Just a few more pix of my Halloween decorations as we near the big day! These are close up pix of the fireplace mantle in the downstairs family room.
The next two are of the window sills in the same room. They were a good spot to put my paper mache and crepe paper Halloween dolls that I made. There is and owl, pumpkin and cat.
Below is the corner where I have hung a vintage skeleton costume. On the adjoining wall is a pic of Sabrina and one of her works of art below that. Bye for now! :)
Yay! Got the charms from the "Charmed I'm Sure" swap that I joined! As you can see, they are all so wonderful and unique! What fun this was! Thanks to everyone who participated and to Angela for hosting!
Tigger was even impressed! He was very curious about some of them, but then he is a cat! Bye for now!
We love cookie baking in this house, and this time of year it is chocolate cookies in Halloween shapes. I used one of Martha Stewarts recipes and regular canned frosting that we tinted.
We also added Halloween sprinkles to most of them. We couldn't make any orange or purple frosting though, because we were out of red food coloring. EEK! Oh, well! But will have to get some so we can have orange frosted leaf cookies! Those will be next!
These darling little Christmas tags came from Dale at Sea Dream Studio! Aren't they adorable! I'm going to hang them from the Christmas tree! They are illustrations from an old coloring book. Plus she added some cute extra tags! Thanks Dale!
These are some finds from the thrift store and antiquing in Anoka, MN. Anoka is famous in this area for it's Halloween festivities. They really get into the "spirit"! Bye for now!
Yippee! I got my atc's for the Serendipity swap, and let me just say that they are all just wonderful! The first one one the top (left to right) is from Kelly of paperballet. The second one is from Lily Cherry and the third one on the top is from Tracey (goddessofhellfire on flickr). The bottom row is from Mary Ann (follow your bliss) and Lisa Kettell (who was the host of this swap and creator of Fairie Zine. Thanks to her for this great swap! Below are the atc's that I did for the swap. Don't know who got them yet, but I hope they like them! Bye for now!
Here are the pictures of the hayride we went on when we went to the pumpkin patch. It's the second year we took the ride so now Sabrina felt she was a pro. She was pointing out everything she saw like a tour guide! Here we are looking for ghosts and goblins!
This year they had some fun things made out of the large round hay bales. Above is a pumpkin man. Behind him is a barn that was built in 1854. Below is a hay bale skeleton. Wonder where they got the skull and hands for this!
Here's a creepy couple and a haunted carriage ride, above. Below is the final treat! The driver/guide said that pumpkin farmers call that a "harvest moon" ! LOL! Bye for now!
Well, we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch, and luckily the weather was absolutely perfect! Sunny, in the 60's and just a little breeze! Above is a pic of Sabrina in front of the Haunted House they have there. It's her favorite thing about the place, she would stand there all day looking at it if I let her.
You can't go inside, but she just loves looking at all the things that are peeking out at her from the windows. Plus, they have a bunch of turkeys that roam around it and an outhouse with a mechanical man that pops out at you. Every year they add a few things to it, and this year they put up the iron arch and fencing.
They also have lot of photo ops around to take pix, so we picked out this corn shock and took one with me and Sabrina and one with Rob and Sabrina.
And we always have to get one with the witch cutout. Sabrina looks so cute in the picture! I will show some pictures of the hayride in the next post, so bye for now!
I joined Lisa Kettell's swap, shown above, and here is the wand I made. It just kind of came out of blue, but I like how it turned out. Hope whoever gets it like it too!
Used a lid from a star shaped paper mache box to give it depth. I also used a peat pot that I slit down the sides and flattened as a base for the witch's photo. I added lots of vintage lace, crepe paper and silver glitter.
She's a charming witch don't you think? Bye for now! 
Here are more of my Halloween decorations, starting with the upstairs living room. This is an old dresser that I use as sort of a buffet. Found the owl, which I call Hedwig, on ebay. She is chalkware, and I just had to have her. I was thrilled I didn't get outbid! The garland says witch, and I made it for the mirror.
This is most of my cat collection on top of the armoire. Right next to that is the feather tree pictured below. I had painted a fake pumpkin with a witch silhouette and then when I got the pumpkin with the cat from Denise, I knew they had to go together!
This is the feather tree in the kitchen. The witch is battery operated so she moves and lights up. She was the first Halloween ornament that my hubby and I got together and Sabrina loved her from the very first time she saw her!
This birdcage is in the other corner of the kitchen. Almost talked myself out of buying it, but luckily I have a really smart husband, who told me I'd regret not buying it. Boy was he right! Bye for now! :)
Tigger our cat is a BIG cat, so when I saw this I had to take a picture! He wanted to be on that window sill so bad, that he wasn't going to let a little problem like a big butt get in the way. The funny thing is, when we got him many years ago, he was able to crawl underneath my treadmill! Probably a good thing he can't do that anymore, as that might lead to a horrible accident!
This is Sabrina holding a science project they did in her class to show how the stomach digests food. She drew the face on the stomach, then they put it in a plastic bag. After she brought it home, she put crushed bits of cracker in the bottom and then I added a little bit of water. When I told her that we couldn't save it after the cracker was "digested" she was upset. So I told her we take a picture to remind her of it! :)
This is the latest collage that I did for Ebay, and it will be the last item I do for Halloween this year. This was an old family photo that I knew would be perfect for Halloween. I photocopied it and then altered it with colored pencils. Then I embellished with vintage silver glitter and gave the one boy some lovely bat wings. I added a nice big moon in the background, and the family is raised from the background for 3d affect. Then I trimmed the frame with vintage lace and a vintage silver buckle with black velvet ribbon through it. I added the words "Bat Boy" to the ribbon. I really liked this so much that I wanted to keep it, but in the end decided to list it. Hope you like it! Bye for now!
Finally taking some pix of the Halloween decorations in my house, and started with one of the walls in my dining area. I call this my "witch's cupboard" as this is where she keeps all her potions, spells and momentos.
There are some of the spell books on the shelf, she just got a new one in fact!
There's an old family photo and a container of dried bat wings.
Here is a pic of grandma witch and her pet crow is checking out some interesting eggs.
This is a paper mache and crepe paper doll I did a few years ago and she is holding a tag that was made by Denise. The polka dot pumpkin is from her too! Time to whip up more potions (and take more pix)!
Check out all the goodies I got from my swap partner Denise! She really went all out, and I couldn't be more pleased! First she painted two pumpkins for me, one with a cat and one with polka dots! And she is obviously a great sewer, because look at the tote bag and yo yo table runner she made! She also made a beautiful necklace with pearls and black crystal beads, it looks amazing!
Then there was a little book shaped box she decoupaged and tucked with goodies and the bottle of halloween sprinkles which the kid and I will use on our Halloween cookies! Oh , and some bottle cap magnets too!
Then there is the jar of chocolate eyeballs with cute little tag and label, and a variety of halloween cards.
As I said, inside the decoupaged box were all kinds of goodies like gold dresden crowns and star (0h yay!) beaded flowers and lots of ephemera! So cool! Can't wait to use everything! Thanks so much Denise! I'm so glad I got you for a partner! Happy Halloween! :)
Still in a Christmas and winter mood with my art, and still working on my technique with gouache. It's a much trickier medium than I ...
