I'm Back!

I'm baaaaack!!!

Enjoy my Jack Skellington o' lantern and some spooky cupcakes for now!

will have lots to show next week!

The severed witch's finger with a spider ring was my fave!

On the road again!

I will be gone for the whole month of October. Pumpkin butt and I are going to my mom's to help her out after having shoulder surgery. I went up there the summer before last when she had her other shoulder done so I know that I will have NO time to do anything on here unfortunately. I am going to be using any free moments I have working on costuming!!

Tie One On ~ Tea Towel Apron

I got these towels at target. The towel selection out there right now is really poor so I have a bad feeling I'm not going to be the only one with these towels made into an apron. Making an apron out of a tea towel was so fun...I think I might be using this 'shortcut' again on future submissions. It let me have more time for adding trims and cute stuff rather than dealing so much with making just the apron. This is an apron that I will really enjoy wearing for the whole month of October! It can be worn as a hostess apron or for Halloween night, or for just making some of those cool monster creep cakes from the new MS Kids(shown below)! I made a big pocket in the front to put Halloween treats in (along with a couple of tricks! Like plastic snakes, spiders and rats!)

Multi-tasking tooo much!

I have been so busy lately that I just realized that I have been leaving out lots of pertinent info in my posts...(and thanks to those who let me know about some of it!) Like the name of a recipe and the recipe it's self! I have also been rushing through when writing them which makes for boring reading. I took a few moments to update this post and this post. I have been having trouble focusing while writing lately because my mind starts wandering off thinking about all the other stuff I need to do. But from here on out..It's nothing but quality at 'My House Is Cuter Than Yours', nothing but the finest crafts made from trash and the best cheap marshmallows money can buy!

Scrap Crafty~Foil Pan Jewelry

I wanted all the Scrap Crafty' s for this month to be Halloween related. The foil pan jewelry would be a great and cheap way to make some accessories for a costume. I found this in "Pack-o-fun" Feb. 1971.


Adding glitter to the glue jewels would be neat. I also think that the bracelet could be cut from some sort of plastic container or maybe from a cardboard Pringles containers. Cutting up a metal can only sounds like a trip to the emergency room.
Aluminum foil also could be used to cover objects to be turned into props. For a royal costume a scepter could be made by covering a stick with foil then a small ball of aluminum foil on top, decorate with scraps of ribbon. A crown could also be fashioned from foil pans or aluminum covered cardboard. (Does Burger King still give out paper crowns? If so, one of those could be used as a template or just covered in foil) A chest plate for a gladiator could be made from posterboard (as a base) then covered in aluminum foil decorated with embossing and jewels. Use grey or black duct tape to make the straps.
I am all about making costumes as cheap as possible. When planning a Halloween costume look for things already at hand that with a little imagination can be transformed into a part of the costume. Thrift stores are a great place to get clothing or props. Just add a little trim or other details to spiff them up. There's nothing wrong with buying or renting one key piece from a costume shop (like a Napoleon wig, I saw them at Spencer's and I think target has a knock off) but don't get sucked into buying the whole outfit from there...not that is a hint about halloween costuming for this year...

Tomato Soup Cake

A cake made with tomato soup!? I made this last night but made sure to keep the 'secret ingredient' from my victims until after they ate it! I didn't want them to already expect it to taste like tomatoes with icing. Not too appetite appeasing! They really liked it and were more amazed than disgusted by the fact it had soup in it. So...Okay..The end.. Oh, you want to know how it tasted? Well, actually, it tasted like a carrot spice cake! Really! It is the first cake that I have made that wasn't from a box and it was just a little dry but that could have been my fault. I think I might have let it bake a schmingeon too long. Here is the recipe if you dare:

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Tomato Soup Cake

2 cups sifted cake flour 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon powdered cloves

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or mace

1 can (1 1/4 cups) condensed tomato soup

1 cup seedless raisins

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, and spices. Wash and cut raisins.(roll in a small amount of the flour mixture.)Cream shorting; add sugar gradually; then eggs, mixing thoroughly. Add flour mixture alternately with soup; stir until smooth. Fold in raisins. Pour into two greased and floured 8-inch layer pans; bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees) about 35 minutes, or until done. 8 servings. Frost as desired.(I used premade cream cheese frosting, which I think kinda helped give the taste illusion of carrot cake)

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Of coarse, I didn't follow the recipe completely. Like I say "a recipe is only suggestions". Instead of powdered cloves , I just added an schminge more cinnamon and nutmeg. And, by the way, I assumed that they meant baking soda not Dr. Pepper! But I do have a cook booklet that is all about cooking with Dr. Pepper and it has a cake recipe in it..........Okay, must locate it and make Dr.Pepper cake has been added to my To-Do list!

