nurturing hope, creativity, family
The children are out of school today, and when they woke up they convinced me to get out our Halloween decorations.
The fun is unfolding, and we’re going for a black and white theme in the living room.
A little peek:
More to come soon!
The kindergarten Halloween party is over, and two of the children are playing upstairs while my three year old naps on the couch. The party must have worn her out. I listen to her quiet breathing, combined with the muffled sounds of the other two talking and marvel at these moments of quiet that occasionally drop into my life.
The sun is shining and I’m about to head outside for the last of my weeding and bulb planting before the temperatures plummet tomorrow. This gorgeous day is supposed to hold through tonight, which will mean plenty of happy children come dark. We’ve got kids scheming to meet up with friends to trick-or-treat and little ones still vacillating between this or that costume.
Before the day is over, I thought I’d share a few pictures of the Halloween decorating I managed to do this year. It was minimal, but fun.
This year I put a bird cage on a mirrored tray and used that as my starting point. I was in the mood for simple black and white, so I made a few black and white velvet pumpkins and put my favorite vintage crowns on them. Yes, I still like crowns on pumpkins. Most of them sit in a footed silver bowl.
A little vintage bust fit nicely inside the cage as well, along with some beaded leaves and a small collection of black and white seashells for pattern and scale.
I added my favorite velvet crow to the outside of the cage for fun. I like having him perched up there.
On the back side of the cage I used my gold glittered “Boo” letters and added a wire spider hanging from the top.
While I like to challenge myself and use things differently each year, I do love to hang my beaded spider web across the picture frames every year. It looks great there and the children love it.
Lastly, I hung a vintage black scarf across my favorite mirror in the living room. In a mostly white room, I like the dramatic effect of the black hanging there. If I’d done this all sooner and had more time, I would have really gone for it with a black and white theme in this room. Maybe next year.
And there you have it. I used some of my traditional orange things in the kitchen as well. Tomorrow it will be time to take it down and prepare for Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays. For now, I’m going to take my little one (now the only child not asleep) out with me to pull a few more weeds in what may be the last sunshine we have this week.
I hope your Halloween is a lot of fun!
Jennifer
Two years ago I pieced this mini-quilt, appliqued the stem and nose, basted it, and set it aside… unfinished. I completely forgot about it until this week, when I spent all of 30 minutes finishing it. {Question to self: why do I do things like that?}
I’m sorry to say I don’t remember the name of the pattern or the name of the fabric line I used to make it, but I do know that it only required a charm pack. After quilting, I added the rick rack smile and some huge black buttons for eyes. I must say it’s amused me how many of my children have told me I messed up on the eyes because they’re crooked. They all looked at me funny when I informed them I did it intentionally.
Tucked away with this quilt I also found a little 4 x 4 inch Halloween embroidery that I remember working on while I waited in the pick-up line for kindergarten two years ago. I bought it as a small kit in a local shop and it was intended to become a mini-pillow. My interest in little knick-knacks has largely disappeared so I no longer wanted to make a pillow or put it in a picture frame. So I finished it and appliqued it to the back of the Jack-O-Lantern quilt.
The backing on this mini quilt is a solid orange, so the embroidery is a little piece of interest back there.
And there you have it, two Halloween projects finished. The quilt now hangs in my dining room window, the only Halloween decoration up at our house (which I hope to fix later today if I can rescue my poor house from the Halloween costumes all over the place).
What project are you working on right now?
Hopeful Homemaker