Laura Irrgang

What Does Your Favorite Candy Say About You?

Well...what's YOUR favorite? (click for a bigger image)

Inktober Day 2-9

#Inktober Day 2-Goblin

Halloween tune of the day:

"Wobblin' Goblin" by Rosemary Clooney
#Inktober Day 3-Vampire

Halloween tune of the day:
"Riboflavin-flavored, Non-carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood" by Don Hinson 
#Inktober Day 4-Mothman

Halloween tune of the day"Mothman" Melissa Starfall (Link to song in the comments...That song is WACKY and not-kid-friendly! ) 
#Inktober Day 5-Grim Reaper

Halloween Tune of the Day:

"Don't Fear the Reaper/Cowbell Version" by Blue Oyster Cult 
#Inktober Day 6-Black Lagoon

Halloween Tune of the Day:

"Creature From the Black Lagoon" by Dave Edmunds

#Inktober Day 7-ectoplasm
(I made this one while camping, so I had to snap a quick photo at the campsite.)

Halloween tune of the day... "Ectoplasm" by Eptic
#Inktober Day 8-Alien
(Not the world's best lighting, but I was camping in the mountains on this day, so I did my best.)

Halloween tune of the day - "Purple People Eater"

 #Inktober Day 9-Ghoul

Halloween Tune of the Day-"Thriller" by Michael Jackson

 

 

Day 1-Werewolf (Inktober & Mabsdrawlloweenclub)

Inktober Day 1-Werewolf.....AAAaaaaoooOOOO!

(I'm thinking of including a song/video to go along with each image. Do you guys like that idea? I was going to create a whole playlist on Youtube to go along with this project.)
Today's song is "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon.

Inktober...who's with me?

Happy October, y'all!  I'm participating in #Inktober - you draw an ink image every day in October. They offer prompts for ideas, but you can make up your own.

I'm doing a mash-up of Inktober, & #mabsdrawlloweenclub on Instagram. Please join me!

Halloween's blowing in

Halloween's blowing in, and it finally feels like autumn is here! Which, in Texas, means that it's finally in the 80s. 

We have butterflies all around the pumpkins, and it's finally getting cool enough to open the windows at night. Is there anything better than a soft breeze and the sound of crickets, coyotes, and owls while you sleep?  

I'm spending a lot of time in the studio painting and drawing for a children's book illustration class. The Halloween Room is one of my favorite places in October. All those stripes make me happy.

When I start for the day, I'll go in, look up where all the stripes meet, and turn in a circle. It makes me dizzy, and that always makes me giggle a little. Sometimes I'll give the butterly/owl/bat mobile a gentle push and watch it sway. It's like the little creatures are saying hello and swishing some nice ideas towards my brain with their wings.

I usually decorate slowly for seasons...a thing here or there every few days.

Take something down, put something else up. It's a slow progression...kind of a quiet meditation on the seasons.

Trucks show up to pick up load after load of hay. The trees are starting to turn, but it's slow and subtle. I watch the leaves like a hawk, so I notice. It's not the fireworks you get in New England, but I'll take it.

I let the girls choose our costumes. We're the "Amazing Irrgang Bat Circus". They even have a little circus routine where they fly through the hoop and everything! Those kids.

 

 

I made that orange pillow last year and still get a little thrill when I see all those orange ruffles. It was the first time I'd tried singe-hemming...you can see how I did it here in this video.

Black Swallowtail

Gulf Fritillary, or Passion Butterfly

This is a cute litte guy. Anyone know what it is?

Some recent gnoshing...mussels with garlic, autumn beans over farro, and butternut squash soup with chives and sour cream.

Our elementary staff is awesome!

We really love our school-the teachers at our elementary are amazing.

Some of the staff let me "witchify" them for a Fall Carnival game.

Seriously...how cool is that?

It's fun to be around people with such a good of a sense of humor. 

 

Halloween Storytime Playlist

Here's a link to my Halloween Storytime Playlist over on YouTube.

I hope your little ghosts and goblins like the stories!

Halloween...already over!?!?

Halloween comes and goes so fast! Our calendar was crammed full this year. Parties, carnivals, costumes, and way too much candy.

Piper's class got to scoop out the insides of a pumpkin. I did that when I was little, too! The smell of pumpkin guts snaps me right back to kindergarten. 

We were a family of bunnies, and Adam was Farmer McGregor.

Uh oh...he got the littlest bunny!

 

When I woke up on Haloween, the girls had already dressed themselves for a (in their words) our special Halloween breakfast. That I got to cook for them. Ahem.

 

Pinata madness at a friend's party. We let the girls have all the candy they want on Halloween. It's one day a year.  Piper went kind of insane....she jumped up and down beside the trampoline-not on it-, bit her sister, peed in her pants, then cried when we took away the gummy worms. Ah, Halloween!

That sugar rush is real, y'all.

