Eco-friendly tip for a longer lasting carved pumpkin

-greenTIP-

• soak carved pumpkin in a 50/50 solution of borax and water then dry thoroughly


• Everyday spray a little borax solution in pumpkin and around the carved area

-greenTIP-

• Don't throw away the seeds, place them in a bird feeder, or leave them out for the squirrels


• We roast and salt our seeds (yummy)


• Also, Compost your pumpkin after halloween

tea party

The birthday girl 

My Toddler is now a young girl; she just turned 6 years old. Alivia wanted to have a tea party for her birthday so I found a cute little bistro, New Englund’s Bistro and Tea Room in here in Concord, CA. The tea party started off with a presentation about tea etiquette and what a “lump of sugar”  is. The girls enjoyed tea, lemonade, finger sandwiches, cupcakes, a story about a tea party and feeling all grown up in their pretty tea dresses.

The invitation to the birthday party was an adorable tea pot. I used a pattern from Unforgettable Invitations by Melissa Giles. My daughter chose several different papers and embellishments and helped with the assembly.

Here is a downloadable PDF pattern: teapotpattern for the tea pot, including a shopping guide for 12 invitations that I added.  The best part about this book is that there are so many different ideas, but your paper and embellishment choices and maybe combining some of her different ideas make your cards unique. It really will spark your imagination.

Tea Pot Invitation

from Unforgettable Invitations by Melissa Giles

MATERIALS

• Patterned Paper: 6 letter size sheets


• Solid Color Card Stock: 9 letter size sheets


• Vellum Paper: 3 sheets letter size


• Envelopes to fit 7˝ x 7˝ tea pot: 12


• Adhesive Glue Roller Applicator


• Scissors


• X-Acto Blade to cut tea pot inside handle


• decorative embellishments

INVITATION LAYOUT

Layout your invitation in your layout program. You can fit 4 per letter size paper.
The size of the invitation is 3˝x 3¾˝. The text area is approximately 2¾˝ x 3˝

1. Draw a box 3˝w x 3¾˝ h
   tip:  The box lines should be faint so that you can see them just enough to cut, but won’t be too noticeable if some of the line shows after cutting.


2. Start your text about ½˝ from the top to leave room for the lid which will cover that area
   Hint:  Leave space on the sides, you don’t want to accidentally cut any text off.


3. Once you have your invitation just right, Copy and Paste so that you have 4 invitations on your page.


4. Print on vellum paper

CUTTING

1. Cut 4 templates:
   
   
   
   • tea pot front (cut along the dotted line)
   
   
   • teapot back (do not cut along the dotted line)
   
   
   • lid
   
   
   • invitation back
   
   
   
   (You won’t be making a template for the invitation front piece because you printed it directly on the vellum.)
   Tip: Use an X-Acto blade to cut the inside of the tea pot handle


2. Trace templates on to back side of paper.
   
   
   
   • 2 tea pot fronts and 2 tea pot lids per patterned paper
   
   
   • 2 tea pot backs per solid paper
   
   
   • 4 invitation backs per solid paper
   
   
   • 4 invitation fronts per vellum paper
   
   
   
    


3. Cut all pieces.

ASSEMBLY

INVITATION

1. One line of glue on top  of  vellum invitation front, line up and attach to invitation back


2. Glue lid to invitation back placing over the invitation front

TEA POT

Glue only edges of front to the back leaving space in the center for the invitation to slide in and out.

FINISHING

Slide invitation into the tea pot and leave as is or finish with a pretty embellishment.

fresh cut flowers

-TIP- I just heard a great tip for your fresh cut flowers. Most of us have heard to cut off the ends of the stems at an angle . . . also do this under running water. The idea is that the first breath that the flowers should take is water not air.

Reach For The Sky Woody and Jesse

YAY! I completed the kids costumes. Woody and Jesse turned out to be pretty easy to make. A pair of jeans, a couple thrift store finds, and some fabric. I just loosly stitched the faux cow hide to a vest for Woody and a pair of jeans for Jesse. For Jesse’s shirt, I fabri-tacked the cording and the satin ribbon for the sleeves. The kids are so happy with their costumes that mom made.

See my previous post for the holsters.

Halloween Goodie Tubes

These are awesome! I found the tutorial here: the muddy princess

The Town Hall Halloween Ball

They're bob, bob, bobbing for apples

They're sip, sip sippin' on cider

They're pop, pop, poppin' their popcorn

and they're packin' in the  puuunkin pie (say with lots of attitude)

at the town hall Halloween ball

I found some links to unusual pumpkin pie recipes

Recipe: Pumpkin Praline Pie

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Dip

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie

recipe: Pumpkin whoopie pie

recipe:pumpkin pie drop cookies

-Tip- Roasting Pumpkins for Pie

Start by washing the pie pumpkin (a great variety for pies is Baby Pam) and then break off the stem and hack it in half.  Then scoop out the seeds.  Fill a 13×9″ pan with 1/4″ water.  Place pumpkins skin side up and roast at 400 degrees until very tender… This usually takes about 45 minutes to an hour.

Scoop the soft flesh from the skins and puree in a food processor with desired spices.  Use in the same porportions for pie as with a canned recipe.

Taste the difference!

Avocado Dip

Easy-n-Yummy Avocado Dip

I think that these ingredients bring out the essence of the avocado. Of course it's great with fresh tortilla chips.

• fresh ripe avocado


• juicy lemon


• sea salt


• fresh cracked pepper


• canned diced mild green chili peppers

Chop, sprinkle, juice and mix to taste.