Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

One of the hardest things about living alone, is the Holidays. Oh, not the celebrating of the "big name ones" but the little ones. The ones that involve children, families, neighborhoods. That sort of thing.

Christmas and Thanksgiving are set. Everyone is home for that one.

But Halloween, Easter, 4th of July, my Birthday, the little ones.

When you have a family, especially little kids still in school everything gets celebrated. When you live alone, not so much.

I have decided that this year will be different. I have celebrated and decorated and cooked and crafted and, well, just threw myself into the party mode. I have decided that I am worth the effort.

When I was a kid everything was for "Company." The good food, the nice parents, the fancy dishes, the best of everything. It made you feel that you in and of yourself, weren't worth anything but someone that your parents had known ten whole minutes, were royalty. And as such, were treated just that way.

When I had a kid, I decided not to live like that. We celebrated everything, everyday. Even just Wednesday or Thursday or Monday or a sunny day or a rainy day. Everything involved the good dishes, the nice silverware, music, china, laughter, the joy of family.

After I lived alone it seemed too much effort. After all the dogs don't care if we decorate. It seemed like too much work for just one person.

This year I decided I didn't want to fall into that rut. I'm worth it. Grabbing a couple of carrot sticks and microwaving a Soup-In-The-Hand just wasn't cutting it. Sure I could be done with dinner in about 2 minutes flat, including cooking time, but what kind of life is that? And what am I saying about me? I'm nothing without a family? I'm just nothing? Nope, I wasn't going to go that route. No "Company" rules were going to take over my life.

The good china has come out. Meals are cooked and eaten at the dining table. Music is played. Sure, it is not the same but it is good. I like it. I like the decorating, the way the house feels warmer, cuter, homier. I like the carved pumpkin on the porch. I like the homemade cupcakes sitting on their stand. I like the smell of soup in the crockpot. I like it all.

Halloween Crafts

My financial situation has hit the OMG we are so sinking like a stone and we are all going to DIE scenario. So that is boring and not any fun to think about, or write about. Until I get it resolved I will be off and on the blogging world.

So, worrying about that is all fun and good but I decided to craft. Halloween crafts. Where I live now I doubt I will get any trick or treaters. My street is mostly second homes and even those are not owned by families with children. The Seattle home on the other hand, was a GOLD mine of children. We would give away over 300 hundred candy bars on that night.

I hit up my local Ross dress for less, the best store EVER, to buy up items that can be remade. I picked up some ugly pumpkins, well the pumpkins weren't ugly but the color was, so I spray painted them white, then using my finger dotted them with black spots. I painted the stems black and gave them a jaunty black and white ribbon. Easy, peasy. On a couple of them, after the white treatment, I took on rub on letters the spelled out Halloween words.

I needed a Halloween gift for the kid. I had some empty boxes I had kept from a paint your own turkey craft we did a few years ago. They came from Pottery Barn and were a pretty nice plain box.
I made two. One to give to my girl friend for her daughter and one for the kid. The one for the kid I'm not going to show, in case (HE HAD BETTER) he reads my blog, I don't want to spoil the surprise. I wish the surprise was that he was coming home, but that is a different blog post.
Anyway, I decoupaged the box in various papers. This is a great project for using up all the little scraps of paper that are left from bigger projects. I set that aside to dry.

I have some rubber stamps that are paper dolls. These are the BEST stamps I have ever bought. They are not made anymore and I really wish I had bought the rest of the outfits. There are lots of companies out there that make doll stamps though, so maybe when my finances turn around I will purchase some other ones. If you are interested, they will be easily found and I have even seen some that you can use brads and make their arms and legs move. SWEET.
I made all the outfits in a Halloween theme. I paper pieced them together so I could use all sorts of different papers. This is very simple and just takes time and glue along with an exacto knife. Cut, glue, cut, glue. I went on a Halloween Ball box and I think it turned out very nice.

I embellished the girls with tattoos, hats and risque undergarments. Colored in their hair, eyes and gave them blushing cheeks. Printed out the words, cut them out, and decoupaged them on to the box. One word of caution, if you have a ink jet printer, decoupage medium will make the colors run. To stop this, you can simply spray a coat of clear coat over the paper, let it dry and then decoupage it. If you have a laser printer, this won't be an issue. In a pinch I have used hairspray but you may run a much better craft room then I do.

One of my blogs I follow has some free clip art, I printed it out, sprayed it, let it dry, cut it out and applied it on the side. Now it is all done except for the mailing.I have to say I am a little nervous about sending it. I have given many gifts of stuff I have made but this will be my first piece of altered art to someone that is not family. I figure it they hate it, just throw it away and buy something at a store.