Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! 

May your Halloween be spooky, scary, fun and full of Halloween delights! 

This photo of "Jacks" is from last year. We have pumpkins to carve this year, but with no water yesterday and today, due to pump issues, we did not yet carve our pumpkins. 

Below is the carving crew!

This is the Pumpkin diorama I made last year. My friend Jenny and I saw one on display here and could not take the class so we made our own versions. 

 

I cut a "fake" pumpkin in half and decorated the inside and out with a spooky Halloween display.
I printed a black and white clip art of a tree silhouette and glued it to the back of the pumpkin. I mounted a flying glittery witch in front of the tree. My photo is one I found in an antique store. It appears to be a photo of an adult Halloween party and all are in costume. The back of the photo dates it as 1929. I cut out the group of Halloween revelers and added some color with pens.

In front I added moss and some pumpkins and a skull. I gathered a orange and black crepe paper ruffle and glued it to the opening. I added some sequined trim and a Halloween greeting.

Some of my yearly Halloween decor is shown below. My hutch decked out for the season. The two ceramic Jack-o-lanterns came from Pier One, way back in 1978. (I never throw anything away!). After Halloween I turn them around and they stay out as pumpkins until Thanksgiving.

My plate rack gets a little decoration and the cabinet below hosts my paper mache figures and my urn decked out in white pumpkins, purple flowers and a lonely black bird.

I just made the urn decoration this year. Super simple! A black plastic flower urn from OSH, two white   fake pumpkins from Michael's, a black bird and fall flowers. Just add foam to the urn base, top with straw or filler. Pop off the stem of the bigger pumpkin (but don't toss it, you can save it for another craft project?). Place the big pumpkin on the straw, top with the second smaller pumpkin. Place a black bird on top. (His wires will stick right into the fake foam pumpkin). Add a few fall flowers and you are done! I did not use glue as this will sit in a safe place and leaves me the opportunity to change it out next year?

My paper mache collection is made of two I bought, the cat and small pumpkin headed ghost. The large squash man and ghost topped jack-o-lantern box I made. I wanted to make another paper mache figure this year, but didn't get around to it!

And finally, my Halloween tree! This is the second year of my holiday trees and I added several new ornaments and the witch hat topper this year you can see Here.

Just a couple of detail shots below.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween. I sure miss having trick-or-treaters come by our house! Way out here in the country, no one stops by! But I always have candy, just in case :) 

Where does the time go??

When I lost my job in mid September, I thought "wow, I will be able to get so many things done, have so much time to craft" Ha! I seem busier than ever and not much time to craft!

Between traveling for fun and for work I have been home all of 4 days in the past three weeks. 

My house is a mess, I have not been able to craft much, except for the weekend getaway in my last post! 

I had gone to visit my sister Lou in Oregon, for a week.

I came home Sunday for 3 days and then left for my scrapping retreat on Thursday until Sunday. 

Came home from that on Sunday morning.

Emptied my suit case and filled it back up to leave early Monday to fly to Boulder.

I flew home the following Saturday and finally crashed on Sunday.

On Monday I cleaned a bit, painted my old green bookcase that I moved out to make way for my new red cabinet I bought at Ikea to house my scrapbook albums.

I painted it black to go in my scrap room to replace my old wire cubes.
And since my scrap room is a mess, this is all you will see of it for now.

Tuesday was spent cleaning as I had not been home much lately and prepared for some overnight company. My nephew in Bakersfield had come to San Francisco on Amtrak and would be riding his bike from SF to my house that afternoon. A 60 mile ride on back country roads and some scary city riding. He is braver than me! Since he was visiting I invited my next door cousins over for dinner.
A great evening with family!

On Wed I got up at 5:00 am to leave for the city (SF) for a job search program. The third trip to the city for this program. The first trip I only made it halfway as traffic on 101 was a mess! The second trip, I made it with two minutes to spare! This time there was no traffic so I had an hour wait at Starbucks. It was only 4 hours long so that left me time to walk to Union Square and have lunch with my sister Sally. She works at Britex Fabrics so I also had a chance to shop. Mostly window shop as fabric at $50 a yard and up is not fabric you buy just because it is pretty!

Thursday I had more company, as my 3 Stampin' Up friends and I got together to craft and share ideas. Since it was my turn to host, I made up two sample projects for all of us to craft.

A fun way to spend the afternoon! After it was time to go to my son's football game.

Today was a day to relax. I finished up my ATC swap that I am participating in and will mail them off to my fellow ATC swappers. Artist Trading Cards have been around awhile, but this is my first time to join a swap. I have been in other swaps (circle journals, cards and charm swaps). I am looking forward to seeing all the great artwork I will receive!
And now more football tonight. Tomorrow I hope to do nothing! Or at least just what I want to do :)

Sunday I will be heading to Tomales for their annual Flea Market. I hope to find a treasure or two! 

Crafty Weekend

This lovely view is taken from the deck of the vacation house my girlfriends and I are renting for a weekend of crafty fun! I love my Bodega Bay retreats and the fun group of crafty girls that share this weekend with me once or twice a year.

I may only be 10 short miles from home, but it seems like a million miles away from the chores and duty of regular life!

I will be crafting from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning. So much more fun when you share the time with girls who "get" your crafty, artsy ideas!

This lovely view of Bodega Bay is such a nice addition to the weekend. Need a stretch? Walk out to the deck to view the ocean and listen to the waves, gulls and peaceful surroundings. Too bad the house next door gets in the way of the almost perfect view.

Hopefully I can post some of my scrappy pages I create through out the weekend!