Into the Woods, cooking with Brook

I recently drove 10 hours by myself, from California to Utah,

to attend this incredible dinner party and to enjoy Hallowe'en with my daughters and some of my grandchildren.

Be forewarned, there are many photos here, but you will want to see them, they are amazing!!!

My daughter Lindsay hosted the 3rd annual dinner/costume party.

This year's theme was "Into the Woods".

The food and the costumes went with the theme.

Below is a cupboard full of mushrooms, and guess what?

They are all handmade and edible.

Some are meringue, others are cake pops and also truffles.

The master mind of the food was Brook, and she and Lindsay did most of the cooking, a few others helped.

Brook has a blog called Cooking with Brook.

The recipes from this party will be on the blog, hopefully sometime soon!

Lindsay and a few friends moved most of her furniture from the main floor, into the garage to accommodate the dining tables and decorations.

I shouldn't be showing you this photo, but I'm going to anyway :)

The main floor was transformed into a "woodsy" atmosphere.

Here are the tables set, the candles lit and waiting for the creatures, fairies and nymphs to arrive.

This was one of the appetizer tables pre-food :)

This was the table that the main course was served from, buffet style.

The place settings and decorations were absolutely awesome!!!

Fresh pressed directly from Clara's uncle's apple orchard.

I only managed to get a photo of one of the appetizer tables.  

On the extreme left and right is the locally foraged cheese and honeycomb.

In the center is the roasted beet and goat cheese terrine.

Before I get to the rest of the food, let me introduce some of the characters...

This is Brook the black swan and Lindsay, the deer.

This is me, I'm a fairy with wings and lots of glitter :)

Kim is a fox, Mindy is a mushroom and Cathy is Little Red Riding Hood.

I think that Jami is a fairy, her costume is beautiful!

A raccoon and another fairy.

Snow White and a raccoon :)

Clara is a Snow Queen although she has a little secret....

This is her wedding dress and she wasn't able to zip it up!

A deer :)

Stacey is a fairy and her costume was incredible!

It's her prom dress from about 20 years earlier, and she added moss, roses and lots of gold curly cues from her Christmas tree decorations :)

I think the back is amazing with the moss and silk roses.

One problem though, she forgot to leave an opening and had a difficult time putting on the dress, lol!!!

We began with freshly made butternut squash soup, in little pumpkins and acorn squashes.

Pumpkin salad with polenta and candied pumpkin seeds, drizzled with a pomegranate vinaigrette.

Porcini and rosemary crusted beef tenderloin with port wine sauce, and freshly dug roasted carrots.

Mini herbed pommes anna (potatoes)

Buche de Noel with meringue and assorted chocolate mushrooms.

Black forest cake with kirsch cherries.

This was my delicious dessert potion, I mean portion!!!

Lindsay's husband Jeremy constructed this photo wall last year and they redesigned it to go with the "into the woods" theme.

Lindsay and I at the end of the night.

Everyone took turns having their photos taken.

All 32 of the woodland creatures, minus the photographer :)

An incredible time was had by all!

I'm definitely looking forward to next year :)

Hallowe'en 2014

I want to remind you to hop over to 2 blogs today, to continue the "Around the World" blog hop.

Read more about Renee @ Sewn with Grace,

and Cristina @ Pretty Little Quilts.

I can hardly wait to see what they have to say! 

I spent Hallowe'en away from home, with my children and grandchildren as I have done for the past few years.

I always have so much fun enjoying the festivities with them!

I want to show you their costumes.

The first is my daughter Lindsay's family.

Keep in mind that all of her photos were taken by a professional :)

Lindsay made each of her children's costumes, and didn't use a pattern!

 This is Bridger, he's 9 l/2 years old, and he dressed up as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

If you put a sheet of paper over one half of the photo, you can see how well he stayed in character!

Half is deformed and the other half is normal :)

Charlotte is 4 l/2 years old, and she's Minnie Mouse!

Lucy Jane is 14 months old, and she is Baby Sleeping Beauty.

She never, ever tried to take her bonnet off!

Kennedy is 7 years old, and she dressed up as Maleficent!!

Her makeup is perfect and she has the perfect face for the character.

Notice her sinister raven :)

Poor baby, Maleficent is out to get her!!!

Lindsay used a ski hat as the base for Maleficent's head dress.

She sewed the horns and stuffed them and added something to keep them from flopping around.  

She added some ribbon layering on the forehead to create a widow's peak.

Lindsay inserted wire in the collar as she sewed it so that the collar would stand up.

Here's the group, each in character :)

Next, is my daughter Rebecca's 2 children.

Maisie is 4 years old, and she is Astrid, the viking from "How to Train your Dragon".

Benjamin is 2 years old, and he is "Toothless" from the same movie.

Rebecca made both of their costumes, she did a fabulous job as well :)

This is Benjamin sitting on his dad's shoulders.

His costume is made of felt, and he has a long tail that is stuffed.

 Maisie's headband is suede, and Rebecca put some metal decorations in it.

Notice the armor?

It's fun foam that was shaped around a bowl and heated in the microwave to stay in shape, and decorated with silver puffy paint.

Rebecca also made each one of the skulls. 

Next, is my son Addison's family.

His wife made their daughters' costumes :)

Neo just turned 4 years old, she is a black cat!

I love the play acting!!!

Kylie is 22 months old, and she wanted to be a witch.

A pretty cute witch, I'd say :)

It looks like the witch in the background isn't so nice...

Last but definitely not least, is my son Jordan's family.

My daughter in law Kim, made her girls their costumes also.

First I'll show you this photo from Disney's "Jake and Pirates of the Caribbean".

Notice the girl, her name is Izzy, and the little boy with the blue bandana is named Cubby.

Reagan will be 4 years old this week.

She is dressed up as Izzy.

Kim didn't use a pattern, she just traced a shirt onto the fabric and sewed it up!

 Izzy (Reagan) is with her pal, Cubby (aka Paisley Louise, 5 months old).

 Isn't Paisley the cutest?

She is so chubby and when she smiles, her eyes light up!

She's the chubbiest "Cubby" I've ever seen!!!

That's why I wanted to show you the cartoon, so you could appreciate what you're looking at....lol!

Well, thank you for letting me brag about my daughters and daughters in law's creative talents :)
Also, all 10 of my grandchildren are represented!

Modern Instabee - October

It's my month in our Modern Instabee quilting bee!

I chose the Stacked Windmill block.

I wanted the center block to be pink, the others to be yellow and gray and I wanted the background to be in a black and white text print.

I didn't want to be too specific, because I wanted to enjoy each member's freedom of creativity.

Two women have dropped out of the bee, so I made 2 blocks myself.

I received Kate's block (Nashville, Tennessee) and am so excited!

Isn't it pretty?

She also made me a signature block to sew onto the back of the quilt along with the others.

This is Jansen's block (Fairfax, Virginia), I love the cute little bumblebee in the center, which made me realize that I posted this photo upside down, oops!

I can see the word "Sew" in the text print :)

Ellen (Tampa, Florida) sent me this cute block :)

One of my daughters just moved to Tampa!

Don't they look great together?
Mine are the top 2, and the bottom 3 are from my "hive" friends :)

I'll show you the rest of the blocks as I receive them :)