Halloween Shrunken Heads

Shrunken heads will add that extra little something to any Halloween gathering.  A friend took inspiration from Allison DiNatale's idea and did this fun, kid-friendly project for a recent party.

Start with Granny Smith apples, lemon juice & salt.  Peel the apples and cut them in half, removing seeds.  Carve eyes, nose and mouth on the rounded side of each apple, then float in a liquid mixture of 2 cups lemon juice and 2 tablespoons salt.  This keeps the apples from turning brown. 

You might end up with some prune-y fingers that look a little like shrunken parts yourself.

Place the apple faces on a baking sheet in a low heat oven (250 degrees) for 90 minutes, or so.  This dries them out, without burning.

Press some cloves into the "eye sockets" to give them a little extra expressiveness.

And float them in your favorite cider brew to add extra flavor and flair to your Halloween party.

Perfect!

Urban Unveiled 2012

This week we were fortunate to participate, once again, in the Urban Unveiled wedding show at Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle.  I spent a long time getting our display ready and am so pleased with how it turned out that I have to share it with you all.  

We were debuting some new products for our custom favor line.  We have whimsical new packaging for our natural lips balms that we're calling "Seattle Sundries' Butterfly Kisses".  I think you can see why.  The fun thing about them is that they are totally customizable: flavor, color, paper style, etc. They are favors that do double duty as decorations.  We also have new little custom favor boxes that hold three small guest soaps...which also can be totally personalized for any event.

We displayed some examples of retro groomsman gift sets that would be perfect for the gentlemen in any wedding party.

See that neat old box in front?  I found that on a visit home to the ranch a few years ago.  It was stuffed with miscellaneous little items, including the ones you see below.  These are the matchbooks, foil paper cutouts, and white swans that were favors for the celebration of my great-grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.  They were married 100 years ago, last month. For real.  I kept the box closed during the show, but the few people who were curious enough to lift the lid got to hear the story of Gunda and Louis' nuptials.

We also had our bath soaps in custom tins on display for folks to sniff and feel.

These were some lovely little clutch purses that I made to show how unique bridesmaid gift sets can be made using our skincare products.  See how the inside fabric on the clutches matches the table skirt?  These were fun to make.  You should try it!

Happily, our space was right next to the charming lady who owns Fiore Blossoms.

Of course, Luly Yang was there.

And City Catering...

And the dapper gentlemen from True Colors Events...

There were so many beautiful things to see that I couldn't possibly show them all, but I think this might have been my favorite floral arrangement in the whole place.

The most admired and eye-catching part of our display were the cherry blossom branches that we hung the Butterfly Kisses from.  They were battery operated LED lights that were so easy to arrange and were just perfect for the butterflies.  I highly recommend them for any such displays you make in the future.

Once the sun went down, the lights were dimmed and the candles were lit, it made a most lovely sight.