The Ghost of Halloween posts past: Gummy Candy Kabobs

This is a repost from last year, but I still love these Gummy Candy Kabobs so much that I don't feel one bit bad sharing them again!

Dear friends, there are a few things you should know about me.
I love:
1. Candy
2. Festively colored candy that matches the upcoming holiday
3. Gummy candy
4. Food on a stick

So when I opened up the 2010 October Better Homes & Gardens magazine and saw this page, I about passed out. (I can't save the photo to show here and my scanner's on the blink, so click the link and go check it our for yourself. I'll wait!)

See what I mean? The gummy candy kabobs checked every box on my list up there, so I knew I had to make some for myself.

The best part for a candy freak like me was shopping for the candy, of course.

Sources: Wal-Mart for the orange slices, caterpillars, and peach rings, Target for all other candy. Blackberries and sour jelly pumpkins from bulk bins in Target candy aisle. Lollies and pretzel bags from Michael's. Not shown: Peeps ghosts, also from Target. (I tried to stay away from black licorice-flavored candies which made finding black treats a lot trickier.)

Some tips:

• If you use the pretzel bags, keep in mind how low you can push the bottom candy and still have it fit in the bag.
• Spray the skewers with non-stick cooking spray first; it helps the candy slide a bit easier
• Gummies with a layer of white marshmallow on the bottom (rings, frogs, caterpillars) are tougher to poke through. The worms were easier.
• The licorice I used was the Australian-style, which comes in all kinds of flavors (and hence, colors)
• For the top gummy, only poke the skewer halfway through so the pointy end doesn't come out the top.
• Peeps ghosts were darling on the skewers but just a smidge too wide for the pretzel bags to fit over easily, so it was a struggle to get them bagged neatly.

Aren't they cute? The bright colors and shapes are so fun and festive. Maren helped me pick out the candy for each skewer but she was a bit too young to make the kabobs herself. I would recommend this project for kids a bit older who a) have stronger hands and b) won't stab themselves accidentally with the skewer. Maren did help in checking the candies for freshness and quality by sampling them liberally.

When I was waiting in the checkout line to buy the pretzel bags at Michael's, I noticed these lollipops with long skinny plastic sticks and thought perhaps I could make candy kabobs on those as well. They were only 39¢ each so I grabbed three to give it a try. They actually worked really well because the candy slid easily over the slick plastic stick, and they already have the cute lollipop at the top. The ends aren't sharp, so for some of the tougher candies I poked a starter hole with a skewer.

Gummy candy kabobs would make a cute centerpiece for a party! For my photos I poked mine into a piece of floral foam in a crock that totally doesn't match--I was in a hurry and it already had the foam inside, so I grabbed it--but if I were doing it for a real party, I'd use a cuter container and hide the top of the floral foam under a layer of something like crinkled shredded paper. The BHG article suggests using a vase with jelly beans to anchor the skewers. The lollipop kabobs didn't work well for this application because after a little while the plastic sticks bent and they splayed out to the sides of the arrangement.

I'm kind of obsessed with this idea now and I want to make gummy candy kabobs for every occasion! Gummy and chewy candies are available in all sorts of colors, flavors and shapes and they make those Peeps for just about every holiday now. I'm having visions of an arrangement of skewers made solely of those great big gumdrops (last year's gumdrop craft) and I'm obsessed with the idea of making rainbow kabobs with a giant marshmallow at the bottom to act as the cloud. I have no occasion to make them for but I just think they'd be so pretty!

What occasion would you make gummy candy kabobs for? What kind of gummy or chewy candy is your favorite? Would it be wrong of me to plan an entire party around my rainbow gummy kabob idea? ;)

Activity Days Recognition Night: Bloom Where You're Planted

(Note: I'm posting in depth about this event because I Googled for Recognition Night ideas and found almost nothing. I know others will search for the same thing, so I hope this can be helpful!)

In my church, I have the opportunity to work with the 8-9 year old girls in a program called Activity Days. We meet twice a month for an hour each time and the girls get to learn all kinds of fun new things. I absolutely love it! Turns out I like an awful lot of the same things that eight- and nine-year-old girls do. (Exhibit A)

 Once a year we are supposed to hold a Recognition Night. The other leaders and I chose the theme "Bloom Where You're Planted," a lesson that's definitely important for girls of that age to learn.

