Here there be Monsters...

From ghoulies and ghosties

And long-leggedy beasties

And things that go bump in the night,

Good Lord, deliver us!

Halloween is here - when cute little boys and girls get dressed up as goblins and ghosts, Buzz Lightyear and Fancy Nancy. When getting candy from strangers is actually expected and being able to walk around an unknown neighborhood is par for the course.

Growing up in Australia, kids didn't really have 'Halloween' - it was more of a grown ups excuse to let loose, wear a costume and 'get down with your bad self'. Although, thinking back on it - we didn't really need a holiday to encourage us to do that, most people I know would put on a costume and go out drinking without any prompting. But that's beside the point.

Halloween was a little anti-climatic for me this year. I'm not sure if it's because we did so much stuff prior to the 31st, or the fact that I started working this week or if it's just because the whole 'Trick or Treating' deal doesn't really happen in our neighborhood, it was just kind of 'Oh, it's Halloween?'

Don't get me wrong - I'm a huge fan of Halloween. This year, it just didn't do it for me.

We had grand plans of going to Town Square after I finished work, but I finished late, got stuck in horrible traffic and by the time I picked up Little P from daycare, I was pretty much over driving. I then found out from a friend that it was crazy busy there anyway and they were leaving, so I pretty much just decided to head towards home and play it by ear.

Fortunately our neighbors had a prime spot out in their driveway, with chairs surrounded by carved pumpkins, so Little P and I helped hand out candy to the small amount of Trick or Treaters that came by. I have to admit, I was kind of surprised by a) the age of the kids (most seemed to be at least 11 or 12), b) the types  of costumes they were wearing and c) by the fact that every single one of them was carrying a pillow case as their 'bucket' - me thinks they had high hopes for a large amount of candy. Whatever was in the air tonight, it just didn't feel like Halloween to me.

I'm hoping come this time next year, that Little P will be more aware of what it is, that we will have more Trick or Treaters and that it feels a little more 'Halloween-y'. But now that it's over, bring on 'Turkey Day' (aka Thanksgiving). Cause after that, it's Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year, and even Little P knows who the big guy in the red suit is.

Till next time, eat, drink and be scary.

K

"Nailed It' - Halloween Art

My wonderful mother-in-law sent me this cute little picture a while ago,

and thought it might be a fun thing to do with Little P. Not long after I got that, I found this on Pinterest (of course):

(Credit - Miner Moments)

 And I thought, 'Cool. I could totally do both of these with Little P'. And guess what? We did.

So, all you need is a couple of these 

(which I already had on hand from other crafts we had been doing),

Add some paint (and brushes),

And you turn them into these:

Orange you glad I did this?

Black is always in.

Then you take one of these:

That's my girl - always camera ready.

Add a little music (just for fun) and this is what you get:

City Ghosts

Happy Spider

See? Easy and fun Halloween Art to do with your little one.

So, did I 'nail them'?

K

'Nailed It' - Glitter Skull

Glitter makes everything better don't you think? Just ask any dancer....

For Halloween this year, I wanted to tie everything in color wise. Not really sure why, I guess maybe I am seeking a little bit of, um, unity? Heck, I don't know. I just decided that I wanted everything (well almost everything) to be black and white. Hence my 'Boo' Pumpkins, and the 'Ghost Blocks', and all my printables are black and white (with just a dash of orange)... it's kind of a theme. So, when I thought that maybe we needed something a bit more, well, Halloween-esque, I figured a skull would do the trick. But when I went looking, they were all very ordinary and a bit blah. No oomph. And then I saw these great glitter pumpkins at Michaels. But there was no way I was spending $15 on something that I knew I could do myself. I had glitter at home and Mod Podge, so it was just a matter of finding a skull. And wouldn't you know it, Michaels had a bunch of them on sale (woo hoo!). And with my 20% off everything including sale items coupon, I was out the door with a $2.50 skull. Yes Ma'am, I am nothing if not a bargain hunter.

So, with my ordinary skull (kind of like this):

And some black paint, some super fine black glitter (thank you Martha Stewart) and the every versatile Mod Podge I set to work.

First, a healthy coat of black paint (I would have spray painted it, but if you remember my experience with spray paint and Styrofoam on the Boo Pumpkins you know why I used acrylic instead).

(Ah, poor Yorick, I knew him.... well?)

Looking better already.

And now the fun part. If you have ever used glitter (and who hasn't?) you know that this stuff gets everywhere. So to prepare for that, I put newspaper down pretty liberally in the vain hopes that I wouldn't have much to clean up afterwards. Talk about an act in futility (I'm still finding glitter everywhere - it's kind of like tinsel...you can still find that stuff in your house in August!). 

So, apply a little Mod Podge, and sprinkle on some glitter. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Till it's fully coated. 

Master Yorick has a couple of bald patches, but that's okay - it gives him character.

So, my wonderful readers, what do you think? Did I 'nail it'?

K

'Nailed It' - Ghost Blocks

A little while ago, I was bouncing around on Pinterest, not really looking for anything, just killing some time while I waited for Little P to go to sleep (it's amazing how much time you can waste looking for nothing on Pinterest), and while I was looking for nothing, I saw these:

(Credit - My Repurposed Life)

And I thought 'how cute'. And then I thought, hang on, I have everything to make those, right now! Which, is kind of a rarity, as usually I need to pick up at least one thing for a craft I want to try. But not this time.

Granted, I wasn't real keen on doing the whole whitewash deal (looked really messy and I didn't have white house paint on hand anyway), and I don't have one of those fancy pants vinyl cutting machines, so I knew I was going to have to wing it - but I kind prefer doing that anyway.

So, while Little P was taking a nap, I grab my pieces of wood (which I had left over from when I started doing baby blocks), my white paint (which I always have on hand), my black paint (same deal) and some paint brushes and away I went.

I gave the blocks a light sanding, just to get rid over any potential splinters - I wasn't looking to create a perfectly smooth surface - I kind of like them to be a little rough. Once that was done, I painted them all white. I am guessing that by hand painting instead of white washing it probably took a bit longer, but I kind of find the motion of painting a monotone like that to be almost zen like.

And dressed in white and no where to go...

Anyway, once they were dry, I grabbed a pencil and sketched out faces for the ghosts (I also decided to add 'boo' to the opposite side, should I want to change things up a little bit). You couldn't really see the picture I took (full sunlight and pencil outlines do not a happy partnership make),  but below, you can see where I did the outline in Sharpie - I did this partly because it was easier to fill in that way with paint and partly because I suck at doing free hand painting.

My Ghosty Buddies

'Boo', I says.

Once the outlines were done, I filled them in with paint, tidied up the edges a little and boom, Ghost Blocks are done.

And viola! Ghost Blocks!

I also sprayed them with a sealant - not because they are going to get handled a lot, but because it will help them keep their color over the years.

So, super easy project anyone can do.

What says you - did I nail them or what?

K