Guess who got sprayed by a skunk on Halloween morning? Mooskies, that's who. He's so ashamed he can't even look at the camera. After much shampoo and vinegar he's bearable. But just barely.

It was a cloudy, rainy night. The leaves were skittering across the pavement in the wind. 

Piper's class is so full of cuties I could squeal.

How was YOUR Halloween? Photos, please.

 

It's coming!

It's coming, you guys!

Are you ready?

P.S. I love every single thing about this photo.

Halloween tunes & project roundup

I'm trying to get in the Halloween mood so I can fire up my sewing machine and start making costumes.

Here's a playlist of spooky jazz and big band tunes on Youtube. That first song is crazy. My fave is number 3..."This October". You can't go wrong with Julie London.

 

"Shine on Harvest Moon" by The Dinning Sisters is pretty great, too. Those twins were so gorgeous, weren't they? I miss that old glamour. 

Give it a click and grab some cider or a pumpkin spice latte and meet me back here. Go ahead...I'll wait. 

I used to make a LOT of holiday decorations/toys/paintings. Then I had my two little ghouls and my production levels have dropped off considerably. When they're back in school full time I'll get to crackin' again, I'm sure. 

Here's a little recipe box I painted. I'm addicted to recycling stuff. What would I do without thrift stores?

There's a "secret" candy corn in the bottom.

Here's a small stand for a pumpkin or an extra-large cupcake.

Some silly appetizer pics.

A little cat doll on a swing.

This is a set of wooden salad bowls.

I liked their little metal pedestals. It makes your salads....fancier, I suppose. Because we all need fancier salads, right?

I took a fitted top and embroidered an orange owl with "Hoot hoot!" across the front.

Okay...now I'm in a Halloween mood.

Halloween thirty

It's Halloween thirty, you guys!

My children will NOT stick with one costume choice. Tell me someone else goes through the every year.

"Bunny! No...now I want to be a cowgirl. No, wait...a moth. I've changed my mind, Mama...I want to be an astronaut. No...a princess astronaut.  No, a deer. Wait-I was a deer last year."

I'm setting a cut-off point. Pick by the end of the week if you expect me to make it. Tres reasonable, yes?

My Halloween Party Part Two

Not like anyone cares about my Halloween shenanigans halfway through November, but I'm going to get these dang photos posted so it's not hanging over my head.

Beautiful Medusa descending the stairs.  In the reading nook underneath, there are oodles of fairies and butterflies floating overhead.  The girls love to nap and dream in there.  More photos soon.

Much revelry.

I really like this deep purple variety of morning glories...they're called "Grandpa Ott".

See the pretty purplish candy cane pucker they make when they close?

Bowling for Barbie.  Or Bratz.  Those dolls aren't good for much else.  It's satisfying to knock them over with a bowling ball.

Good old fashioned "bite the apple on a string".

That game is harder than it looks.

After years of starting seedlings, I finally got a moonflower to bloom.

The spinner board is covered with vintage beauties in costumes.  This is from a game I made called "Halloween Hullabaloo".

It's hard to explain this when people aren't playing, but you stand on either side of the pumpkins facing your partner.  You have a butterfly net, and toss 3 rubber bats to each other, trying to catch them.

My sloppy scoreboard.  Let's see, we played all sorts of stuff...darts, tic tac toe, mini golf, bowling, archery, vile vials, bat catch, ring toss, costume contest (my friend Laura the well-loved-doll won!), Halloween pictionary, movie guessing game, spider sumo wrestling (don't ask), broom races, and the rest is a blur.

My pogo stick.  What?  You don't have a Halloween pogo stick? Why not? 

 

Hear all the ladypeople cackling?

I'm going to eat that pie pumpkin soon. Mmmmmmm.

See all the paper bags on the table?  Those were my Tricks or Treats.  Throughout the evening, everyone got one trick and one treat.  If you were good, you got things like pumpkin scented lotion, or a small painting.  If not, well then.....a rock, a broken calculator, or a scorpion in a jar for you!

I set up a not-so-ambitious mini golf game.

 I'll have to put more thought into that next year.

 But hey...can I get points for the empty pumpkin can buried in the ground for the hole?

The Arabian Nights room, waiting for guests.  We finally hung all those lanterns!  More photos of that later, too.

Food. Because hey...it tastes good.

Adam was a love to grill chicken and shrimp and veggies and whip up margaritas.

We made rice bowls with black beans and a bunch of veggies.  And a sage-y pumpkin sausage soup that I could eat every day if someone else made it.

"Vile Vials" game...I filled a dozen beakers with a variety of smells, and you had to guess what was in them.  This one was hard, apparently!  The best score was 6 out of 12, by our resident soap maker, so she's used to sniffing stuff.  I had things like wintergreen, patchouli, lavender....I should have used vinegar, nail polish remover, motor oil, and nasty stuff.  Maybe next year.