For centerpieces on our round tables, I used all of my colorful vintage flower pots, with the dirt + dead plants replaced by floral foam. The girls helped make paper lollies that looked like flowers. They were truly easy enough for 8-year-olds to manage successfully (although the adults manned the glue guns). We poked the dowel 'stems' of the flowers into the foam, then hid the top with a handful of that shredded paper gift filler stuff in bright colors. The tables themselves were covered with round white cloths, then we used my collection of vintage floral tablecloths to add some color! Each flowerpot was also placed atop one of my bright-colored vintage doilies that belonged to my dear Gram.

The tables looked so cute and colorful and really brightened up our seriously drab gym/cultural hall. I waited until scrapbook paper was 6/$1 at Michael's so this was a very inexpensive decoration, as you can get two flowers from each sheet of paper. That means it took only 13.5 sheets of paper to make our 27 flowers! In addition to the paper, I used one package of floral foam bricks, and two packages of 3/16" dowels.

For the refreshments, the other leaders made cute cupcake toppers by rolling out jellied fruit slices (you could also use large gumdrops, which we couldn't find) and cutting them with flower-shaped cookie cutters. I wasn't able to help make them, but the girl in charge assured me it's a really easy project and the results are so cute! We used my collection of cake plates and a few silver trays to display the cupcakes.

A few weeks ahead of time, we requested that the parents give us a baby picture of each girl. I used my Cricut and more 6/$1 scrapbook paper and cut large flowers, then used photo corners to adhere the pictures to each one (that way the photos could be returned undamaged.) Each flower was numbered and the girls and parents could guess which baby picture belonged to which girl. We also asked the parents to prepare a SHORT (1.5 minute) thing to say about a way their daughter has bloomed where she has been planted.

For our program, we first had the Primary President give a few short remarks about what it means to bloom where you're planted. Next, we called the girls and their parents up one by one by plucking one of the baby pictures from the wall. The parent gave their remarks, and then we applauded each girl and gave her a necklace. The necklaces were made of metal flower charms strung on white satin ribbon. After we heard about half of the girls, we sang the song "Little Purple Pansies" from the Children's Songbook. The lyrics are absolutely perfect for the theme of blooming where you're planted, and also importantly, the song is SHORT! We then heard about the other half of the girls (we have 22 total so it was necessary to split them up), and then the Bishop closed the meeting with a few remarks of his own.

We gave the girls the opportunity to bring a few items to display on tables in the back of the room. Most participated and it was fun to learn more about each one by seeing what they'd brought to represent themselves. We also invited all of the girls to take home one of the paper flowers and they all posed for a group photo that we can display next year at Recognition Night!

I think the event went really well. The parents and girls seemed to enjoy themselves. It was so great to hear the parents speak publicly about their daughters' good qualities, and I hope the girls remember that! I loved how the decorations looked, and I'm always thrilled when I get the chance to use some of my vintage collections for an event like this because then I totally feel justified in having them. :D

Family tradition: Pumpkin Farm

This weekend we went to a local pumpkin farm for their annual Market Days, the third year in a row for this tradition. This is the first year that The Mister has been home for this particular weekend and it was fun to be able to share it with him. As I was downloading my photos, I thought it might be fun to compare pictures from the previous two visits and see how much my kids have changed in three short years!

In 2009, our first visit, Porter was just two weeks old. The Mister had to go out of town so my Mom came to visit for the weekend so I wouldn't be alone. I can't believe tiny newborn Porter!

In 2010, The Mister was out of town again, so I loaded up the kids and took them by myself. It was a little tricky but I was so glad I went.

This year it was so great to have The Mister be able to join us. There's no way I could have pushed a stroller and a wheelbarrow by myself!

One of Maren's favorite things at the pumpkin farm is the swing that is hung in the branches of the giant old trees. This year the swing was the first thing she wanted to do!

2009

2010

2011

Another favorite activity is the barrel train. The first year, Porter was a newborn so obviously he didn't go. In 2010, he was just barely 1 year old so he had to ride with Big Sister in her barrel. This year, he was big enough to ride alone and he LOVED it! He kept asking to ride again. He's obsessed with trains and pretty much anything on wheels right now, so it was right up his alley.

