The Speckled Dog: 10/01/2010

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween - Take 2

OK, so I ended up dressing up after all. After looking through the photos for yesterday's post, I started regretting not dressing up at all. I high-tailed it to Good Will to grab a Hawaiian shirt for a buck and threw a tourist outfit together by using stuff I had around the house.

I'm the "make-up" lady and did the sad clown's make-up and at the last minute I decided to make myself a little sunburn.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Happy Halloween!

I know it's technically not Halloween yet, but it sure feels like it to me. We live in the Bible Belt and so a lot of neighborhoods will be giving candy out tonight. I'm planning to have candy available both nights, just in case.

Han decided at the last minute that she in fact, did want to dress up this year. We just happened to be in a thrift store (shocker, I know) and we were able to throw something together really fast. She said she wanted to be Willy Wonka and so I headed back to the ladies' suits and found a horrid purple blazer. It has SHOULDER PADS, people! I think maybe Clair Huxtable wore it back in the day. When we were looking for a top-hat, we found the perfect ruffled shirt, just hanging out of place, right there! The last thing we were able to get at the thrift store, was found over in the Christmas section. An awesome giant candy cane. I bought the top-hat at our local 5&10 store.

Here's the end result, which I think looks pretty dang good.

Charles and I aren't dressing up this year, but I wanted to share a few of my favorite, homemade costumes from the past.

Melanie from The Birds - Halloween 2003

Helen Roper from Three's Company - Halloween 2007 (the name-tag says, "Come and knock on MY door!"

Charles as a Mad Scientist - Halloween 2003

He made it himself!

Charles as a Wendy's Zombie - Halloween 2007
He made the shirt AND the wig!

close-up shot of the shirt

While these aren't fully homemade, I think I did an awesome job on make-up.

The Coven - mys sis, Han and myself . Halloween 2008. Doesn't Han look mean???

Ha ha. I love this one!

and this one too!

Last year, I learned how to do Zombie make-up with liquid latex and toilet paper.

Go here to find out how to do it.

Hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend. I'll be back on Monday to announce the winner of my Follower Appreciation Giveaway, but then I'm taking the rest of next week off. The ol' homestead needs some sprucing up. I've not really organized much since Jan and its time to do that again.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Foodie Friday No. 9 - Potluck

Welcome to the 9th Foodie Friday!

What is Foodie Friday? Well, it's a bit like a modern day recipe swap. We'll meet here each Friday to link up our recipes. Most weeks we'll have a theme, but sometimes, we'll do an all-out potluck. I'm open to suggestions as to what the next week's theme should be so feel free to leave those in the comments.

I went to the grocery store today and they were stocking the shelves with all of the Christmas candy (chocolate covered cherries? yes, please!) and holiday baking stuff. I can't believe it's almost here!! I know that the linky parties are about to explode with holiday goodness. Are you ready?

I wasn't going to post a recipe today, but after my trip to the store, I was inspired. Here's a little recipe for Candied Pecans that I found three years ago on Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef. I've made these so many times, I've lost count. They definitely get made at each year at Christmas time and last year, we gave Han's teachers a tin of them for gifts. One teacher ate most of his before the day was over and the other teacher said she had to hide her's over Christmas break so that she husband wouldn't eat them all. Shauna, THE Gluten Free Girl, described them in her post as being like "candied crack" and I'd say she's about right.

Candied Pecans from Gluten-Free Girl

1 teaspoon cold water
1 egg white
1 pound large pecans (4 cups) *
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

Beat water and egg white until frothy., Mix well with pecans. Combine sugar, salt and cinnamon. Mix well with pecans. Spread on a cookie sheet. Bake at 225 degrees for 1 hour. Still occasionally. ( I stir every 15 minutes).

* Your eyes do not deceive you. One thing the store hadn't stocked were the bags of pecan halves so I used lightly salted mixed nuts instead. While they make a good substitute, they're no match for straight pecans.

Alright, let's link up!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Winter GIVEAWAY @ The Speckled Dog

Follower Appreciation Winter Giveaway!

