Halloween at my house

Thought I'd post some of the happenings at my house this year. Like I said before, I love Halloween. Most of the things have been collected over the past few years. Every year I pick something up to add to my collection. It's fun decorating for Trick-o-Treaters, Halloween is all about the kids, right...



Found these cauldrons at Spirit a few years ago.



Halloween wreath up close.



Made the wreath using grapevine base, moss, false flowers, and random Halloween themed ornaments. All hot glued down.

Hallmark & Pier One Decorations

Findings from Bath & Body Works, Pottery Barn, & Micheal's

Friendly witch with her cauldron. I actually have a little bubbly smoker in the cauldron. Cute when the lights are dimmed. She is my new addition this year.

Walnuts and pecans painted like pumpkins. Just take a little acrylic paint and go to work.

My homemade spiders. These are so cool, you can hang or put them anywhere. I will post a project tutorial for this little guy. 

Out and About: Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay is beautiful little town along the coast of California located in San Mateo County. I grew up visiting this fine city from time to time and it constantly calls to me. Please visit one weekend and you will not be disappointed. Good to arrive around 10:30am before the traffic starts, and leave around 2pm to beat outgoing traffic.

Here are a few pics I captured while walking down Main Street. Checking out the cute shops and taking in the day. 

Beautiful window box idea.

Driftwood Mirror

Bronze Street Statue

This Photo was taken walking through the Oceano Hotel & Spa

Shabby Chic beach decor

Love this red restaurant off the pier. 

A Lone Pigeon

A Wandering Crab

Getting Ready for Halloween

I can't say how much I love Halloween without being a Heathen about it (in case you're wondering what a Heathen is, it would be someone who doesn't believe in God or someone who does not belong to any religion). Now I would not in anyway describe myself as a Heathen because I do believe in God and I am a very spiritual person with good morals. I only bring it up because I've had a loved one call me a heathen and it hurt my feelings. I know they were just poking fun of me, but it struck a nerve. What it actually made me do was think a little deeper into what Halloween means to me and why I love it so much. I came to the conclusion that I love Halloween because I really enjoyed it as a child. Halloween in the 80's was the best! I remember dressing up as Princess Leia and my brothers were Hans Solo and Luke Skywalker. I was a ghost, a witch, strawberry shortcake, whatever I was into at the time.

Putting that aside, I really love Halloween. I love the color, the humor, the eeriness, the fun factor. I love decorating my house with pumpkins, haunted houses, and spider webs and setting up the front porch to look eerie and spooky for trick-or-treaters. It's all about having fun and that's what I'm all about.

I will not, however dress up as a witch again this year. I do that every year and I think it's getting a little old. I want to try something new. Since I read the Hunger Game series this year, and loved it. I'm thinking maybe Katniss or her Mentor's Effie Trinket. But Effie would be a lot more work and I am not prepared to go that far with it. Katniss would fit me well, so maybe I will go with her.

For inspiration look up Mallory Davis, she has a great inspiration board. Also. I removed all my pictures from this post. Due to copyright infringement. I really don't want to be sued.

My daughter will be a fairy this year so I will be sewing a lot. I am so looking forward to making a costume. I love it with a passion. I will also be making my son into either Dracula or a knight. He wants to be either of these. I will post picks of the costumes when it's done.  

Sushi Bake

Decided to make a Sushi Bake for dinner tonight and I am so glad I did. Thanks to my friend Darlene for making it for the office one day. I love this stuff. I think I'm going to make this for our Halloween Party. It's so easy to make too. The recipe I used called for either imitation crab or real crab. I decided on real crab (from a can).

Here's what it looks like:

Here's what I did to make this yummy deliciousness:

1. Cook 2 cups of Calrose rice according to directions.
2. Boil 1 lb of raw shrimp till pink, drain, and let cool (don't add additional seasonings).
3. Chop the shrimp up into small bite sized piece and put in a mixing bowl. Add two 6 ounce cans of cooked crab, one cup of Sour Cream, 1/2 cup of Mayonnaise and mix this together.
4. Time to assemble in a 13"x9" baking dish. First layer is the cooked rice, then on top of that, lay the shrimp and crab mixture on. Sprinkle a jar of Furikake Seasoning (the one with Bonito Flakes) over the whole dish.
5. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.
6. While baking, Cut Roasted Nori into squares.

Here's how you eat them. Yummy!!!!

I think I had like five of these, they are too good. Someone please stop me....

You can make your own creation or adaptation. Try it with avocado's. Here's the site I used to get the basic recipe from: http://www.yummysf.com/sushi-bake/


You have to try this, so yummy!!! Toodles...Ana

Raised Bed Garden

In May this year, we decided to have an old water-damaged shed removed from our backyard. Left with an open space about 12x12, we decided to grow a garden. I didn't want to plant directly into soil since it could have contained unknown chemicals and debris left over from the torn down shed. Since I'm an organic food grower and very picky about where I grow my food, I decided raised beds were the best way to go. Plus, it's been a long time coming since I wanted to do this.

My always focused husband was able to start the project off. He did some online research and found a great site that gave detailed instructions on how to build the raised beds. The 1st bed measured 3x6 and the 2nd at 3x8. He spent the weekend working on them with our son, so I would say realistically, this is a two day weekend project.

Here's the price breakdown of what it cost to build two raised beds:
Redwood: $175
Hardware: $30
Soil: $200+
Plants: watermelon (sweet baby), cantaloupe, lemon cucumber, green cucumber, 3 heirloom tomato varieties, cherry tomato, okra, pole beans, jalapeno peppers, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, zucchini~$60

WEEK ONE: Raised beds are installed and freshly planted. Officially started the week of June 8th, 2012.



The small raised bed contains Super Soil Garden Soil for flowers and vegetables. The Large Garden bed contains an organic blend from Costco. Note to self: Do not plant basil next to zucchini. The Zucchini leaves eventually grow over the basil, shading it from the sun.

WEEK THREE: Notice the plants are becoming established. We inserted tomato cages. My daughters best friend gave us a pot of Sunflowers. We have a Black Beauty Heirloom Tomato planted in an old wine barrel. This is my fourth year growing tomatoes in it. Highly recommend a barrel for planting if you don't have much land, they work great. My little dog Coco being cute like always. Oh, we also added a nice layer of bark in both the beds for moisture retention. California afternoons can be really hot.




WEEK FOUR: The pole beans are starting up the pole. Plants are starting to thrive and are happy. Have not added any plant food or anything.





Basil on the left corner and center, zucchini on right corner. Note to self: Zucchini will need at least 3-4 ft of growing space. My zucchini ended up shading my basil.

WEEK SIX: Plants have more than tripled in size. 



Here's a close up of the watermelon and cucumber plants.




Here are the heirloom tomato varieties. I love heirloom varieties because they are indeterminate and thrive for a couple of seasons.



Zucchini is about 2ft wide at this point and is flowering. The flowers are so pretty.

WEEKS 8-12: The Garden is in Full bloom and all of my plants are producing. We have harvested a couple of large zucchini's like the one my son is holding. I used half of this one for zucchini bread and the other for stir fry, yummy!


Extra Large Zucchini!





Heirloom Tomato



Yellow Squash- this was so sweet and tender when I sauteed it with garlic, salt & pepper.



All ready for cooking.



Baby Cantaloupe growing..



The Raised Bed Garden after three months of growth.



Cucumbers- Delicious is all I can say!