Halloween Posts Round Up

1. Scream Cheese Brownies and Ghost-y Brownies. 

2. Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes Recipe

3. Pictures of our pumpkin steps. 

4. D.I.Y. Glitter Squash. 

5. D.I.Y. Studded Squash.

Halloween Baking

With only a few hours left till Halloween (YAY!) I thought I'd share some fun Halloween baking I've been doing recently. First I had to make some Scream Cheese Brownies. I found the recipe on the Betty Crocker website. Like my pumpkin cupcake recipe, this one's also a bit of a cheat as it uses brownie mix, but the results are so awesome that I definitely don't care at all!  

Then, to make the brownies EVEN MORE awesome I turned them into Marshmallow ghost brownies using another Betty Crocker method. This is one of the easiest but most effective cake decorating methods I've ever used and I loved how the spooky little brownies turned out. Unfortunately once I'd finished the brownies and left them out on a cake stand for everyone to see, my extremely fat cat Badger came along and decided what he really felt like for dinner, much more than catfood, was 8 little marshmallow ghosts. I think it's safe to say that the ghosts met with a pretty terrifying end. I just hope they gave him scary nightmares to pay for his horrid crime. 

I'm going to my first Halloween party in three years tomorrow! Which is pretty scary but also kind of exciting. I'm dressing up as a cat which I KNOW sounds boring but I think I'm gonna make it pretty awesome (hopefully). I'll be doing a round up of all my Halloween posts tomorrow so check back for some fun ideas. In the morning me and a friend are cycling to a shop to buy pumpkins and then coming home to carve them which will be fun/disgusting (I secretly always kinda hate carving pumpkins)

I hope everyone has a very happy Halloween!

Lots of Love Scarly. 

Recipe - Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Now, I want to get something straight, on the whole I disagree completely with cheating. Cheating in tests, cheating on your boyfriend, cheating at monopoly, all very not okay in my books (except for maybe monopoly, if your the bank, and no ones looking). But sometimes, when it comes to baking and crafts, cheating can be allowed. And I think of all holidays halloween is the one where it's most OKAY to cheat. 

This recipe for pumpkin pie cupcakes is most definitely a 'cheat' recipe. It uses cake mix for one thing, and ready made cream cheese icing for another. But it's still yummy, it's still not TOTALLY a cake mix, and it's very very Halloweeny. So it's up to you weather it's worth the cheat, but I personally think it is. 

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Ingredients:

- 1 pack of vanilla cake mix.

- 1 cup of canned pumpkin puree. 

- 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. 

Steps:

1. Put the cake mix, pumpkin puree and cinnamon in a bowl along with the oil, egg and water required from the cake mix.

2. Mix together until smooth. 

3. Bake according to the instructions on the cake mix box. 

4. Your done! Could that be any more easy? (no) 

Don't be alarmed at the texture of the cupcakes. Due to the canned pumpkin they come out more like little pumpkin pies rather than cupcakes so they won't look super pretty. But they taste amazing enough to make up for this. There like the cupcake equivalent of an ugly but very clever person, which we all know is better than a pretty stupid person... 

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing.

To make your cheat cinnamon cream cheese icing simply mix together one tub of Cream Cheese Icing and about 4 teaspoons of cinnamon. I love cinnamon but you might not want this much so keep tasting it along the way to test the flavour. 

Now simply pop your icing on your cupcakes and enjoy your Halloweeny goodness!

Love Scarly. 

And so it begins...

As I'm sure most people who read this blog already know, the Twit-Knit Scarf Swap has begun and it is going extremely well so far! When I launched this project I thought we would get maximum 20 people to take part but to my utter surprise and delight we ended up with more than 70 people! It's extremely exciting and I will of course be blogging in much detail about it soon. For now I'm off on holiday to the Philippians (yay!) so I may not be blogging or tweeting as much for the next week. I will, of course, be knitting and we just have to hope they let me take my needles on the plane. Last holiday I knitted all week and then had to leave my needles behind on the flight home. I think it's safe to say there were many tears involved! 

