Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

These would be our Halloween costumes this year. Mr. Michie has been sick for over a week, so I have been donning my nurse's cap and staying busy making homemade chicken soup and jell-o as well as tending to my little patient!

(Image by the adorable Becky, found on Flickr)

Halloween Cupcake Toppers

I have made a set of 6 Halloween Cupcake Toppers for you to download and make to create some bewitchingly cute cupcakes!

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

To get the templates and full directions click HERE

Halloween Round-Up

I have been doing a little Halloween reconnaissance today and came across some cute ideas, old and new that I thought I would share with you!

Glittering pumpkins are always beautiful, not just for Halloween, they can carry you through the fall season and adorn your Thanksgiving table, I found these on the beautiful Livy's blog:

This Candy Corn Mousse, is festively colorful and perfect for a grown-up Halloween get-together with its cheesecake base:

Leave it to Martha to come up with a cute idea for orange balloons! This is a nice thing for little people to have something to take home at the end of your Halloween party. You could even tie a little bag of candy to the bottom, so their pumpkin doesn't float away:

I love making bark and this Halloween Candy Bark version looks hauntingly delicious:

Bring something home from the Three Broomsticks to your Halloween festivities and make a batch of Butterbeer for all your little witches and wizards:

Use different colored candy melts and your imagination to create spooky Halloween inspired chocolate dipped strawberries:

Hope you found a few bewitching ideas that take your fancy...

(Images courtesy of their respective blogs)

The Pumpkin Patch

This morning, Goose Girl showed me the gorgeous fat little pumpkin that Foxy picked out for her from the gnomes' pumpkin patch.

As we enjoyed a mug of warm apple cider together, Foxy was busily working away on a post for tomorrow, all about their trip to the Fair.

Click on the image below to keep checking in with them, because they have been up to a few things this week....

"Bewitching" Houses

I love Halloween and all that it conjures up. One of my favorite conjurings being: witches. I wouldn't mind  being Samantha Stephens, I know I have said it before, but I'll say it again, who wouldn't want to wiggle their nose and have things happen? I want to wiggle my nose and have my house cleaned, dinner on the table and all the laundry done.

But, since I can't do that, I thought I would settle for sharing with you some of my favorite witches' houses. The first being non other than Samantha's from "Bewitched". I loved watching that show as a child and still watch it any time I catch an episode while flipping through the TV.

One of my most beloved episodes was when her daughter Tabitha turns herself into an oatmeal raisin cookie. Samantha, her mother Endora and her in-laws look all over for the "missing" Tabitha. Sam and her mother know that she has turned herself into something to hide, but they are not sure what. Sam only discovers what Tabitha has changed into when she looks at the plate of cookies sitting on her dining room table and one of them smiles back at her.

I loved their house on Morning Glory Circle and that is the first I will share with you. It is adorably 1960's and the couch in their living room would fit in perfectly in an episode of "Mad Men". My Nana had avocado colored appliances in her kitchen when I was growing up and still does. Her stove is adorably retro and something I would love to have, if I had a home of my own to put it in.

The second house is the "Bewitched" movie house. Although, I didn't think the film truly did the show justice, the sets were stunning and I am enamored with the house they had Nicole Kidman live in. The kitchen was magical and I would be more than happy with that painted fireplace. The entire house just felt very open and airy, yet still cozy. It was all very enchanting.

Last, but not least, is a house where Nicole Kidman first played a witch with her "sister" Sandra Bullock, in "Practical Magic". I adore the fact that they have a private staircase that comes down into their kitchen, that is a bit of a dream of mine, to have that one day in a home. This house seems to hold a true essence of magic and would fit right in, along any house in Salem.

What a bunch of bewitching houses for Halloween!

(All images from Hooked on Houses)

The Birds

I love this "Birds" inspired fascinator from the Etsy shop Topsy Turvy.

It is the photograph that makes it, with its Cindy Sherman-esque style. I love it! It would be the icing on the Halloween cake to wear this, if you went as a the stunning Tippi Hedren, to your Halloween party.

Writing on the Wall #30

A Morning Walk

I spotted this on a morning walk around Paris last Friday:

He was very hungry....

I Spy With My Little Eye...

A pumpkin mosaic near Spitalfieds market!

Oh, Deer!

Oh Deer! She, just happened to jump into my hands at the Renegade Craft Fair and I took her home with me. Isn't she lovely, she travelled all the way from Germany and she is made by hand.

I haven't picked a name for her yet, but I think it has to be along the lines of Gertie or Heidi or Gretchen....

Renegade Craft Fair Walk Part 2

There was just too much to post yesterday, picture wise. So, here is the rest of stroll. We did all of this before we were "attacked" by zombies outside of Liberty's, apparently is was worldwide zombie day. Who knew? And then I managed to find some killer heels to wear to an upcoming wedding, I was very excited by them!

The Renegade Craft Fair Walk Part 1

We had so much fun on Saturday, going up to an area of London we don't usually go to. We wandered through Spitalfields Market on our way to the Truman Brewery and we stumbled upon a great lomography store.

So, now when I get this camera I have had my eye on for awhile, I have a place that I can easily get film from and have them develop it too! Mr. Michie's big excitement of the day was finding a place called S&M. Now, I know what you are thinking but it was a restaurant that served "Sausage & Mash", hence the name.

So we had a homey lunch of lovely sausage and mash after shopping at the Fair. We also spied some fantastic street art and some very pretty houses. It was lovely to just spend a whole Saturday with each other without a care in the world, we had no one to answer to but each other!

Jack 'O Lanterns

I have a terrible cold at the moment and in doing a little Halloween recognizance tonight I saw these on the Martha Stewart website and they made me smile. Nothing like some cheery Jack 'O Lanterns to cheer you up!

Click here to found out how to make your own

Renegade Craft Fair London

This is where I am going to be today, what about you?

Writing on the Wall #29

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. 


When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.


Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you."

Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011) Stanford 2005 Commencement Address 

Going, Going, Gone!

French vanilla cupcakes with my Nana's chocolate coffee icing and a chocolate covered coffee bean on the top. A perfect afternoon snack for a fall day!

Going, Going, Gone!

Coverspy

I found this website a little while ago. It is called Coverspy and is comprised by a "team of publishing nerds who hit the subways, streets, parks & bars to find out what New Yorkers are reading now."

I loved it! Here are just a few sample picks:

Sunday October 2nd

Girl in Translation, Jean Kwok (F, 50s, gray hair in bun, leather jacket, grey sweatpants, F train)

Wednesday September 14th

Hell’s Angels, Hunter S. Thompson (F, 20s, long blond hair, oxford shoes, sitting outside a bike shop, Fort Greene)

Tuesday September 6th

Emma, Jane Austen (F, 30s, jeans, wire framed glasses, curly hair in ponytail, Tretorn rain boots, G train)

Thursday September 1st

The Alienist, Caleb Carr (F, 30s, peach shirt, black pants, brown purse, G train)

P.S. The last book I posted, The Alienist, is one of my all-time favorite books! If you have not read it, you need to run out and find a copy. Beg, borrow, or steal to get it, because it is an absolutely fascinating look into criminology and a thoroughly enjoyable read!