Last Halloween post featuring my Halloween cards

I sent out Halloween cards, because as I've said before, it is my favorite holiday, oh and they were hand made cards. I got creative, something I love doing but have problems doing because I have no drawing/painting ability so I am limited. 

I used packing paper. My husband got a box of drinks from Hubert's Lemonade and this brown paper was what they were packed with. Perfect for what I was doing.

Not only did I make cards but I made envelopes as well. For the envelopes I used paper grocery bags. For a template I used a little card/envelope I had lying around. 

I actually had to ask my brother for a few grocery bags and got lucky with the packing paper. Before the packing paper surprisingly appeared I was kinda in a panic of what I would use. I didn't want to go out and buy something, I really wanted to reuse something. 

The hardest part in the process was keeping the paper from my cats.  We use cloth grocery bags and when we do get paper bags or any kind in general it goes on the floor for the cats to play with. They did not get why they didn't get to play and chew and tear this paper apart.

 Here are the cards and envelopes once they were finished. 

I ran out of ribbon so I wasn't able to make as many cards as I wanted and I wasn't about to mar the nice look of the front of the cards with my icky hand writing, it just wouldn't have looked as good.

One last time. Don't forget to enter for a chance to win one of my hand made fabric pumpkins. They'd make a great addition to Thanksgiving decoration. I'm picking a winner tomorrow (November 8th) at 2pm PST (or  sometime around then). GIVEAWAY  (click it!!)

Halloween and a GIVEAWAY!!

Halloween has to be my favorite holiday, possibly day, or group of days since it's really more than just that one day. So here enjoy my Halloween with me and yes the title says giveaway, details at the end, don't be a dick and just hit end, take a look at everything. Hehe.

Costumes:
I'm a Peacock (you gotta let me fly) and The Beerded Knight, who has his own twitter by the way, click it!!

 At home on Halloween night waiting for kids to come trick or treating (we got none)

 Yeah Batman let himself go a bit, you should have seen his raggedy cape, dude not looking like his old self. 

 Everyone wants to be a peacock!

BAKING!!!! WITH PUMPKIN!!!!!!!

 I've heard smaller pumpkins have better flavor but I don't think it makes that much of a difference.

 Decapitate your pumpkins. 

 Cut in half and take the guts out. (SAVE THE SEEDS TO BE ROASTED. I haven't done that yet but they will be roasted)

 Quarter or whatever size you want your pumpkin and put on baking sheet(s) and bake until fork tender. I had them in at 350F for a bit over an hour but my temp is off and I forgot so it was actually less than 350F.

 Bake until fork tender and starts to turn golden. Let cool, peel, the peel comes off REALLY easily after baking. Then throw in a food processor and process to make a puree. I didn't add any liquid but can add some if you want a more watery puree. 

Then use your fresh pumpkin puree in your favorite pumpkin recipes. 

I made Pumpkin Cookies with Pumpkin Spice Icing.

The biggest hit was the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. 

On todays to do list is make a few more loafs of this. YUM! 

(The crazy Beered Knight wants some with out chocolate chips!!)

More pumpkin fun (and the giveaway part)

 Fabric pumpkins!!! How cool are they! I love them!

 My favorite patterned one.

 Oh but you have no idea what their size is. Here for size comparison, on my hand.

 Psh! That doesn't help, how lame is that. 

Oh wait I know the perfect place to put it. 

ON MY HEAD!!! DUH!!

 I made mini-pumpkins too. Haven't finished all the mini ones yet, ran out of stuffing.

So this GIVEAWAY business. I am giving away a pumpkin. One of the three below, sorry not the more patterned ones.

To enter just leave a comment. Just say hi, or whatever you want. (Comment here, on the blog, not twitter/facebook/tumblr/wherever else you may see this post linked to.) Make sure you leave your email address in the comment form (I think it works that way, has a place to enter an address, hopefully).  I will also post a follow up notifying the winner on my blog so if you don't put your address for whatever reason make sure you check back to see if you won. I will pick a winner using a random number generator on November 8th. That's one week. Good luck my pretties. (Said creepy like evil witches do. It's just the mood I am in. Oh and I have 2 cats so if you are allergic to cats know that. The pumpkins aren't covered in fur or anything but I wouldn't want them to make someone all itchy and sneezy by chance.)