Good luck with your knitting and remember to keep using the hashtag #twitknit and keep tweeting the other members of your team!

Lots of Love Scarly.

Pumpkin Time

This week our house has gone pretty pumpkin crazy. I know it might be a tiny bit early to start getting THIS excited about Halloween but in my opinion the longer you can have pumpkins on your steps the better... As well as our pumpkin steps we've all been decorating pumpkins like crazy. My little brother made his pumpin using pins and he has officially named it Jeff. I used my glue gun to make my crazy colourful one which I will of course D.I.Y. soon.

What are you doing for Halloween?

Love Scarlett. 

Halloween D.I.Y - Studded Squash

Continuing on from last weeks Glitter Squash D.I.Y. here is an even awesomer and even easier fun thing to do with squash... 

Studded Squash D.I.Y.

You will need:

- A squash.

- 2 boxes of gold thumbtacks. 

How to make it: This is quite literally the EASIEST way to decorate squash or pumpkin the world. Simply let your imagination run free and stick the pins in creating an awesome funky pattern. This was my brothers favourite and his squash came out awesome...

Happy Halloween :)

Love Scarlett.

The Twit-Knit Scarf Swap

*ENTRIES FOR TWIT-KNIT SCARF PROJECT ARE UNFORTUNATELY NOW CLOSED. CHECK BACK HERE TO KEEP UP WITH THE PROGRESS FROM OUR CURRENT PROJECT AND TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT FUTURE PROJECT*

 

Okay people, it's time to get excited. After a long, long, LONG time... TWIT KNIT CLUB IS BACK! And even if I do say it myself I think it's going to be the best project ever. We've been discussing different options for our Christmas project for a while on Twitter and when the idea of a twit-knit swap came up I knew I had to grab it. For anyone who doesn't have twitter or (like me) keeps forgetting to check it, here is how the Twit-Knit Scarf Swap would work:

1. Everyone taking part adds there names onto an official list, in the past we have had people joining up throughout the project which is lovely but just won't work for this kind of project unfortunately.

2. Everyone on the list starts a scarf of roughly the same size and knits the first chunk. Once you have finished your chunk you cast off and send the beggining of your scarf to the next person on the list. 

3. That person then knits the second chunk of your scarf, sews it onto the first chunk and sends it to the next person on the list...

4. It continues on like this until everyone on the list has knitted a chunk of everyone elses scarf and then you will recieve your scarf back, having been lovingly knitted by the ENTIRE Twit-Knit Club.

It's ambitious, it's a little complicated, but I think it could work... and I'm VERY excited. 

Remember that Twit-Knit club is totally everyones club and not just mine so please tweet me or leave a comment if you are unhappy with this idea or have any ideas of your own to add in! 

There are a few other things I want to add into Twit-Knit this year which I think will make it better for everyone. The first of which is that we should really start using the hashtag! If everyone uses #twitknit on instagram and twitter whenever they post a comment or a photo it will be much easier to see how everyone is getting along and we can really start a little online community.

Also if you have a blog and want to join in with Twit-Knit it would be great to blog about it on your blog so we can get as many people as possible joining in. Remember to tweet me the link so I can do a weekly roundup of all the blogs taking part.

Okay, that's it for now, if you would like to take part in the Twit Knit Scarf Swap simply email me your name and address to - scarlettcurtis@mac.com - so I can start assembling the list. Exciting!!

Lots of Love Scarly. 

Get The Gloss

Hello! Get the Gloss is an AWESOME new make up and beauty website that launched just a few weeks ago. For anyone who loves make up it's basically a mixture between the best magazine ever written and... the bible? I don't know. I just know it's amazing and already taking up way too much of my time! Anyway the reason I know about Get the Gloss is because a few months ago I was asked to write an article for them. It's called 17-71 and contains a piece by me (17) and a piece by another lovely women named Scarlett (71). The picture on the front page isn't of me which is slightly confusing but please don't let it put you off. I love writing about make up and I hope you like the piece... and even if you don't can you please just pretend you did. You can read it here. 

