Junie Moon: October 2009

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween—my favorite holiday of the year! Our treats are ready to give to the costumed characters visiting us this evening. Tonight is also when many folks adjust their clocks for daylight savings time. I think we can call this the witching hour this year.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

This is our huge pumpkin basket we fill with the treats we’re handing out. We bought the basket about 10 years ago at some store in Tucson which I can no longer remember.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Just like last year, I’ve decorated little muslin bags by stamping different Halloween designs on them. Candy treats are tucked into each bag.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

The basket is stuffed, but we have many, many extras in case the basket empties too soon.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Each year I try a different Halloween cake. This year it’s the Over the Moon cake from the October 2009 issue of Country Living magazine (page 68). The instructions call for making black bat cookies as decorative elements.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Since I had to dig out my bat cookie cutter, I thought I’d go ahead and make a simple drawstring bag to store my Halloween cookie cutters.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

The end result is a hauntingly-festive dessert to offer my sister Connie and her husband Jim when they come for dinner tonight.

Have a boo-ful Halloween!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Blessings Friday

As always, I greatly appreciate the comments you leave for me. Thank you, Michele, Clarice, Pat, Kim, Kristie, and Rohanknitter for your kind comments about the Halloween pillow I posted yesterday—you are all so very encouraging! And thank you, Winding Ways (no link was left), for letting me know I’d inadvertently misspelled Crabapple Hill Studio’s name yesterday. You didn’t mention whether or not you like the pillow I labored on so intensively, but I hope you do. I corrected the spelling this morning.

Volkssporting

After finally managing to make it to walking 3 miles early in the mornings, the time came to try something more challenging. I joined the Tucson Volkssport Walking Klub, parented by the American Volkssport Association (AVA) which, in turn, is part of the Internationaler Volkssport Verband (IVV) headquartered in Germany.

IVV’s purpose is to promote noncompetitive popular sports events, such as biking, skiing, snowshoeing, swimming, and walking. Trail routes are always interesting, some have literary associations, most are historical, and all are fun.

Source: Tucson Volkssport Walking Klub

Last Saturday was my first official 11K walk (was initially supposed to be 10K). I wended my way through The Pecan Farm in Sahuarita, AZ amidst about 110,000 trees covering 4,500 acres. It was so peaceful walking the paths between the heavily-laden trees which will be harvested in mid-to-late November through the end of January.

Here’s the patch I earned. This walk also qualifies for AVA's American Authors and Literary Landmarks Special Award Program as well as for the letter "S" for AVA's Walking the USA, A–Z Special Award Program.

Who knew trying to get healthier could be so much fun?

Special Gifts

On Wednesday I received a wonderful package from Sarah (Sassy Priscilla blog) and her son Aidan.

Inside was protective hand cream and Burt’s Bees lip shimmer—perfect for my walking kit. The Penzeys spices went into immediate use for my Halloween baking project (I’ll share tomorrow). And then there are the mermaids—I so love mermaids and Sarah managed to find lengths of mermaid-themed ribbon webbing.

Aidan created this gorgeous artwork thanking me for the U.S. Ranger Doll, U.S. Parks Passport, and candy I sent him. Isn’t this the sweetest thank-you package ever?

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Brunhilda's Midnight Ride

Brunhilda is ready for Halloween night. I finished a pillow featuring her late yesterday from a pattern created by Crabapple Hill Studio.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

My finished pillow is 12-inches wide and 45 inches in length, fitting just right on our small couch. You get to do all kinds of things with this whimsical project: draw (trace), embroider, piece, sew, and embellish with beads and fun trims. I love projects that engage me in multiple ways.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

I took the pillow outside to try to get pictures in a better light. Crabapple Hills Studio offers quite wonderful projects. I’ve made some of them before and always enjoy them.

An extra great thing about this pillow is that the outside case can be removed for washing. Now I’m thinking maybe a Christmas or other holiday design could be stitched and then simply insert the separate pillow I made out of muslin.

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The pattern calls for using Weeks Dye Works floss; however, my local cross-stitching store closed months ago and this floss isn’t carried at Jo-Ann’s. So I substituted DMC to approximate the colors as best I could: DMC 3852 instead of Weeks’ Marigold #2225, DMC 3776 instead of Weeks’ Pumpkin #2228, and DMC 413 instead of Weeks’ Kohl.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

The fabrics I chose match the floss colors pretty closely. The embroidered is worked on a cream fabric. Instead of a bright orange, I chose fabric with a bit of orangy-clay tones to it, the black is a subtle print which goes well with the witchy concept, and the third fabric has kohl-colored swirls which seems like Halloween night to me.

Brunhilda is ready for Halloween night’s merry mischief.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Make Easy Jack O’Lantern Treats

When my siblings, cousins, and I were wee children, my grandmother made us simple little treats using pieces of leftover dough on her pie baking days. She’d cut the dough into strips and sprinkle them with cinnamon before baking them. The fragrance coming out of Grandma’s oven made us drool in anticipation.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Many years later when I had my own children, I discovered a similar trick perfect for Halloween—Jack O’Lantern treats made of flour tortillas and cinnamon sugar.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

All you need to make these treats are non-stick cooking spray, flour tortillas (in whatever size you wish), and cinnamon sugar.

With a sharp knife, cut out various Jack O’Lantern faces in the tortillas. Keep the tortillas covered with a damp cloth and just use one tortilla at a time.

