Help young children (or yourself) use his/her imaginations by making them felt finger puppets to play with. 
These puppets can be made into all sorts of animals or a whole village of people, and they are fun to make as well. This project is also a good way to use up any extra felt you may have in the house.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Cut out two pieces of felt into the same semi-oval shape. Make sure the semi-oval shape will fit over a child's finger.
   • 2
     Sew the two pieces of felt together around the curve of the semi-circle. Keep the stitches close together. Do not sew the bottom of the felt pieces because this is where the child will insert his finger into the puppet.
   • 3
     Turn the sewn puppet inside out. This way you will not see the seams of the thread.
   • 4
     Add details to your puppet by using felt to cut out eyes, a nose, a mouth, buttons and other details. Use strands of yarn for hair. Add these parts using tacky glue or a hot-glue gun; regular glue will not work well to hold the pieces together.

*adapted from ehow.com

Snow White's Magic Apples: A Simply Sweet Halloween Treat

Magic  Apples [ Candied Apples ] – adapted by Just A Taste’s recipe

• 24-30 small crab apples, stem removed
• 24-30 wooden branches, snapped to length
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 3 cups white sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp red food colouring
• candy thermometer

To prep the apples, remove the stems and stick a branch into each core. Boil a pot of water with a tablespoon of white vinegar and dip each apple in for 5 seconds to remove any sort of wax coating [otherwise the candy won't stick]. Pat dry each apple to remove any residue. Prepare 2 baking sheets covered in greased parchment paper, I brushed butter so that the candied apples wouldn’t stick to the paper.In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, water and corn syrup and cook over medium heat. Continue to boil until the temperature reaches 300ºF on the candy thermometer. Do not stir. Once you’ve hit the desired temperature, remove from heat and stir in the food colouring. Be careful as it may spatter a little when you do. Stir gently. Then dip each apple into the mixture and place on greased parchment sheet. Let cool until the candy has completely hardened and enjoy!

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter...

Tonight the city is like a painting from Edward Hopper. It's perfectly construed, but lonely. The wind blows through the flag on the poll, but it is only just the wind. Nothing else. Just wind. The buildings stand alone in the darkness & my body moves through them like paper through skin, leaving a small but painful cut. There are no sounds, only openness, and the slight hope for something new...something...

more.

Only you can't put your finger on it, it's on the tip of your tongue. As your mind rattles, you continue walking ... or at least that's what I did.

I walked underneath the elevated train tracks of Chicago's Brown line; walked to find an open diner, open bar, some form of life. Nothing.

I grew hungrier and more complacent.

I went down the stairs into the subway station. It smelled like piss. It always smelled, like piss.

The CTA workers were MIA so i pushed the handicap gate open and walked through, hoping I'd get caught & corrected...but still, nothing.

I walked down the silent tunnel of concrete and waited. I kicked a piece of  asphalt into the tracks. It echoed the faintest of echos. Minutes went by. I sat down on the bench and waited for my train to come.

& waited.

& waited.

Finally I heard the wind rush through the walk, I could see the lights on the head of that metal devil. It slowed as it saw me. The doors opened & I stepped inside. My subway car was filled with bums curled into balls trying to escape the cold. Even their presence didn't affect me the way it should have, it was still as though nobody was there. I was ultimately alone. I found a seat just before my train car jerked into life as it was free like a bull from its pin.

I didn't know where I was going to. I just knew I needed to get away from my corner of the universe; try something new. So That's exactly what I did. I'm not even going to say where I ended up; that information is unimportant, but I will say that I found a place to call home, and I burned the bridge leading my life back to it.

Roots

Some people have roots in their homeland, they hold a sense of belonging... a sense of purpose, the will, and want and need to nurture. Others, do not.

Other's take their roots with them; they harness them to the bottom of their soles and walk on, unknowing, but proud into that forethought, be it out of necessity or needlessness.

I fall somewhere in between. The gypsy in me, like all of us, was born before into once solid bodies surmised only by the existence of their faith, their paths erased but their souls forever survived by the essence of on thing: Purpose.

I'm relearning my purpose in the world, I'm recognizing my inner need and yearn to help others, and I'm slowly cultivating my outlet for that. The past year or two has been a roller coaster. I've traveled from one end of the country to the other, in a less romantic way than it may seem. I've abandoned ideas and embraced new ones, I'm learning and praying to the goddess to help me see my obstacles as opportunities, and my endings as slowly growing beginnings.

