Drunken Pumpkin Recipe!!

This is an adapted recipe put together from a coven I used to celebrate with mixed with a recipe from a book my friend and I used to study and sprinkled with my own touches.

Drunken Pumpkin

You will need: 

a large pot, 

1 gallon- Apple Cider (for health & peace)

1 Orange (for purity)

1 Apple (for love) 

3 Cinnamon Sticks (for prosperity)

1/8 tsp. Nutmeg (for fidelity)

One or both of:

Spiced Rum

Whiskey

&

Small Pie Pumpkins (for prosperity)

(pie pumpkins are different than jack-o-lantern pumpkins, make sure you use pie pumpkins!)

Pour cider into pot. Peel orange and save peel, squeeze the orange juice into cider and throw away the pulp. Tear the peel into 1inch pieces and add to cider. Core the apple and cut it into slices and add them as well. Break the cinnamon sticks in two and add them with the nutmeg. 

Warm over low heat from 2 hours at least. Do not bring to boil!

Cut top off pumpkins and scoop out all its insides, just like you would for a jack-o-lantern. Really carve deep to get all the stringies but do not break through the shell. And give it a rinse with water. 

Spoon (or pour I guess if you can manage it) hot cider into pumpkins. The apple bits are so tasty but leave out the orange peels and cinnamon sticks. 

Mix alcohol to taste just before serving. I mix the alcohol into the pumpkins on an individual basis instead of into the pot as everyone is different. I use smell and taste test to gauge how much alcohol, no need to go over board, you can have as much cider as you like :o

This is our very favorite and an absolute staple of our Hallows traditions. 

I hope you enjoy it! 

Happy Happy Happy Halloween!!!! 

Oh and I almost forgot! If you don't drink no worries! This is still the best hot cider recipe ever! :)

Musical Monday for Halloween!

Hallows is just a few days away! Truly it's my favorite Holiday but it does feel so different here in the south then it did while growing up in the Rocky Mountains. In the mountains fall comes at you full force. The leaves all around you turn into vibrant colors: oranges and yellows and reds. The air gets so crisp you can practically taste it. And there is a type of peace and surrender that comes with pulling out your winter clothes and baking with spices and carving pumpkins. There is a warmth of spirit that rises up and fights back the approaching cold. And though I despise the cold and love that everything here is still green and lush this time of year, the lack of tradition fall weather fills me with nostalgia. The kind of deep longing that has you staring out the window for an hour.
Here is a song from my very favorite movie: Practical Magic

This nostalgia that I feel reaches out mostly to two sisters. One my sister not of blood but of spirit. Miss Angie has been my best friend for years and this movie was some small, deep seeded secret that was just ours forever and forever. I also miss my big sister. It feels me up with heartache and seems like a space that goes on forever and will never be filled.
But enough of the melancholy~ if you have never seen Practical Magic I highly recommend it. But of course I'm biased. It is my favorite.










Linksy Party from My So Called Chaos




On another note: Live Steamy's FREE Gift with purchase only last until Halloween!!! That means you only have three more days to buy (or place a special order) and receive our small FREE gift.

www.etsy.com/shop/livesteamy

Be sure to check back in tomorrow for my own super awesome Drunken Pumpkin Recipe!!!

How to Make it Happen

DREAM 

+ 

PLAN

+

HARD WORK 

+ 

DETERMINATION 

+ 

a little LUCK  

+

good CONNECTIONS 

+ 

PERSEVERANCE 

= 

COME TRUE

Importance of Birthdays!

I do think birthdays may be one of my very favorite reasons to celebrate. When we are children, or have children, it is easy to see the importance. Our parents often make big fusses about our birthday and we get parties and streamers and balloons and sweets! We get to see all of our friends and don't have to clean our rooms and get presents! Christmas is great, Halloween is great, but Birthdays are the ones where every isn't just celebrating but they are celebrating you!! It's amazing. But as we become adults the importance of our birthdays seems to slip away more and more. Maybe it's because we become ashamed of being selfish, maybe we've had hurtful experiences on birthday's gone wrong or forgotten by our loved ones, or hate the idea of getting older and don't wish to draw attention. Often we are consumed by responsibility, after all the company doesn't care that it's your birthday and isn't going to throw you a party or give you time off. Maybe we are lonely and don't have anyone to celebrate with. But I say ppphhhwwweeeyyy. Take some time no matter how old you are, no matter who's in your life at the moment, no matter what else you have to get done that day to celebrate yourself! Be selfish and lazy and crazy and great and full and love every friggin' love every second. It is important. You are important!

