♥ Follow Me on Pinterest!

 CURRENT MOOD: Pleased with my Pinnnnnterest!



As I'm sure you have noticed by now... I am on Pinterest!!! 

I absolutely adore the infinite scroll of all the neat images on Pinterest!

I have created a Halloween board that I am constantly adding new images to and by constantly I mean multiple times  a day... no joke... I enjoy more spooky adult oriented Halloween  ideas... so  my Halloween board reflects that! Just click on the logo above and you'll be taken directly to the All Hallows' Night  Halloween board! Plus, when you are bored of that you can always check out the other things I'm interested in on the other boards!

RECIPE OF THE DAY - Spooky S'mores

CURRENT MOOD: Hungry for s'mores....



Over the last few years I have gathered quite a collection of tasty Halloween treats! Here is one of my favorites for the fall season, it is the perfect time of year for this warm gooey s'more! It is so easy to make and you don't need to light a fire to do it!

YOU NEED

•     Graham Crackers
•     Milk Chocolate Candy Bar
•     Marshmallows

OPTIONAL

•     String Licorice
•     Red Candies

DIRECTIONS

1.) Begin by setting your oven to broil, on a cookie sheet put down tinfoil or parchment paper, and line up the number of s'more you want to make. Break off a piece of your chocolate bar and place it on top of the graham cracker, and place one marshmallow on its side on top of the chocolate. (Add another marshmallow if you want it extra gooey.) Allow this to broil in the oven for a few seconds, keep a good eye on it and remove when you see the chocolate is getting soft, and the marshmallow has taken a nice golden brown color.

2.) After removing the pan from the oven safely, top your s'mores off with the second graham cracker, serve immediately for best results.

OPTIONAL: Cut your stringed licorice into small sections about an inch in length, for each s'more add 4 licorice pieces along two opposite sides to represent the legs of a spider. Finally add two red candies of your choice to one of the unused sides to represent eyes, and there you have it! Spider S'mores!

RECIPE OF THE DAY - BLOODY BROKEN GLASS

CURRENT MOOD: ... ... ... that is all. 



I love this idea for a spooky more grown up Halloween Party, this will really bring the scary to your snack table! This is the most straight forward, simple, and uncomplicated version I could find!

WHAT YOU NEED

• 1 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 3/4 Cup Water
• Red Food Coloring
  

DIRECTIONS

Step 1.) In a sauce pan bring granulated sugar and water to a boil stirring regularly, until sugar completely dissolves. Reduce heat to medium-high, and cook until mixture just begins to turn pale gold around the edges. 

Step 2.) Remove from heat, and immediately pour caramel mixture onto a rimmed cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Step 3.) Working quickly, tilt the pan to spread caramel to edges making a thin layer. While the caramel is still tacky begin splashing red food coloring over it this will give the  appearance of blood spatters.

Step 4.) Let cool to harden. Twist the pan to release the caramel. Break into pieces in order for it to resemble broken glass. Keep it on the cookie tray or transfer it to a serving platter!

DO IT YOURSELF - PUMPKIN CARVING BASICS

CURRENT MOOD: Relaxing, after a long night of pumpkin carving.

 

STEP 1.) CARVING TOOLS 

Begin by picking a pumpkin that will fit the pattern you want to carve. You will need a carving kit or at least a set of tools to get the job done. You can buy them at the store fairly inexpensively or use things around your house. Some things that will double as great pumpkin carving tools are steak knives, metal spoons, and push pins.

STEP 2.) PATTERNS

There are tons of options for pumpkin patterns; you can find them online, in books, in carving kits, or you can even free hand them! After choosing the perfect pumpkin pattern, use push pins to secure it; just make sure the pattern sits flat on the pumpkin. Then using a push pin poke holes along the lines of the pattern. Remove the pattern and put it aside for reference.

STEP 3.) GUTTING

Start by creating a lid in the top of the pumpkin with a knife making sure to cut at an angle so your lid won't fall inside. Remove the pumpkin seeds and strings with your hands. (Save them for snacks, planting, or toss them out!) Then use a scoop tool or metal spoon to scrape the walls down and clean up the interior of the pumpkin. Give it a good rinse out and begin carving!
 

STEP 4.) CARVING

Using a carving saw tool or knife,  push it straight into the pumpkin along one of the lines you transferred, begin sawing in a straight in and out motion following your lines. When you are done carving, poke the pieces out gently, if you did not keep a perfect straight line you may have to poke some pieces out from the inside. Most pumpkin patterns show the areas to be removed in gray, make sure you follow the pattern to get the best results.

STEP 5.) COMPLETION

Once you are done carving your pumpkin give it a rinse, this will help to give it moisture as well as clean out any extra bits that you may have missed. Store your pumpkin in a cool place to aid in preservation and to keep it from drying out and shriveling up. Illuminating your pumpkin can be done several ways some examples are candles, lighters, corded lights, and battery powered LED candles.


