Always bake from scratch

I have always thought that my grandmother made the best pumpkin pies. When I was little, I didn't really like the crust so she'd make a few special, little pies with no crust at all. Just filling. Just for me. That's love. I'm pretty sure she makes them from the canned pumpkin pie filling but she makes her own crust and always makes about 10 pies every thanksgiving and christmas. That means there is plenty for seconds, plus a pie for anyone who wants one to take home. You think I ever pass that up?

I got so excited the other day when I saw pumpkins at Trader Joe's here in Studio City. They're the first ones I've seen this year. I grabbed a big traditional pumpkin, from the bottom of the bin, and put it in my cart before I headed in. There were beautiful cinderella pumpkins in white and light orange too but they were more than double, so I'll just enjoy the one sitting outside my neighbor's door. I grabbed two mini ones from the produce section annnnnnnd one for a pumpkin pie! There was a sticker on it with the whole simple recipe so I grabbed some pumpkin pie spice, picked up a can of condensed milk and the thing was gone 2 days later. Between just me and Chase mind you. And I had extra batter so I even made myself two little crust-less pies. Yes they are all gone. Now there's no need to compare here, but my pies hold some pretty fierce competition to my Gram's. If it weren't for all the love she pours into the task... This is the grandma who taught me to love clay and sew and gave me an art room to do it all in.

The recipe is super simple and I simplified it further! If you have a TJ's, you can grab these perfect sized little babies and some of their pumpkin pie spice (which has nutmeg and clove and all the other spices a pumpkin pie calls for) and then get some condensed milk from the normal grocery cause they don't carry that horrendous, deliciousness.

*Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F
*Cut the pumpkin in half without the stem and scoop out all the gunk
*Bake the sides face down for an hour and a half
*Scoop out the flesh when it's cool to work with
*add an egg
*add the spices (I just added like 5 tsp of the
pumpkin pie spice, you can add more if you want it stronger!)
*add the can of condensed milk and viola!
*Blend it all together, fill your pie tins and bake for about an hour

Soooooooo Delicious and rich and flavorful. When I bake, I always bake from scratch and there is a good reason. Everything comes together so much better, no matter how simple the recipe, when it's made from scratch, there's no comparison!

corseted fairies and eskimo animals

Okay, I've been away for a while. Busy busy! So many wonderful things!

First, I am finished with fairy training and I'm flying out to my first party tomorrow! Oh my goodness, I'm super duper excited! What an amazing job, I mean, I dress up in gorgeous fluffy skirts and corsets and big flowered wings and I face paint and do magic shows and balloon animals while kids proceed to ask me if I know Tinkerbell and the Tooth Fairy. Oh my gosh, so much fun. And I not only received the most beautiful fairy costume in all the land but also a magician, a pirate, a circus girl....So many new corsets, so many sparkles! So this is all I do now! I'm a fairy and a crafter and someday someone will pay me to act, after all, that's what I spent thousands and thousands of dollars going to school for but alas, this will have to keep me for the time being. I'm not complaining.

I am waiting and waiting and waiting for the magazine to come out so I can get a little more exposure in my shop. It is almost a month late! I just have to keep telling myself that it will come out eventually. I saw the new cover so I know it's in the works. Patience isn't one of my best attributes. I have been rearranging and adding to my shop though. My little etsy box on here has some new stuff in it. I'm really in love with my new brooches and paper clay and everything you can do with it. I've kind of fallen in love with painting which I was never really good at before but I guess it's good practice for both jobs now. I am dying to do the Unique LA art show this holiday season. It looks like one of the BEST, HANDMADE, LOCAL, QUALITY, art shows I have ever seen! And they get sooooooo many shoppers in the two days it happens in. I grew up doing art shows with my mother and I always get so excited when I see craft tables at events, I want to do one on my own now! It's just super expensive and that is the catch of an art show. You have to pay A LOT for your space and usually a percentage of what you make which may not be the case with Unique LA but it's still a lot of work and money to make it happen. So once I have enough for a table, I'll send in my application!

Let's see, I think that's all for now. We won the Sunkist contest, Cameron is amazing and always wins those things. And I learned how to play Scrabble. We are going to Disney on the 1st with Chase's family. It's a Saturday and they just opened it for Halloween so the lines and crowds will be a beast but I'm so excited to go on my Little Mermaid ride!!!

Okay, happy Friday all! Have a lovely sunny weekend if you're in LA.... I want the fall to come already!

Balloon twisting requires great valor

When twisting balloons, you must have the confidence that the balloon will not pop no matter how tight the twist may seem or you'll never finish a shape. And when it DOES pop, because it will, you get another and do it again. The other night I sat down to finish learning my balloons. I watched inspector gadget, labrynth, and dunston checks in while twisting and popping and growing a very large pile on the floor. I let chase pop them all the next day but I saved a balloon flower bouquet and left it on his sister's door step. She was so confused she finally called two days later to ask if we knew anything about them and if I was learning balloons for my new job. hehehe, success....that just there sounded really nerdy. I'm leaving it.

Before the night out! 

We went to the lobster fest in Long beach and oooooh my goodness what fun! We danced and drank and ate so much lobster and I got a GIANT cotton candy! Then we all cleaned up and went for a night out where people kept handing me gummy bear drinks and how can you turn down something that smells like a bag of gummies?! That kind of night is very infrequent for me now that I'm out of school and more susceptible to hang overs. Thank goodness I'm just a crafter lady during the weeks now so I was able to take it easy. But, I can never just do nothing so with a dizzy head and shaky body, I had a photo shoot for my newest items and listed them in my shop. I had to be a LITTLE productive!

Lobster fest 2011

This weekend we will finish fairy training and have a photo shoot of our own and be added to the company officially! My life is just so whimsical right now! 

happy halloween!

