It is only fair that we acknowledge the bewitching creature, who (or is it whom?) is responsible for Perky Punkin Seeds. Here she is, apparently trying to remember if she used the eye of newt for her concoction. Possibly she is mentally spell checking the word "concoction". She was, really and truly, a human spell checker. I made her business cards that said "Gramma Tickly" (say it outloud, with the accent on the wrong syl-la-ble). In this pic, she has a bottle of potion with glasses ready to serve. I see her plan. Here, drink this...and then spell its name. When you screwed it up, she would get to correct you. My mom was always right when it came to spells.
This is an ‘old’ recipe, shared in the days before microwave ovens. Today’s microwave technology could probably help shorten time to dry the seeds, with a final ‘toasting’ in a regular oven . Size of seeds and amount of pumpkin ‘slush’ probably affect time needed. What follows below are the original instructions as written circa 1970’s.
In today's email was the monthly newsletter from Susan Branch. I love her stuff. She takes quotes and decorates them; sometimes with an embellishment around the words-sometimes the letters themselves becomes a work of art. It started out with a quote from Helen Keller; she's another one of my favorte women, Then the newsletter went on to mention Ivy Bean. Ivy is someone who "Tweets" on Twitter. She has (at last look) about 46,000 followers. Ivy also has a Facebook page. (Here comes the punchline) Ivy just recently celebrated her 104th birthday! I think that is just so cool. I was so enchanted with the whole story and then I realized that Ivy reminded me of yet another inspiring woman. Anna Marie Robertson grew up to be a very famous artist that we all know as Grandma Moses. She didn't even sell her first painting until she was 83! She went on to paint until she was 106.
Today has been declared 'Beatles Day' as part of a marketing blitz to promote a video game of some sort. It does not matter what the 'official' reason is. Even tho I got caught up in it and joined the largest group on Facebook, that doesn't really define my passion for the Beatles. Even being able to say I saw them in person does not get to the crux of the biscuit. Pictured here is what appears to be something from I scanned from the cover of Sgt Pepper. It isn't. It is a 2 inch piece of wood that I painted the design on. It was done after reading 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain'. It is my first 'painting on the right side of the brain'. If I could find my attempts to do anything like this prior to reading the book, you would know this represents a quantum leap. I still look at it in amazement. Having lived so long without the ability to do anything so realistic, I found it almost impossible to believe that I had accomplished this feat. Beatle music was something I frequently played when feeling creative; now I could even illustrate the lyrics that inspired me! 
