Witches Brew Recipe

Dear Emily,

I promised you the witches brew recipe but first a little witch

and a ghost

and a ninja.

The witch's vest is made from a McCalls pattern, #5732.

 I made the petals pointed instead of round - more witchy. (plus easier to cut out) I made the tiered skirt our of organza following the directions in the September/October 2012 issue of Sew Beautiful. And I learned how to gather on the serger!

The ghost is just a mosquito netting circle with a hole and a hood.

The ninja was a karate guy for school and at the last minute I asked if he wanted a mask to be a ninja. I figured I could cut something out of a white knit, which I just happened to have, that would work. Instead of trying to invent the wheel, I googled "ninja hood" and found a bunch of DIYs that used a t-shirt and no cutting OR sewing. I used this one from the blog The Train to Crazy. I am certain this will be the most used costume accessory. It would be cool in black, red, or just about any color.

Now, the Witches Brew recipe. I made it with both Caroline's pre k class and Anthony's second grade class. I remember our mom making it for my class when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. I told the classes the recipe was really old, over 35 years old. There are 14 ingredients and 14 children in Caroline's class so there was one for each. Anthony's class has 32 so I split the ingredients up so everyone had something to contribute. I was so careful counting everything but still was short one. Anthony was a good sport and read the recipe to the class instead of adding an ingredient. 

Strawberry juice- red water

Moondust - lemon koolade

Powdered bat tongue- orange koolade

Ground jack-o-lantern-orange sugar

Bluebird juice-blue water

Dragon fingernails-lemon rind

Dragon teeth-lemon seeds

Pumpkin juice-orange water

Ground robin egg shells-blue sugar

Firefly juice-lemon juice

Rattley bones-ice cubes

Powdered lizzard livers-strawberry koolade

Swamp water-green water

Dandelion juice-yellow water

Each child had one ingredient and as we read down the list, they tried to guess if they had the correct ingredient. It is just three packages of koolade, three cups of sugar, and six quarts of water. For the colored sugar, I put a cup and a half in one zip lock bag and the other cup and a half in a second zip lock bag. I added a few drops of liquid food coloring and mixed it up until the color was even. It tasted like a gummy bear and looked like dirty paint water. The kids loved it!

xoxo

Monica

Halloween mice silhouettes

Dear Emily, 
 

 

Did you realize Halloween is a little over a week away! I feel like I am a little late to the party.A little behind on decorating. I did a bunch of stuff this weekend, figuring if I have three boxes of Halloween/Fall stuff in the attic I need to use it to justify using up the space for the boxes in the attic. 

I have wanted to make these mice ever since I saw them in Martha Stewart's magazine a few years ago. Making them required tedious cutting and I just never found the time. Okay, honestly, it is not tedious, but it was one of those projects that got shoved to the back burner every Halloween. Not this year. I found the template on Martha Stewart's website and transferred the image to a .png file to use in the Silhouette software. I cut them out of vinyl on my best friend, my Silhouette Cameo. Ta da! Creepy mice. And every time I come in the front door, I do a double take. And the kids love them.

I have been out of the transfer paper (the stuff you stick the vinyl to so it can be applied to your chosen surface, in this case the risers on the steps). I think it is a little pricey. Contact paper is too sticky, though I do remember your telling me you read somewhere that the contact paper at the dollar store is less tacky and works as transfer paper. I found this stuff, the white roll in the picture below, that works very well. Vinyl Ease.

I cut the shapes from black vinyl, removed the excess 

and cut them apart.

Then used the Vinyl Ease vinyl tape to apply them to the stairs. 

XOXO

Monica