Friday, November 1, 2013

After-Halloween sales: Great way to save on next year’s purchases

It’s the day after Halloween, and while many are taking down decorations, clearing away candy bowls and putting away costumes, savvy shoppers are taking advantage of the plentiful after-Halloween sales. From costumes to decorations, shopping after Halloween sales can ensure you find items you’ll continue to use for multiple seasons to come at an incredibly low price. Just about every store that sold Halloween items will have a clearance or mark down section now that the holiday is over and the rush to get Thanksgiving items to the forefront is on.


Some of the most popular after-Halloween sales include great discounts on items such as hats, wigs, costumes, table settings, candy bowls, jack-o-lantern and pumpkin decorations and home decor. While this is a good time to find great markdowns on items such as makeup and candy, it isn’t recommended to buy these items and save them for a year. Both candy and makeup might not expire within a year if they remain unopened, but they won’t be as fresh as buying closer to the holiday. These items are a good sales choice if they are going to be used quickly. Focus on using this time to save on next year’s costumes. You can also purchase multiple costumes for other purposes as well. Think of masquerade balls, costume parties, children’s dress up, plays, etc., and you quickly realize how beneficial it is to take advantage of after-Halloween sales.


Here are a few links to get you motivated for online after-Halloween sales. Make sure to check out the good at your local stores this weekend as well.


Wal-Mart.com USA, LLC
Sales & Promotions on Joann.com!





Monday, October 28, 2013

How to roast pumpkin seeds (photos, videos)


A long staple with Halloween, roasting pumpkin seeds is one family activity that everyone enjoys. It’s common practice to scoop out pumpkins then prepare pumpkin seeds for roasting and enjoying their tasty goodness. Not only are roasted pumpkin seeds delicious, but they are nutritious as well. Pumpkin seeds contain magnesium, zinc, iron, and essential fats such as Omega 3 and Omega 6. You may eat both hulled and unhulled pumpkin seeds though some find the hulls a bit more difficult to chew. There are pumpkins available that contain seeds without hulls. When properly selected, washed and dried, roasted and stored; pumpkin seeds will keep up to two weeks.

In order to have delicious pumpkin seeds, you need to start by choosing ripe and mature pumpkins. If the seeds appear to have any discoloration or mold they must be discarded immediately and not used. If you prefer pumpkin seeds without hulls, it is best to choose that specific pumpkin variety as the process of removing hulls from pumpkin seeds is long and tedious.

After you’ve carved the pumpkin, you’ll want to remove all traces of the orange, stringy fibers that often attach themselves to the seeds. This is best accomplished by wiping off the fibers with a paper towel. After you’ve removed the fibers, place the seeds in a bowl or pot of cold water and rinse them off. Now that the pumpkin seeds are thoroughly cleaned, they will need to be dried.

It is important to dry pumpkin seeds even before roasting. Some choose to boil the seeds before roasting in an oven or microwave. Those who prefer to boil seeds should rinse them off, then add them to salted water and let them boil for 30 minutes. Boiling is not a necessary step and is just a matter of personal preference; however, it should be stated that many people feel boiling the seeds first locks in the deep, roasted flavor.

Drying pumpkin seeds is a critical step for ensuring perfect pumpkin seeds. Keep in mind that drying and roasting your pumpkin seeds are two separate processes. If you wash then roast your pumpkin seeds, they will not come out correctly.

There are several methods by which you may dry pumpkin seeds. One way is to let them air dry in the sun. This takes at least six hours, but exposes your seeds to various insects and wind-carried debris depending upon your local environment. You may use a commercial dehydrator set to between 115° and 120°F for between 1 and 2 hours. Dry pumpkin seeds in an oven by spreading them on a cookie sheet and placing them in an oven set on warm for between 3 and 4 hours. Make certain to move the seeds at various times to prevent them from sticking together or burning. Once pumpkin seeds are dried, they are ready for roasting.

There is no set way to roast pumpkin seeds, and many people choose family recipes or experiment until they find the results that best fits their tastes. Here are some of the most popular ways to roast dried pumpkin seeds.

Seasoning Methods

When roasting pumpkin seeds, you can choose from a variety of seasonings. The most common methods are to mix butter or olive oil with salt and cover the seeds in the mixture before roasting in an oven set at 300° for approximately 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Some popular seasoning choices include onion and garlic salt, chili powder, cumin and sea salt. Create a sweet and spicy seasoning by combining 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon allspice and 2 tablespoons of sugar as a coating. Adjust seasoning measurements depending upon the amount of seeds you are roasting.

Check out the video below for some more seasoning ideas for roasted pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin Seeds photo from Heather Heather Heather


Video tutorial: How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Terrifyingly creepy and scary old Halloween photos, Haunted Air



I have no idea if any of these photos are under copyright or not. From the looks of it, they are old enough to have passed into the public domain, but I can't tell who the original source of the photos is. What I can tell, is that by performing a Google search for "scary old Halloween" photos, or "terrifying old Halloween costumes" or even "creepy old Halloween costumes," I found enough images to scare me more than any horror film of the 21st century ever could.

