Bacon Marmalade

Presidents choice brand has just come out with it's fall/winter Insiders program and I was all over checking out the new products. The first on my must try list was the bacon marmalade.
Sounds odd? But remember.... everything tastes better with bacon!

:D

We're still making our whole wheat bread every couple of days and adding sunflower seeds and ground up pumpkin seeds to the flax and bran and wheat germ. I made a couple loaves yesterday to go with the homemade beef stew made from the Sunday roast leftovers. I spread the still warm from the oven bread with the bacon marmalade and dipped it into the stew..........

It was DELICIOUS!!!!!

You can taste the bacon right away and then there is the roasty onions, they make it almost sweet. There is also citrus but it's kind of in the background flavor wise. It has a marmalade texture. I'm thinking of melting it down and using it as a glaze on meaty tarts or roasts.

My new favorite condiment can be used on pretty much everything meaty. Definitely burgers and hot-dogs, but I'm thinking sandwiches will taste better with some of this smeared inside. Crackers and cheese........ added to macaroni casserole......

Where are you guys going to use it?

Halloween Night and Tid Bits of the Season.

Pretty much what happened this All Hallows Eve.
It was a great year!

Every year there is a skull pumpkin of some sort. I got to do this years.

Giant toothy grin Jack o lantern by Mom.

Maggs completed the Pirate Jack o lantern.
Yar!

The yard all decked out and lit up.

Mom and Sebastian chillin'.

A few years ago Mom spilled some spider glitter onto the sidewalk and the kids LOVED it. So we do it every year now. Probably not very good for the environment, but it sure is pretty in the glow of Jack o lanterns.

This is the test makeup. Done a couple days before we really needed to dress up.

and here is the actual makeup on Mr. Jimmy and I at the event.
Really can't wait till next year.
We're planning something extra special.
:)
Hope you had a great celebration too.

Graveyard Progress

Pumpkins have been all carved.
They waited patiently on the front stoop for a week.

We've had some pretty spectacular weather lately.
One day it snowed and the next day was shirt sleeve weather all day.

Mr. Jimmy came up with an ingenious new technique for cutting out the tombstones.
It sure was faster than my electric knife. Gave a pretty cool rustic edge to things. If you can't tell from the picture he's using a garden edger tool.



Things are definitely shaping up!
Not done yet but getting there.

:D

Making a Batch of Tombstones

We've been building a graveyard.

Mr. Jimmy brought home a bunch of very large packing foam sheets from work.
Maggs Mom and I went to work making tombstones.

First we carved out spooky shapes using my handy dandy electric knife my Bro got me.
Then we used craft knives to carve out details.
We even tried melting into the foam with a soldering iron.
We had loads of ventilation. We were outside and it was kind of breezy.

We used stone effects spray paint to lightly coat the stones.

We added detail with some white and black acrylic paint.

Here is a batty design.

And here is Maggs melting the foam into shape.
Can't wait to set this up!

Day of the Dead Halloween Nails in Acrylic.

This years Halloween nails.
Here is a link to the youtube video
I am always getting asked how I do my nails. I've made a few videos documenting exactly how so you can see how easy it is.

I used eyeshadow to tint the acrylic powder pink and yellow and green.
I'm thinking there are some much better choices out there than eyeshadow to add some colour.

I used acrylic liquid and powder to encapsulate the little sugar skull cane slices that I made using Fimo.


Here's a little sneak peek at this years Hallow e'en goodness.

What are you gonna be?

How to (Make) Pick a Mandrake Root and Live to Tell About It!

I made this little Mandrake root for a good friend. I'm assured that keeping a mandrake root on your living room mantle will keep away spirits and demons. It's also rumored that if you put money near your mandrake root overnight, your money will double itself. Place the mandrake root under your pillow and it will instantly make you irresistible to whoever cuddles up next to you.

Things you'll need to complete this project:

Fimo air for microwave
(I used what was left over from the horn and antler projects)
acrylic paints in earth tones
paint brushes
Clear glaze or varnish
microwaveable bowl with water
microwave
clear dome
Styrofoam to fit the bottom of the dome
fabric (I used burlap) to cover the styrofoam
Piece of black felt
Hot glue gun and glue
Moss and dried flowers to decorate

Sculpt the rooty shape of your dreams. I made mine look very human in shape. It has arm and leg off shoot roots and a roundish head with one leaf. Either air dry or microwave the piece according to the directions on the package. Mine was microwaved for five minutes with a microwaveable mug half full of water.