I spray painted some tall candle holders black to make "pumpkin stands".  I need to repaint those red drums.  I just dread using industrial paint stripper to get the stuff off. It smells terrible, and will take your skin off if you're not careful.

Boy, that was fun.  Sniff!  Only three hundred and forty eight more days until next Halloween.

 

My Halloween Party Part One

A few photos from my Halloween party.  My friends do Bunco or GGN (Girly Game Night) once a month.  I hosted in October, and decided to throw a Halloween Carnival! 

Crows everywhere.

Crows on scissor tree.

Skeletons saying hello above the door.

I vant you to turn on the light.

Boo!

I was a pinata.

The main studio.

I made a vintage style game....Feed the Cat!

The squeaky rats to toss through the cat's mouth.

No surface left un-falled.

Poor shivering Mooskies.

My flowers finally bloomed just before my party---whew.

 I made the garlands.  I'll put up a tutorial soon.

Autumn sunflowers.

 I love being outside this time of year. 

I even painted the watering can.

 Pennants blowing in the breeze.

 Brooms ready for Broom Races!  Note to self...those are dangerous.

A "training broom".

My Fiesta Room, full of sewing and gift wrapping stuff.

A peek into the Halloween Room.

We had great weather-I'm so relieved.

Pumpkin vines creeping all the way up to the porch.

Time for the guests to arrive!

More caramel apples

And always, always...caramel apples!

I like apples on the smaller side.

 

I like them with real sticks. Seems more...haunted poison witch apple. Ish.

Sprinkle with sea salt...mmmmm.

 

I will totally lick a plate if there is caramel on it.  Sorry, Adam.

Those might not be bad with some chocolate drizzled on them, too.

Pumpkin Patch at the Dallas Arboretum

We dropped Violet off at the bus stop, then Piper and I headed out to Dallas. What a blazing sunrise to start the day!A quick stop at Michael's.

She likes the mirror aisle.  It's fun to watch her dance up and down it. Fun to me, anyway.  We probably just annoy everyone else.

Nana met us at the Pumpkin Patch.  We took Violet when she was little, so it was Piper's turn.

I have no idea why, but Piper loves to get into this position.  Sort of a downward dog yoga thing.  Strangers often applaud.

She announced this was the "potty pumpkin".  Ah, toilet training!

Hmm...I think I'll take this one.

Look at the big pumpkin "flowers" behind us!

There were soooo many pumpkins!

These pumpkin houses were amazing.

The insides of the houses depicted fairy tales and stories about pumpkins and fall.

Aren't these pumpkin houses amazing?

 

 Some of these pumpkins and gourds were huge.

 So many color variations.

I was impressed with these corn shuck horses pulling Cinderella's carriage.

 My little ham.  She picked that jacket out herself.  We were at a thrift store, and she saw the tuxedo jacket and said, "Ooooh....nice coat!"

 I sure love this baby.  The big baby, too.

On the bridge with Nana. 

 The petting zoo had goats...

 ..and bunnies...

 ...and donkeys.  And like Piper enjoyed pointing out, lots and lots of poo poo.

 Someone's getting sleepy.

 Piper was really excited about getting her face painted.

 She closed her eyes and was so still!  Did I tell you guys I used to do face painting?  I'd do parties and events dressed in fairy clothes...the Face Painting Fairy.  It was fun!  I loved seeing the little kids so happy.

'

So happy.

 She wished her lips were orange, though.

 It was a warm enough day to play in the frog fountains.

 The new children's garden is fabulous!  Just look at those mushrooms. Very Alice in Wonderland.

 

 A huge wooden ant?  Yes, please.

What a fun place.

 My favorite statue.  Of course.

She was flapping her wings like a bird.

I officially want these.

I'm a fan of over-sized sculptures.

Hello, little turtle!

We finished off the day at a greasy spoon cafe.  Piper had a double order of bacon.  Just like Daddy.

If you guys ever get the chance, don't pass up a visit to the Dallas Arboretum!  Check their website for discounts, too. 

 

Halloween Overload Part 1

Ready for some Halloween overload? 

I'm a little behind this year, but I'd rather be doing than blogging most of the time.  Especially if it involves my kiddos.

Violet wanted us to be a family of deer, so they are fawns and I'm Mother Deer. One of Violet's favorite games is to pretend I'm a mother deer and she's my fawn.  Her name is Honeysuckle, I'm Mother Deer, and we live in the woods.  OR...she's Violet, and I'm the deer who doesn't understand the ways of people.  Like...I'll ask why she doesn't eat grass, or I always forgot the word for "shoes", or I get confused about light switches.  She thinks that's hilarious.  

Violet has been friends with Brylee since they were two.  I'm so happy they're in the same kindergarten class!  Also-Piper's photo bombing cracks me up.

I'm glad I got to be her class room mother this year.  I made our carnival game..."Feed the Cat".  We had the kids throw those rubber squeaky rats through the cat's mouth.  We had a bunch of great parent volunteers from the class-thanks, other parents!  This is the lovely and very involved Shawna, mom of another sweet girl in Violet's class.

