IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! My favorite holiday and my favorite season has finally arrived. If you've followed me all summer, you already know that I plan all year for this time of year. I spent most of my summer, cooking fun and festive Halloween inspired food and designing decorations for my home. This year my decorating focus was skeletons. I have lots of parts and pieces of skeletons and I wanted to incorporate them in fun, unexpected ways, like a Skull Topiary, Gravedigger centerpiece (pictured above) along with my Skeleton Wreath and a super fun, Remains of the Day Chalkboard. I also decorated my sideboard with a spooky Haunted Hamlet made with old Christmas Houses and a Halloween inspired work of art, I affectionately named, Witch's Broom. And finally, I can't let the season go by without making another wreath, this one made with tons of creepy crawly spiders! Eek!
Take a look around and enjoy. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Skull Topiary
I actually bought these skeleton arms on sale for $5.00, which may not sound like such a deal. It was a deal because the arms came with legs and a head as well. The original decoration was meant for the front yard. The arms, legs and head came with spikes so you could stick them into the ground so that the skeleton appears to be coming out from the ground. I used the arms and head in this creation and I used the legs in my Gravedigger Centerpiece below. I had an old floral container which I spray painted flat black. I had some creepy cloth from last year, but I always buy more each year. You can never get enough Creepy Cloth.
First, I stuck the arms into floral foam in the container and since these arms were rigid at the elbows and pivoted at the wrists, I used a small amount of creepy cloth to bind the wrists together allowing the hands to fall open and then glued the head in the hands. I added the three accent roses and then I added two other smaller foam skulls, that were attached to different sized bamboo skewers, to vary their height. I built from there adding black roses and some purple glitter berries and finishing it off with silver plastic ferns. Turned out pretty cool huh?
Gravediggers Centerpiece
This little gal was a sketch in my blog notebook all summer. I have a few notebooks where I jot down recipe ideas and decorating ideas, but I had her in mind all summer and I am so happy she came to life from a scribble.
I love this decoration because it has so much detail. You really need to look to see all that's going on with her. Her disjointed limbs and scattered bones lie together at the base of a tombstone overgrown with fall foliage and wild pumpkins. The spider on her grave looms over her shrouded head and another at her feet as a raven stands perched on a wrought iron fencing that lies behind it all. The vignette is complete with my Skeleton Wreath from a few years back and some rustic ceramic pumpkins. I'm ready to greet the season!
Remains of the Day Chalkboard
I made this fun chalkboard with a left over piece of wood, plastic bones, chalkboard paint, and some construction adhesive. It's was super easy to put together and looks great in my dining room. For Halloween I'll post my menu of: Amputated Appetizer, Mummified Meatloaf, Roasted Fingers and Toes, and 'Beet'ing Hearts Salad with Blood Red Vinaigrette. "Bone" Appetit!
Here's a picture of it at night. So pretty with the glittery mercury glass pumpkin, candlestick and tea lights!
Spider Wreath
Here's another simple decoration to put together. I made this wreath by gluing a bunch of different sized spiders onto a spray painted grapevine wreath and then wrapped it all in black spider webs. Easy and looks great!
Witches' Broom
This is my Halloween themed artwork named Witches' Broom that was inspired by the idea of using dictionary pages as a canvas. The pages are not just a neat backdrop, they are actually what makes this drawing Halloween themed. I chose words and pictures from the dictionary that captured the essence of the season, such as vampire, werewolf, tarantula, ghosts, etc. I think it turned out really cool and it looks great hanging in my dining room. If you want to see how it came together check out my blog link here.
Haunted Hamlet
This was so much fun to make and again, really simple to do. The hardest part was finding all the right sized Christmas houses, especially in the middle of summer. I scoured every thrift shop for a few weeks before I was able to pull it all together. I even added a house after I wrote and posted the blog when a friend found and gave me another house to add to my village. Check out the Haunted Hamlet blog to see how I made it.
HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Other Halloween Decorating and Entertaining Ideas:
Halloween Decorating 2013
Fall Decorating 2013
Halloween-inspired recipes:
Spiderweb Eggs, Fangtini, Amputated Appetizer, Pickled Shrunken Heads, Ghoulish Goat Cheese Torte, , Black Bean Hummus, Candy Corn Sugar Cookies, Candy Corn Peppermint Patties and Black Velvet Creme Cakes!
I must sound like a broken record lately when I say that I've been too busy to blog, but I have been too busy. Since I took on the PTA at my boys school, it has been the only thing I've been giving my time and attention to since August (i.e. no blog posts at all in September.) I figured this would happen since I'm new to the role and it has taken me a while to get things going. This is also why I spent all summer blogging my Halloween recipes. I wanted to get a jump on the Halloween season knowing full well that I wouldn't have much time once school started. But now that things are beginning to slow a bit, I'm anxious to get back in the saddle and ride out the remaining days to Halloween with a few more Halloween inspired dishes. Starting with an appetizer course of these deliciously beautiful and fantastically festive Spider Web Eggs!
