Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts

Monday, October 27, 2014

Pumpkins Carved and Ready!

I was pretty happy to provide Samuel with is first pumpkin carving experience.  Every kid should carve a pumpkin; that's like a childhood Halloween right of passage!  So not only did I make sure we got Samuel to the pumpkin patch but we carved pumpkins.

We were going to carve pumpkins Sunday night and watch Hocus Pocus, which is traditional, but Samual had an episode of projectile vomiting.  So we curled up and watched Hocus Pocus without the pumpkins on Sunday.  Monday we got up early and carved away!  This is probably one of my favorite things to do in the Fall.  Halloween all around is one of my favorite things.

Here are the results:

Cleaning the pumpkin guts... a right of passage in itself.

I call him EDGER!

Just add candles...

Jake's

Samuel's (with my help)

Mine.  Edgar Alight!

Champion Pumpkin carver!


All in all I think it was good.  I am pretty happy with mine and pretty proud of Samuel's.  Nothing like a Halloween Jack-O-Lantern to get you in the spooky spirit!  I hope he had as much fun as I did.

Let's see some of my past pumpkin creations:

 Didn't do one last year because of the APDT Conference I was at.

2012

2011
2010

2009

2008

I like faces!  I like spooky faces!

Another fun thing I just found is Theo as a kitten in his Halloween costumes.



Back when I could safely put him in a costume without fear of reprisal...

HAPPY SOON TO BE HALLOWEEN!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Crafty and Spooky!

The winds of change are blowing, which is sad.  I am sad to see some things change and SO happy to see other things in my life change.  It is the changes that I didn't initiate that I am sad about.  I hate to see things that have brought me so much joy to my life end.  I can't tell you what it is until Monday but it has me kind of down.  I just have to remind myself that nothing can stay the same forever.  We wouldn't be happy if things were stagnant forever.  It is up to me to keep this in a positive light and look forward to the possibilities that it opens up for me.  Still kind of sucks though.

Anyway, other things.

Halloween is coming up and I've had some fun with it this year.  Every year, I say I am going to go all out decorating the house.  Someday I am going to have the best decorations and scare the pants off all the little trick or treaters.  I haven't quite made it there.  Something always seems to trip me up.  I have all these grand plans of making these things in my mind but in reality I'm a slow crafter so it takes me forever to do anything.  BUT... I did get around to making some great things.

First up Samuel and I were excited to make a bubbling witches' brew.  It really helps get into the holiday spirit when you have a kid that is just as excited as you are about it.  Having Samuel around is great because he gives me the excuse to do all the crazy things that I always want to do.  Anyway, I bought a cheap plastic cauldron and got two cans of the sealant foam that you put around windows and stuff.  We filled the cauldron with it, let it dry a bit, then stuck some creepy crawlies in it.  Tada!



Okay so I might have gone a little overboard and made it too bubbly but it was fun and considering I did it, I think it turned out alright!  Bubble bubble toil and trouble...

Next, these took me forever and probably annoyed the crap out of Jake because I had a mini explosion of supplies in my attempt to make them... but I love them.  Homemade gravestones!  Yeah right, I am not going to pay $40 for something I can make myself for a fraction of the price.  I had fun with these and next time I do it I'll be able to do it faster and better.  I admit I got sick of the painting so they are not as three demential and shaded as I would like but that will be for the next batch.  For now, I am tickled with how they turned out!







Next year, I'll add more on.  Pinterest is a goldmine of crafty things that may or may not go so well.  But the point is that I have fun with it and something halfway useable comes out.

Happy Soon to Be Halloween everyone!


Monday, October 14, 2013

Haunted House!

EEEEEK!  It's October!  Which means fall.  Which means Halloween.  Which means HAUNTED HOUSES!

My bestest scare buddy Sean is out so of course I'm dragging Caitlin H, Kathleen and Jake to Denver to do the 13th Floor.  As far as haunted houses go, it's a good one.  I love love love being scared so it doesn't really matter, I'm going to scream.