I am such a fan of carnival games.  Good ones, bad ones, hokey ones-I love 'em all!

Spinner games are fun!  I want to make one for myself.

This is a bit blurry, but I wanted to show the back of their costumes.  I love the little white spots.  I just painted them on with craft paint.  I made the ears with felt.  I took old Santa hats and dismantled them...the band became the cuffs and the ball on top became their tails.

 I dressed up, too, but we only have one shot of us together.  I was making a ridiculous face and having a major costume malfunction.  But darn it---I had on antlers! Getting sugared up kids to be still is nearly impossible, isn't it?

Spooky Plink-O!

I like the sound Plinko makes.

Violet and her friend Lily Rose...such cute flower names!

There were a bunch of Elsas!!!

Our friend Marcia made a lovely version for Violet.  She was so happy she held out the "prissy hand". 

Violet had trepidations about the "Nose Picker Game".

"What was that?" She was horrified when green silly string "snot" sprayed out on her hand.  "I do not ever want to play that game again."

The bouncy house made things better.

Bouncy fawns.  Poor Piper can't stay upright very long in the bounce house.

Violet kept lunging.  I have no idea why.  Maybe she thought she was getting on all fours like a deer?  She'd just suddenly bust out into a lunge all night.

Did you guys go to a carnival?  We're about to watch Charlie Brown-it's not Halloween without it!

Do you have a favorite Halloween special? Le snort.  Like they even have "specials" anymore.  You have to be fairly *cough* mature to even know what a "special" is. 

To me, it's not Halloween with It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

 

 

This is the Paul Lynde Halloween Special.  

I'm not sure who this Paul Lynde is, but he is something else.  He has that heavily made up, frantic, slightly fruity and smarmy air that men who hosted these things only seemed to have in the seventies. It features Margaret Hamilton in her only reprisal of the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz. And Betty White, KISS, and Danny & Marie Osmond.

Paranormal Texas by Tui Snider

Oh, boy! "Paranormal Texas" is out just in time for Halloween.  One of my favorite guidebook authors and all-around awesome person, Tui Snider, shares a knockout bunch of spooky sites in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

It's available here, so grab a copy for this haunting season.

I was intrigued by Arlington's Lost Cemetery of Infants. "A surprisingly cheery tale," says Tui. Go take a look at Tui's blog. 

Halloween Flurry

Hello Halloween pals!  It's a flurry of activity at my place...how about yours?  

I'm sewing costumes and painting everything that isn't nailed down with orange and black paint.  I think Adam's motorcycle would like nice in orange and black, don't you?  Maybe I should surprise him.  "Look, honey...it's from the Great Pumpkin!"

Autumn and Halloween Pinterest Boards

Anyone else addicted to Pinterest?  I thought so.

(Thanks to the Bad Joke Eel from Quickmeme.com)

I'm putting together some links to my autumn and Halloween-themed Pinterest boards here.  Grab a pumpkin spice latte or some apple cider, and sit down for some serious pinning!

(Click on the titles to go to the Pinterest Board.)

Halloween

Autumn Inspiration

Vintage Halloween Costumes

Autumn Fashion Ideas

Dia de los Muertos

Halloween Carnival

Family Halloween Costumes

Halloween Room

Fall and Halloween Stuff for Kids

Autumn Art

Studio Tour Part 2

Here are photos of the rest of the studio.

In the Halloween Room, we have a "love window" between my studio and Adam's shop.  Yes, we're annoying.  We set it up so that we can see each other all the way into the big white room.  It's nice to be working on something and be able to wave at each other or open the window to chat.

I tell you, painting that ceiling was something else. 

This is the door leading into the Arabian Nights room.  I designed the shape and Adam made it.  I love it! It makes me so happy to walk through that Moroccan arch.

It's hard to tell, but I did a different floor color in the Halloween room. It's more of a rusty coca-cola color and the other rooms are more greyish.

The hole in the wall is for a speaker.  They're in now, and painted the same shade of indigo so they blend in.  

In the above photo, I hadn't painted the duct yet, but it's done below.

 This will serve as our media/guest room.  We're hanging a bed from the ceiling from chains so it swings.  I have tons of lanterns I'm hanging from the ceiling, too.  I want it to look like an Arabian lantern shop. 

  

Okay...out of the little rooms and back to the stairs.  I'm thinking of putting a small couch under the stairs to make a reading nook for the girls.  And me, too.  I love to snuggle up in a little place and read.

 

 Up and up and up.

I stained the risers by hand. I tried to get them about the same shade as the floor.

Here's the loft.  I'm going to use it for a small gallery and as my office.  I finally got the floor right.  Did I tell you I had bubbles and a haze in my top coat?  I had to sand off half of the floor and start over. Drat.  It turned out how I wanted, though.

