This year instead of a typical Halloween party, Aaron and I threw a sit down dinner party. I cleared the furniture out of the living room and set up a dinner table with candlelight.

The theme was "mad science" so the table had beakers with dry ice putting off foggy mist, test tubes strewn about and wine bottles with POISON labels.

Aaron and I even dressed the part. These were our badges.

I got the laboratory invitations, test tube party favors and POISON wine bottle labels from Martha Stewart's line of crafts at Michaels.

Here is a shot of the jelly bean filled test tubes with our guests names on them.

Aaron made the cornmeal encrusted goat cheese with warm tomato salsa appetizer. He later served up little petri dishes with green jello in them for an aperitif.

It was a great evening. More pictures of the Halloween dinner party are on My Gallery. Matt took some great pictures too.

I never really thought about my spices being organic or not, so I have to confess that my real attraction to the Simply Organic Spices is the packaging. There, I said it. They look cute in my cupboard and on the counter next to my freshly baked pumpkin pie. And the fact that they don't have pesticide or chemicals in them... well that's just a plus.

What a great idea!

I had to try a Cider Slushie of course. It was delicious! This was the closest recipe I could find online. I may have to experiment with this one myself.

I am so enamoured with the Martha Stewart line at Macy's. I liked her stuff at KMart, now this Tiffany blue at Macy's... it's got a hold on me. I can hardly stand it.

I am also pretty excited about the Vera Wang collection at Kohls. Her clothes are so elegant. I could definitely get used to this high end designer at everyday stores trend.

This evening we went downtown to help promote the Luche Libre exhibit at the George Eastman House by handing out Mexican wrestler mask printouts. Aaron and Vishal wore real Mexican wrestler masks... I was a rabbit and Tina was Marilyn Monroe. A big thanks to Rachel from the GEH who organized the evening and hooked Aaron and Vishal up with the masks.

Aaron even rode the mechanical bull at Daisy Dukes with the mask on. The mask did not enable him to stay on.

More pictures of our night out on My Gallery.

Remember the Mexican Wrestler exhibit I wrote about a week ago? Well, you can download a printable mask from that exhibit on 1000 Words. So if the Oscar and Stewie masks weren't your thing, you have an alternative.

I got these vintage Pyrex pitchers and jelly jar glasses too late to use them this summer. Actually the tall set of glasses were sour cream and peanut butter containers. They even still had their lids. 

Next summer you can bet I will be serving up lemonade and ice tea in them though.

We just harvested the last of our garden for the year. The final crop was our butternut and acorn squash.

I have pictures of this year's garden on My Gallery.

Aaron made yummy butternut squash soup, but I forgot to take a picture of it so all I have is a picture of the soup tureens we ate it out of. This recipe is really good, esp if you put a dollop (or two) of creme fraiche on top.

I also moved all my herbs inside and now my dining room smells like sage and rosemary. Yum.

I have pictures of some of this year's flowers on My Gallery too.

When we finished painting our kitchen, it seemed like the window over the sink was lacking. So I made these origami birds to hang in front of it. 

Here is what I did.

This unusually warm October we are having is wreaking havoc on our jack o' lanterns. I found them yesterday oozing pumpkin juice all over the place.

And I found this inside of Aaron's pumpkin. It looks like a squirrel crawled in there and died.

Ugghh.

We made applesauce this weekend. We used our usual recipe... but this time we used a stick blender to mash up the apples. Very satisfying.

I put some of it in little jars, just the right size for taking in my lunch!

"Hey, wanna go run around a corn field in the dark with nothing but flashlights and hidden pieces of a map?"

"Sounds great! Let's go!"

Two and a half hours later...

We made it out.

Pictures of us wandering around a corn field in the dark.

I have two Halloween inkjet projects over at 1000 Words today. The first are Oscar and Stewie masks. Everyone in the office agrees they are eerie looking. 

If you aren't sure what to be for Halloween you could go as a pug or a kitty.



There are also downloadable templates for Halloween Oscar and Stewie lollipop covers. Kinda like my lollipop cozies but faster and easier to put together.



Oscar and Stewie are demanding compensation for the use of their likeness. Greedy little critters.

To download the pdf templates and see instructions on how to make the masks and lollipop covers check out 1000 Words.

