punch recipes for large groups, and duct tape halloween costume ideas

Happy Halloween! I have not managed to squeeze much in. We made a small jack-o-lantern (because I wanted to toast some pumpkin seeds) which got moldy surprisingly fast, did a pumpkin patch/corn maze thing back in September, cider was mulled sometime last week, and we managed to buy candy last night. We are hoping for trick or treaters tonight, which means I get to haul out my Ren Faire dress and clip some fake hair scrunchies on top of my head, yay! And we have a few more pumpkins to carve.

how to make candy apples! at ljc fyi. they are so pretty.

wine pairings for halloween candy at the splendid table — listen to the segment here

subversive cross stitch via the morning news

They changed the fit of Levi’s 501s? That’s just wrong.

how to carve a pumpkin at the morning news

I adore the Plants in a Can at Mousse. They have lots of types, including “Magic Bean”.

Go check out the site for Love That Boy, an independent film by Andrea Dorfman. (Warning: Flash required, but it’s a cool site.) The main character is a real DIY type, and the site has a section called “Phoebe’s how-tos” full of great projects (including, yes, one of mine). It looks like a great film, but it looks like it’ll be showing for the Canadian audience only (lucky!).

knithappens.com the site for Debbie Stoller’s fabulous new knittting book Stitch ‘n Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook is up. You can preview all the designs in the book, which are so cool you’re gonna swoon, and there is a listing for the book tour — and look! it’s coming here to Seattle at Hilltop Yarn on November 3rd!

Super thanks to Ellen for the heads up! (Ellen has a pattern in the book, congratulations Ellen!)

About two days ago I was walking down the street thinking that what I really want for Christmas are some of those foods I grew up with which I cannot find around here – a case of 50/50 (a lemony grapefruity soda) and a bottle of Stadium Mustard. So I was pleased (ok, I squealed a little) when I saw in the latest Real Simple that you can order my Cleveland mustard from stadiummustard.com. A few other things in the issue which caught my attention – that my favorite cork screw didn’t make it into the groups of ones recommended, and the suggestion to use toupee tape to hem pants.

It was requested that I make a batch of pumpkin seed candy, as it was a hit last year, so I’m digging up the recipe.

I love the milk jug luminaries over at Erica Mulherin.

Now that I live in an area even more damp than before, I’m going to take the advice to place one of those dessicant packs of silica gel in storage with my sewing machines. However, I’m not planning on buying shoes any time soon, and I’m not quite willing to raid Payless for a dozen or so packets. Litter Pearls to the rescue.

Squibnocket shared a recipe for an autumn sausage dish which looks delicious — sausage, appple and cabbage skillet. Yummm.