Love Scarlett. 

Halloween D.I.Y. - Glitter Squash!

Before I start going crazy with Halloween D.I.Y.s and recipes I think I need to make a confession, I'm a TOTAL wimp. I have never seen a horror film (unless Dr Who counts), never been on a roller coaster and I can't even watch Scary Movie.... I know, its shameful, but despite all that I still LOVE halloween. And one of my favourite things about halloween is decorating squash. I know that sounds wierd, but squash are awesome! There much smaller than pumpkins (and therefore much easier) and they come in some of the funnest and craziest shapes and sizes. Over the next few days I'm going to share 3 awesome and super easy squash D.I.Y.s starting with this fabulous glitter ball one.

My mum will kill me if I don't give her credit so I must admit that it was actually her who added the glitter at the end! At first I was very angry that she was attatcking my beautiful sequin squash with her PVA but in the end I did have to admit it looked better... Damn. Anyway... Happy Halloween and please comment with some of your favourite October crafts!

Glitter Squash D.I.Y

You Will Need:

- A squash (of any shape and size)

- Some strong UHU-style glue

- Some PVA glue

- Some flat backed sequins or gems

- Glitter!

Step One - Begin by using your strong glue to stick your gems onto the squash. I found it was easier to put the glue on the back of the gem and then stick it onto the squash instead of putting it on the squash and then sticking the gem on. 

Step Two - Add some more gems... (and admire my awesome blue nails)

Step Three - Add some more gems...

Step Four - Once you feel you really have added enough gems, wait for your glue to dry and then cover all the gaps between the gems in PVA glue. Remember, PVA dries clear so don't worry if you get glue onto some of your gems, it won't show up in the end. 

Step Five - Go glitter crazy! Cover your whole squash in glitter and then wait for it to dry. 

Step Six - Sit back and admire your glitter, bling, amazing (albeit not that scary) glitter squash!

Love Scarlett. 

D.I.Y. Envelope Notebook

As soon as I saw this awesome planner on Poketo.com I knew I simply had to have it. Unfortunately I've already spent too much money on stationary for a lifetime so I decided to try making my own instead...

Whenever I'm putting together a scrapbook or diary I love to save little bits of junk to stick in, movie tickets, receipts, labels from my yarn (yes I know, I really am that cool) but the problem is I always end up chucking them in my pocket or throwing them away. This notebook is awesome because you can keep all your little papery secrets in the front and then stick them in whenever you feel like it. It's almost TOO easy to make and the results are very fun. Enjoy!

You Will Need:

- A notebook

- An envelope the same size as your notebook

- Double sided sticky tape

- Your favourite pens

Step One: Cut the flap off your envelope. 

Step Two: Decorate the front of your envelope. 

Step Three. Cover the back of your envelope in double sided sticky tape and carefully stick it to the front (or back) of your notebook.

AND YOUR DONE! See I told you that was super duper easy and amazing.

Enjoy your lovely super secrete and awesome envelope notebook.

Lots of love Scarlett.

The Renegade Craft Fair

Two weeks ago me and my mum made the long journey from our house to East London to visit the Renegade Craft Fair. Twit-knitter Emma Mitchell had told me all about it as she was selling her beautiful jewelry there and I knew I had to go visit! I don't think my mind has ever come so close to exploding as it did when I stepped inside. It. was. incredible. A whole room filled with dozens of amazing crafty people selling there amazing, creative, crafty things. I thought I was literally going to spend every penny I had but in the end I was so overwhelmed by the experience I couldn't really move! I bought a beautiful tiny leather notebook that had been turned into a necklace and an awesome Iphone case that you could cross stitch onto! It was such an amazing experience and I can't wait for next year! I took tons of photos but these are my favourites.

Happy Monday!

Love Scarlett x