Read This: Bone Soup

The monster love is showing no visible signs of waning anytime soon around here.  Zombies, vampires, witches, skeletons, oogley-boogly sorts of monsters are all equally adored and appreciated for their individual merits.  Blood-suckers, brains-cravers, bony or warty noses--we are equal-opportunity monster fans.    So you can see how this book--Bone Soup by Cambria Evans--would fit right into our little library.

I admit though, part of what attracted me to this book is that it is a spooky little twist on the classic Stone Soup story I grew up reading--except so much more fun when a town full of monsters are tricked into adding their most prized ingredients to the soup--you know, like spider eggs, toe nail clippings, stewed eyeballs and similar delicacies.

Of course, really, what is best about this book are the wonderful creepy-cute illustrations--just enough spook but still enough sweet to appeal to the under-10-set without creating nightmare-fodder.  I mean, I would happily give any one of the monsters in this book a hug--or even spend the night in their wonderfully realized homes with secret-cupboards, cobwebby cellars and cracked mirrors.  Or maybe even design a plushie inspired by one of the monsters--you know, something itty bitty that might be able to live in a matchbox or something?  Hmmm...

But really--check out Finnigin the skeleton with his gigantic eating mouth and his very tasty bone soup recipe.  Guaranteed to please and nourish.  Get a copy here--or from your local library.

In My Shop: Matchbox Monsters

Got a hankering for a little weeny monster tucked up all nice and cozy in his own matchbox?  Why yes, you say?    Well, I just so happen to have about a dozen of them in my shop, awaiting someone just like you to take one (or 2 or 3 or however many) home.  They come fully outfitted in a nappie (the sort you never, ever have to change--I think they are self-composting)  and with their own little fringed blankie so they can be tucked sweetly to sleep when not at play.  Find them here.

Make This: Halloween Shadow Puppets

Inspired by Kate's shadow puppet tutorial over at Minieco, I designed a dozen shadow puppets of my own to give to the kiddies along with some mini flashlights at our upcoming Halloween party.  I essentially used Kate's tutorial to make these, except I painted my wooden dowels up in black stripes (using the same method I used to make my stripey pick-up sticks) because I love all things stripey, and made my shadow puppet designs just a little bigger with a few different designs.  You can download my shadow puppet templates here, if you care to make some for yourself:

DOWNLOAD SHADOW PUPPET TEMPLATES

You can also find Kate's tutorial with her own downloadable templates here.

A Halloween Crafting Compulsion: Part 2

 

Pretty creepy, huh?  I love this Halloween crafting project.  I mean, who does not want their own faux cured head on their dining room buffet?  Another brilliant Martha project.  If you happen to have a styrofoam head laying around, it's ridiculously simple to make using mostly stuff you can find in your kitchen--you just dip some crumbled papertowels in old leftover coffee, let those dry, and then paste them to the head with this flour/coffee/corn syrup mixture.  Put the head on a an old silver plate tray you pick up at your local thrift store (which is also where my styrofoam head came from), arrange some similarly stained gauze around the base of the head, et voila!  Your own dismembered and unwrapped mummy head.  Sure to delight small children and horrify your adult guests--or maybe vice versa.

You can see more photos of my dead head here and find the project with Martha's full instructions here.  

In My Shop: Two-Faced Friend Doll Kits

I've just put a few Two-Faced Friend Doll Kits in my shop.  These contain the pre-cut materials and complete illustrated instructions to make your own Two-Faced Friend Doll--including lovely vintage feedsack fabrics for the dresses, vintage buttons and notions, all wool felt for the hair and shoes, and recycled materials for the body, as well as the kit packaging.  It's a handy little kit for someone who would enjoy making a doll, but is too busy (or lazy) to select their own materials--you get the credit for hand-making something while cutting out some of the work.  I love it most because nearly the entire kit is is made from recycled or repurposed materials.  Want to see some more?  You can find the kits here.

A Halloween Crafting Compulsion: Part 1

We are planning for a little Halloween party here later this month, so you can just brace yourselves now for the posts to come about the search for the right supplies and the mad crafting that ensues.  It's all Martha's fault, really.  I mean, she has so many good ideas for Halloween out there that it is hard to choose just one or two--so why not 5 or 6 or 10?  Damn you, Martha and your wily crafting ways.

Exhibit A--the two projects above.  The first are the creepy-cool skeleton invites, instructions and downloadable templates found here (plus many more  genius invite designs here).  I did not have any brads handy when I made these so I just used some small grommets instead--worked just as well.  The black envelopes came from Paper Source, if you care to know.  The second is the creepy-crawly snake wreath--instructions here.  Not hard to make at all--bought the snakes at Target in the dollar bin, painted them with black craft paint, then had Mr. Beeper do the grapevine wreath up with some matte black spray paint. I just used thread and needle to attach the snakes to the wreath--worked fine aside from the fact that grapevines really like to snag your thread and thwart your sewing efforts.  This is the first wreath I have ever made.  I know.  Wreaths are just not my thing--but they are sort of a crafting staple (sort of like how Meg describes owls), and it seems that if you do enough crafting, you will be compelled to make one at some point.  Resistance is futile.