During this duration my faith in the universe and her happenings wavered. I didn't know who I was, let alone if magick truly existed outside my faerie tale mind, but just as person starts to lose their faith, that same faith seems to find it's way back to them.... should it be the right path to travel down.

I went from having a million questions, striving for a million answers, to not bothering to ask nor think a single one. I was disinterested, apathetic, and stagnant. I knew the neutrality of my thoughts were ever-present in all other aspects of myself.

And I didn't see the light. I didn't wake up anew.

I simply recognized this in myself, and chose to be happy. Chose to surround myself by the spiritual belief system that made my mind soar and love prevail so many times before... I picked up again on my pagan roots, I turned again, to Wicca.

I hid this aspect of myself for so long, both because of my unwillingness to explain myself to outsiders and the fear of resentment I was sure to face if my solitary secret leached out.

But confessing something, and professing something so intimate feels like nothing else, and soon I was sharing this secret of mine unto my very best friend, who replied with shining eyes and a face no different than it would have been if we had been talking about her beloved Johnny Depp. She asked me all sorts of questions about the craft. Do I cast spells on people? What is hexing? But it was the last question that made me feels the best about sharing my humanity with her. She looked at me simple and plain and asked "Can we go out for Chinese soon? "

Growing Up

Growing up means a lot of things, it means your heart's going to hurt more, your mind's going to remember less, and your feet are going to mold to different sizes, and different sizes until you don't truly know what's comfortable or not.

growing up means compromising, it means locking yourself up on purpose. My favorite pair of red boots sold at a yard sale for 5o cents. I was six years old, or younger, dancing away on a platform at a farmshow. I twirled on my heels until my laces came undone. I was free. I spent my days in a glorious relief that we, as we grow older, will all come to miss, should we remember ourselves at all.

my life was always rinse and repeat, until a certain March of 2009. After that I was happier, I smiled more, for once it was like I was twirling and twirling. I was home again. I was happy.

This month, it was my heart that went on sale. I'm guessing it's sitting somewhere in a landfill or was used as fishing bait, because it's somewhere now beyond my grasp. And I'm growing up, and I'm scared.

I wonder if people ever stop and think of the stories behind the things they buy, think about the results of hurting someone they lied to. I wonder if they write it off as 'growing up.'

I wonder...

Halloween Decorations for All-Year-Round

 It's that time of year again. Stores pack their shelves with fun and phantasmal halloween decorum....

But this year, instead of rushing to Target or Michaels (although I love both stores, very much,) I have decided to create and share some DIY halloween decor that is sophisticated and charming enough to be used all year around.

 The first "creepy" craft I am going to show you is the very classy and simplistic Specimen Jar Display:

     On your left are three unique "old-styled" jars, filled with popypods, lotus pods, & coneflower heads, topped with water and food coloring to add a nice finishing tint.

     To your right are three specimen jar candles. Same concept as on the left, however these items are vegetables and fruit. Grapes looking like eyeballs, cauliflower looking like a brain, and celery root looking like something equally odd... all of which can be found at your local grocer.

The vegetables are attached to the bottom of the glass container by suction cup (attaching the veg. to the metal and the cup to the glass to secure.)

     Again, these jars have been filled with water, food coloring, and on top about an inch-layer of wax granules found at candlewic.com .

    1-inch granules burn for about an hour, but you can easily re-add granules so that these unique votives can last for a very, very long time.

_________________________________________________________________

      This DYI idea was inspired by a Martha Stewart episode and her Halloween Magazine, which I love but have yet to see in production for this year... sadface. But there are many other magazines for concocting unique crafts that are still very much worth the read.

     Remember, however, when pulling ideas it is equally as easy to make each item uniquely your own.

I find myself in a new city, new surroundings, with equally new people... but just as soon as it shined, it dulls and my old ways come back again, like a bird that doesn't know what freedom is. I neither welcome my old self, nor do I fight her. I generally sit and have a drink with her, we don't compare scars...there is no need...

no, we don't talk at all, we just fold our hands across our laps and sigh. I often wonder why people work so hard to break in shoes, because once they fit just right, there's no going back.... they're good for about another week until they really start to ware...until they rip, or scuff, or just don't polish up so pretty anymore. . . so you just wear them on the weekends and go fishing for some new ones, and they're pretty & swade and they button up the side...

but i'm your favorite old pair of shoes....right?