2009

2010

2010

2011

This particular farm has a huge pick-your-own pumpkin field, but they usually have a whole bunch they've already picked available near the barn. This year we went on the second day of the festival and all of the pre-picked pumpkins were gone, so we had to grab a wheelbarrow and venture into the field on our own. Porter used his brute strength and managed to carry his own pumpkin all the way to the wheelbarrow.

The pumpkin farm has a lot of really great Fall photo ops. In 2009, Maren had this beautiful outfit from Gymboree that was the perfect colors and we got some really fantastic photos of her.

2009

Last year, she wore her sparkly Halloween shirt and pants with a festive hairbow. I even found a darling onesie for Porter that had tractors and cornstalks, perfect for photos near the big tractor.

2010

2010

This year, I was totally unprepared in the outfit department. I haven't found cute Halloween shirts yet for Maren or Porter, Gymboree's clothes are all the wrong colors, and my laundry pile is huge so half of their clothes were dirty anyway. Add that to the fact that it was easily 85 degrees and intensely sunny, so long-sleeved shirts and sweaters were totally out of the question! Maren ended up in a white t-shirt with one of my orange flower pins for a bit of festive color, and Porter wore a navy and white striped shirt with an orange shark on the bottom.

I made a crucial error by not taking posed photos as soon as we got there, when everyone was still fresh and excited. By the end of the afternoon we were all super-sweaty and tired and thirsty and the kids weren't in the mood to cooperate, so we didn't get any cute photos on the haybales or with the piles of pumpkins this year.  Next year I'll be more prepared!

Do you have any Autumn traditions?

Halloween platters 2011

I mentioned in Monday's Junk Finds post that I did something fun and Halloweeny with the Fire King peach lustre bowl that I bought at the thrift store.

Fire King peach lustre spider bowl

And here it is! I knew when I saw it that the orange color would be perfect for Halloween crafting. I spookified it with a big black spider. Although I'm always on the lookout for Fire King dishes, I've never collected peach lustre because it didn't fit in with my color scheme. Now I see how perfect it is for Halloween decorating, so I might just give it a second look!

Trick or Treat antique plate

The mark on this amazing ironstone plate gives it a manufacture date from sometime between 1867 and 1878! It has some really great crazing and staining that definitely adds to the distressed, spooky look.

Yellow moon with bats platter

When I found this vintage yellow platter, I realized it looked just like a big golden full moon, so of course I had to add some bats flying across. I love how it turned out!

Happy Halloween large oval Coronet platter

I think this is my favorite of this year's Halloween plates. This gorgeous platter is from the Coronet line by Homer Laughlin, which was produced in the mid-1930s. The Coronet line had all of the same forms, but there were dozens and dozens of different versions based on the way the design was painted. This platter is unpainted, and it was the absolute perfect size for the Happy Halloween image! It's huge and heavy and a great statement piece. I absolutely love it.

Orange crow or raven platter

This platter is not necessarily vintage, but the terra cotta orange color made it perfect for Halloween, and the big crow was just the right size for it! I added a red jewel for his eye, just for fun.

These three plates are from my 2010 collection and are still available:

Spider silhouette plate

Spooky spider plate

Pair of spiders square plate

All of these are available right now in my Etsy shop!

Pinned it & Made it: Doughnut hole acorns

I, like many of you, have become smitten with Pinterest over the past few months (37 weeks, to be precise) I've been using it. Tonight, Becky at The Fab Miss B posted something that really encapsulated what I love about Pinterest. She discussed this quote from Thomas Jefferson:

"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself, without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me." 

 

Becky then went on to say this:  

"And to push this concept further, I would say one should never be stingy with what one knows, or with creative power, or even with love. Because none of these things is made stronger by holding on to them. Instead, they are strengthened with use and consistent practice. Knowledge, creativity, and love all grow stronger by being shared from person to person, until the whole world is ablaze with them."

 I absolutely agree with Becky! I love that there is a spirit of sharing on Pinterest. I absolutely believe that it's important to link back to the original source if possible, so that the originator of an idea gets the credit for their creation. But I'm thankful for Pinterest and for blogs in general where people are willing to share ideas and even go so far as to make tutorials so you can copy the ideas yourself.

