Bess, the English witch. She has a broom and a cat with a large round head.

Here's Heidi, Miss Switzerland.
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She's a 5 foot plastic skeleton. Her hair is a piece of yellow material braided on the ends, and duct taped to the head. Her eyes are blue plastic gemstones glued into the sockets. The sockets and mouth areas were colored in with black permanent marker.
The red sweater is stuffed with plastic grocery bags; the vest is 2 yellow bags, clipped and tied into shape. There is a kerchief on the back of the head that doesn't show from this side.
The bottom is just a dance petticoat with a fleece-like skirt over the top,
It still needs the trim on the vest, but she is basically finished.

S'mores on a stick Easy, but kids just love them...

barbecue skewers
marshmallows
chocolate (or Candy Melts)
graham crackers, crushed

Put three marshmallows on each skewer.
Melt chocolate on shallow plate in microwave.
Roll marshmallow skewers in chocolate, spooning to cover any bare spots.
Roll in graham cracker crumbs.
Let cool until set. Be prepared for a sugar shock.
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I'm going to use these (with 4 marshmallows) to make cattails for a duckpond on a birthday cake.

I have started my Halloween display, a Halloween Beauty Pageant.
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This lady is the beauty contestant from the North Pole.

To create her, I started with a stuffed snowman. Then made a garland of silk poinsettias, and sewed them to her head as 'hair' (at this point her hair is not complete). Her skating outfit is made from about 2-inch wide shiny green fabric strips, braided to create the bodice, and left to dangle down to form the skirt.

I will tweak her further as I have more of the contestants made. (The fellow in the background is "The Baron", he's holding some of the trims for me while I work.)

I realized I never posted the Directions for ...
Crystallized Sugar Eggs, you just mix sugar with enough water until it gets like sand for sandcastles.
(If you want a fine crystal, use superfine sugar; if a larger sparkle, just use regular. For a stronger egg, you can add egg white. I don't because too many people are avoiding eggs, and kids like to eat them. )
Pack your mold, and level off. Turn over onto a cookie sheet, remove mold. After you remove them from the molds, cut an equal amount from each end for the 'peep' hole, and butt the 2 together. That keeps the area from drying out like the outside shell.

Here you have 2 options: let dry naturally, or use a very low oven.

When you have a dry shell, pick it up and carefully spoon out the still damp sugar mix, leaving an equal width shell all around. Be careful with the edges of the peep hole. Set back down and let it dry the rest of the way.
When both sides are thoroughly dry, add your designs to the inside, and put together with royal icing.
Pipe along the seam, and add any decorations. Let dry, package, and give away.
That's it.
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The Molds you use are just the plastic eggs. They come in 2 parts. You can buy them at Michael's or JoAnne Fabric or just at the dollar store.
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Exactly the same technique is used for Christmas ornaments; or to make sugar cubes and decorate them for fancy tea parties or weddings, as well. It's much cheaper than buying them, and you can choose your own size. My daughter's friends used to love those, when she was little.
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Found you some directions with pictures.
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf334674.tip.html

I've been hunting more Christmas decoration patterns. I found some cute vintage ones for bells, stars and trees wearing little winter hats. I have some vintage trims that I think will look right. I need to go to the storage unit today and dig out my boxes of fabric.

The weather has been more like fall than summer recently, so I've been trying out some cold weather dishes. The original recipe was stuffed in a pumpkin instead of including the puree. I just baked it in a bowl like I do extra bread stuffing at Thanksgiving. Your time may vary depending on how wet you like your stuffing. The family liked it. I used mixed hazelnuts and pecans instead of walnuts, and regular raisins instead of golden ones.
Fall Fruit Stuffing serves 6
1 can pumpkin puree
6 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 (16 ounce) can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dark rum (optional)

2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root
1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
In a large oven-proof bowl, stir together first 8 ingredients. Season with ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and mix well.
Heat oven to 350 degrees, bake for about an hour.
variation: Pumpkin puree may be omitted, and stuffing served spooned over pound cake or pumpkin bread, and garnished with whipped cream.
Reviews^^TRACYSUE Nov. 11, 2003 I experimented with this at our Halloween party, I served it with sliced pumpkin pound cake. It was devoured. I did have a little left that would not fit in the pumpkin, I warmed it up and served it over vanilla ice cream, yum-yum. I can't wait to serve this for Thanksgiving.^^ ;; CYNKUEN Oct. 28, 2004 Beautiful presentation and delicious! I mixed the leftovers in oatmeal for breakfast the next day. It did take me longer than the recipe stated to get the pumpkin soft enough to mix in.;;
original recipe (stuffed in a pumpkin instead of including pumpkin puree) from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Stuffed-Pumpkin/Detail.aspx