Witches Dinner in The Hollow

It's that time of year when the ladies come out to 

join us in celebrating Halloween!  They have been

joining me in celebrating since my first year of 

blogging in 2010!

Click here to see their first blogging appearance,

even though they had been hanging around our

house for ages before that.

But the more witches, the merrier, as our group 

of Crafty Witches joined us for dinner, set up in the woods.

Wander down the land into the deep of the woods 

to find where we are gathering tonight.

We have owned this piece of property for over 30 years 

now, and we lived here for almost 3 years, with the 

intention of coming back within 5 years and building, 

but the kids were at that age that we didn't want to move 

them again during junior high and beyond, so family 

has lived here, including Joni from Red Couch Recipes.

My oldest daughter decided to move out into the old 

house and build a new house on the property 3 years 

ago.  After she started building I found a journal I had 

written when we lived there and she was 9.  At that 

time she said that when she got married she would 

move here and live with her husband.  That was so 

fun to find since we hadn't remembered that.  Now hubby 

wants to develop a few more lots and build there too.

(Can you imagine moving just my tablescape items!!!???)

It consists of 5 acres with the lower part having 

been called The Hollow, since before we owned 

the property.  This part is heavily wooded and 

has quite a few deer and a rogue white rooster.

I have wanted to have my witchy friends here for three

seasons, but the weather is always a little iffy.  This 

year it rained early in the day but was dry and 

warm for our party.

My son build a custom table just for eating in 

The Hollow, using a gray-wash marine finish so it can withstand 

the weather.  It is 12 feet long. I covered it with a 

open cut spider web fabric that I had purchased 

a few years ago.  It was a perfect fit.  

Purple jeweled chargers from ZGallerie begin the plate 

stack followed by fun scalloped plates from Home Goods.

I used my black flatware from Horchow.

These playful goblets were a new purchase from Dollar Tree 

this year and they came in orange, purple and black.

The napkins sat on a purple glass plate with their name tag 

and a witch shoe ornament, but there was also a 

special party favor!

I gave everyone these fabulous garden gloves with 

claws!  They just looked so witchy, but they work great.

This black chandelier was my favorite part of the 

whole event.

I missed the fact that it wasn't wire as a plug in, but 

hubby helped me set everything up and he quickly 

added a plug.  We have a Humless chargeable battery 

that we plugged it into after hanging it in the tree.

It just made everything magical.

The table was filled with lots of fun items 

(yes we had to drag them all from our house!)

I used battery operated candles and real candles.

These new serving dishes from Home Goods this year 

were my husband's favorites.  

Silk flowers in black and purple with eyes filled my 

adorable MacKenzie-Childs pumpkin cart.

These came from Dollar Tree also.

And they adorned the backs of my chairs, which were 

my white chiavari chairs covered in black stretch covers. 

The chairs also had a little bit of gauze and gray netting 

to bring up the drama. 

The ladies oversaw the serving table.

I have this wonderful Witches and Warlocks urn 

that I got from Home Goods a few years ago, but I 

wasn't certain it was food safe, so I placed a bowl inside 

to make my witches brew.

We also had a bonfire going to add to the mood. 

We witches gathered for a photo, but we were 

missing one.

We could excuse her being late as she was bringing 

this glorious, scary cake.

One of our hubbies calls us the "overachievers" and we 

certainly followed through with that when we all ended 

up with three favors to take home with us.  

Dinner was chili in a bread bowl with fresh garden veggies and 

a fun fruit dip.

As I was flying a group of witches up and out of The Hollow,

our battery gave out, so these three witches had only 

candle light to keep them company until I returned.

Thanks to all my witchy friends who came and made 

this a magical evening.  The biggest thanks goes to 

hubby who helped me pack everything in and out,

and then did it again for a family dinner as the 4 year old 

witch insisted we needed to do this for the family!

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday

Tales of the Traveling Tote - Havasupai

Welcome to our September edition of 

Tales of the Traveling Tote.  

I feel so lucky to have been invited into 

this wonderful group of women who 

travel all over with their MacKenzie-Childs 

totes and accessories.  

Visit their posts and join us in a fun giveaway 

of a MacKenzie-Childs gift.

Miss Madi K traveled with me to 

Arizona onto the Hualapai Indian Reservation,

to go down to Havasupai and Mooney Falls, 

which are in a canyon that empties into 

the Grand Canyon.  

The magic of Havasupai are the limestone 

deposits which create the gorgeous blue 

waters.  

Havasupai is a bucket list item for many, many people, 

and with the popularity of the internet, Pinterest, and 

Instagram, it has become increasingly difficult to 

get a permit to hike Havasupai.  We were lucky enough 

to have a friend who has connections to get the permits. 