This was my Grandpa's organ.  Aren't the gothic arches pretty?

The view looking towards the stairs.

Looking down into the main studio area.

 That's it!  Now I have to finish moving in and kill all the spiders and scorpions. Let the creating commence!  

Post Halloween

Well, it's over for another year.  Not that we'll stop dressing up, but you know what I mean.

Violet wanted to be a black widow.

She was pleased.  I'm glad.

See Piper the owl?

Here are a few short trick or treating videos:

 

 

We'll miss you Halloween...see you next year!

Halloween withdrawal

Anyone else feeling a little sad that there are 362 days until next Halloween?

Don't forget to set your clocks back today.  Yay for an extra hour!  Isn't this an amazing astronomical clock located in Prague?

(image from 123RF Photos)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everybody! Here are some random spooky photos from our place.  Man, I'm going to miss October.  It's my favorite month.

Violet has been dressing up all week.  Ladybug, witch, princess, and tonight...a black widow!

Adam and Violet and I like to play a game of bocce ball some weekends while Piper Ruby watches from her blanket.

We stop to give her smooches between games.

Violet practices jumping.

Here's a sneak peek at the Halloween Room in my studio.  The plastic is finally coming down...yay!

Remember B.A. Barracus from The A Team? You silly man, Mister T.

Yes, well.  I've been looking at this haircut for a few days now.  The other cutie is the Fox from "What Does the Fox Say"?  Everyone keeps saying, "But what will he do with his hair on MONDAY?"

"Mama, Daddy looks funny."

That was one nerve wracking haircut.  I was terrified to screw it up.  One slip with clippers and B.A. Barracus looks like a clown. A very buff, scary clown.  Who is very mad about his hair.

I made his earrings, and we bought a bunch of gold lamp chain at Home Depot for his necklaces.

Yes, my baby is chewing on a naked doll.

I love these girls to the moon and back.

Awww...here's Violet at the same age (and outfit) Piper is now.  Why can't my babies just stay BABIES???

Abracadabra!  She's all growns up now.

"Hey, Mama...I'm going to take TWO jack o'lanterns to fill up with candy!"

Halloween hair.

Now that it's crisp and chilly, we like campfires.  Violet is making this terrible face because I said I couldn't find the marshmallows.  Don't worry, I found them.

I swear they enjoyed the campfire.  Piper looks suspicious, doesn't she?  I think she was wanting another hot dog.

We had our anniversary a few weeks ago, too.

I love you, Adam.  You're such a good husband, I don't even know where to start.

I hope you guys have a great Halloween!

A Fanciful Twist Halloween Tea Party

Vanessa (one of Violet's fairy godmothers) is throwing her annual Halloween Tea Party soon.  Stop by A Fanciful Twist for more info if you'd like to participate. 

Aunt Stephanie Doll

Aunt Stephanie has an October birthday, so I made a doll that looks like her.  Or as close as I could make it.

Like the Irrgang Household, Aunt Stephanie is also a Halloween enthusiast.

So...a batch of caramel apples seemed appropriate.

Mmm...caramel apples. Can't you just hear the crinkle of those wrappers?  That sound takes me right back to childhood.

 
Lace up your boots, ladies.  It's going to be a cold, creepy evening!

I made her dress out of some vintage lace I've been saving.  I also made her arms, legs, and head poseable.

It's past her birthday, since I didn't want to spoil her surprise, but...

we love you, Aunt Stephanie!  We're so glad you're in our family.  

P.S. If you're in our family and I haven't made a doll out of you, I love you, too.  I just haven't made a doll version of you. Yet.

Halloween Hair Goodies

Check out this box of pears from Bountiful Baskets.  Yum.

I whipped up some Halloween hair goodies.

For me-a yellow poppy with bats in the center.

For a friend's daughters...little bitty clips.

For Violet-a big spider bow.

 

 And a big huge spider for Baby Piper.

This was tasty and healthy-Autumn Chicken Stew-recipe here. Thanks to Dancingfox for the recipe. We liked a plop of sour cream and fresh parsley on top.  I love dinners where I can throw everything in the dutch oven.   I served it with wilted spinach and french bread.

Silk, smoothies, & spinners.

Happy happy, joy joy.  Five dollar thrift store orange silk chair.  Yes.

Isn't that a great color?

Pumpkin smoothies using Pioneer Woman's recipe.  So good.  So autumny.

I have a cheapo blender, so it's easier for me to take pumpkin pie in a can and freeze it first.

Everything is better with a squirt of whipped cream on top.

Piper loves them.

This is what happens when the smoothie is gone.

The tears dry up if she gets another slurp of my smoothie.

I found a Halloween phonics game.  It's like bingo, using the beginning and ending sounds of spooky words.

Give it a spin, Violet!

"Hey, Mama-ghost ends with the T sound!"

