Power Outage + Halloween Crafting

Since Sunday we have been without internet, cable t.v., and land lines (phone).  Thank goodness for DVDs and internet on my phone.  Also thankfully we were one of the lucky 10% to 20% who had power in my town.  A few regained power last night and today, but others aren't going to get it back until Thursday evening.  Halloween trick or treating was postponed until this coming Sunday due to down power lines, broken / hanging tree limbs, and power outages.  What happened was that there was still a lot of leaves on the trees when we got a wet and heavy snow fall.  Many limbs snapped and fell on power lines.  We just got back our cable, internet, and phone two hours ago.  So I have a few things to share with you.

I made these spider Halloween ornaments by cutting out some flat plastic packaging.  Then I put some spider stickers on it, and added some glitter glue around them.  Once dry, I punched a hole just above the glitter, then I cut them out around the glitter and hole punch.  Next I added the string and hung them up.  This is a great way to recycle that plastic packaging that normally goes into the trash.

I've been working on making a Hallowig (Halloween wig) since Saturday.  I ran out of yarn last night, and I can't get anymore until the craft stores regain power.  At least I won't need it until Sunday, so there is time to finish it.  Here is the pattern for it.  My mom wants me to make her a neon green one.  It is the perfect fun thing to make with the bad acrylic yarn that I have.

On Saturday we carved pumpkins.  This one is mine.  I used one of those pre-made templates that you can buy in a booklet.

This one is my husband's, designed after one of his drawings.

My 4 year old drew on this pumpkin and then I carved it out for him.

The best part about carving pumpkins is eating the seeds.  I cook half of them with oil and sea salt and the other half with oil and cinnamon sugar.  The color picture is before I cleaned them, and the other one is after they were cleaned.

Both of these pictures were taken on Saturday.  One was before the snow, and the other was during the snow.  Its crazy that we got snow before Halloween.  That has not happened before since we've lived here (but it has happened here before).  This was the 2nd snow of the season.  The first one was light and melted quickly.  

This was taken Saturday night.  You could hear tree limbs breaking in our neighborhood. 

Some of my friends are still without power.  School was canceled from Monday - Wednesday (yes tomorrow) due to lack of power.  Everyday a few more homes / areas get power.  Hopefully everything will be back to normal by Friday.

Candy Cane Ornament

Yesterday I crochet this candy cane ornament.  It was very easy to make.  All you need is some white and red yarn, I used a size F hook, and a chenille stem.  I started making another one today.  Here is the free pattern.

Peppermint Ornament & Candy Cozy

Before making things for the Halloween swap took over my crafting life, I had started making a cozy for a plastic M&M container.  I thought that the container would make a good crafting supply container for things like needles, beads, and buttons.  I used some sock yarn and a size B crochet hook to make it.  I want to try and make different types of cozies for the M&M containers that I have been buying for this purpose.  My kids are very pleased with this crafting purchase, because they get to eat the chocolate candy.  On a side note, you can see our first snow of the season.  Its to early for snow!!!!  I've been told that tonight or tomorrow we are suppose to get more.  Yikes!

Christmas is the next holiday that is on my crafting radar.  Sure I would like to make a few things for Thanksgiving, but I really need to make some Christmas gifts.  I have some sparkly red and white cotton yarn that I wanted to make something small with, so I chose a peppermint ornament crochet pattern from Ho Ho Celebrations: 22 holiday projects to knit or crochet by Loops & Threads.  It was very easy to make, and I learned a new way of crocheting with 2 colors.  The pattern requires that you make 2 swirly circles and then crochet them together.  This just might be one of the things that I make for various people.  I could even put them on the outside of their gifts like a gift tag.

Candy Corn Dish Towel

I loved the candy corn dish cloth that I made for the Halloween swap so much that I made one for myself this past week.  I finished it just in time for Halloween.  The free pattern for it is here.

Wordless Wednesday

Episode 41: 3rd Halloween Special

Here are the show notes to episode 41 of my local access show "Its Easy Being Green."  

How to make Halloween treat containers out of toilet paper tubes.

How to make fun Halloween jewelry out of plastic bread tags.

Google eye picture frame

A little show and tell.

Swap package to LadyKatka     &    Swap package from LadyKatka

Swap package to spookycuddles  &  Swap package from sppokycuddles

Swap package to E.B.             &         Swap package from E.B.

T-shirt necklace                               Spiders & Plarn

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Spiders

For Halloween, make some spiders with your child.  The spiders above and just below were made with construction paper.  Just cut an oval out of black paper, and cut 8 strips of black paper (spiders have 8 legs).  Fold those 8 strips like a fan.  For the eyes you can use construction paper or google eyes.  Spiders can have 2 and more eyes.  Many have 6 eyes.  Punch a hole at the top to hang from the ceiling.  Just glue all the parts together.  My son wanted his spiders to have 6 legs and 6 eyes.  The one below was from last year and the one above was made this year.

Here is my tutorial on how to make this egg carton spider.  My (at the time) 3 year old helped me make them.

These chenille stem lollipop spiders were made by my swap partner spookycuddles.  She just wrapped short lengths of chenille stems around the lollipops and then glued on some sequins. 

We bought this spider cupcake last October.  The legs are black licorice, the eyes are red hots, and the frosting has black sprinkles on it.  Kids will love to help make these creepy treats.

And I just thought that I would share a couple of my spider photos.

This one was taken by my husband.