Tutorial Corner: Halloween Hobgoblins and their habitat

So I’ve been sharing pictures on my Facebook via Instagram of the cute little Hobgoblins I’ve been making. I got the idea from a picture on Pinterest:

I was like hmmm… I could do those with no problem! So here’s how I did them!

You’ll need a habitat (if you want one, it’s optional! You can always hang them from the ceiling from fishing line, as it’s shown in the picture above. You’ll also need some feathers of your choice (Walmart, $2.97); Spanish Moss (Walmart, $3.49); miniature skeletons of your choice. I got mine at the Dollar Tree. They’re a part of a “Skeleton Garland” that I just cut apart from the string. You’ll also need a hot glue gun, glue sticks and scissors.

Step One: Remove your skeletons from the string (if applicable).

Step Two: If needed, shorten the legs. Just take a small bit of the lower leg out.

While you’re at it, take the femur from the knee joint with your scissors. It’s best to do both legs at the same time, just make sure you don’t get your sides confused.

With a small amount of hot glue, attach the lower leg back together.

Do the same with the thigh.

Then glue the leg all together. Give the knee a bit of a bend backwards to make it look like it’s floating.

Step Three: Cut the lower arm off at the elbow. Poor Skelley.

Step Four: Kind of bend your skeletons arm at the joint however you want it.

Step Five: Glue the arms to the elbows in a raised fashion so it looks like this:

Pose your dude like he’s drunk.

And him and his buddy will eventually look like they’re doing the Thriller.

Now comes the fun part….

Step Six: Taking your feathers, get your idea laid out on the table in front of you. Think about how they’ll look on the finished product, so make sure the curved feathers go in the right direction.

Step Seven: Using a pretty good size dollop of hot glue (be careful not to burn your fingers!) attach the wings to the back, right between the shoulder blades on the spine.

Finish both sides and then take a smaller feather to cover up the mess you made out of the spines of the feathers. Trust me, you’ll make a mess. I know I did.

Repeat the steps with your other, more bashful, Hobgoblin.

And make it look like it has an awesome little purple backpack.

Ehhhh this one doesn’t really care, as long as he’s part of the party.

Step Eight: With a small amount of hot glue, affix a bit of the fishing line to your hobgoblins back.

Step Nine: If you’re making a habitat, this is the time to figure out how you’re going to want to fix them in it. I was having issues trying to get them on the lid right, so I ended up using a small amount of glue on the rim of my glass canister and held the fishing line for a bit for the glue to firm.

Add some Spanish moss, some twigs and maybe some mini-tombstones if you have them and voila! You have a Hobgoblin Habitat. But! Please Note: If you plan on leaving these outside, please note that you’ll want to use high heat hot glue. If not, if they are in direct sunlight, the hot glue will weaken and your hobgoblins will fall apart. Plus, if they’re in a small container, like a jar, the glue heats up and causes condensation in the jar, so make sure to poke a few holes for heat to get out (oh and to let your Hobgoblin breathe!)

If you would like to see a tutorial on how to do the spider web lid to this canister, let me know and I’ll do one!

Awww look they’re dancing!

This is my first Hobgoblin, the one that started it all. Unfortunately, I had to do some emergency surgery to him and whilst putting him in his new habitat, I re-broke his arm. Poor guy!

Polish Review: Glitzkrieg War Paint Fall Frolic Collection

Hey there, Witchie-Poos! I hope everyone is enjoying this, the evening of the last day of summer! Tonight I have for you six of the seven polishes in Glitzkrieg War Paint’s Fall Frolic Collection!

I will say right now, I absolutely adore pretty much any jewel-themed polish collection. They’re indicative of the fall months where everything is so beautiful and fresh.

Autumn Twigs is first up. Listed as a holographic cream with big, brown hex glitters.

It doesn’t seem like much in the bottle, but once you put it on the nail it just screams beautiful.

Two coats of Autumn Twigs and it reaches full opacity. It’s a gorgeous brown holo, which amazes me. I’m not one for brown polishes, but Autumn Twigs hits a heart string. I love the sparkle!

It dries super fast and to a mirror finish.

Next up is Pine Needles… Listed as a dark green jelly with hunter green glitter and teal matte hex glitter.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

It goes on like a dream, like most jellies do. I applied two coats and then covered with a topcoat.

I’m not much of a fan of greens, but I really, really like this one. It’s like the emerald city met the wicked witch and this is what they produced. I can totally see this becoming a part of my halloween costume!

Next up is Leaf Pile… It’s a sleeper, that’s for sure. It’s a brown jelly with small bronze hex glitters and larger transparent hex glitters. They look awesome, which really surprised me.

This polish quickly became one of my favorites in the collection.

I love how it shimmers and shines. This is two coats on all but the middle finger, which is three.

Isn’t it gorgeous? I can see it becoming one of my favorite fall polishes. Only problem I see, is that the one I was sent does not match the polish with the same name in the store. Not real sure what’s up with that .

Next up is Gourds Galore. I LOVE this polish. Gourds Galore is listed as “a bright orange jelly with big, orange holographic dot glitter and tiny holographic rust-colored glitter.” and it doesn’t fail to impress.

It translates onto the nail awesomely and in two coats I love the opacity it creates.

And it’s so darned pretty!!!!!!

Next up is Hayride. Listed as “a bright gold jelly with gold flakes, gold holographic glitter and bright yellow matte hex glitter.” I love how this one shimmers and shines. It’s like a little pot of gold on your fingers.