You can tell right away these are not your typical Deviled Eggs with its cool looking egg whites veined with bright purple and blue spider webs along with it's bright green filling with the flavor and spice of guacamole. Dare I say, a healthier choice in fat, the avocado replaces the mayo and is heavily spiced with cilantro, garlic, onion, cumin and cayenne. Delicious! Then I topped the whole thing off with crushed Blue Corn Chips, which was just what all that rich guacamole filling needed!
Check out this easy and delicious recipe that will most certainly impress your guests at your next Halloween Party.
Happy Halloween!
Spider Web Eggs (Guacamole Deviled Eggs)
Makes 12
6 eggs, hard boiled
1/4 t purple gel food coloring in water
Boil eggs. Cool under running water and refrigerate for about 4 hours or overnight.
Remove eggs from the refrigerator and using the back of a spoon, tap the shells in various places. This is what gives you the spiderweb pattern. Into a large bowl and add enough water to cover the eggs and add the gel food coloring and mix well. Add eggs to colored water and Refrigerate the eggs overnight.
Drain water and peel the shells to reveal the cool spidery webs of color. This is the most fun part of this recipe. The eggs are stunningly beautiful. I may never color Easter eggs the same way again.
Cut eggs in half, place yolks in a food processor and continue to prepare the guacamole egg filling below. Place egg white halves in single layer in a shallow dish and refrigerate until ready to assemble.
Guacamole Egg Filling
yolks of 6 hard boiled eggs
1 avocado
juice of one lime
1-2 T cilantro leaves
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
1/4 t ground cumin
1/4 t cayenne pepper (to taste)
salt to taste
Blue corn chips, crushed (garnish)
In a food processor, blend yolks, avocado, lime, and herbs and spices until very smooth. Transfer into a piping bag with a star tip and pipe into spiderweb eggs and garnish with crushed blue corn chips or red pepper flakes (not pictured) or even top with your favorite salsa for a bloody effect. Enjoy!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Other Halloween inspired dishes to try:
Ghoulish Goat Cheese Torte
Amputated Appetizer
Fangtini (Blood Orange Martini)
What
do you get when you take the martini and combine it with a *Bag of Bloody Fang Halloween Candy? The Fangtini, of course!
Martini's are the coolest cocktail around if you ask me. What's not to like... It's served in a way cool glass! It has yummy accompaniments, like olives, apple slices and cherries which often serve as a lite-meal during happy hour. ;)
Plus, there are tons of variations to suit everyone's taste...The Appletini, Dirty Martini, the Cosmopolitan, Lemon Drop...just to name a few. But above all, I think it's because the martini is strong and it is meant to be sipped.
Savored.
A martini cannot be rushed and that, in and of itself, is way cool.
So throw on your costumes, invite a few friends over and mix up a Fangtini and savor the Halloween season.
Happy Halloween!
Enjoy!
*The idea for this cocktail was inspired by the Bloody Fangs Sour Candy, but you do not need this candy to make the Fangtini. However, you'll need to invest in vampire teeth to garnish your glass. :)
Fangtini (Blood Orange Martini)
Makes 2
2 oz. Vodka (I use Ciroc Peach Vodka)
1/2 oz. Grand Marnier
2 oz. Blood Orange Juice (or Blood Orange Soda)
splash of cran-blueberry or cran-grape juice (to deepen the color)
Ice
Fake Blood (to rim the glass)
Fake Vampire teeth (garnish)
Combine ingredients into shaker with ice and shake. Pour into blood rimmed glasses and garnish with fake vampire teeth.
Fake Blood for the Glass
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 t of red gel food coloring
Mix fake blood ingredients on a small plate until well combined. Dip martini glass rim into the syrup. Twist the glass to remove and then place upright to allow for the fake blood to begin to drip down the inside of the glass.
Halloween Appetizers to try:
Pickled Shrunken Heads
Amputated Appetizer
Ghoulish Goat Cheese Torte
This summer, I reconnected with my inner artist and created this Halloween themed drawing I've affectionately named, Witches' Broom. If you look closely, the name will be obvious. My drawing was inspired by a beautiful print I bought off Etsy that had used dictionary pages as it's canvas. I loved the print so much that I was inspired to make my own drawing. Here is a quick look at how it all came together.
Enjoy!
HOW TO:
The entire project cost me $1, which was the cost of the old dictionary I bought at a $1 bookstore. I also re-purposed an old broken frame that was destined for the trash.
