Late Halloween, and a little update

Remember those coffee cans I turned into canisters?  A bit of an update on those.  First off -- don't spray paint bendy plastic lids.  Bad mojo.  Apparently acrylic paint works just fin, because I used it on an ice cream bucket.  But spray paint is more brittle, and the paint flakes off really fast.  Painting the inner circle of the lid, like where a label would go, would work out perfect.  I also found that with the creative use of a pastry tamper 5 lbs of flour will fit in a 36 oz coffee can.

Fin insisted on carving pumpkins for Halloween.  I've never carved a pumpkin before.  Well, let me amend that.  I attempted to carve a pumpkin once around the age of 14.  It ended with a fountain of blood (literally, I severed an artery), a trip to the ER, several stitches, and a wide berth around the pumpkin patch thereafter.  But, she was all little kid excited, and it was kind of contagious.  She also had a pumpkin carving kit that has these itty bitty little blunt saw blades in it.  I felt like it would be very difficult for me to have a repeat performance with something so harmless.

I was right :-P  The pumpkin on the left is mine, the one on the right is Fin's :-)  It was fun, and I think I might carve a pumpkin next year without prodding LOL.

A side effect of pumpkin carving is pumpkin seeds.  Elise at Simply Recipes has a recipe for Roasted Pumpkin Seeds.  I mostly followed her recipe.  I did the boiling in the salt thing, and the baking thing.  But before I baked them I drizzled lime juice all over them then dusted them with chili powder.  The idea was chili lime flavored nuts.  It didn't work out quite as intended, because the lime juice didn't hold it's flavor after roasting.  They were very good, nonetheless.  B actually LIKES THEM!!!!

He hates pumpkins.  He hates the smell.  He hates the feel.  He hates the taste.  Blah blah blah.  The boy has a serious prejudice against squashes of all varieties.  I have tricked him into eating them several times (squash), and on most of those occasions he has had NO clue.  So I bullied him into tasting the seeds.  He actually eats the whole things.  I insist on shelling them.  The shells take way too much time to chew satisfactorily, but I do like to suck the chili pepper off the outsides first.

All of this was accomplished before Halloween.

Halloween night, we were supposed to go trick-or-treating with Fin, Fin's midget, and the Pup.  That kind of fell through when it took B over 2 hours to paint my face.  But he really did an awesome job with the face painting, and it was fun for both of us.  We ended up finishing up right about the time trick-or-treat ended, so we went to dinner.  Ironically, we went to Red Lobster.  I was tempted to order a can of tuna LOL.

 I think B did a great job with my makeup.  My face is still breaking out from all that grease paint, but it was fun.  The silly grin kind of ruins the effect of the makeup.  It looks better with my mouth closed, but then you couldn't see my super cute vampire fangs turned kitty teeth.

 Fin was a pretty kitty, too.  She had some ballet flats that she painted black and gold tiger stripes, and some adorable kitty ears that she made, but this was post trekking all over housing , so she was pooped.

I bought the dress, but I already had the petticoat.  I made the leggings, mittens, and tail (the tail is actually on my lap there under my paw).  I made an ear, too, but it didn't work right in combination with the hat, so I left the ear off.  I've still got it, as well as all the other bits of my costume.  It may either get worn again, or get reincarnated into a new idea next year.