October Brings Pumpkin Patches and Trick or Treating

October.

October, what does it mean to you?
For us, it means pumpkins, costumes, candy, and decorating. Well, thats what I hope my kids see it as. For me personally it means I have a few weeks to purchase material, make a costume (or two), and clean out and carve pumpkins as well as decorate the entire house. This year, since we just moved into this house I really didn't have a lot of energy to decorate, so our decorations consisted of a few carved pumpkins and a few big bags filled with packing paper that look like pumpkins. We seriously spent $3 on the plastic bag pumpkins and we had so much packing paper (free) which turned out pretty cute.

We spent about two hours at the local pumpkin patch here near Beale AFB. It was a lot more then we were expecting. It had about 3 different pumpkin patch areas, several food/dessert vender areas, a cute petting zoo, a small train, and so much more. We took our time and checked out the large pumpkin area. These pumpkins were the sizes of our oldest (almost 2 years old), and he had the time of his life running around touching all of them. A small family photo shoot was, of course, in order.

Once we attempted a few family photos, a-t-t-e-m-p-t-e-d; we went to check out the petting zoo area. The petting zoo was cute. You could feed the chickens and goats, and touch them as well. They had a stand where you could purchase the food and a large area with sinks and soap to clean up after you touch the animals. We didn't grab any of the food or try any of the pies or cookies, because the lines were outrageously long (not to mention the amount of money they wanted for the items). So instead we decided to walk over and pick out our pumpkins and head back home. Our oldest, Brian was having a serious melt down by this point and looked like he needed a nap.

We grabbed a few pumpkins and my husband purchased their "apple cider" to try. He liked it, but for me it just tasted like apple JUICE! It wasn't anything like I have had thats been called cider. I thought it was a waist of money, but my husband was happy with it.

After about a week or so of having our pumpkins we finally carved them, on Halloween! Yeah I know, we are so great with our time and know how to manage it so well (*sarcasm*)! Our oldest had a blast scooping the inside, but only with a spoon. We could NOT get him to stick his hand inside the pumpkin. Once the pumpkins were cleaned out, my husband and I of course carved them. We had one small pumpkin and I carved 2013 into it, and we painted the boys hand and foot and placed those on the pumpkin. Those tiny ones are to hard to carve, so we enjoyed the paint instead!

Of course I usually enjoy a few Halloween projects, but instead the day before Halloween I was in surgery. You can find that story over here and Ill update you all soon.

With that, I say Happy Halloween,
Sarah

Its an All American Kind of a Day!

Today I spent working on a promotion cake for a cake order. I was lucky enough to have a coffee in the fridge (thanks to my amazing husband), and a happy little guy (my son) who was willing to eat, nap and play without too much attention! The promotion cake is one I have done before, so making it this time around was a little easier. 

My day was simple, work on making icing for the cake, get it covered and decorated. The fondant work seemed to take up just as much time, if not more, then the icing. Which was exhausting! My son and I woke up around 8:45am, we had breakfast, and then I began to work on the cake order. I was able to finish the cake by the time my husband walked in the door from work, at 5pm or so. I have to say it was perfect timing!

Heres the sneak peek I have for the cake. I will photograph the cake tomorrow and ill hopefully get around to posting the full cake photos then. 

I have to say I love making cakes, decorating them, and being creative, as well as trying new things. However, making the same style cakes over and over again kind of bores me. I can only hope that each opportunity I have to make a cake will be a fun adventure! 

On the other hand, I have been busy these past few weeks getting items ready for my sons birthday party in a few weeks. I recently made a monster pajama eater. I found the tutorial, thanks to an amazing friend of mine. Heres all the details as well as the tutorial: Monster PJ Eater Tutorial

I attempted this guy:

I think he turned out okay! Especially since this was my first time sewing a zipper in! I know, huge success there! It was even my first time using my zipper foot and trying to figure out which one it was. That was fun! I can only wait now until my sons birthday to see if he likes this little guy!

Tomorrow, after the cake is delivered and out of sight, I hopefully will be able to make a maternity dress for my baby shower next month! I found a great tutorial here: maxi dress tutorial and all I can do is hope I dont some how screw it up! The fabric I got was on sale, and the sale has ended, so I just hope the dress turns out ok. Also, I am going to use a t-shirt, as its still kind of winter. Not to mention ill be in California for my shower, so if its hot or cold a t-shirt is the best way to go. 

Well, everyone thanks for joining me on my cake/sewing adventure today! Please come back tomorrow and check out the dress, cake, and anything else I have time to make!

Sarah