We drove up there and of course it was awesome.  As always, I go first.  As always, Sean and I screamed our heads off.  One of his friends was into it too but the other people in our group just kinda walked along.  BORING!  At least I had my scare buddy!




Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Halloween Cookies!

It's officially time for Halloween.  I got into the spirit at work!




Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Happy Halloween!

Can you guess that I love Halloween?  Every year it comes around and I swear it is my favorite holiday.  Then Christmas rolls around and I swear that is my favorite holiday.  So I figure we'll call it a draw between Halloween and Christmas.  I have loved Halloween since I was a child.  What is better than dressing up, going out and and getting free candy?  And it is a plus if you get the pants scared off you at least once.  Those houses where you had to go through some kind of Trick-Or-Treating maze or haunted house to get to the candy and then the skeleton next to the candy comes alive and scares you half to death... yeah those were the BEST houses!  Someday, I'll be that house and kids will come from far and wide to Trick-Or-Treat at my house.  Someday.

That being said, I haven't had much luck with Trick-Or-Treaters in the past.  The house we grew up in was not in a suburb and hard for the little kiddies walking around in their masks to get to.  So we only had maybe one or two Trick-Or-Treaters, not that I was there because I was out getting my own candy.  Then went to college and got some at the house in Boulder but not many.  There weren't many kids in the neighborhood.  Then we got more in the house out on Powers.  None in Manitou last year because again it was hard to get to.  So we'll see about this year in my brother's house.  I haven't been able to decorate much so who knows if the kids will come.  It is my fondest dream to have lots of Trick-Or-Treaters.  The jury is out on my new house.  I'm not sure if it is in prime Trick-Or-Treating territory and I won't be able to tell you until next year.

Yeah, this year's Halloween has been kind of a dud.  It saddens me.  I've just been so busy with other things and I'm REALLY not settled so ghoulish celebrations have been put off.  I didn't even have a costume this year which is unheard of.  I have been depressed about that so I've been planning for next year.  No idea on a costume but my house is going to freaking rule, thanks to Pinterest.

Here are some decoration ideas I'll be putting into play next year:






See my Halloween board on Pinterest!

I'll probably start making decorations in July.  Ooo it is going to be so spooky.  And I will have equal fun decorating inside but then I do have the dogs and cat to think about so I can't go completely insane as I can outside.  I'll start buying supplies tomorrow when things are on sale.  You have to think about these things.

And next year's costume will be legendary.  I am very proud of my last two costumes.  Last year we had a Zombie vs Survivor party so I was a survivor.  Specifically I was Zoey from Left 4 Dead.  (You rock if you know the game.) 


 The year before that I was a zombie.  Which I was also very proud of.  Let me note that I did the make up all by myself.


See how much fun Halloween can be?  And what did I do this year?  I carved a pumpkin because it would be horrible not to carve a pumpkin.  Keep in mind that I am not especially skilled in the medium of pumpkin carving so mine came out a bit like a drunk child.  But he'll be out there on the stoop!

Fun fact:  We owe the witches' brew (the one that starts with "Double double toil and trouble) to good old William Shakespeare.  Bet you guys didn't know that.  One reason to like McBeth!  See the witches' brew at the end.

So Happy Halloween everyone!  Get spooky!

from Macbeth
A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling. Thunder.
                Enter the three Witches.
       1 WITCH.  Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
       2 WITCH.  Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
       3 WITCH.  Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!
       1 WITCH.  Round about the caldron go;
    In the poison'd entrails throw.—
    Toad, that under cold stone,
    Days and nights has thirty-one;
    Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
    Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
       2 WITCH.  Fillet of a fenny snake,
    In the caldron boil and bake;
    Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
    Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
    Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
    Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
    For a charm of powerful trouble,
    Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
       3 WITCH.  Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
    Witches' mummy; maw and gulf
    Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
    Root of hemlock digg'd i the dark;
    Liver of blaspheming Jew;
    Gall of goat, and slips of yew
    Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
    Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
    Finger of birth-strangled babe
    Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—
    Make the gruel thick and slab:
    Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
    For the ingrediants of our caldron.
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
       2 WITCH.  Cool it with a baboon's blood,
    Then the charm is firm and good.