'I put a spell on you, and now you're mine' by thenakedbird

it's thundering in LA with storm warnings. Time to watch Hocus Pocus!

Wicked witch. Unusu... HoneyCase2 $25.00	Custom Size Peach a... Glamtastik $250.00	Ghost Pumpkins - Fa... AmeliaKayPhoto... $32.00	Halloween owl - Han... jolucksted $7.00
Black Cat Halloween... oldworldprimit... $28.00	landscape photogaph... AmandaRaeK $65.00	Hand Printed Pumpki... RusticCountryC... $26.00	Bear Art Print - Ch... frighten $25.00
Wicked Weeds dried ... offthetop $15.00	Licorice Spice Tea TempestsTempta... $5.00	vintage deadstock G... capricorne $64.00	French antique book... LucieTalesVint... $14.00
Halloween black ca... Raceytay $11.25	Black and clear swi... LaurenceCollec... $28.50	SPELLS Halloween Bl... SmittenLovely $21.00	Skull and Bones Nec... kbjhandmade $34.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Wild things

'Wild things halloween' by thenakedbird

Chemistry of Little... ShinyPennies $27.00	Faux taxidermy anim... PlanetFur $35.00	Organic Lemon Cucum... cubits $3.50	Seed Bombs - Indoor... visualingual $7.00
Print of a hunting ... plastinate $25.00	8 oz. Matcha Green ... FusionSweets $19.00	Furry Monster Slipp... babycricket $40.00	Flora - Altered Ant... frighten $25.00
Creepy Recycled Cra... buppins $7.00	18x24 Vintage Anato... curiousprints $20.00	Assorted Parisian M... CandiedMeringu... $34.50	Where the Wild Thin... literaryluxe $7.00
Pumpkin Cheesecake ... sakurabathandb... $5.50	Mom's Frankenst... KbOriginalsetc $19.75	Classic Dough, Boy&... allsewnup $13.00	Two Green Tomatoes TheLuxFarm $39.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Look at this fun Halloween treasury I whipped up! So many creative things in here! 

I'm waiting for my bolognese sauce to finish and I'm going to top some spaghettis squash with it and open a bottle of red wine! yum yummmmmmm. Hope everyone is having a good start to their weekend! 

A dream is a wish, your heart makes

Look! Lollipop Dream posted some photos of the Brunch with Snow White and Cinderella (me) I did a couple of months ago. I will be there again this Saturday as Cinderella, with Belle! If you're in the area with little kiddos, this is a fun event! All the info is on the website. It's so sweet to see the kids' smiles! They love to tell you all about your story and ask how other characters are. And I take pride in my princess knowledge!  
I forgot to respond to an audition today! Maybe I can still catch them by email in the morning.

I did a cardio barre class in hollywood with instructor chelsea and it kicked my butt! It was a beginner class too and it was just way too much! So I did some yoga yesterday instead and even squeezed in some cardio after! My body is so sore! But I have not fainted again so that's a plus! I've gotta work up to doing another class at cardio barre but it's definitely a routine I could enjoy doing! And I ran into my friend Shelby in the class, it was such a fun surprise!
I listed a new little zombie girl doll today in my etsy shop. What has Chase done to me?! I am more excited for The Walking Dead to start again than I am for Modern Family! But I am nearly finished with a skinny pink santa so hopefully he'll be ready to post tomorrow, and balance my store with more whimsy. There are so many halloween things in there right now!
I want to do an art show! They are so expensive but they can be such wonderful networking opportunities and I just love em! I grew up with my mother doing Sugar Plum shows so the smells of sanded wood, fresh paints, and baked goods fill me with such happy feelings!
Everyone have a happy friday! The weeks seem to be passing so quickly these days!

Clean up, clean up!

Before...uh oh...

After! (I'm in the middle of a project here)

I'm sitting here waiting for the sun to get a little brighter in the living room so my new little creatures can start their photo shoot. Usually around 1pm I have a window of about an hour...I hate living in such an unlit apartment! So depressing! Wait till you see what I've done this time! I sat at my craft table for probably about 9 hours straight yesterday, finishing my sweet little paper clay mini dolls. So I'm not allowed to work on any Etsy stuff today until I finish practicing my face painting and balloon twisting for happilyeverlaughter and I should probably get some exercise! I did clean my table up though! It's so much easier to work and find things! And it makes me feel much more calm! My Grandma (a marriage and family therapist) wants to help me with my stress. haha. She's so cute, she worries and always wants to help, but it is true, I'm a very high-anxiety/worrisome/stressed individual!
I THINK the issue of Child Style Magazine, that is featuring my boogie monster cupcake toppers is coming out this month but I'm not sure! I can't find anywhere that says when new issues come out or where to buy them! Anyone?...
I really want french toast...but I should probably have something healthier. I really want coffee today but I should probably stick to my usually tea.
Oh! Jilly! My best friend since high school, is coming to visit me again at the end of the month!!! ah! I'm so happy, so excited! A lot of my closest friends live so far away so I don't get to see them often but it's such a treat when we do have time to visit! I'm going to make an itinerary! I'm going to get tickets for us to see the Ellen show and maybe the price is right, and we are gonna get our nails done, and go out at night, and maybe go to Disney, and downtown LA, wholesale shopping. My resale license just came in the mail! I've lived in LA for so long, now I actually know where the good places to go are and fun things to do! Hopefully it will be cooler by then. It's been sooooo hot this last month. I'm so excited for Fall!  It's my favorite time of the year. The colors and smells and weather and the decorations...The start of all the holidays:) It makes me so happy. Speaking of which, isn't my paint pallet so Halloween-ish!?
Happy Friday friends!