Scrap Crafty~Halloween Treat Tree Center-Piece

This idea is from the new edition of Martha Stewart's Kids magazine. If you already have the magazine sorry for giving out 'old news'. I think it is so clever! "For the tree, spray-paint a branch black; wedge into a flower bucket filled with rocks. Cover with Spanish moss, and stretch craft store cobwebs between branches."

For the cat and pumpkin ornaments make a template that looks like the image in #1 ( the magazine has a template but it looks fairly easy to do without it) Trace the image 7 times onto black construction paper.Cut out. Stack pieces (#2) and punch holes through both ends with a small hole punch; insert a black or orange paper fastener into each hole (the paper fastener they speak of is made of metal and has a round flat head and 2 thin metal tabs underneath, they are always used in kids crafts to make jointed paper people and creatures). Bend stack into a "C" shape (#3); and fan out like a globe. Glue on paper features to create the cat and pumpin faces.

Also shown on the tree are small craft paper goody bags with hand stamped names and matching tags.

Don't forget to add some spiders,as shown, for extra spookiness!

Yay! Birthday goodies!

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I just got the last of my gifts this weekend so now I can show all of it together! first up is these plastic sleeves for photos that look like camera film negatives! i got a couple in both sizes. The smaller ones work great for photo booth pictures. Only thing I can't stand about them is that they have stupid words running vertical like "eternal" and "moments". If I ever find out the person responsible for every single scrapbook thing having these type stupid words on them, I am going to hurt them real bad. But I have a few plans for removing it! (ok, while I'm on the subject it drives me nuts when I see a scrap book page with definitions from a dictionary. For instance there will be a picture of a baby crying and then a "tore out" definition of the word 'crying'. C'mon folks, we're not idiots, we can obviously see that the baby is crying! Why not try getting a little more creative!....Sorry for the outburst....Back to our story) My friend Heather gave me the coolest gifts ever! Some painfree tattoos (ha ha)!
And two awesome hand crafted trinkets. Seen in the tin (that she also specially made). Near the bottom is a cool bracelet made with ribbon and coke can tabs. (I couldn't get it to photograph very well at this moment but I will try again later and post it)
Then! Look at this! A sweater guard! SHE MADE THIS! I think it is soo lovely! It is made from shrinky dinks, ball chain and clips.
I also got a total of $70 in cash and a gift card (to target) from my mom! I got a few Halloween things like tiny plastic bats and rats, some new tees, some toys for my son, and the Roseanne season 1 on DVD. I spent it all at target! I just went there this morning and saw all the Halloween stuff. I was a little disappointed. That stuff they have that looks all country with felt and stitches, is a slap in Halloween's face! And they have too much of it! But there are a few things I like: the cute little vampire, cat, spider and other creatures they have for their Target brand stuff. I also liked the metal bat luminaries (they come in a hanging form and on a rod that gets stuck into the dirt). It's actually best that there's not too much I like because I would be spending money I don't have!

blah..blah..blah.

What started it all~Ham Asparagus Shortcakes

I had been collecting these old cookbooks and booklets for a while just to look at the pictures. Three years ago, I found the cook booklet shown above, 'Cooking with Condensed Soups', at the Sal-Army. I was flipping through it and found a picture of a hideous looking meal~Ham Asparagus Shortcakes. I thought to myself, Did people really eat this stuff and what did it taste like? I then, made it my mission to make that particular dish for dinner that night.
The recipe called for cream of asparagus soup which wasn't being made anymore ( however, I just saw it recently). So I added green food coloring to cream of chicken soup. Looks ever more hideous than the real photo! I must admit i didn't care for it. It was only a photo prop for me. Ha Ha!

