buzzville

October Images

If you're like me and you're obsessed with all things Halloween, then you're also a bit stressed that there are only 21 days left, especially with all the non-Halloween things to take care of!

Here's a little of what we've been up to:

chocolate Halloween cupcakes with orange frosting

visiting the fabulous Faulkner Farm pumpkin patch in Santa Paula, complete with sunflower maze, lots of farms animals, kids' crafts, spinning demonstrations, pumpkin pie, and more!

toasted pumpkin seeds from our sugar pumpkins!

and loads of roasted pumpkin puree for pumpkin butter, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and pumpkin bread! (Yes, we really like pumpkin around here!)

Do you have October/Halloween traditions at your house? I'd love to hear what you're up to - we love this time of year!

Trick or Treat!

26 days to Halloween and I've finished my first project! I decided to make this Trick or Treat bag for Brynne that will hopefully last for a couple of years. I used a pattern from the October 2005 issue of Crochet World, but modified the facial features and added the lining. Here is the outside:

and here is a view of the inside fabric lining:

The jack-o-lantern buttons were in a Halloween set that I picked up at JoAnn's, and the candy corn lining fabric is from a series of reproduction 30s fabric from Judie Rothermel called "Halloween".

The crochet pattern was simple to follow; all of the orange was worked with 2 strands, and the green is worked with 3 strands (2 of worsted weight and 1 of the novelty yarn). My only complaint is that most of the bag is crocheted with an L hook, and I could only find a plastic L hook. Those plastic hooks, although they come in fun colors, have a seam along the side from the mold. That seam almost gave me a blister as it rubbed back and forth across my hand while I was crocheting. I haven't used a fuzzy novelty yarn before, but it worked out fine.