Gremlin Pumpkin

     This year I was super excited to decorate for Halloween. My husband and I just got married and it would be our first Halloween living together. Alas, all of our Halloween plans have been foiled and we abruptly had to pack up all of our things and move out of our little apartment. So it was a no-go on any big Halloween decor. 
     I did get to do a few things though, like pick up two darling little pumpkins for 50 cents each. :) 
Our kittens thought they were toys and tore them up pretty badly, but I think that adds to their creepy charm.   I was inspired from Pinterest with this picture, 

     My little gremlin doesn't look quite as beauteous as the inspiration picture, but I had a couple of struggles. One, the kittens tore my pumpkin up, and two, those vampire teeth don't close like they do in the second picture. Make sure if you do this that the vampire teeth overlap... otherwise you'll have to cut them in half like I did. 

     I entered my little pumpkin into a pumpkin carving contest; but I don't expect to win anything. He is just silly and I thought the judges might get a smile from him. These are some of the pictures I entered. 

     I hope everyone has a happy Halloween! Make sure to put your kitties inside and to take some hot apple cider in a thermos for your trick-or-treating endeavors! 

~Chantille

Homemade Potpourri

My husband and I just moved into a REALLY old house. It is a tiny little thing; with one bedroom and one bathroom. Sometimes old houses have kind of a musty smell... and this house seriously smells weird. In an effort to change the smell in here I decided to try making some stovetop potpourri. I found this recipe via Pinterest and have just returned from the grocery store with my ingredients. 

My Favorite Potpourri Recipe

1 lemon cut in fourths

1 apple cut in fourths

1 orange cut in fourths

2 or 3 cinnamon sticks

Water to cover

Place in a pan and simmer.

      I obviously chose this recipe because it was her favorite potpourri. The site has quite a few recipes that are more elaborate, but I'm a simple girl (ahem... lazy) so I just sort of skimmed over the ones with more ingredients. 

When I was telling my husband all about my new project he was curious to know the actual definition of potpourri ( he was being a turd and felt like teasing me ;P ) and the results were quite interesting.

A mixture of dried petals and spices. A mixture of things, esp. a musical medley.

What we discovered is that anyone could say that basically any mixture is potpourri. :)

Pot Pourri - Herbert James Draper

Isn't this painting lovely? I wish I looked this beautiful while making my potpourri. (which I still can't smell?) I stumbled upon it while looking up photos of potpourri. 

 We'll see how this turns out... so far I haven't smelled a thing, but it's still heating up. Do I stir potpourri? Did I cut the fruit correctly? All the pictures I saw looked like this.

   

What are some of your favorite potpourri smells? Do you make it yourself, or buy it pre-made? I hope my first blog post was informative and inspiring!! :)

~Chantille