In this spirit I'm celebrating myself. Took the longest bath ever! Painted my toe nails, primped for an hour and we are going to go walk on the beach on a lovely sunny day instead of staying inside and working. :) I'm so blessed for all the amazing friends and family I have and my amazing husband!

And I'm NOT going to make my bed so ha! (actually I think making beds is pointless as no one sees it but you and you just going to jump back into it in a few hours anyway, so I never make my bed but that's not the point anyway. *)   :D

Reduce Reuse Recycle

I talked about this concept a bit in the post http://livesteamy.blogspot.com/2012/07/steampunk-philosophy.html if you didn't see it a while ago have a look-see. :)
But now the subject comes around again, as it probably will sometime in the future, because it is one of our core ideals. And also one of the things that drew me to Steampunk initially.

When starting to make t-shirts we knew we would have to offer new shirts in full span of sizes. That's fine but in keeping with a reduce, reuse and recycle attitude we also want to offer upcycled shirts too! And I just put out the first batch! Upcycled shirts have the great benefit of being cheaper. We are very careful with the stock we buy. And buying used allows us to continue an attitude of ingenuity, care and conservation. Here are a few of our new, upcycled shirts:

 'Divebomb' on two tan shirts

https://www.etsy.com/listing/112761237/divebomb-unique-mens-steampunk-shirt

 'Gear Me!' on a women's teal stretch t-shirt

https://www.etsy.com/listing/112764236/gear-me-hand-stamped-steampunk-t-shirt?ref=v1_other_1

Great for Fall!!! 'Divebomb' on men's long sleeve shirt

https://www.etsy.com/listing/112762896/divebomb-unique-mens-steampunk-shirt?ref=v1_other_2

"Bloomin' Bloomers"!

So that's a lot of 'bloom' going on but honestly I just couldn't resist. And what could possibly be better than bloomers?!?!

This pair of bloomers has a beautiful soft, stripe pattern with yellow ruffle fringe, white lace and two toned ribbon tied at side by a button. I love buttons! I also added the ribbon and bows coming down on both legs giving it a slightly sexier feel with the mock garters. When I was making them I wanted to add a 'ruffle rump' (a few layers of trim on the back side mimicking a bustle) But it just ended up looking like a duck bum. Would be totally cute on pantaloons for a baby but not so much for a lady.

Back of bloomers

However, with this pair I got to do the ruffle rump and I love it. This pair of bloomers is much simpler in that they are not as detailed but the adorable ruffle rump totally makes up for that. They are really soft and would be totally comfy to wear to bed or under a dress or just out and about with some added steampunk gear.

These two pairs are up on my etsy now and you can be certain that there will be more to come!

Steampunk Musical Monday!

End of Days- Abney Park

ooooooo If I weren't a married woman.. there are things I would like to do with every single member of this band.  ooooo * I need my fan *
So this is totally my new favorite band. There is nothing about this video that I'm not fawning over. The girls are gorgeous, and hey, so are the guys. Singers voices are melting. I love the sound, I love the look. Great movement. I will so be stalking this band online for the next little while. 

Their website is- www.abneypark.com





Linksy Party from My So Called Chaos!

Made Special For You

I finished 3 out of 4 of my special orders today! I'm really excited because I've been struggling with some of them.

 This one has taken me the longest. It's a broken clock for the Alice in Wonderland table at the beautiful Miss Sharon's wedding. I wanted to make a large pocket watch that would hang, had the rabbit's face on the front and hung open spilling out gears and springs. The first problem I ran into was how to make the clock itself. Clay would have been way too heavy, so I tried to use that kids puffy clay stuff. It was fun to work with (that's what the rabbits head is made of) but when it dried it just cracked and crumbled. So plan B. I had bought this clock piece at Ross and used the clock for a dress and just had the frame. So I worked with that. I like the way it came out even though it is entirely different from how I first imagined it but I think it will look adorable with the half tea cups and tea set stack that we made for Sharon's table. And I will send her some extra, loose gears to put around it as well.

 A client emailed after seeing my other peacock fan and asked if I could do the feathers all across instead of just on the one side. For whatever reason I was really nervous about doing this piece. I was quite worried that she wouldn't like it or it wouldn't turn out right. And I was kinda putting it off due to such nerves but I finally just jumped in and did it. Travis loves it so I really hope our client will also.

Steampunked Yoga Pants! These were my favorite recent special order. I love the negative space gears in the "Gear Me" design. And we will be working on new gear and clock stencils sometime soon to start adding some more variety because this style is becoming so popular and I prefer to create my things from scratch instead of from purchased art tools. These pants are proudly going to Australia!
And I can't wait to make more.