Win a hand-knit hat from The Speckled Dog!

I know some parts of the country are already getting snow and to celebrate this and the fact that colder weather is just around the corner for the rest of us, I'm giving away one of the hats in my Etsy shop. All you have to do is be a follower and leave a comment telling me which hat you'd like.

Here's the link to my shop. You can click over to the Hand Knits section to see the hats.

Hand-knits make a great gift for someone or for yourself. Please note that I do take custom orders. I can knit the hats already in the shop in any color you'd like or if you have a photo of a hat you like, you can convo me through etsy and I'll see if it's something I can do. I can also knit armwarmers, legwarmers, cowls, scarves, socks, you name it. If you have something in mind for someone special, send me a photo or a description of what you'd like and I can do it.

If you just want to win a hat, I can do that too. :-)

GIVEAWAY ENDS Sunday night. I'll announce the winner on Monday!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A Bed for the Unspeckled Dog

Meet Molly, the dog this blog isn't named after.

Molly turned 2 (in people years) on Oct 1st. She's my sweet wittle bitty beebee. In case you're wondering, that is exactly how I speak to her. I love her to pieces. To pieces, I tell ya! I sometimes feel like Elmyra Duff when I'm loving on her, except she doesn't mind being loved on. She is the most affectionate pet I've ever had. She's so cute and so sweet, I almost can't stand it. Oh, and she gives me kissed on command.

Anyway, in honor of her big 2nd birthday, we made a bed for her. This was a joint project between myself and Charles. I was the dreamer and he was the doer.

It began when I found this on the side of the road.

I'd planned on getting Charles to make a new top for it and to tighten things up, and then I was going to refinish it. But then, I got this magazine, where I saw this:

Of course, then I knew what would become of that ugly table. This...

Charles cleaned it up for me, tightened everything up, cut the legs a little, added some of the finials I got from Good Will many moons ago. Then he made the little headboard and we bought an ornamental piece at Lowe's to add to it. I sanded, painted and made the bedding. The pillow most likely will become a dog toy and the bedding, I only lightly stuffed so that she could sink into it since Doxies like to burrow. We only had to purchase two things for this bed; the headboard ornament and the trim for the bottom. We already had everything else.

I really love what we were able to do with this and I love it even more because the time Charles spent on this shows me just how much Molly has won him over.

LOVE!

*Edited to add some pics with Molly actually in the bed. So cute!!

Linking to:

Piece of Work Weds @ Primitive & Proper
Power of Paint Party @ Domestically Speaking
We Did it Weds @ Sew Much Ado
Upcycled Awesome @ The T-shirt Diaries
Creative Share Blog Hop @ Trendy Treehouse
Sugar & Spice Link Party @ seven thirty three
Make It Yours Day @ My Backyard Eden
Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple
Cheap Thrills Thurs @ Black Kat's Design
Whatever Goes Weds @ Someday Crafts
Get Your Craft on Thurs @ Life As Lori
Transformation Thurs The Shabby Chic Cottage
Everything But the Kitchen Sink @ A Little Knick Knack
Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge
Fab Friday @ Frugal & Fabulous Design
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous
"Watever" Linky Party @ Sawdust and Paper Scraps
Remodelaholic's Anyon @ Remodelaholic
Weekend Wrap-up Party @ Tatertots & Jello
Sunday Showcase Party @ Under the Table @ Dreaming
Sister Sister Sunday @ Kuzack's Closet

Treasury Tuesday - Week One

From now until Dec 14th, I'm making Tuesdays, Treasury Tuesday here at The Speckled Dog. Since Christmas is just around the corner, I thought it might be a nice idea to show you some of what's out there to be found on Etsy. There's just so much out there, that I wanted to share some stuff I've found while making Etsy Treasuries. I think buying handmade or at least shopping mom and pop is really important. We need to do what we can to support others just like us. Plus, there's nothing like receiving a unique gift from someone. Here is this week's treasury.

Neapolitan Ice Cream