My mom and I were busy little bees at this summer's yardsales and flea markets. These are pictures of all the Pyrex either my mom or I found for my collection. Keep in mind I don't pay over $10 and I am quite sure my mom doesn't either. 

I know what you are thinking... where do I keep all these? I have shelves in my basement for them... but even I am coming to the realization that I might have a problem on my hands soon. I need to start limiting myself to only my favorite finds. It's hard though when you find a mint condition Early American pattern 1.5 Qt Divided Cinderella Oval Casserole for only $3!!!

Thank goodness for the Pyrex Files and Pyrex Love... these sites help me identify all the patterns!

I saw these Euro Cloths in an Ideal Bite newsletter. They are "superabsorbent, reusable, biodegradable cloths you can throw in the dishwasher." When I went to the Twist website I found that they also had Euro Sponges for wiping and Loofah Sponges for scrubbing... both biodegradable. And they are cute too!

I am also digging these Nellie's Dryerballs. They "soften fabrics naturally without using chemical fabric softeners." Now that line-drying season is over, I could really use these.

Somewhat like my Valentine's Heart Tree, I made this Halloween Bat Tree for on my dining room table. Super easy, all you need a branch, some black craft foam and a few other supplies. 

It is driving Stewie crazy... he wants those bats so badly.

Domo Pumpkin Picking

Domo-kun went pumpkin picking yesterday too. More pictures of him in Aaron's Gallery.

Since we just can't get enough of pumpkins, today was our 9th Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. Oscar went along dressed as Spider Pug. Sing that to the tune of the Simpson's movie song "Spider Pig".

The weather held together long enough for us to select victims and get them back to my house for carving. Afterwards we feasted on pumpkin pie.

Our jack o' lanterns. There are more pictures of the party in My Gallery.

We stopped to check out the 926 lb pumpkin, Big Tim.

It's just Aaron's size.

I made these Oscar and Stewie photo votive candle holders with some votive cups, transparency paper and my Kodak All-in-One inkjet printer. 

Check out my post at 1000 Words to see how!

Last week I realized that two of our local museums had similiar themes. The George Eastman House has an exhibit of Lucha Libre! Masked Mexican Wrestlers....

...and the Memorial Art Gallery had TRANSactions: Contemporary Latin American and Latino Art.

This was too much of a coincidence for me so we had "Mexican Museum Night" with our friends. We hit both exhibits and then when to Salenas (newly renovated) for dinner.

And Domo went too.

I read about this Cherry Juice in Daily Candy awhile ago and it stuck in my head. It sounded like a super juice to me... "harnessing the natural healing power of cherries and high antioxidants that a body requires prior to exercise. Drink daily to protect, fortify and restore - naturally!" Apparently there are 50 cherries in every bottle.

Last week when I was at the Finger Lakes Wine and Culinary Center, I was surprised to find they carried it in their gift shop. I bought two. They taste just like cherry pie filling!

Remember the silly feet silicone cupcake cups I posted about awhile ago? Now they have witch feet for Halloween! I saw monster feet at Target too, but I can't find them online.

And because Christmas now overlaps with Halloween, here are Santa feet too!

Blonde Justice isn't expecting it, but her post about fav blogs popped up in my ljc google alerts so I thought I would list my top 10 favorite blogs...

Daily Bite - a very funny, insightful, clever blog. Plus she is will hit me if I don't list it.

Not Martha

Kottke - the only guy on my list... has great links to stories

Posie Gets Cozy

M. Patrizio

Schmeebot

Blueprint Blog - gotta get my martha fix

Little Birds - Stephanie stopped blogging in April, but I haven't come to terms with it yet

The Small Object

This is a very small portion of the long list of blogs I read. And I always feel like there are so many great blogs that I don't get to.

We were in Canandaigua last week for work and stopped by the Rose Corner Bakery. That is where we discovered a brilliant idea. Cake tops. When making a wedding cake you have to cut the top off to make it level. Instead of throwing away the cake toppers, they put them in a container, frost them and sell them for $3. Pure genius! Lucky us, someone had ordered a pumpkin wedding cake with spice frosting so that was available. I think all they need is a catchy name like "Frosted Toppers" a little marketing and they will have a hot product on their hands.