celebrating: spooky entomology

My husband and I have hosted a party every October 31st for 7 years now. I love decorating in general, but I love Halloween decorations so much that, despite our lack of storage, I end up adding new ones every year! I especially love creating mood through lighting. Here’s what I just finished putting together for this year’s party.

Black light is the only source of illumination on these apothecary jars, which I’ve placed in our guest bathroom. They’re filled with spider webbing, glow sticks, plastic centipedes and tarantulas. I also did a third jar that contains bats! This project is a cinch to put together and the effects are positively spooktacular, don’t you think?

Happy Crawl-o-ween!

..... pam .....

celebrating: the smell of pumpkin

OK, so it’s another Halloween, and for the first time ever I got a serious jump on the pumpkin carving. I figured since this is my absolute favorite part about Halloween (this and the Butterfingers I sneak from time to time) I may as well do it twice. So my girls and I eagerly got busy carving, and these are the results. I know these will probably rot before Halloween so we are enjoying lighting them in our living room each evening. Can’t wait for pumpkin carving round two!

….. amy …..  

celebrating: henry's annual halloween costume challenge

It's been quite a while since I've made a Halloween costume for my son Henry (now 16), but back in the day, he set some pretty crazy challenges in front of me. I have a post up at Designing Moms, sharing one of the earlier costumes I devised for him (before he really started giving me art direction.) In the process of writing that post, I pulled out photos of all his costumes over the years, and had fun reliving those insane experiments with spray paint, fake fur and glue guns. It always seemed a little sad to me that our creations only lived for one day, so indulge me while I present a “virtual” Halloween parade of some of my favorites! If you’re interested in tips on recreating any of these yourself, just leave a comment and I’ll do my best to help.


Bartholomew Collins, prisoner of the Terwilliker Institute.
If you’ve never seen “The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T,” go rent it NOW!


A prairie dog... “popping out of his mound.”


Meerkatus Giganticus


African Pygmy Hedgehog
Those are toothpicks. I’m still picking splinters out of my fingers...


I’m not quite sure what to say about this one except that the little guy has a retractable tongue that “ate” candy. Major credit is due to the wonderful artist, David Kirk (author of “Miss Spider’s Tea Party,” among others), who created the coin-collecting sculpture that this costume is (faithfully) based on. And, it must be noted that this was the year that Henry really took control of his own Halloween costumes. I was a mere technical adviser.


Our last hurrah, from 2005, a gigantic WORKING iPod.

And speaking of Halloween costumes, head on over to Cardstore.com’s Silliest Halloween Costume Contest to share photos of your silliest Halloween costume (of you, your pet, or your kids!).

What are you going to be this Halloween??

..... Betsy .....