a clever little "burrito"

This year, for the first time in many years, Target's Halloween decor was really, really fun and totally up my alley. It was, admittedly, just their usual style of cheap knock-off versions of other brands. I saw similar and much fancier versions of Target's owl line at Pottery Barn, but that still didn't keep me from buying Target's totally affordable and much more usable versions.





So, all of this to say, I was a little bit silly(imagine that) this year and bought a whole set of tiny owl cheese knives. I'd seen them when Target first put their Halloween decor out, but knew I didn't have even one more tiny hidey-hole to store them in once Halloween was over. Lucky for me, a few weeks later I realized that I could just use them for everyday, because that's the kind of girl I am. We do keep bats and a few Halloween decorations up all year round, so the little owl cheese knives would fit in just fine with our usual tiny bat-cave ambiance.

They come extra reflective so as to show off my fabulous forehead.

Once I'd acquired the adorable little critters, I needed to develop a safe(to them and me) way to store them, hence the little burrito style wrap. I sewed this up last night with some old felt squares that I have cluttering up my sewing boxes. It was very easy to sew, since it is all straight lines. I didn't bother to pull out my sewing machine for such a small project and so just hand stitched these simple stitches. I decided to put ribbon ties on both sides of the pouch so that I can tie it up from either side, depending on how the knives roll up together. I also made one extra pouch so that I can fit another knife if need be, or just use the extra space to help cushion the other knives.

A ribbon tie on the right side

A ribbon tie on the left side, too!

The truth is, despite all the totally fun toys I make, I actually love working on useful sewing projects; it makes me happy to know that I'm solving a problem with my abilities, limited abilities though they may be. 

Fancy little cheese knives!

hello! fall cheer

Just adding to my collection of cheery autumnal images for this year:



Apples? again? yes! you see, my extremely thoughtful and sweet neighbor brought these two little cuties down from Julian especially for me. He knows I love cute, little things.





Matthew's favorite halloween plate, since he loves crows. I use it for serving tiny snacks and such.


Seems as though it's the year for fall baskets. These are my very own darling gourds. I really did miss the last ones after I gave them away.



Last Halloween I made this little ghost fellow out of a sake bottle covering and some paper. Just a couple pieces of felt and some glue rounded out the entire project. He's pretty cute blowing around in the wind.

little cheese ghost

Many people may dislike Whole Foods because they charge too much and are a big corporate chain, but I have to say, I do shop there fairly often. Now, I don't do the majority of my shopping there(it's too expensive for that) but I do pick up a few things now and again and I just love browsing their gourmet food sections (I always find the best treats). The other day, I happened upon some little cheeses that were dressed up for Halloween. So cute. This little bit of goat cheese is dressed up as a Ghost and his little friend is dressed up as a tombstone. Very clever little costumes, I must say.



I haven't tried the tasty creatures yet, but I have no doubt that they will be delicious. That's another advantage to Whole Foods. Everything I buy there is very good and fresh and tasty- I never have to wonder if I've wasted my money buying something inedible, I simply have to worry that I've wasted my money buying something that I could have bought cheaper elsewhere.



Here is the little Ghost flying down the hallway to scare me(in broad day light, who does he think he's kidding?)



Okay, I'll admit, with four pictures that look nearly identical, how could I be so silly as to post all four photos? It was a very difficult decision, and it was only when all four little ghosts looked up at me with the most imploring little faces that just begged to be posted for all the world to see, I realized that I couldn't say no to any of them. So, they all get a little shining spot in the post, whether it was necessary or not.

Happy little Halloween creatures

I'm just posting photos of some of the cutest little Halloween truffles that we ordered for the store. They are actually almost totally sold out but I made sure to buy one of each before that happened.


The owl, of course, is my favorite. Such a goofy little fellow.


Frankenstein's monstrous creature


An utterly adorable blood sucking batty bat


A creepy little eye ball


A darling little pumpky


And, just to prove that people are afraid of big words, the Pfeffernusse spice acorn truffle. As soon as people hear the word, Pfeffernusse, they look frightened and say "oh, no, not that one." The problem being that it is ultra cute and delicious.

Little Flapper Girl

For the first time in 10 years, I didn't dress up as a pink fairy for Halloween. This year I decided to dress up as a little flapper girl instead. My costume turned out very well and everybody really liked it. It may be my new standard costume. How sad to replace the fairy costume, but it really is worn and old at this point. My wings are more a dull gray than the sparkley pink that they once were.


The costume idea came courtesy of my cousin, who bought the dress for me to wear at her wedding. As soon as I saw the dress I thought, "1920s...flapper...perfect halloween costume." Really, all the dresses she picked out were cute. They seemed to loosely represent different decades from the 20th century.



Halloween was fun, we passed out 1500 pieces of candy at work and all the children were so cute. I also made cinnamon cupcakes to pass out to the adults that work on our block. They really seemed to enjoy them. I certainly enjoyed making them and eating them as well.

Perhaps even more than in years past, Halloween felt like the last big hurrah! before the christmas season starts. Now it feels like the holiday ball is rolling and it isn't going to stop until the first week in January. There isn't a thing I can do to prevent it. Maybe this year I'll try to enjoy it a little more, sing a few more songs than usual, watch a few extra christmas movies and ignore the hated commercialization of it all.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone is having a fun and spooky Halloween.

Fuzzies

This past week I've been getting ready for halloween and by that I mean making small fuzzy creatures.



They are really too cute.

Happy Halloween

The Merriest of Halloweens to you all! It's So spooky!
~the little pink fairy