Spooky halloween

We wish you all a spooky halloween.

Here we celebrate the traditional Samhain, which has been converted by christianity to the all saints and all deaths days.

No matter which name is given to the event, remember that the veil is thin and there are many realms we can't otherwise sense as well as tonight.

halloween - 5

Using tomato juice as bood might seem a good decision, but there are far better solutions to create blood.

Paint used for children tyo paint with, based on water can often be washed away easily.

But have you ever considered beads that look like blooddrops?

When you can't find them in the shops or online make them yourself with clay you can bake in the home oven.

You can use a cocktailpricker to make a hole in them.

Good luck!

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I'm sure no one wants to go to school or work tomorrow looking like someone smashed their face with an ax, so please, please, before you apply your halloween make up check if you have sometimes to take it off.

An eye make-up remover comes in very handy because eye make-up nowadays is made to make you buy those products too.
Most water resistant make up can't be removes with water and soap.

If necessary you can use eye make up remover to clean your whole face.

Before going to bed clean your face and any other parts of your body where you have applied make-up.

And do the same the next morning.

Some make up creaps into your pories and during the night the body tries to get rid of it.
So give yourself a thorough morning clean to.

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It's great when you have a lot of money to spend on halloween costumes, but most people have to find funds to look spooky.

Ofcourse you can swap csotumes with friends. With a different make up even your closest friends won't notice.

But you can also rely on what you have.
A black dress or black t-shirt and trousers will do great as a basic costume.
A mask, and vintage jewelry will do the trick.
And how about using your bicycle lock chain, if you have one. It's great not complement a men's costume, and it also gives perfect halloween sounds.

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Children all over the world love to receive gifts, but sometimes we just don't have the money to make something or buy something.

At this time of year though many supermarkets have special promotions.
When you spend for a certain amount of money you'll get a small toy.

These make perfect gifts for trick and treat.
Especially when they're still in the wrap.

Have fun!

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Halloween treats are always welcome.
We don't have a halleoween tradition in my country, but there are always a few children who want to sneak this interesting event into the agendas of grown ups because sweets are welcome.

So they dress up at halloween just like in many other countries and rang the doorbeels looking for treats.

Try to keep them healthy.

So avaid too much sugar, too much salt, additives and the whole lot.

Here kids also love small boxes with raisins, cupcakes, small applepies, cheese.

Wrap them individually and with care.

Carrots and leek

Take about an equal amount of carrots and leek.

Slice them and put them in a pan with potatoes.

Cook.

When it's nearly ready take smoked bacon and slice them in small pieces or buy pieces.

Bake them in their own juice until the fat is nearly gone or the bacon is brown.

When the potatoes and carrots are ready, stamp the food and mix it with the bacon.

Yummy!!

Against muscle cramps

Muscle cramps can be nasty. especially during night time.

It's best to extend/stretch the muscle that's cramping until the pain has gone.

Preventing new cramping is possible by applying clove oil on the muscle.

Some say cramping can be preventing by taking vitamine B6.

Smooth zipper

A zipper can be a real pain, but I'm going to teach you a trick so you won't have stubborn zippers anymore.

Just rub the teeth of the zipper with a bar of soap or a candle.

When you use soap you need to reapply after each wash.

In the dryer

To dry your clothes fatser in the dryer add a few tennisballs.
I've been told it saves 25 to 50% of the time you'll otherwise need to dry your clothes.

I would love to have some feedback on this item, because I hardly use my dryer.

No mothballs?

I hate the smell of mothballs.

My gram had far better silution against bugs.

Roll a paper and put it in the back of the wardrobe at a place where it can't touch the clothes.

Take a small net and fill it with soap leftovers.
Put the net in the wardrobe. It makes the clothes smell nice and prevent bugs.

Clean cast iron pans

To clean cast iron pans you don't need expensive bottles or wipes.
It's ridiculous how much people spend on detergents and other cleaning products.

Cast iron can be polished clean with one of the best kitchen scrubs: salt.

First clean the pan the usual way. Dry it and then pour a bit of salt on the bottom and use a cloth or brush to clean the pan with the salt.

When the dirt has come off, clean the pan and rinse with a lot of water.

Then fatten the pan with a bit of oil before putting it away.

autumncolours

Taka a camera and go for a walk in the woods.
The colours are beautiful at this time of year and it's well worth to take lots of photos.

You can add them all together in a collage and add coloured leaves to make a real nice autumn present. For instance for someone who isn't able to leave home.

Right now it's still possible to ride with a wheelchair through the woods, unless it has rained a lot.
So when you know someone to take for a ride, do it now.