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Ham Asparagus Shortcakes

6 shortcakes baked

1 can (1 1/4 cups) condensed cream of asparagus soup

1/4 cup of milk

3/4 cup diced cooked ham

3 hard boiled eggs, sliced

Make shortcakes from packaged biscuit mix (omit sugar) ; bake, split and butter. Meanwhile, combine soup and milk; mix well and heat. Add ham and cook slowly for 5 minutes. Add egg slices just before serving, saving several to garnish shortcakes. Place half of the ham filling between shortcakes and the other half over the top. Garnish with remaining egg slices and serve hot. 6 servings.

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I had so much fun making the dish and taking photos. And there is where the madness started! Did you notice that on the cover is a cake...And it's a booklet on cooking with soup! I need to look that recipe up for sure! Maybe it's actually a meat loaf with mashed potatoes for "icing"......Very interesting....

Scrap crafty~Marshmallow Creatures

I love Scrap Craft! It is so great for holiday and party decorating when you're on a budget! It's also great to keep the little hands around the house busy!
Shown above are "Marshmallow Creatures". These would be really fun for a child's Halloween party. This idea is from the "pack-O-fun" magazine, Oct. 1971. "pack-O-fun" is still made today and I have seen it for sale at Hobby Lobby. Here are the instructions:

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"Push marshmallow heads on top of soda straws, about 3" long. Draw on features with a toothpick dipped in frosting, or use frosting directly from a tube. Use frosting for gluing. The devil's horns are halves of candy corn; the witch's hat is the top of a paper cone. Use cone-shaped paper drinking cups for the bodies of the creature, or you can make a cone from a 4" square of fairly stiff paper. Cut the tip of of the cone and insert the soda straw down through it. For fancy, dressed-up creatures, make full crepe paper skirts. To make each skirt, take a strip of colorful crepe paper about 3" wide. Gather along one edge and secure it around the soda straw body with a rubber band or string. From paper, cut out small ovals for the creatures' arms. Cut long, jagged ovals for the owl's wings. Glue all in place."

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If you were like me... I had no idea what kind of creature that was on the bottom right. Oh, it's an Owl!? I'm glad they cleared that up! I also don't think that toothpick dipped in icing is such a good idea. I think using different shaped candies and cereals would be a better idea.

I am thinking about doing a post every Wed. called "Scrap Crafty". If anyone ever makes any of my ideas email me a pic and I'll put it up along with the corresponding post!

Sarah Hutt

While I was researching shrinky dink stuff I happened to stumble across this AMAZING exhibition.
Artist statement:
"My Mother's Legacy" is a 1,000 line poem wood-burned into the bottom of 1,000 wooden bowls. On each bowl is written a line from my memory that reflects a mannerism, advice, or a remark I attribute to my mother. The bowls are piled randomly onto tables, where the viewer must pick up each bowl to read it. The act of lifting each bowl reminds me of my mother, because she had the habit of turning things over to see where they were made.
When my mother died of breast cancer in 1965 she was 47 and I was 13. Over the years, I carried around a lot of memory fragments. But I could not fit them together to fully understand who my mother had been as a person. In 1995, to commemorate the anniversary of her death, I began to write down all the things I did remember.
These are the lines that became "My Mother's Legacy". By artist Sarah Hutt
Sarah Hutt's mother...She looks like a real sassy dame!

I can't begin to describe how much I was moved by this installation. I have my degree in fine art and Sarah Hutt's work reminded me soo much of something I would do. My work always had some domestic aspect to it, whether it be a house form or an actual installation of old worn furniture. I love her artist statement, I always gag when I hear pretentious statements that go round and round and never give any explanations or are just a waste of the readers/viewers time. I was so moved by "my mother's legacy" that I sent Sarah Hutt an email letting her know(and she wrote me back). I would love to see this exhibit up close and read all the bowls. I love viewer interaction, I love that the viewer interaction for this exhibit is an action that her mother did in life. I love that she burned the words on the bowls...Like burning ones memories in their minds. I love that there are soo many bowls...One thing I learned from art school is that there is power in numbers. I am also just moved by the sadness that she lost her mother at such a young age. "My Mother's Legacy" is sad and beautiful at the same time.

