Happy Halloween!

Here's My Costume!

It's the first one that I've ever done any sewing for... and I'm not great at it so I'm relieved this looks presentable.

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I've always wanted to be a spider for Halloween.

What are you being this year?

P.S. I was just clicking thru blog land and found this GREAT last minute craft from Sister Diane over at crafty pod- go check it out!

Under and Watching the Weather

Today I'm under the weather. I'm stayed home from the office because I don't feel well. Aside from doing some work from home I'm also obsessing about what I have to do for Halloween- but can't because I feel icky. So watching the weather is what I've zero'd in on. I've check it twice already and with Halloween 4 days away it still seems a bit up in the air. First we were going to have a warmer than usual day and partly cloudy but no rain... yay.

Now it's been updated to say a slight chance of rain... yuk.

Since nothing on my to-do list is going to get accomplished today I thought I'd leave you with pictures of carved pumpkins from the past year.

Enjoy.

Trick or Treat Tagalong

Hang On For The Ride

Menace

Frightful

RIP

Classic Jack

3 Faces Of Halloween

Jolly Jack

Cauldron

Toothy Grin

Alight

Countdown to Halloween

I can't believe there are only 5 days until Halloween! Every year I feel behind but this year it seems worse.

Here's my to do list:

• Make costume (although, I did start part of it already)

• Buy Candy (I try not to get it too early so it's not calling to us after dinner but this is really cutting it close because I still have to...
• Make Treat Bags
• Carve Pumpkins
• Get non-candy Halloween night Food for guests
• Finish Decorating with the stuff that only goes out on or just before Halloween. This year because of other things going on in our little world we've taken it easy on the decorating. A good 30% won't make it out of storage but I still want to pull out some night of decorations.

Are you ready for Halloween?

Decorating- 2 steps forward 1 step back

For the second year in a row (and also the second time in ten years) the yard was vandalized. Not once this weekend- but twice.

I went out on Saturday morning to put out a few more things and found that a skull was stolen.

They had clearly tried and failed to get the others. After a few of them walked away last year I attached them better this time around, I'd like to think that paid off at least a little.

Some gravestones were also tipped over. But to be fair that could have been wind. (On a side note if anyone knows a really good way of keeping these up I'd love to know. We tried the stakes in the ground but found they aren't strong enough. This year is the first time we've tried the large metal stake in the back- it works better for sure but not all that great)

I fixed the decorations and put how a few more things.

And added a personal note for the person who took my skull. I have another to replace it- but not wanting to add to this persons ill-gotten collection, at the loss of mine, I'll wait until Halloween to put it out.

And for a new and interesting low- on Sunday morning I woke up to this scene in the front yard.

Nothing walked away this time- but I hate redoing things I've already done.

Each year, after the last Trick-or-treaters have gone, I always take this fence in before we go to bed, never trusting it out on Halloween night.

Now I'm starting to think about if I trust it to be out at all. I hate thinking this way, I'd prefer to think that people will simply enjoy the display and leave it in tact.

Clearly though I am wrong.

Pumpkin Patch

Some photos from the pumpkin patch.

This year was a fantastic year for growing pumpkins- we got some beauties.

And Lucy had a great time.

The decorating continues- I'll share some new photo's soon.

Skelton Wreath Tutorial

In case you missed my recent guest post for making a skeleton wreath on my friend Joanne's blog, Ready, Set, Craft! I thought I'd repost it here.

It's made from a styrofoam skeleton that came in a bag with all the bones separate (This exact product or something like it seems to be readily available in the Halloween decoration section of most chain home stores.)

I started by laying out the bones and evaluating all the pieces, dry stacking them a few times to get a feel for the shape and size of the wreath.

For me the shape worked best if I used the flatter pieces- hips, hands, feet- to make my base. Each piece overlapped the other so that I could glue them to each other.

I found this glue in the craft store and it worked perfectly.

I wanted the skull to greet all my guests face to face so I gave it a prominent spot at the top, then worked my way around the wreath building the second layers of bones using mostly the leg and arm pieces (boy doesn't that sound strange in a wreath tutorial).

Once I had two solid layers I was left with some of the skinnier flat bones and some smaller little ones (I'm not a doctor and I'm really not sure which bones these are so I'll stick with my highly technical term of "the rest".)

I took "the rest" and stuck them in wherever I thought it felt a little bare.

The last piece of the skeleton I added to the wreath was the jaw (and in my opinion it was the best piece- I think it really makes the whole thing).

This was the only piece that needed to be propped up until the glue dried, everything else stayed in place on it's own.

I let the wreath dry flat overnight and the next day it was ready to hang. Since the skeleton is foam it's very light and only needed to sit on a small nail to hang it (but you could attach some floral wire and use a small hook it needed).

It's a little creepy (my husband shakes his head every time he looks at it and says how wrong it is) but I love the unexpected for Halloween! (Besides I think he secretly likes it.)