He was able to obtain permits for fourteen of us.

It is a rigorous zigzagging trail 10 miles 

down into the canyon.  Now, we aren't spring chickens, 

ranging in age from 52-69, so we decided to helicopter in the 

first 8 miles.  

In order to ride the helicopter you wait at the top 

of the canyon while tribal members and supplies 

are given first priority.  You should get there early 

as the line grows all day.  

We waited about an hour and a half at the top 

and then another 2 hours down at the bottom 

to receive our backpacks.

Our friend with the connections with the tribe had 

matching hats and tee's made for our group.  You 

would be surprised how the natives all wanted to 

get one of the tee shirts and hats.  He brought shirts 

and hats for the Tribal Council, but by the end of 

the trip we all gave our hats and shirts away to 

tribal members. 

The helicopter is a stunning four minute 

ride covering the first eight miles, 

but then you hike in the remaining two.  

When backpacking, it is all about the weight.  We 

managed to keep ours under 30 lbs., so needless to 

say, Miss Madi K stayed up at the top of the canyon,

but I needed a camp cup to pour boiling water into, 

so my MC cup got to come along.

The water flows down the canyon and the bottom of 

the canyon is filled with trees and shade, which is 

wonderful since the temperatures in the summer can 

reach well over 100. 

The first order of business was 

to set up camp.  Hubby had backpacked using hammocks 

before, but I had never slept in one longer than a quick nap.  

Mine is the one on the right.

Here is a peek inside my hammock.  I have never slept so 

well camping.  Just like all of my kids, I am converted to 

hammock sleeping.  

Then we headed to dip and later float down the river.  

The water is consistently 70, but we were so hot 

from the hike and camp set-up that it just felt 

refreshing.  

For those who haven't backpacked, weight for your food 

is really critical too.  We have a Great Harvest Freeze Dryer, 

so I got creative and freeze dried quite a few things to 

make backpacking food a lot better.  These are cheesy 

eggs with bacon served in a flour tortilla.  

The one thing I always missed when backpacking was 

some form of bread.  We decided to try street taco 

flour tortillas.  they traveled really well and were 

very versatile.  Now tortillas will be a staple 

for family backpacking.

I also freeze dried marinated, grilled steak strips, 

Sweet Tamale Corn Cakes from Cheesecake Factory, 

and Pasta Napoletana, also from Cheesecake Factory.

Needless to say, we have never eaten so well while 

backpacking.  The steak was served with freeze 

dried asparagus and Monterey Pepper Jack Instant 

Potatoes by Idahoan.  

The next day we had a short two mile hike 

to Mooney Falls, which is about 200 feet tall.  

Havasupai is around 100 feet tall. 

We weren't told ahead of time the crazy, scary hike 

it would take to get down to these falls.  There are 

two "mouse holes" like this that you have to go 

down backwards.  

Then after that, you are using chains and wooden 

ladders to get down to the bottom.  The chains and 

rock get super slippery.

The power of the falls is amazing. 

 It is fun to get in and 

swim towards the falls where you can

 feel the push of 

the waterfall, but it is dangerous

 to try and get too close. 

Then it is back up the ladders and chains!  

We had been told by our trip organizer that on 

occasion some of the tribe might make and 

sell some Navajo Tacos along the trail.  I love their 

sense of humor, as it wasn't until the third day that 

we actually saw some being made along the trail.

They had set up camp right along the trail and were 

selling plain fry bread, Indian Tacos or 

cheeseburgers served in fry bread.

Wow, when you have been eating freeze dried food,

although good freeze dried food, these were an 

amazing treat.  We tried the taco, 

and a burger.  I don't think we would have chosen the 

burger, but another hiker recommended it.  Wow, 

he was right.  They also had ice cold drinks.  I 

think I could backpack like this any time.

Check this one off the bucket list! 

 It was a lot of fun!!

The reservation requires 3 nights at $100 per person,

per night.  We helicoptered out again, but had to 

wait 8 hours to get out as payday had been the day 

before and most of the village exits after receiving 

their checks.  

The drive home brought us along Route 66.

We chose to eat in this retro style diner, Mr. D's.

Yum!!! Cheese stuffed burger.  The food was delicious, 

but the smile and charm of the servers was even better.  

Thanks for traveling with Miss Madi K and me 

to another beautiful spot in this great big 

wonderful world.  Now see where our other friends 

have been off to.

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

 Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Katie with Miss Daisy @ Preppy Empty Nester

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Linda with Miss Rosie @ More Fun Less Laundry

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply 
Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Sketchy Reader

Now for the giveaway! Visit Debbie to enter into the 

giveaway.  

We will be back again with more fun tales on 

December 1st.  Come back and visit us.