Cool and Creepy Pumpkins

In light of my  favorite holiday approaching, it's time for tombstones, cob webs, and most notably, pumpkins! Here are some fun ideas to spruce up the regular old jack-o-lantern to make yours stick out from any others on the street!

Hungry Pumpkin
In carving your pumpkin, choose a large pumpkin and make a big mouth with pointy teeth. The mouth should be gaping and have plenty of room. Take a smaller pumpkin or other gourd and either carve or draw a face onto it, making it look like it's screaming. Place this in the mouth of the large pumpkin and you have a cannibalistic vegetable! Other objects/creatures can be placed into a jack-o-lantern's mouth to create a similar lively affect.

Sick Pumpkin
Save all the seeds and "guts" from the hollowing process and place them so they are pouring out of a gaping mouth in the jack-o-lantern. This is simple but very effective and always instigates giggles and attracts attention.

Costumed Pumpkins
Don't limit your pumpkins to just 2-D designs. Have fun experimenting with hats and wigs on your carved pumpkins to complete their transformation from vegetable to decoration. Just make sure that battery operated candles are used instead of real flames to prevent a dangerous fire hazard.

Pumpkin Man and Totem
Take a fully carved pumpkin and secure it on a pole, such as a broomstick, and attack a second short pole perpendicular to it, trying to recreate the body of a man. Dress the "skeleton" in clothes and stuff as you would a scarecrow and stand up in a sturdy position. This method can be converted into a totem pole by stacking multiple pumpkins on top of each other. In these designs the pumpkins shouldn't be lit with a flame.

Mutilated Pumpkin
Take a jack-o-lantern carved with a face of agony or comedy and insert anything you want to give it some character. This could be anything from a knife, to a hatchet, to a fork. Just be sure that wherever the pumpkin is being placed is a spot where people, aka small children, can't have access to the tools.

Mmmm Apple Brownies

The air is getting colder, the leaves are starting to turn, it must be fall. One of my favorite things to do in this wonderful season is go apple picking. I love the concept of selecting my own fruit straight off the tree and nothing can beat the taste of a fresh, crisp apple. More often than not, however, I get overexcited when I go apple picking and I buy way more than I can eat while they are fresh. In breaking away from the usual, but delicious, apple pie, I make our family's recipe for apple brownies. This recipe comes from my great grandmother and she passed it down to us after she made it for years. While they are called brownies, they aren't like the usual chocolate sort that we know of. The original recipe is hard to read and the recipe card is stained and torn, but that adds to the fun and authenticity when we make them. The ingredients are as follows:


1 stick butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
4 cups of apples, chopped into small pieces
1 cup of nuts (optional)


There are no further instructions from my great grandmother, to whom writing down recipes was unheard of. We were lucky just to get her to write down the list of ingredients! You combine the first 4 ingredients, then add the rest. Pour the batter into a greased 13x9 in pan and bake at 350 for around 40 minutes. The brownies will be very moist and they should cool completely before being removed from the pan, although eaten hot and gooey they are quite tasty! They are also delicious served with caramel sauce or vanilla ice cream. Hope you enjoy this tasty fall treat!

Updates!

Just as a heads up I posted the instructions for how to make the all-purpose I SPY grid down as a page. Also I will post which books I reveal the answers to in this area but the answers themselves will be on the appropriately labeled page. I SPY Fantasy is finally done so check it out!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to SniffleNose! The point of this blog is to share ideas for those of us who suffer from boredom on sick days or other occasions in which one is stuck in the house. The inspiration came from one of my personal favorite at-home activities, reading I SPY books. 

Recently, while I was stuck in the confines of my own home, I rediscovered the simple joy of the I SPY book series. It came to my attention that if there was any object that I couldn't locate, there isn't an answer key or way to figure out where it was. There is only so long you can stare at the same page so that searching for the dolphin hiding in the tree or the boot in the bottle before further looking is futile.

My mission is to be the answer for all those souls who just can't find that last item in the riddle, the final requirement before being able to turn the page guilt-free. Using a grid system I will post the coordinates of every required object for each book. I can give instructions on how to construct your own all-purpose grid, compatible with all regular-size I SPY books. A new book will be posted on a monthly basis.

Interspersed with the I SPY answers will also be other fun projects that are good for sick days, rainy days, or days where a little quiet time is needed. Some topics include jewelry making, cooking, household projects and anything else that I find interesting.

Report back for the instructions on how to make the grid so you can start finding!

*Note-Due to copyright limitations I will NOT post any pictures that are directly from the I SPY books.