 

That being said, I wanted to share something that I made from one of my pins. I Pinned this darling idea for doughnut hole acorns way back in July and just waited for Fall to come so I could actually make them. Since Friday was the first official day of Fall, I decided I had waited long enough and promptly went out and bought the ingredients. If we're being totally honest here, I really just wanted an excuse to buy doughnut holes. I love those darn things but I cannot control myself around them so I just don't buy them unless I have a specific idea in mind and a place to take them so they're not just sitting on my counter, tempting me with their evil fried sugary goodness.

 

They couldn't be easier, and Maren helped me. We used two bags of glazed doughnut holes, a can of chocolate frosting (I know the original instructions call for Nutella but I thought it would be too sticky), two 1.75 oz jars of sprinkles, and a handful of broken pretzel sticks. We found two different kinds of sprinkles in the baking aisle at the grocery store: chocolate and gold. The gold are actually chocolate dusted with slightly metallic gold powder for a sort of bronze or antique gold color, not a bright shiny gold. Those were my favorite, and I do like the look of the two different colors together. I was thrilled that the people at the gathering I took these to all knew that they were supposed to be acorns! My platter was empty at the end of the night, so I assume that people liked them.

 

I'm hoping to make Pinned it & Made it at least a semi-regular feature on my blog. Have you made or done anything that you Pinned? Do tell!

Weekend junk finds

You know, I didn't mean to skip blogging last week, but it just kept on getting pushed further and further down the to-do list that I finally gave up. I've been working hard every day and falling in bed exhausted every night, and it hasn't helped that Porter has had a lousy week in the sleeping-through-the-night department. I'm hoping this week will be better, although I still have plenty to do.
 

I've been doing some fun Halloween crafting and hope to get it done soon so that I can 1) clean it off my kitchen counters before it gets ruined by someone spilling a glass of juice on it and 2) have something to show you all! In the meantime, I have a few photos to share of some things I've thrifted recently.

This Fire King peach lustre bowl and aqua cake plate came from a thrift store I visited in Utah back in August. I did something fun and Halloweeny with the bowl that I'll share later this week. I bought the cake plate intending to resell it, but I love it too much! I just used it tonight, in fact, for another fun craft I'll share later.

This trio of glasses also came from the thrift in Utah, a chain called Deseret Industries. DI stores seem to get picked over really quickly but their prices are generally lower than any of the thrifts here in Colorado so if you're lucky enough to be there at just the right time you can find some inexpensive treasures. I was tickled to find these CatStudio geography glasses for $1 apiece, especially since I'd just seen some for full price a few weeks earlier at the gift shop of the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington D.C.

I found this milk glass sugar bowl last week at the thrift store. I've seen plenty of orphaned creamers in my thrifting, but never one like this. I love that it looks like a little trophy! I bought this one with a Christmas craft project in mind but I like it so much that I might just leave it unadorned.

I bought this tablecloth at a garage sale I screeched into while we were on the way to Maren's soccer game last weekend. We were out in a very rural area so I hoped maybe the garage sale was being held at a fabulous old farmhouse where they were selling all of the old stuff I love for pennies. Well, not exactly--but I did get the vintage tablecloth for $3! It was actually on a table under the items for sale, but when I asked the owner if she'd sell it, she remarked that her grandmother had given her a stack of tablecloths and she'd take $2 for it. ~ack!~ I asked if she was interested in selling the others, but she declined, and I actually felt guilty that she was selling me her grandma's tablecloth for 2 bucks, so I gave her an extra dollar. She probably thought I was a nutcase to be giving her more than she asked for.

This delicious old green stoneware bowl came from the thrift store just a few days ago. It's unmarked, but I can tell it has some good age by the amount of wear inside. It does have a crack running down one side but I plan to keep this for my own use and enjoyment, and it's barely visible so I don't mind. Plus it cost me the grand total of 75¢ so if it breaks one of these days, I'll be sad but not out much money!

This last item I bought from Etsy, but it fits in with the rest of the good old junk in this post. With the change in the seasons, I'm moving from my nautical obsession into a plaid obsession. I saw this darling little vintage Ohio Art plaid lunch tin and snapped it right up! It also came with a tall vintage plaid Thermos (a collection I'm doing my very best to try to avoid starting because I know I'll fall hard and fall fast and WHERE am I going to display a bunch of Thermoses?) It reminds me of the larger printed metal picnic baskets, but it's a much smaller version, and little things are automatically cute, right?

Did you find any good junk this weekend? I'm linking up with Thrift Share Monday over at Apron Thrift Girl!