Personally I prefer using the battery powered LED candles as they do not tend to dry out the pumpkin as quickly, will not burn or blow out, and are much safer than the other options.

You can use toothpicks to stick pieces back onto the pumpkin in case they had fallen off when you were removing the excess. I had to to do this in my example but I bet you cannot tell which piece it is!

♥ HALLOWEEN CLASSICS

CURRENT MOOD: Excited! For new Halloween Movies!

Okay by now you all know I love Halloween but I also love animated movies, in lieu of Halloween I wanted to do a post about the Halloween movies from my childhood that always help to get me into the HALLOWEEN SPIRIT! On a side note though... 

I can't wait to see Frankenweenie and Hotel Transylvania! 

THE HALLOWEENTOWN SERIES

• Halloweentown
• Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge
• Hallloweentown High
• Return to Halloweentown

I literally have watched this series every year since I was a kid... Basically the movies follow the Cromwell children as they develop their powers with the help of their mother and grandmother. I wont go into any more detail than that so I don't spoil it for anyone, but it is for sure a family oriented movie! 

I do have to say though I much preferred the original main character of Marnie Cromwell, played by Kimberly J. Brown as opposed to Sara Paxton in the final movie of the series. I hate when the main characters change! Sheesh!

BEETLEJUICE 

• Beetlejuice
  

Okay... so I will always love the movie Beetlejuice, it isn't necessarily a Halloween movie but it still has many spooky aspects!  It is creepier than the other movies so I would probably stick to slightly older children. The premise of the film is that a couple of newly weds who are recently deceased contract the services of a "bio-exorcist" in order to remove the obnoxious new owners of their home.

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS 

• The Nightmare Before Christmas

I love Tim Burton's writing style, probably because it seems to always be on the spooky side of things... but every movie he writes it becomes one of my favorites and this one is no exception! I could have done an entire post about Tim Burton but who would really want to read that! Haha! The concept of the movie is that the main character Jack Skellington, king of Halloweentown, discovers Christmas Town, but doesn't quite understand what it is! It is a very spooky animated movie! Seriously love it!

THE ADDAM'S FAMILY

• The Addams Family

So the Addam's  Family is a classic film from the 90's and while I'm sure everyone knows them too by now the basic premise of this movie is that con artists plan to fleece the eccentric family using an accomplice who claims to be their long lost Uncle Fester. The family soon realizes that the person is not actually the real Uncle Fester!

THE HARRY POTTER SERIES

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

Classic right? A Halloween Spirit movie post mentioning Harry Potter... I actually really did enjoy the Harry Potter series and while again it isn't a Halloween based film it does deal with aspects of Halloween... witches and wizards... by now I'm sure most people know what the film is about so I won't go into it, but on the plus side it will keep you entertained for HOURS!

TWITCHES SERIES

• Twitches 
• Twitches Two

This one is a good family oriented Halloween movie series as well, it focuses on two twin witches separated at birth who come back into each others lives in the human world. Again this is a family movie with nothing very scary involved, it is a pretty simple premise but a cute movie all together.

♦ COUPON - Spirit Halloween "SCREAMING SAVINGS"

CURRENT MOOD: Sicky, sick, sick...



I am feeling a little under the weather today so this is going to be a short post but I just had to share this deal. I'm going to try to do this anytime I come across a coupon for a Halloween store. Be sure to check back for more offers as I find them, only 20 days until Halloween so this is the time when they really start posting deals.

So the deal this week I found is $5.00 off any purchase of $15.00 or more at Spirit Halloween, this includes both their box stores and online. It is a limited time offer going from today October 11th  to October 14th 2012, so you do not have much time to take advantage of it.

I checked out their pop up store in town last week and while they hadn't completely put up all the displays, it did seem like they had a lot more this year than years past. The details of the coupon and the online code are below if you want to check them out.

RECIPE OF THE DAY - Wilton Spooky Pops

CURRENT MOOD: Feeling a little batty... Maybe it is bed time...



Okay so this is not really a recipe but a neat kit you can pick up, it makes 10 cookie pops, but you get a lot of extra supplies in the kit which will last a while if you have other things to decorate for Halloween.

I would suggest not adding as much milk and butter as it says on the icing packages as mine came out a little runny which made for a messier looking finished product, and I would also suggest not using their icing tip in one of the icing bags provided as for the black icing you need more accuracy than what it provides.

It comes with little plastic bags for each Spooky Cookie Pop to get wrapped up in and a sticker to wrap around the plastic bag to close it up. The whole kit was $10.00 at Micheal's Craft Supply store and it took me about 1 hour to do all of them.

I imagine this would be a fun activity for families to do together, its quick and easy and fairly easy clean up. Over all it is a good product and would suggest it if you want a easy kit to try out!