Granted, I scare easy. I quit reading Stephen King novels at 18, when I read "It" before bedtime and had the most traumatizing nightmares of my life. I refuse to read anything by King and never, ever, ever would I select King as night reading. I turn my head from gruesome and bloody scenes in movie (think Law and Order and Dexter) and absolutely never, ever, ever watch "horror" films; though I have watched American Horror Story, which I find extremely creepy.

So, when I say that these are terrifyingly creepy and scary old Halloween photos, I absolutely mean it. If any child today were to don one of these costumes, I fear parents would shuffle their children out of the trick and treat neighborhood trails, stop off at the local grocers and pick up a bag of candy and let their kids feast on them in the safety of home. Most likely with doors locked and blinds pulled.

These costumes are just plain creepy and can teach Michael, Freddy and Jason a thing or two in the scare department.

Like I said, I have no idea where these photos originated as they were from a Google search. If anyone has claimed ownership (maybe they are actually modern-day, photo-shopped montages) I will gladly take them down. Just say the word.

Now...for the terrifyingly creepy and scary old Halloween photos.

Be brave...be very, very brave.



In addition to Google, I did find some photos on a Tumblr called "Haunted Air" that seems to be a book that contains anonymous photos. I am assuming some of these photos are in the book.

Here is the description of "Haunted Air" with a link to the Amazon book from the site.

Anonymous Halloween photographs from c.1875–1955—truly haunting Americana, with a foreword by David Lynch

The photographs in Haunted Air provide an extraordinary glimpse into the traditions of this macabre festival from ages past, and form an important document of photographic history. These are the pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementos of the treasured, now unrecognizable, and others. The roots of Halloween lie in the ancient pre–Christian Celtic festival of Samhain, a feast to mark the death of the old year and the birth of the new. It was believed that on this night the veil separating the worlds of the living and the dead grew thin and ruptured, allowing spirits to pass through and walk unseen but not unheard amongst men.

The advent of Christianity saw the pagan festival subsumed in All Souls' Day, when across Europe the dead were mourned and venerated. Children and the poor, often masked or in outlandish costume, wandered the night begging "soul cakes" in exchange for prayers, and fires burned to keep malevolent phantoms at bay. From Europe, the haunted tradition would quickly take root and flourish in the fertile soil of the New World. Feeding hungrily on fresh lore, consuming half–remembered tales of its own shadowy origins and rituals, Halloween was reborn in America.

The pumpkin supplanted the carved turnip; costumes grew ever stranger, and celebrants both rural and urban seized gleefully on the festival's intoxicating, lawless spirit. For one wild night, the dead stared into the faces of the living, and the living, ghoulishly masked and clad in tattered backwoods baroque, stared back.
















































Saturday, October 26, 2013

Free Hello Kitty and other character pumpkin carving and painting stencils (videos, photos)

Here is a really cute and easy project young girls can participate in this Halloween: Hello Kitty pumpkins!

The very creative could simply draw out Hello Kitty on a pumpkin then use various white, pink, black and glitter paints and decorative items to dress up their creations. Those who are less trusting in their artistic abilities can use a stencil to make certain their Hello Kitty is exact and perfect.

Photo and stencils from Cartoon Jr.com

The majority of the following pumpkin stencils are in PDF format and are ready for downloading and printing.The first is Hello Kitty, while the other stencils are for characters and pumpkin creations you may find fun to make. Keep in mind that with stencils, you don’t have to carve. You can always break out the paints, glitter, material, glue, and other craft items and use your selected pumpkin carving stencil as a pattern.

Here are some wonderful Hello Kitty and other character pumpkin carving and painting stencils.

Hello Kitty pumpkin (witch) stencil
Hello Kitty stencil
Hello Kitty in cape stencil
Funky Lunch Hello Kitty stencil 
Mickey Mouse pumpkin stencil
Minnie Mouse pumpkin stencil
Izzy pumpkin stencil  
Jake
Nick Jr. pumpkin stencils
Tinker Bell pumpkin stencil 
Snow White pumpkin stencil
Captain Hook pumpkin stencil
Doc McStuffins pumpkin stencil 
Nemo pumpkin stencil
Barack Obama stencil 
Ichabod’s Fate stencil 
CandelaBoo (ghost stencil)
Fatty Batty (bat stencil)
Say Spookies (skull stencil) 
Stews and Boos (witch stencil)
Headless Horsie (Ichabod Crane stencil) 
Happy Hal (jack-o-lantern stencil)
Four pumpkin carving templates
Halloween pumpkin carving guidelines
How to make pumpkin carving stencils from photos (these instructions aren’t exact as they are for one photo editing program, but with a little ingenuity, you can easily adjust them for your photo editing software and create your own stencils.)

Free pumpkin stencils from The Pumpkin Lady. Includes Full House, Jesse, Etched Ribbon Reminder, Everybody’s Uncle, Ribbon Reminder, Garth, Bean, America the Beautiful, Hats Off, Funhouse Master (creepy clown), Far Out, and Ted.

Cruella de Ville pumpkin stencil 


 For more fun, check out the Hello Kitty pumpkin carving video tutorial below.