Let the piece cool and then base coat it in a yellow colour. I used nickel azo yellow but any mustard colour will do. Let the piece dry.



Give the piece a wash of dark brown paint thinned out with a retarding medium. Use a damp cloth to rub the brown paint off of the high points of the root. Make sure to leave enough brown in the crevices to give the piece some interesting depth. Allow the piece to dry. Dry brush some white paint onto the high points of the root to make them stand out. Let the root dry again.



Paint the eyes in brown and the mouth in a brick colour. Paint the leaf with different shades of green. I added some glaze to the eyes and mouth so they look a little bit wet.

Cut a piece of styrofoam to fit the bottom of your plastic dome. (I got my plastic dome from my brother...... not sure where he got them...... you can use a round shaped vase or a bell jar, or even a round glass turned on end from the thrift shop.) Cover the sides and top of the styrofoam disc with some burlap or coarse fabric. Stick it down well with the glue gun. Add a disc of felt to the bottom to cover the rough edges.

Glue the root to the top of the covered disc and add some moss to make him look comfy.
I added some moss and little dried flowers to his hand because I thought it made him look friendlier.

What do you think?
Shouldn't everyone have their very own Mandrake Root?

WINNER!

Congratulations Pat!!

and thanks everyone for entering.

I've already started to collect goodies for the next Giveaway.

Seeing Eye Earrings.

Here are the accompanying ear dangles to the seeing eye choker I did earlier this year.
I got loads of positive feedback form this creepy piece and decided it needed to be part of a set.

Things you'll need to complete this project:

Small amount of Fimo clay in a flesh colour of your choice
Basic sculpting tools
Pre- made eye about 4mm like this one or this one
Two 18mm x 13mm cabochon settings I got mine here
Acrylic paint in brown, pink, white
Mini paint brushes a liner, a mini mop and a deer foot
Clear varnish or clear polish
black felt
seed beads
small teardrop beads
beading thread and a needle
two earring backs and posts
E 6000 glue

Press a small amount of your choice of flesh coloured clay into each of the cavities in the cabochon settings.

Use a round end tool to push a depression the same size as the eyes you are using, into the center of each clay plate.



Put a thin worm of clay over and under each eye.

Use a smooth round tool to blend the worm clay into the surrounding face clay.

Use a ball tool or dotter to shape the eyelids and make a tear duct in each eye.
Bake the pieces at 230 degrees for 15 minutes and let them cool off.

Use a blush coloured acrylic paint to add some depth around the eye. I mixed some brown with my pink and and teeny deer foot brush to dry brush colour into the deeper parts of the sculpt.

Add a pink line to the inner edge of each eye lid and to the tear duct of each eye.

Add a brown liner to the outer edge of each eye both top and bottom. Use the deer foot brush to add some white paint to the inner top lid of each eye and a mini mop to add a hint of pink to each cheek bone and brow outer edge.

Drop a small bit of clear glaze or varnish into each eye to help it look wet. Let the piece dry before moving on to the next step.

Cut two pieces of black felt the same size as each piece. Thread the beading needle with matching thread.

Push the post of an earring through the center of each felt piece and add a daub of glue to the post back. Set the earring back and felt piece onto the backs of each eye setting. Let the glue dry before moving onto the next step.

With the threaded beading needle sew the felt piece onto the metal setting through the filigree edge.

Bring the needle through to the top of the piece near the edge of the eye and load on five seed beads. Sew back through the filigree and felt at the eye's edge and then back up through to the top of the piece near where the needle went down. add five more beads and continue with these steps until you have rimmed the eye in with beads.

Bring the needle out through the bottom edge center of the piece and load on seven seed beads and one teardrop bead. Put the needle back through the seed beads from tear drop bead side and then back through the felt at the bottom center where you came out of the piece originally.

Add two more seed bead tassels ending in tear drop beads to each side of the first. Make each strand smaller by two seed beads. The second strand will have five seed beads and the third will only have three. Knot your thread off well and add a dot of glue if necessary.

The backs should look pretty nice. Felt is great for hiding stitches if you use the same colour thread.

I love to finish my pieces this way with the felt back. It makes them look neater and they are more comfortable to wear.

Happy Hallow e'en!