DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

  This recipe comes from www.confessionsoftart.blogspot.com .   Biscotti is one of my all time favorite things to make, especially during the holiday seasons.   It's easy to make and most people love it. Pumpkin-Cranberry Biscotti Books are kind of like people, don't you think? You can tell right away if you're going to be friends with one or if you'll have a brief conversation and go your separate ways. So it was with this book - as soon as I picked it up,* I could tell that it was going to be one of my favorites. By the end, I felt like I had met Frank and Jerome and had sat with them in the kitchen of their New York cafe as they took out trays upon trays of delicious tarts, biscotti and Madeleines. I've made many recipes from this book, always with great ease and great success, encouraged by the warm tone and the friendly, quick humor on every page. The recipes in this book are thoughtful, inventive and...

HALLOWEEN CRAFT: MAN-EATING MONSTER PLANT One of the easiest Halloween crafts I've ever made has to be the "Man Eating Monster Plant" I presented on the  Home & Family Show  recently. This Halloween plant craft is rewarding because it features many  repurposed materials that can be found in your yard or garage. The whimsical plants look like they are from the cult classic, "Little Shop of Horrors!"     The "Man-Eating Monster Plant" was designed by Dave Lowe, the talented art director for the show and is part of his "master Halloween design plan" for the front yard. When Dave explained the craft to me, I was blown away and responded, "Genius!" The steps are simple, making the monster plants an ideal family craft to get your kids involved in   decorating for Halloween .     Start to finish (not including waiting 30 minutes for foam to dry), the project took less than an hour to make. Once you ha...

I thought this would be a great idea for Halloween (I love Halloween!) so in my usual over the top fashion I went, well -- over the top. A buddy of mine wanted to do it as well. We tried to get his roommate into it too so we could have a third Ghostbuster but he didn't think we'd be able to do it......... :D I made two complete packs, suits, belts and goggles in just over two weeks working mostly nights and weekends. I also made a ghost trap and pedal- it clips onto the belt just like in the movie. The guns come off the packs and the packs light up, as does the trap. I made two lighting circuits for each pack using a simple homemade 555 timer circuit, a few LEDs and 9v batteries. The trap weighs around six or seven pounds and the packs weigh about twenty- five pounds.   The packs and trap are pretty movie accurate- they were made from plans that were drawn up from one of the original movie "hero" packs on display at Planet Hollywood. The A.L.I...

    The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is an English folk dance involving reindeer antlers and a hobby horse that takes place each year in Abbots Bromley , a small village in Staffordshire , England. Origins     There are no recorded references to the horn dance prior to Robert Plot 's Natural History of Staffordshire , written in 1686. However, there is a record of the hobby horse being used in Abbots Bromley as early as 1532, and it is possible that the horn dance component of the custom was also present at that time but not commented upon by the writer. A carbon analysis discovered that the antlers used in the dance date to the 11th century - though these may well have replaced an even older set. According to some, the use of antlers suggests an Anglo-Saxon origin along with other native Anglo-Saxon traditions that have survived into modern times in various forms. It has been speculated, for example, that the dance originated in the...