I Heart Cute Spooky Stuff

I'm soooo excited! Halloween is approaching! I just went to Target and they have got some stuff out! I love Target's Halloween stuff and this year's looks like it's going to have some cute err... Scary stuff. I am going to be out of town the whole month of October so I've decided to start doing all my Halloween posting this month. The things shown on here today are from christmastraditions. I love that Owl and it's saying! Their prices are not too, too bad but you really can DIY alot of this stuff if you can reproduce or have images similar to the theirs.
I don't quite know what these are for but they would look cool put together on a strand side by side and hung over a doorway or attach a long stick to the back and jab them in the dirt of a pot of a house plant. Make out of construction paper and crepe paper.




This is a decoration to put on a 'Halloween tree'. Would also make an awesome party invite.
SOOO DIY! Orange glitter, black pipe cleaner with orange glitter on it, construction or crepe paper and photo copy of a spider on a web.

Martha did this silhouette thing a few years back. Cheap wood frames painted black (look at dollar Tree or Thrifts). I think the back ground could be done by rubbing chalk over a brown or black piece of construction paper and then trace and paint in the silhouette. That does sound like lot of work now that I am thinking about it..

Isn't this cute in a strange sort of way? The little boy's expression says "mom, do I have to be a big fat silly clown again for Halloween?, I wanted to be ' insert whatever little boy's think is cool here', (I'm not even going to try~I was going to put He-Man, but that's really dating me)! I want to make one of these just so I can put pumpkin butt's picture on it. I'm guessing styrofoam ball, extra fuzzy chenille pipe cleaners, decorative papers and trims.

I am also in the process of setting up something to sell the trinkets. To get on the mailing list for the update write to me at dixiedollmary(at)gmail(dot)com.

Trinkets!

So here is the start of showing off what has been keeping me up LATE every night recently. I just got back from the Drive Invasion. It was soo much fun! We Dixie Dolls busted out ALOT of trinkets in a two week time frame to sell there. Below is a sample of some of the trinkets I made(like I said "sample". I made a few of each design of most) :

Charm Bracelets

Tack PinsEar Rings





Bottle Cap Pendant Necklaces

Bottle Cap Magnets


Hair accessories
Most of the things are made from either shrinky dinks, plastic dice beads or involved bottle caps. I loved making the bottle cap art, it was addictive....Between me and Kat (of the 'Dolls) we probably made about 75 of them (we had about 30 different images from pin up's to vintage sci- fi movie illustrations). Kat also did the resin in the bottlecaps, made some of the earings and together we did the hair bows. We kept having favorites and saying 'I hope you don't sell because I want you!' Working with dinks was a pain in the ass, it took alot of experimenting to find a medium to use on them that I was the most happy with (colored pencils). We also put resin in the bottle cap pendants......Let's just say, resin is not our friend!

We did okay on sells. We sold alot of the dice ear rings and the bottle cap magnets. They were the cheapest stuff we had but nothing was over $8. So we still have alot of stuff to sell. I was thinking about trying to do something with selling over the net. There isn't alot of folks in our town that would like our style of stuff.

Below is a picture of a gal named Kristin. She actually bought one of my OOAK necklaces. It had two swallows on the sides and a Sailor Jerry heart with flowers and leaves in the middle and additional black decorative beads. Kinda like the bracelet at the very top.

And here is my necklace in action on the stage with BIG SANDY! Kristin saw me out in the audience and started pointing to the necklace while she was dancing! I was so happy, made me feel like it was a little part of me up their shaking my ass next to that 'hot damn' fine man!
I hadn't seen Big Sandy (due to no venue in my town for a few years) since he sung 'happy birthday' to me by a secret request given to him a few years back. I learned recently that another secret request was going to given to Big Sandy on this trip for him to sing it again at this show ( my b~day is wed.) but he couldn't be found prior to the show to ask.  I did get my picture taken with Big Sandy though! I'm on the left and that's Kat on the right. Rawl!!