Two coats and you reach a pretty decent opacity for a jelly polish. Three would have made it too heavy.

But it really does shimmer and shine!

Last but not least is my favorite… Wine By the Bonfire is listed as “a dark purple jelly with a selection of holographic and metallic purple glitters.”

My bottle shot doesn’t do this polish justice. Seriously.

It goes on wonderfully in two coats. Three again would have been too chunky. The hexes don’t always translate well, but that’s ok. I love the vampiness of this polish. It screams to me!

Heh. Now I got them to translate well. Ugh. But still. Goodness, it’s pretty isn’t it?!

All in all, these beauties from Glitzkrieg are AWESOME. The opacity is easy to reach, the dry time is minimal and the formulas are awesome. All except for the Leaf Pile problem on her Etsy store, they’re more than worth the money spent for them!

You can find these and other polishes (including Hardy Mum, which is the seventh polish in the collection) in her Etsy shop. At $8.50 a bottle, it’s a steal!

Nini’s Perfect Pumpkin Bars

When I was younger, these bars were ehhh… I didn’t really care for pumpkin… In bar or pie form. I don’t know why. But now that I’m older I CRAVE these bars and pretty much anything pumpkin in origin from September 1st on LOL
These are no exception. My mom has been making them since I was little. It was a recipe she got when she worked in law enforcement and I have to say they’re the bomb.

Nini’s Perfect Pumpkin Bars

Day Two: Here I've waited my whole life for you, and now you don't even want me. 

2 c. Flour

2 c. sugar

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/4 tsp. Ground Cloves

1/4 tsp. Ground Ginger

4 eggs, beaten

2 c. Pureed Pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling; regular pumpkin puree)

1 c. Cooking Oil

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. In separate bowl combine eggs, pumpkin and oil until combined. Add in dry ingredients in increments to mix in thouroughly. Spread batter into an ungreased 15x10x1 inch jelly roll pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

6oz Cream Cheese softened

3/4 of a stick of butter, softened

2 tsp. of Vanilla

3 to 3 1/2 c. Powdered Sugar

In bowl, mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar; beat well after each addition. If frosting is too thick, add small amounts of milk to thin it out.

You can sprinkle pecan pieces (or walnuts) over the top of the frosting. Or add it to the frosting itself. We’ve done it both ways and love it.

Cut, eat and enjoy!!!

I miss her…

I have been kind of quiet the last week or so here on The Good Witch… Last Thursday the world lost a beautiful, beautiful soul… My good friend Tia, who was the mastermind behind Cosmos Lacquer, passed away unexpectedly at the young age of 23.

Her funeral was today.

I’ve been trapped inside my head for the last week. Asking the usual questions of why and where for? I still have yet to receive any answers other than the usual (trite) it was her time. Or… My favorite… God needed another angel. They’re both true, but it doesn’t help to sugar coat the truth.

Tia was one of the first people I befriended in the polish community. She had a sense of humor that matched mine wit for wit… Dry as hell and loaded with sarcasm. And I loved it.

She was always there to talk to, whether it be in the middle of the day or late at night. She was there when we found out we were being evicted from our trailer and had to leave my cat behind. She comforted me and told me my previous landlord was a dick. Which he was. And she was so excited for the new house and had this crazy obsession with my ugly printed wallpaper. She was forever asking me for a piece of it framed so she could hang it up, lol.

She was there for me when the polish world imploded around me and all the people that I thought were my friends turned into sniping, harpy bitches.

I gloried in her finding her fiancé, but so worried that he’d hurt her that I threatened bodily harm (even from 1,000 or so miles away) if he did.

She sent me seashells from the Gulf of Mexico and an ashtray from Florida that I still have put up and will probably never use.

She had a wonderful eye for polish and, even though her shop had temporarily closed down, her and I had a great plan going for some Beatles themed polishes.

She introduced me to my close friend Megan, which I consider as much of a sister as I considered her.

She shared in my love of hedgies, Who and the simple things.

She loved each and every one of my lightning pictures, or any pictures I took… A lot of the time “stealing” them to use as wallpaper on her phone or computer. I like to think she had a hand in the lightning pictures I got earlier this week…

And now that she’s gone… It’s hard to wrap myself around her death. Even though I’ve lost a few people, it’s always hard when you loose someone else. Especially someone that young. There’s always going to be the what ifs and wherefores.

I could sit here and rant and rail against God… Asking why the hell did he do what he did by taking her so early… But it’s not going to bring her back. Lord knows, if it did bring people back… I would have started doing it a long time ago.

She would be saddened by the fact that us earth-bound people are sitting here crying over her, mourning over her, even though she’s not with us any longer. She’d be angry that we’ve resorted to questioning His authority on the situation.

It’s not our place to ask why. We’re not handed the game book. We’re not told what the plays are in any way, shape or form.

We’re taught, by situations like this, to live life to its fullest. To take each day as a challenge left un-done and we must do it to the utmost of our abilities. Take on each day as if tomorrow will never come… Because life is too short to sit here and dwell on things we cannot change…

I imagine she’s up there in heaven, painting her nails and playing video games. Immune to the every day hum-drum of life on earth and watching over her friends and family with heavenly eyes.

She’s not really gone. She’ll be there some day. But we have to live on until she does show up again.

I miss you, Tia.