Terrifying vintage costumes you can't un-see

Yup.  They knew how to do it up right in yesteryear.  If by "right", you mean "slam the door and lock it tight". Check out these shudder-inducing costumes.

Thanks, Carol-you always send great creepiness to my inbox.

Letter B Sugar Free Jello Gummies

Violet's class is doing a letter per week, and show and tell at the end of the week.  Our day to bring a snack fell on "B Day".  

So we made sugar free Jello gummies!   

Then we arranged them in a big "B".  

Everything started wtih a "B".  Yes. Really driving that letter home.

Lucretia McEvil-Chita Rivera

Wow. I don't even know what to say about this:

 

Liberace Halloween

Weehoo!  Liberace flaming out to some Halloween goodness...have a listen:

 

October is here!!!

It is now officially "The Best Month".  Let the autumn revelries begin!

If you're into Pinterest, have a gander at my Autumn Inspiration board.

Or my Halloween board.  I'll share more soon, but that should get us started.  

I'm torn between posting posting posting and sitting on the porch with the babies and a view of the woods.  Babies and leaves win out any day. But I'll post when they nap.  Soon.  But the autumn air is calling me to open the windows, put on another pot of coffee, and listen to George Winston.  

 

P.S. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I'm saying extra thanks these days for friends and family with good health.  Lets remember how wonderful it is to have nothing wrong with our bodies.  Being healthy after being, well...not, is wonderful.  Just being...getting up with no worries...is so, so precious.  

2 Sentence Creepy Mini Stories

Eeee!  It's amazing how much creepiness you can squeeze into 2 sentences. Click here to see all 40 stories.

(image from retrotechngeneva.net.  And I love that this typewriter is called Hermes Baby.)

A few examples for you:

• They delivered the mannequins in bubble wrap. From the main room I begin to hear popping.
• I begin tucking him into bed and he tells me, “Daddy check for monsters under my bed.” I look underneath for his amusement and see him, another him, under the bed, staring back at me quivering and whispering, “Daddy there’s somebody on my bed.”
• Don’t be scared of the monsters, just look for them. Look to your left, to your right, under your bed, behind your dresser, in your closet but never look up, she hates being seen.

Carved panel for Halloween-Bat & Owl

Oooh...check out this 19th century French carved walnut panel with Owl and Bat.  It's starting on eBay at $4,200-way out of my price range.

It's large. Wouldn't that be gorgeous in a paneled library?

Look at the detail!

Spiderweb Balloons

Only 112 days until Halloween, people.

You have to start getting ready. Spiderweb balloon tutorial here.  Awesome.

Only 242 days until Halloween!

It's right around the corner. Not.

A girl can pretend though, can't she?  This is from Awkward Family Photos.  Man, I love that site.

This is genius:

(from Decorating Ideas Made Easy)

Take a gippy thrift store dollhouse, then spray paint it black.  Junk it up with spooky stuff.  Works for me.

Can I please have this?  Please?

And this too.

If I haven't already told y'all a million times, I'm going to have a Halloween Room in my studio.  I think about it constantly.  It will be one big Halloweenfest in there, all year long.  I want it right now. 

Starlings in Winter

"The birds, Mama---the birds...."

I was driving Violet to school today when we saw a huge flock of birds rise up beside the road in front of us.  They swooped and dipped and moved as this one huge mass.  It was this perfect greyish cloud that moved as one.  The birds were so tiny you couldn't focus on one at once.  They performed this perfect ballet of birdness.  Can you imagine being in that sort of cluster?  That bunch of beings so perfectly choreographed that everyone flies as one massive, central entity?  It was so beautiful.  Violet was even speechless. 

 

This video is so amazing. The best part starts at :23, so skip ahead if you're the impatient sort.   If your computer is slow, here is the YouTube link.

Here is a poem I love by Mary Oliver.  Thanks to Marty for introducing me to her poetry.

Starlings in Winter

by Mary Oliver

Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly

they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,

dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,

then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can't imagine

how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,

this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.
Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,

even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;

I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard, I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.

No, we didn't forget Piper!

Since a bunch of you asked---no! We didn't forget the baby.  She was simply not in a costume mood the day I took our Halloween photo.

Here she is before we went trick or treating.  She was very well insulated.

Caramel Apples

We're making caramel apples and getting ready for trick-or-treating.

Mmm.....caramel apples.  They just smell like Halloween, don't they?

I got a few darker colored flecks in my caramel, but they still taste good.  It makes them more authentic and rustic looking, right?  Right?

  I really liked today's Google Doodle--did you see it?

Happy Halloween!

"All for one and one for all!"

Happy Halloween from the Three Musketeers.  I mean...Irrgang Family.

Piper wants no part of a costume.  Can this child really be from my loins?  I hope it's just a phase. 

Send me a photo of your costumes and/or decorations-please!!!  I worked on costumes, but didn't really decorate this year.  Let me live vicariously through your house this year, ok?  I live for Halloween...please share.