Broccoli pie

Needed:

500 gram potatoes
375 gram broccoli
125 gram carrots
100 gram sellery
50 gram bacon
250 spices minced meat
1 union (circa 125 gram)
1 garlic
1 tin tomatomash (60 gram)
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
2 teaspoons parsley

75 gram grated old cheese
nutmeg, pepper, salt.

circa 25 - 50 gram butter

Preparing

Time in oven: 40 - 45 minutes after preheating..

Peel potatoes and cut them in 4 parts. wash them.
Put them in water. About half under.

Don't use salt!!! Cook them. When ready pour the water away and leave them to rest.

While cooking the potatoes, cut the large stem from the broccoli and wash what's left.

Cut the flowery part from the broccoli, and save the small stems for later.

Kook the broccoli in a bit of water with salt in about 5 to 10 minutes. Pour in a sif so the water can be drained.

Slice the small stems in small pieces of a half to one cm.

Clean carrots, peel them and cut in small parts.

Cut selery in small parts.

Put the broccoli stems, carrots and selery in water and a bit of salt and cook for 3 minutes.
Leave them in the water and save for later.

Peel an union and slice in small parts.
Peel garlic and cut it in very small pieces.

Bake bacon, take it out of the pan and put minced meat in the fat and bake that. It doesn't need to be brown, just baked a little bit.

Get rid of too much fat and water.

Add the union and bake a bit more, add garlic and leave it baking for 1 minute.

Take tomatomash and add it.
Add some thime, parsley and a bit of dalt and pepper.

Then put the vegetable to the meatmix and add all in a fatted ovenbowl.

Make mash from the potatoes and add the broccoliflowers.

Maak nu de aardappelpuree:
Add cheese, some pepper and salt and nutmeg.

Add the mash to the vegetable mix in the ovenbowl.

Put little pieces of butter on top. (about 15 grams)

Preheat the over at 200 degrees celcius.

Put the pie in it in the middle and bake until brown. That's about 30 to 40 minutes and about 5 to 10 minutes longer when the pie was kept in the fridge.

Be aware of frost

Not all plants are able to deal with frost, we all know that.
But often we forget which plants need to be put inside before the first frosty night.

So today is the perfect day to look up on internet or in books which plants of your collection need to go inside.

When you're in doubt, take a leaf anf d go to your gardencentre to ask.
They won't think you're stupid.

You're only stupid to let your plants die when it isn't necessary.

Water and leaves

Water and leaves results in rotting junk.

When you've got a birdpool, or other water in the garden put a net or roster over it so the leaves can collect there and they're easy to remove.

This is more pleasant than removing the stinking rotting junk that forms when leaves stay in the water.
Apart from the fact that the quality of the water is badly affected by leaves.

Remove the leaves very regularly.

hanging baskets

Some people put their hanging baskets away when autumn starts, but there's no need to.
Even when there's a bit of frost at ground level the temperature at the basket is above zero.

You can plant ivy at the sides of the basket to keep the green look.

When you keep the flowering plants in their own pot when you add them to the basket you can exchange them without problems, and it's also more easy to keep the water in the basket when watering the plants.

drawstrings

I found my wintercoat with an old.. too old... drawstring and suddenly remembered the care I always showed when the coats and caqrdigans of the children had a drawstring.

For children who are caught up in play they're very dangerous.
The string might get caught on elements of the playground for instance and strangle a child.

Each year children die because of a drawstring.

House inventory

A good house inventory is important.

With a list of your most important belongings you can provide the insurance information to assess how high your insurance should be.

You can give them the list when something has happened, like a fire or burglary,

In some countries a list like that also comes in handy for the taxes.

Make the inventory in such a way that it's easy to see where the item is, how old it is, what the prize was and how much it costs to renew it.

Chestnuts

It's time to harvest the chestnuts.

Kids love to do that.

Tradition says one should keep one chestnut in the pocket against rheumatism.

We used to keep a large wild one in our pocket to get warm hands in the winter.
When you rub it against your trousers it get's shiny, but warm too.
You can even rub it too long and burn your hand when you're not carefull.

My kids like to do what I did when I was young: take a handful of chestnuts to school.
When you're hungry they're good food.

Sheets

It's OK to use the standard size of sheets on your bed, but we prefer a bit more.

So I buy unbleached cotton at the market in town, and take one or two meter extra in length and width.

You can put the sheet well under the mattress at the bottom, so you won't get cold feet, and at the top there's a good overlay, which can be pulled up in the neck at cold winternights.

When making the bed you can fold the overlay down over the blanket, and then fold half of it back upward again.

The unbleached cotton causes less pollution and after washing it a couple of times it get whiter.

planting and trimming trees

Planting and trimming trees depends on a lot of aspects.

It's best to go to your gardencentre and have an expert advice you.
He'll know the tree in question, and he'll know the conditions in your garden.