Spray a skillet with Pam, heat the skillet on medium high, and plop in a tortilla. When the tortilla shell starts to bubble (this only takes a few seconds), quickly flip it over and repeat for the other side.

Lift it out and place on a plate, generously sprinkling cinnamon sugar on both sides.

Do the same for additional tortillas.

Eat ‘em up right away.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Paula and June's Most Excellent Adventure

Warning: Graphic intensive

Yesterday my friend Paula, her husband Sam, and I embarked on a Halloween adventure to Apple Annie's in Willcox, AZ. Our mission: seek the Great Pumpkin, wander through the corn maze, and gather a bounty of vegetables in the fields.

The first thing to do when embarking on an outing to Apple Annie’s is to stop by Stout’s Cider Mill at Exit 340 on I-10 for a taste of their cider and place your order for one of their humongous homemade apple pies for pickup after the Apple Annie’s excursion.

Then we were off to Apple Annie’s Orchard where we found apples and pumpkins, purchased apple cakes in the bakery, bought boxes of homemade fudge and cute pumpkin hats—don’t we look adorable? Yes, of course we do.

We bought Bolga Baskets made from elephant grass by farm families in Bolgatanga, Ghana, West Africa. Proceeds go back to the makers to supplement their unpredictable crop income.

The sunflowers are past their prime, but we did find a few still blooming.

Next was a short drive to Apple Annie's Produce & Pumpkin Farm. More pumpkins ensued, of course, but our prime purpose was to walk the Corn Maze and pick veggies in the fields. This is my first ever trip to a maze.

The maze is cut into 18 acres of corn and has over 6 miles of pathways, but clues lead you through. Paula and I were the only people in the maze, Sam stayed at the beginning in case we got lost and needed a search party. Here we’re giggling because they’re letting two directionally-challenged crazy women venture into the maze unsupervised.

Hey, guess what, Paula? There’s actually corn in this maze.

Do you think we need to carry some kernels to mark our way?

Which way do we go?

Sam was waiting at the exit to capture our exultant emergence as we skipped happily, thoroughly “amazed” not to be permanently lost.

Conquering the maze earned us a patch.

Next was a bit of picking in the fields, this is in the black-eye pea section. We came home with green beans as well as green tomatoes which I’m going to fry.

Did you know black-eye peas look like this, Paula? I’ve only ever seen them in a can.

We made a quick stop back at the wonderful Stout’s General Store to pick up our monster apple pies and our most excellent adventure was done. Thank you, Sam, for being our chauffer, photographer, and all-around good guy in putting up with us.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Make Halloween Cookie Mix Gifts

I don’t know why I do this, but I’ve stockpiled projects over the years instead of doing them right away. Maybe my brain worries I’ll run out of crafty ideas and such a backlog makes me feel better. Who knows? Suffice it to say there’s always something creative to do at my house.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

In 2005 I saw bagged Halloween cookie mixes in the stores and thought they’d make nice gifts. This is the original Make & Paint Vanilla Sugar Ghost Cookies kit I purchased. Along with the dry ingredients, it includes the recipe, instructions, and a ghost cookie cutter. I bought one kit and saved it as it dawned on me I could make my own, similar to the frugal gifts-in-a-jar projects you find on the Internet. The project is being implemented this year as Halloween treats for our neighbors.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Ghost cookie cutters found on sale were added to my stash. Then I discovered Halloween bandanas in the same fabric as used for the store-bought kit on clearance at JoAnn’s for $1 each after Halloween a couple of years ago. Last week the same bandanas were in stock and priced at $1.94, but any Halloween fabric will work.

Now all the packaging components are gathered, it’s time to make the cookie mix. Assemble and bag the following dry ingredients:

1½ cups powdered sugar
2½ cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Here are our finished gifts which we’ll deliver this week. This same project can be used for any holiday by merely changing the fabric, cookie cutter shape, and modifying the name of the cookies.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Blessings Friday: One Yard Wonders Soon to be Released

Guess what? Five days from now (Oct. 28), a new book is being released—a book to which I contributed: One-Yard Wonders: 101 Fabulous Fabric Projects. EDITED NOTE 11/4/09: I have four projects in the book.

Source: Amazon.com

This new resource is stuffed with ideas (including patterns and tutorials) on what to do with that treasured yard of fabric you bought just because you love it. Who doesn’t have such fabrics in their Sacred Stash Mountain?

Want to know who else has projects featured in the book? The ever-so fabulous Jessica of FinnyKnits is just one of the familiar names you’ll see. To find out the other creative contributors to the merriment, visit Facebook (I don’t do Facebook but admit it was fun to read the bit about myself).

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Spooktacular Magnets

Magnets are always fun to make any time of year. I’ve made a couple for Halloween.

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Kreinik’s glow-in-the dark embroidery floss makes these magnets a bit extra special at night when you turn out the lights. We took them outside last night to try to capture their glow. How fun to walk in the kitchen at night to get a drink and be greeted by Frankenstein or a witch glowing on the fridge.

TIP

Source: Amazon.com

It occurred to me you can also make magnets for other holidays or themes by emulating the process in Kreinik’s Spooktacular Magnets project and using small cross-stitch patterns found in such books as this one I have in my collection: Better Homes and Gardens 2001 Cross Stitch Designs: The Essential Reference Book (Better Homes & Gardens Crafts)