Now that the bulk of my special orders are done I feel good about having a relaxing and fun weekend with my Mr. (We have a tendency to work all through our weekends. Oy.) 

Team Time!

I had my first meeting with our new seamstress today!! We sat down over tea and talked. Shared ideas, explored avenues. I showed her where we are at now and in what ways we would like to expand. All that good stuff.
I'm really so excited to have miss Tamara on board. She has awesome background in theater and her whole family gets involved in making clothes and costumes! Her ideas are fantastic and I can't wait to see where they go. I'm really thrilled about this opportunity to begin expanding Live Steamy.

Directing our Alice

Doing touch ups and adjustments with Xan for our Dark Alice shoot. I'm going through the photos now to narrow down which to keep and print but this gives you a little taste of how it looked without betraying our full and final pics. It was a great shoot. Miss Jessica Perle and her amazing company- Ms. Quito Artistry did the amazing make up. And our fantastic photographer is Darryl Reynolds. The out fit and props are of course ours- 

Live Steamy.

Fall hits Georgia

First off- whew- I have a tendency to drop off the face of the earth sometimes. But I'm back now. :D

A lot happened over the last week. We went up to Atlanta for a show but I really don't want to talk about it. I got super sunburned and Atlanta is the craziest driving experience I think I have ever had. Not to mention its a four and a half hour drive. So we left the house at 3AM!! Atlanta may not be the place for us. But I do love the steampunks there. (even though we got lost and I didn't get to go to the meeting) but AH I'm talking about it. Moving on...

Things at home are going especially well. Live Steamy continues to move along and steadily, little by little we get noticed more and continue to have new and exciting projects. I've started pulling more steampunk decor and habits into my creative space and it's surprising how effect that has been in getting more juice flowing. My Mr. is also moving right along on his projects: the edits on the novel and drawing/coloring of his comic. It's all very exciting.

So about this fall feeling. I grew up out west, mostly in the Rocky Mountains so fall has always had very distinct characteristics. There is a sharp chill in the air, the amazing colors of the changing leaves, that smell in the wind and a darkening sky. That's when you know its time for the pumpkins and spices and scarves and boots. That's the start of the Holidays when everything starts to have this time to get bundled up and cozy feeling. But I now live in a sub-tropical area and three days ago it was 85degrees. I've always loved pulling out my Hallows decorations and bringing out the drunken pumpkin and pie recipes. But without those "fall" signals I just wasn't feeling it. But! The last two days have been super chilly and the mornings are foggy and the nights are crisp. We did decorate the house so it is now covered in pumpkins and scented with spices. It's unusual for Georgia but I feel fall and it brings back a giddy nostalgia that I am happy to revel in for the moment.
Later this week temperatures go back to the low 80's and I am glad of that. I got my 'get into fall' spirit. :)
So how does this Fall Spirit manifest in my work? Why, Steampunk Pumkins of course!!!
(I thought of calling them Punk-kins but not sure if that's pushing it or not)

  I totally love them and can't wait to make more. These guys will be on sale in my etsy store later today. :D

The World for Musical Monday

 Vermillion- Slipknot

She seems dressed in all the rings
Of past fatalities
So fragile yet so devious
She continues to see
 Climatic hands that press
Her temples and my chest
Until the night that she came home
Forever

Oh (She's the only one that makes me sad)

She is everything and more
The solemn hypnotic
My Dahlia, you're bathed in possession
She is home to me

I get nervous, perverse when I see her to worse
But the stress is astounding
It's now or never she's coming home
Forever

Oh (She's the only one that makes me sad)

Hard to say what caught my attention
Vixen crazy, Aphid Attraction
Carve my name in my face, to recognize
Such a pheromone cult to terrorize

I won't let this build up inside of me
I won't let this build up inside of me
I won't let this build up inside of me
I won't let this build up inside of me

I'm a slave, and I am a master
No restraints and, unchecked collectors
I exist through my name, to self oblige
She is something in me, the darkness finds

I won't let this build up inside of me
I won't let this build up inside of me
I won't let this build up inside of me
I won't let this build up inside of me

....

This video brings me deeply into how I often feel about what is becoming of our world. She is a perfect portrait of a heart sickening loneliness and inability to fit in. Confused, lost and alone. And I can't express how often my world has made me feel that way. But in the end when the butterfly comes to rest before her. That one small thing in a world of movement beyond reach brings a peace and a happiness that has been unmatched.

Today I want to take some time to just sit for awhile and let myself be at peace. Work and family and cooking and households and friends and business and bills can be set aside for just a moment of pure stillness to bring me a back a bit of hope and happiness. :)