More Halloween madness to follow...

Sharing: Some Halloween-Inspired Projects

I had a really, really hard time selecting the final 8 projects for this post.  There are a lot of fantastically creative Halloween projects out there--more than almost any other holiday, I think.   But I love all of these and do believe I have sufficiently regained my crafting mojo that I will likely get around to making some of these this time around--in particular, that doily turned spiderweb by Betz White, those fossil cookies from Martha, and I have been meaning to do that glow stick in a jar trick with Beeper all summer.  I also have a soft spot for those "boo" and "eeek" embroideries from Sweet Paul--they just seem so simple to make so why not just do it?  Okay, also I love that ghosty garland by Ginger and George that is endlessly customizable by you and the kiddies and it probably needs to happen one afternoon after school.

Here are the links to the projects and their clever makers, clockwise, from top left:

Bird Masks by Martha; Ghost Garlands by Ginger and George; Pumpkin Pincushion by The Long Thread via Whip Up; Fossil Cookies by Martha; Spider Web Doily by Betz White; Stars in Jars (source, sadly, unknown) via this Tumbler; Softie Owls by Moonstiches via The Craft Army; Boo and Eeek Embroidered Pictures by Sweet Paul.

Happy Halloween Crafting, my pretties.

In My Shop: Skelly Men

Three little skelly men are in my shop--awaiting good homes where they can comfortably go bump in the night.  Find them here.

Who Knew Post-Its Could Be This Creepy?

Imagine: in your spare time, between raising twins and writing for a children's show, you draw these--on humble post-it notes, no less.  That's what John Kenn does.  He's Danish.  His website where he posts these office supply micro-masterpieces is mysteriously named "Don Kenn".  I really do not know anything else about him--somehow, I think he wants it that way.  

Whatever the case, I love these.  Every single one of them.  They channel Edward Gorey, but also, my own home-grown heebie-jeebies that compel me to still sleep with my bedside lamp on when Mr Beeper is out of town.  They are what we all know are out there, if only we would turn around and look.

You can see more of John's creepy beauties here.

Make This: Simple Skelly Men

Look: simple little skeleton plushies.  Inspired by their kinder, gentler, more edible cousin--the gingerbread man.  They are a family of skellies, really.  You can see that: papa skelly, mama skelly and baby skelly.  Because even skeletons need love.

It's just a nice little embroidered something you can make for someone who might have a thing for skeletons (ahem, Beeper).  They also function nicely as Halloween decor in between being played with.

Just know this: most of your time spent making these will be spent embroidering them.  I happen to love that because it means I can get in my jammies, sit on the sofa, feet up, Mad Men on, and embroider away (in between sips of wine and periodic bouts of cussing when I draw blood because I've pricked my finger again-- damn you, Don Draper, and how you distract me!).

You can download the tutorial here:

DOWNLOAD SKELETON MAN TUTORIAL

Happy Halloween.

Lucky Day Give-Away Winners of Microcrafts

Hey there lucky-day-give-away contestants.  I've got a couple of winners:

1) Amanda of comment #9, c'mon down and collect your copy of Microcrafts and get to work on that taxidermy deer head for Blythe.

2) Mandy, of comment #36, the girl with a soft spot for Pluto, get on over here too and get your copy--and I hope to continue to see you around these parts with your clever commentary that made me smile.

Both of you: please email me with your name and mailing addresses so I can get some of these books off my hands and into yours.    

The rest of you: go on back to your usual programming because I got nothin' for you.

Eat This: Sweet Corn Cakes

Sweet corn cakes.  Like pancakes hooked up with some corn bread and rolled out of bed to greet you on your breakfast plate.  Seriously, I know.  These make perfect autumn into winter breakfast fare--hearty, yes, but mostly because they are such a luscious golden color it will bring back memories of warmer summer days.  Until they hit your tongue--then all you will think about is how you can hoard the stack in the center of the table all for you, only you.

Ingredients?  Feel free to use frozen or fresh corn kernels in the batter--just make sure you cook them first.  Actually, I'm not sure why I add the corn kernels at the very end instead of with the other wet ingredients--but I do and it seems to work all right so why mess with it?

And the best thing you can do, if you really want to know, is top these with real maple syrup and a sprinkling of grated cotija cheese. This is how they serve them up at Maria's Cafe, a Colombian breakfast joint here and the inspiration for this recipe.  The dry and salty flavor of Cotija perfectly complements the tender sweetness of these cakes and makes your breakfast transcendant.  Or, just really, really good.  

Happy breakfasting.

DOWNLOAD SWEET CORN CAKES RECIPE