And then dipped in melted white chocolate. The chocolate is hot and messy and it's hard to make these look perfectly smooth. My advice- just drop 'em in one at a time, pull them out with 2 forks, and sit them on a rack. And move fast! The chocolate gets cold quickly.


We didn't have fancy decorating tools for the red parts. We just had a tub of red icing, which, of course, posed a big challenge in making thin red lines. So my mom showed me a neat little trick. She poked a tiny hole in the corner of the bottom of a plastic ziplock bag, put some icing in, and then squeezed it through the small hole. Perfect!


Brown squeezable icing or an upside down M&M for the pupil. I think we made some a little too big. If I made these again, I would make them no larger than the size of a quarter. This was messy, but fun and easy!

NC State Fair, Feathers, and Sweet Potato Fries!

Last week I went to the NC State Fair with my mom and niece. I didn't eat anything outrageous. I saw the deep fried bubble gum, deep fried koolaid (Yikes! Gross!), Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburger (WHHAAAA???!), deep fried Oreos/Twinkies/Snickers, turkey legs, fried cheese, and so much fried dough! We stuck to the pretty traditional fair food- a funnel cake with powdered sugar and some cotton candy.

I liked the prized fruits/vegetables, huge pumpkins, and craftiness.


Check this cute Hello Kitty Pumpkin!


And mom on the ferris wheel..


I'm using these feathers for my owl costume.


It's actually a feather garland for Christmas decorating. I knew I needed a boa or something similar for a bunch of pretty feathers. And Michael's always shows me so much appreciation in the form of 40% off coupons! As always, I'm trying to be as resourceful as possible when it comes to crafting my costume.


I also made/burnt sweet potato fries. I just cut the potato into quarter inch fries, tossed them in olive oil and then in brown sugar, salt, and pepper, and baked them for about 35-40 minutes at 425 degrees. Yum!

More Fall Fun

Saturday I took my niece to a pumpkin patch. We had a wonderful time and I finally got an actual pumpkin!


We went for a hay ride, found our way through a hay maze, and saw some cute baby animals..


And of course picked out our pumpkins!


This evening I decided to try the new frozen yogurt shop that opened nearby and it was a great discovery! It's called Yopop. They have an Original Tart flavor that tastes sour-creamy like the flavor I first tried at Pinkberry in NYC. It's also self serve so you add your own fruit or candy. It's so affordably priced, too! I had a pretty good size portion and it was only $3.65 with tax. They charge you by the weight. This shop is a 5 minute walk from me!

Nanataco is where it's at

Friday afternoon treat #1 came in the form of a Starbucks gift card in my wallet that I had forgotten about. Eleven dollar balance! Score! I, of course, got a pumpkin spice latte.

I needed caffeine for Old Navy's Fall Haul Sale. I got these boots for less than $20 each since they are 50% off right now.



They are super comfy too. I was in major need of Fall shoes. I mostly have flats and tennis shoes. The only boots I had were rain boots so I'm happy to add these basic boots. Affordable + Comfy = Win.

Just because I can't get something new and not IMMEDIATELY wear/use it, I wore my green booties to Nanataco for dinner. How cute! It's in the location that used to house The Fish Shack right beside Q-Shack so it has that outdoor, garage-y feel. It's a very wonderful and bright atmosphere with fun lanterns on the patio.


They have it going on. Live band, good prices, salsa bar, chalkboard menu..


Chips and salsa just $2. There's little jalepeno chunks in there that will surprise you!


Tacos x 3. Delicious x 3.

What a hoot

I wanted to be an owl last year for Halloween but I thought about it at the last minute so it was too late for me to make some wings and figure out a makeup plan for myself. So I was on makeup duty for others.


That's me helping Jamie with her engagement pictures last month. It was freezing and raining and she braved cold temps barefoot & strapless.

This is what we worked with..


So my plan for an owl costume involves me wearing a simple cotton black dress that I already have with black tights as a base. I'm going to make a wing-cape-thing out of fabric with feathers on it, of course. The most important part of my costume will be preparation and planning because I won't have a lot of time to get dressed. I will spend most of my time on my makeup. I found these pictures and they're my inspiration for this:



They are way more advanced than anything I could pull out but what I'm noting is the brightness above their cheekbones and on the forehead. I was thinking about putting feathers in my hair but I don't know how so I'm going to make a feather head piece and wear that. I won't be having time to fight with feathers in my hair. I'm trying to be as resourceful as possible. So far all I need is feathers, fabric for my wings, and fake eyelashes.

Durham Farmers Market

I had a fun Farmers Market outing Saturday morning. I love Durham. Growing up I, of course, thought it was the most boring place on the planet with "nothing to do". But one summer in high school I visited Berkeley and San Francisco where I met a lot of other students. And while I absolutely loved SF, one of the many things I learned during that time was an appreciation for where I was from. I don't know if it was home-sickness or just a growing realization, but I came back with a more open mind that gave me the ability to appreciate my home city more. Over the past few years I have watched Durham grow and become even more eclectic. I'm proud of its growth and everything it offers. And while I'm not even far away from it (at all!), there's something special about being proud of the unique, growing city that I call home.


The Durham Farmers Market is located in downtown Durham across from the new Durham Central Park. The Durham Craft Market is also operating across from the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.


The Farmers Market was super busy. So much produce, cheese, flowers, baked goods, crafts, PUMPKINS, and more!

Speaking of pumpkins.. I love Fall so much that if it's pumpkin flavored, I'm getting it right now. Dairy Queen Pumpkin Pie Blizzard. Coffee-Mate Pumpkin Spice Creamer. Febreeze Pumpkin Harvest & Fall. Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale. The only thing that I don't have right now is a pumpkin, but I will!


The Farmers Markets smelled like a carnival. There was a kettle corn popcorn truck bringing that wonderful fragrance to us on such a beautiful day. There was also an organic coffee van, and the pizza truck, Pie Pushers.


I got the Breakfast Slice from Pie Pushers. Cheesy, bacony, sausagey, potatoy, crispy goodness.


There are great spots for Food Truck eatin'.


I bought my mom some banana nut bread and I got myself this cute beeswax owl candle.


Is that owl candle sitting on top of a newly painted table? Yes it is!

Pretty awesome day

Today during lunch I ran down to the Raleigh Downtown Farmers Market because I heard they were having a honey festival! I love honey. Honey in my tea. Honey on my toast. Honey as a replacement for sugar in my recipes. My mom buys locally grown honey and it's delicious. I'm still working through the sample jar she gave me months ago..

I sampled some salad with honey vinaigrette. Yum!


After work I got my hair cut. I love my Hair Stylist. She cuts my bangs perfectly every. single. time.



Then I went by to visit my Grandma. She always has a cake on the table and today it was strawberry. Sweet treat on such a sweet day!

A little at a time gets the job done

It was beautiful here this weekend. Full-time Fall! Saturday I opened the doors and windows and painted these tables in the cool breeze.


My neighbor gave them to me when she moved. Side note- I also have a really daunting paint project for a tall cabinet that I found in the trash going on right now. I let it sit in the corner and be all scuffed up and silver (like I found it) for a really long time. Now I've taped it up and covered the mirror part with paper in preparation for painting, but I haven't actually started painting. It's so big! And lattice-y! Alas, I have decided to go the spray paint route, so she will hopefully be completed by this weekend. It will be a bookcase.

Anyway, these tables were so easy and fun to paint. Their feet are like little Fall-time pumpkins.


I'll share pictures of the finished product later this week.