The weather's beautiful, Wish you were here

A few days ago, I posted what are undoubtedly the strangest items yet to find their way to my Etsy shop:

Vintage dead duck postcards

Vintage dead deer postcards

You know, normally postcards feature glossy photos of attractive local sights, inviting resorts, or beautiful views. Rarely do you find postcards featuring Dead Animals and the People Who Killed Them. It might make sense if I'd found these in some hunting lodge in Minnesota, but they came from a drugstore in a small Midwestern town. Back in 2005, I bought a vintage wooden card display from a drugstore in Missouri, and its contents included boxes of vintage wrapping paper, greeting cards, and these bizarre postcards. I've held onto them for 6 years now and finally decided it was time to let them go to someone who can appreciate their...um...uniqueness.

So, if you're in the market for some Dead Animal postcards, you know where to find them. While you're there, check out the other new stuff I've listed lately! There's some cool vintage wrapping paper that also came with that card display, but is slightly different in that it features no slain furry woodland creatures. If you like that kind of boring thing.

Powder room Re-do

Since this Spring, I've been working on an ongoing redecoration of pretty much the entire first floor of my house: the front room, living room, and office have all seen work, and I've got a few ideas rolling around for the kitchen as well. I've shown a few bits and pieces here on my blog but not any completed rooms because, well, I work very slowly when it comes to redecorating and I don't feel like anything is finished yet! Someday, right?


In the middle of all of that, I realized that the powder room that sits off of my front room needed a little makeover to match the new colors I've been using. The main walls in my living room are deep red and in my living room they were navy. The red walls have stayed, but you might remember that I painted the family room aqua. I also painted a yard sale dresser that sits in the front room a similar aqua, so I wanted to bring the aqua into my powder room as well so that all of the rooms on my main floor flow together color-wise.

Previously, I had a red & navy thing going in the powder room. I didn't think to take any Before pictures, but on the walls I had a delftware plate (brought back by my mom from St. Maarten, I believe) and a navy-painted frame containing pressed, dried sunflowers. The throw rug was a pattern of squares in red, yellow, green, brown and blue, bordered in navy. The previous owners of this house used a nice framed mirror and a pretty light fixture and the paint color is a neutral, so all I needed to do for this update was replace the rug and wall art. I looked and looked for a rug in the colors I wanted (red, brown, aqua and maybe green) with no luck. I finally found this rug at Ross for $10 and called it good.

I'm not completely in love with it because I'd really hoped to find something that brought in the red, but it was cheap enough that if I find something I like better I don't feel bad replacing it.

For the walls, I simply shopped my basement! This is where being a demi-Hoarder totally works to my advantage. :) Once I had collected the items I wanted to use, I traced them all on newspaper and used painters tape to arrange them on the walls. My walls are orange peel textured and therefore it's a pain in the booty to fill nail holes, so I try to keep extras to a minimum.

I labeled each piece so that I would remember what was going to be hung there. I measured the hanger on the back of each item and marked it on the newspaper, then drove the nail right through the paper and tore it away. It worked out perfectly! No measuring, no guessing. Here's the finished arrangement:

I didn't originally include that square frame with the G, but once I got everything up there it felt a little droopy to me and I wanted to balance the piece of molding that hung down with something that stuck up a little. I rummaged around in the basement and found the square frame, which was originally a) a tabletop frame and b) painted pink. I ripped the easel off the back, glued on a sawtooth hanger, and painted the wood using a combination of Heirloom White spray paint, aqua acrylic craft paint, and burnt umber acrylic for distressing. Here are the other things on the wall:

and

Don't forget that you can click on the pictures to get a larger view! The only thing I actually purchased for this project was the aqua plate with the brown pattern, which I LOVE! It was less than $1 and I don't think I even bothered to wipe off the price marking on the back. It was fun to finally find a use for all of these things that I loved, but were just gathering dust on my shelves. One other item that is not shown is a large aqua plate that I purchased in Target's $1 Spot several years ago; that's on the opposite wall with the light switch.


I purchased a few new hand towels from the Better Homes & Gardens line at Wal-Mart (this one and this one) and they're just the perfect colors for the room! I'm happy with how the whole thing turned out. I get to enjoy some of my fun finds and the colors of the room flow with the rest of the house. And it's a room that is actually done, which is more than I can say for the rest of the house!