Anything Can Happen on Halloween

I spend the entire summer waiting for fall to get here, and the first signs of my favorite season turn up in the craft stores. While it may seem early to some people, Halloween has been on my mind for several weeks. I am going to officially declare that while the calendar may still be stuck in August, it is time to start planning your Halloween costumes and decorations. After all, there is no reason to miss out on savoring a favorite holiday for as long as possible. Now that the supplies can be found, I've taken my Michaels coupons and picked up a few items to create two Halloween decorations.

The style I'm working towards is a Gothic Victorian - not a gory Halloween aesthetic but more of a spooky, mysterious and dark vibe. That means black lace and candelabras, dark silhouettes, witchy potions, and creepy creatures like bats, spiders and rats. I have fantasies of doing a proper and massive Halloween set-up, complete with fog machines, these lace curtains, tombstones, a giant spider web, old-timey optical illusion portraits, and ghoulish organ music. A fun Halloween party idea borrowed from recent wedding trends is to make a photo booth for guests to enjoy. A spooky backdrop and some props based around a Halloween theme sound like a fun time to me. Some quality animatronics would be splendid as long as I'm being honest here. Every year is a chance to build up the collection of Halloween props, and here is what I'm currently working on.

The first item is this skull terrarium. I had a leftover glass cookie jar that didn't make the cut for our wedding candy buffet, and I just knew it would eventually come in handy for something. A little florist foam at the bottom of the jar gives the skull some height, and I've covered it with moss. The skull plus a few creepy spiders and now I have a spooky centerpiece.This is a super easy diy project if you don't have much time or energy.

My second project is from another major fan of Halloween, Martha Stewart herself. This black flower wreath fits in perfectly with a Gothic theme. I found black fake roses in the Halloween aisle at the craft store, which allows me to skip the step of spray painting the flowers. Here is the inspiration photo from the Martha Stewart website.

By the way, do you have any favorite or less-known Halloween movies? Last year for the first time I saw "The Worst Witch", which is where the title of this post comes from. Any fan of Halloween and/or Tim Curry should put this in the Netflix queue pronto.

Summertime

It has been a busy summer here at Dear Reader headquarters, though not much in the crafty arena. Let's just put this out there: the summer is when I tend to hibernate. Hot weather does not agree with me, and I simply bide my time until fall tips its hat in our direction. All productive and creative endeavors stall out while I do the minimum required of me and focus my efforts on air conditioning and ice cream. But somehow I've kept myself busy with plans and outings and fun things, leaving me no time to work on my shop ideas.

Last weekend we had a little getaway to Gatlinburg, where a hike led us to discover this little guy napping in the woods.

Next week I head up to Maine to celebrate my sister's birthday and (hopefully) get some cooler temperatures. I can report that the Obamas were visiting Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor recently, where Mount Desert Island Ice Cream shop has documented their ice cream flavor selections. For the First Lady, it was chocolate. And the President selected coconut (!) ice cream. I wanted to try the Nutella flavor last time I was in Bar Harbor, but sadly it wasn't available that week.