There's a fast difference here between parts of town here.
One part has great soil. Sand, with lots of woodland compost in it. The layer of soil in the gardens is very deep, because it's the natural soil there. It used to be a forest.
The cold won't get in the ground as fast as in our part of town, so there they can plants trees later in the year too.

Here we have heavy clay. We're living on a former swamp, and it means that rains transform whole areas in a mess. In summer the toplayer dries out and changes into a firm layer that kills plants easily. Rain stays on top of it for a long time.
In the winter the humidity causes the cold to get into the soil early and deep.

Some trees can't be planted in oktober any more, because they won't invest in good rooting anymore. Maybe they'll survive in containers, but the chance is they won't have a wide rootsystem in the future and can be blown flat easily.
They'd better get a good chance and be planted in spring.

Other trees will do fine when they're planted in a large hole with good soil.
They'll be able to grow roots for quite a while until it's really winter.

As climats change and local conditions are all different, I'll stick to the advice not to plant now anymore, unless you really have to.
It takes a lot of a plant to survive winter, so why not give it the best start you can give?

Autumn in the garden - 4

It's too late to plant trees this year, but you can still put them in containers.

Plant bulbs for early flowers next year.

Remove leaves from the grass, but leave them alone elsewhere unless it are leaves from the willow.

When you want to mow the grass, do it for the last time of the year and at a height of 4 to 5 cm's. Remove all mowed grass. If you don't it will rot and cause the underlayer to go brown.

When you want to cut trees and shrubs read good information first, because some needs to be left alone uintill spring.

Autumn in the garden - 3

It's time to take your gardenequipment inside.

Remove all the dirt and apply a bit of for instance silicone oil to prevent rust.

Take the gardenhose and remove all the water.
Hang it out in the wind to be sure every small drop is removed and hang it inside.

When you have taps outside, switch off the water and let those taps run until all the water is removed.

Close them and turn the wauer on again if you need water elsewhere.
Sometimes the fgatdentaps have their own distributionswitch. When it's in the shed, be sure the pipes towards the garden are empty. Then cover the distributionswitch with isolationmaterial, because water runs towards that point and the pipe might break when it freezes.

autumn in the garden - 2

Do you have nesting houses for the birds in your garden?
Then now is the time to clean them.

First look if they're still in use. In that case leave them alone and clean them in spring.

Otherwise get all the twigs and dirt out.
Desinfect the little house with something against bacteria and fungi.

Let it dry well and hang it back after you've removed all rotten plantrests around it.

When the winter gets cold the birds will value your work, and otherwise a small family will find it's way there.

Autumn in the garden - 1

Now autumn is taking over you need to work in your garden to prepare it for winter and the new year.

One of the first things to do is collect seeds.
You can only do that when the seeds are ripe.
So read about your plants and find out how you can see the seeds are ready for harvest.

It's best when you harvest the seeds after a few dry days, but that's not always possible.

Put them on a flat surface and allow them to dry.
First take any leaves and twigs away, and if possible everything else around the seeds too.

Sometimes seeds are in pods that are very easy to remove when they are dry, then dry the seeds and the pods together and remove the pods later.

Let the seeds dry more time before you store them.
Maybe in an envelope with the name on it.

Insurance

Stay informed about your insurance, and keep the booklet at a place where you can find it without problems.

For certain procedures you need their permission first, others are only allowed every so many times during so many years.

Many insurances have a central mailaddress, so you can reach them without problems.

Ask in your mail to send you proof they have received the mail, simply by replying with "received".

Keep track of dates, so they'll answer you within the lawful time.

Ask for diploma's

When you are refereed to a free situated practice of a psychologist, physiotherapist, docotr, etc etc. it's good to ask for a diploma.

Some people feel rather hesitant, thinking it is a statement of distrust.
Don't think that way.

People who are professionals don't mind other people guarding their wellbeing by asking if someone is a real professional.

mushrooms

Some people like to pick them theirselves.
I think it's too much of a risk.
Each year many people get ill because they didn't know the difference well enough between good and bad mushrooms.

Mushroom poisoning can cause suymptoms which range from relatively mild (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea) to death.

It's interesting, and dangerous, that mushrooms that are non-toxic and thus edible in one area, might be toxic in another area.
So always use someone with thorough knowledge of the local varieties.

Nails

In the sixties we glues small flowers on our nails, or painted them.
It's in fashion again and I have to say: it's nice to see so many different nails.

So when you're short of a good present for a girl or young woman, buy a set of naildecorations. They come in all sorts and sizes. You have to watch the pirzes though.

Add some coloured nailpolish or transparent nailpolish and you'll hit the right spot with the spresent.

Can't reach adgitize

I don't know how it's at your side of internet, but I can't reach adgitize.
Hopefullt they'll compendate for being unavailable.