May your jack o'lanterns be filled to the brim!

Preschool Halloween Party

I let Violet choose her own costume for her preschool's Halloween party, and I pick tomorrow's outfit.  She decided to be a ballerina-she's the one in white.  There was a tiara on her head earlier, but it has gone missing.

They played that fun spiderweb on the floor game.  The other parents do a fun job with food and decorating. We all take turns decorating and cooking for their parties. Thanks for all your hard work, moms!

This is Violet and one of her really sweet friends.  Boy, I got cruddy photos today.  Maybe one of the other parents got some better ones.

I have several costumes for the baby, but Piper was not having it.  So...simple pumpkin jammies it is.  She has developed these lovely rosy cheeks in the last few days.  Isn't that cute?  I hope it doesn't mean she's in the first stage of some awful pigeon poop sickness. (Just so you don't think I'm insane if you don't remember....there was an awful pigeon incident a few weeks ago.)

Autumn Food & Sugar Free Jello Halloween Gummies

We're making sugar-free gummy candy today.  It's super easy...just mix Jello and Knox unflavored gelatin with water, then pour it into molds.  I used this recipe from Spark People.

I've been collecting Halloween molds for years.  I think the spider webs are my favorite. 

We're giving little treat bags to all the kids in Violet's class at her Halloween party tomorrow.

Our grocery store had a whole bag of tiny red apples for .99 cents.  They'll be perfect for caramel apples. I like teeny tiny apples for them, don't you?

This last week at Bountiful Baskets, I got the Asian pack.  It had a head of napa cabbage, snow peas, bok choy, thai basil, a huge onion, green onions, celery, and garlic. Oh!  And those purple things are fresh water chestnuts.  I'd never had those before, so I was excited.  They're a lot like the canned type, but are a bit sweeter and crunchier.

I cut up all the veggies at once, then cooked two separate meals with them.

I made pho.  I know it's pronounced 'fuh', but I always want to say 'fow'.  I guess it's Faux Pho since I only used what I had on hand...including ramen noodles.

Adam and I decided this was The Absolute Worst Thing I've Made since we've been married.  I cook a lot, and I've racked up an impressive list of cooking failures.  Being the absolute worst is really saying something.  It was a garlic shrimp with veggies mess.  Just a big mess.

Roast beef, salad with pomegranates, bread, and acorn squash rings.  I thought the acorn squash was pretty this way, but it was too hard to eat because you had to get all the pulp out of those curly shapes.

Poached eggs, toast, spaghetti squash with cherry tomatoes and basil, and garlic soup with bleu cheese crouton.

Chicken and acorn squash cassoulet, spinach salad, bread.  We really liked the cassoulet, and it's really flexible.  You can use anything you have on hand and easily substitute other ingredients.

Steaks, baked potatoes, salad.

Northern beans simmered with Italian veggies, green beans.

Halloween Costume Hat Tutorial

So....I'm throwing together a hat for a Halloween costume, and it occurred to me that this hat could be made to fit a ton of themes. This cost less than $2.00.  I'll show you how I made it.

• pirate
• Shakespearean/Elizabethan costumes
• could fit many fairy tale themes
• period soldier
• Cyrano de Bergerac
• Three Musketeers
• Velasquez (the painter)
• Spanish officer
• colonial costumes

None of the hats I found at the store fit or looked quite right.  There were a few on the internet I liked, but they were all over $40, which seemed ridiculous for a Halloween costume.  Just so you know, I was going for something vaguely like this, but with a bigger brim:

Halloween Costume Hat Tutorial

Supplies:  witch hat with wire brim (I got mine from a dollar store), black fabric (I used an old tshirt), glue gun, scissors

1.  Cut off the tip of the witch hat.  If you want a taller brim on your hat, cut less off.  If you want it to fit closer to your head, cut more off. 

2.  This is how much I cut off.  My hat had an overlay of spiderweb fabric, so I cut that off the tip, too.

3.  Now I turned the hat inside out and glued the cut edge together.  Then I turned it right side out and tried it on.  I stood in front of a mirror and just squished it around until it looked right.  Pin it, put clothespins on it, whatever--just hold it into place, then sew or glue it how you want it.  I hot glued the fabric into a shape that was sort of rectangular. 

4.  (This sounds complicated but it's not....trace the outside oval/circle of the hat, giving yourself 2 extra inches, then do the same with the inside oval.) Place the hat on top of your t-shirt and trace about 2 inches outside the brim.  Trace the inside where the hat touches your head, too. Leave yourselves 2 inches on the inside of that part.  In the photo above, I didn't leave myself enough room on the inside circle, so I had to do it again with another shirt.

5.  Glue the t-shirt fabric to the underside of the hat. The whitish lines are my hot glue. Then cut off the excess along the edge of the brim.  (Tip...I found it helped to run a line of glue just inside the ribbon of the brim.)

6.  Following the same instructions in Step 5, glue the fabric to the top of the hat. Trim off the excess around the outside edge, and around the base of the head.

7.  Now embellish the sucker to your little heart's content. Add trim, ribbon, feathers, flowers, spangles...whatever.  The wire brim also allows you to bend the hat into any shape you want.

I'm working on our costumes again today.  (What we're going as is a secret, so there.  However, you're welcome to guess.)   Are you all in a Halloween frenzy?  If not...why aren't you?  It's Halloween thirty, people!

Candy Corn History & Production

Do you guys think that the different colored parts of candy corn have different flavors? I think the yellow part tastes the best.  Isn't that ridiculous?  I seriously think the colored parts taste different, though.  Do you???  After watching this, it seems like they're all made out of the same base, and only have added dyes.

Thanks to my friend Dusti for getting me interested in the makin's of candy corn. I'm munching on some right this very minute. 

 

Halloween Storytime

More Halloween stories for your little ghosts and goblins! 

"Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet" by Lisa Desimini

 

Violet thinks this one is so funny.  I suppose stinky feet are always a big hit with the preschool crowd.

"Los Gatos Black on Halloween" by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Yuyi Morales

 

The illustrations are so detailed and rich.  I love the rhythm of the book.  Forgive my butchering of la Español, por favor.

"The Insomniacs" by Karina Wolf, illustrated by the Brothers Hilts

 

This is my favorite of the bunch.  The illustrations are so witty and fun.  The text isn't condescending, and it pushes kids to learn new words.

"The Runaway Pumpkin" by Kevin Lewis, illustrated by S. D. Schindler

 

Halloween Recipe Roundup Ideas

I've done a Halloween Recipe Roundup for you guys.  I've tried to include ideas from appetizers to drinks to main courses to desserts.  If you try any of them, please let me know how they turned out! 

(It's from Queen of Halloween, but she didn't say where it came from.)

How awesome is this for a dinner party set-up?  Why can't we all just have a spare gothic manse for such occasions?  Why?

Drinks

1.  Put a blood drip on any drink from Hostess With the Mostess

2. Halloween Cocktails from Martha Stewart

3.  Candy Corn Martini from PinCurl (photo by Levi Brown)

4.  Halloween Margarita from Lime Tree Cove

Appetizers
1. Cheese Pumpkins from Betty Crocker

2.  Black Bean Cat Crudites from Spoonful

3.Roach Bites (made of dates) from Almost Vegan in Paradise

4.  Spidery 7-Layer Dip from Divine Dinner Party

Main Course 

1.Spooky Ghost Pizza from Chef Mom

2.Mummies in a Blanket from Holly Klein  (I know these are cocktail weiner size, but I say make them with refrigerated bread dough and full sized, quality sausages.  They'd be good!)

3.  Pasta from the Gourmet Mom

4.  Proscuitto Head from Woman's Day

Dessert

1.  Vampire Cupcakes from Sugadeaux

2.  Candy corn parfaits?  I can't find a link but dang it....just throw in some food coloring and mix up whatever flavors of pudding you want and some whipped cream

3.  Caramel Apple Draculas from Erica's Sweet Tooth (the link is down, but it's pretty self-explanatory, don't you think?

4.  Amazing Autumn Cake (that I have no hope of making---ever) from the Tulsa State Fair via the One Room Schoolhouse Crafts.

New Yorker Halloween Covers

Last year I featured some of my favorite Halloween covers from The New Yorker.  I wanted to share a few more this year.

(All images-obviously-from The New Yorker.)

1945

1963

1954

2011

1987

My favorite...1994.  Oooh...it's payback time!

Bert and Ernie Costume

This is just gross.

Sexy Bert and Ernie??? Gross, gross, gross. Not to mention creepy.

(costumes from Yandy)

Sexy Mrs. Potato Head?  What's wrong with people?  Now, I might have forgiven this costume if her purse was filled with features you could pop on and off.  I'll give you some slutty allowance points if you can back it up with creativity and originality.  But this?  Just icky.

(from foodANDfabulous)

I think I'm going to go as Sexy Paula Deen.

Halloween Meatball Mice

I think I know what we're having for Halloween dinner!

(photo by Lucy Schaeffer)

Rats cooked in blood recipe....from Kaboose.  Aren't they gross, but sort of cute?

"Working Mummies"-A Halloween Story read aloud for kids

Does your child like to hear the same story over and over and over?  Mine does.  So...here you go, Violet!

 

"Working Mummies" written by Joan Horton, illustrated by Drazen Kozjan

Music-"Ghost Dance" by Truett & George

(I looked at the publisher's site to try to find out whether or not it was all right to read this online.  There are tons of stories read aloud on YouTube, so I hope this is kosher.  If it's not, please let me know how to get permission or I'll remove the video.)

P.S. If any of you have kids, please let me know if they enjoyed this.  If they like it, I might do a series.