I love this idea of using dictionary pages not only because it creates an interesting background, but because it really becomes the centerpiece of my drawing because of the pages I chose to use. I
knew I wanted to make a Halloween themed drawing so I started by
selecting specific pages that contained Halloween themed words and
pictures from the dictionary.
Next, I used spray adhesive to glue the pages to the cardboard from the broken frame, taking care to place some of the pages in strategic places on the board. For instance, I wanted to make sure that I could include the vulture perched on a branch of the tree itself, so I made sure the vulture page was placed high and centered on the cardboard canvas. Likewise, for the picture of the trantulas, I placed them low to the ground at the base of the tree.
I used a permanent marker to box the
Halloween words and penciled in a rough sketch of the basic tree with
it's dominant branches, filling it with permanent marker. I filled in
some of the spaces between words with smaller torn pages of the
dictionary containing more words so that there was some balance and
symmetry with branches and words. Plus it just looks cool and gives it some dimension by layering the pages. I added further dimension and age by tearing some of the edges of the pages to expose some of the cardboard beneath.
I drew one branch at a time to make sure each branch reached out and connected to each boxed word. This was a slow process that took some time to balance and work both sides of the tree, one branch at a time. :)
I added the horizon line with a grey oil pastel and pencil. I used a brown oil pastel to age the areas around the torn dictionary pages. I also used a white oil pastel over all black permanent marker to age it a bit too, rubbing and blending them along the way.
I also added shadows of the trunk and branches in the foreground, again linking the shadow branches to the boxed words under the tree. I used two colors of blue around the
edge and horizon line of the drawing to give some color but also to give
the impression of what the tree would have looked like if it still had it's
leaves. The blue color revealing a ghost image of it's fallen foliage.
I love this so much, it turned out better than I expected.
:)
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Here are some pictures of the details...
I LOVE THE VULTURE IN THE TREE! :)
Paintchip Bookmarks- Seasonal Trees
Halloween Decorating and Entertaining 2013
Fall Decorating 2013
I saw this super cute idea of using Christmas Village houses to make a Halloween-themed Village from the website, The 36th Avenue (via Pinterest). They used the houses found at the Dollar Tree at Christmastime. So cute and clever, I just had to make one of these for myself. But since it's the middle of summer, I was hard pressed to find cheap Christmas houses. I already had one that I knew of. An unpainted, forgotten Christmas house I bought nearly 20 years ago that I never got around to painting. I braved the scorching heat of
my attic, in the heart of summer, to bring it down. That's one and it was free! Now, where can I get more houses this time of year? I looked online and they were all too expensive. So I searched every Thrift store in my area and found some great old houses that were just perfect. And they only cost me about $2 or $3 each. Some had busted trim or the lights didn't work, but that didn't matter to me. They were perfect.
Before I show how I made this lovely little village and some of the details, let's take a stroll through my Haunted Hamlet first. :)
Here are some pictures of my Haunted Hamlet without the lights on. It still looks great unlit! I kept the jack-o-lanterns lit to give it some life!
Haunted Hamlet
How-to:
Gather up your old Christmas Village Houses. I selected houses that I could
light up. I taped over some of the windows to leave the panes painted with some of the original detail. Here is an in-process example as I taped up the windows. Spray paint all the houses in flat black paint. Once the spray paint is dry, remove tape from windows. Touch up spots around the windows when you remove the tape with black acrylic paint and a brush.
Highlight details by painting the window trim, snowdrifts, rooftops and other accented details with black glitter paint. This gives the houses some dimension and interest with shiny, subtle details.
I also found this ugly, acrylic Christmas tree at the thrift store and thought it would make a great creepy tree in my Haunted Hamlet once it was spray painted black. I also rummaged through my Halloween stuff and found this pumpkin tree with bats hanging from them. Another tree for my village. I spray painted the pumpkin base and then placed it in the back and covered it with creepy cloth to hide the pumpkin. I also removed all the hanging bats and hot glued one of the bats upside down from one of the branches. It's a cute detail even if the bat is the wrong scale. It still works for me. I also had some floral sprays that I cut up and turned into trees too.
Graveyard
How-to:
It is the middle of summer, but Michael's (gotta love them) had their Halloween stuff out already in July. Yay for me! I splurged a whole $4.99 on these way cool tombstones. I almost didn't want to paint them, the detailing was so neat. They also had a small bag of these miniature skulls for $1.49 that I thought would be perfect for my graveyard.
My youngest son (7), loves to collect sticks. Whenever we go to the park, he usually comes home with at least 2 new sticks, to "add to his collection". He's so cute. Anyway, I rummaged through his "stick collection" and broke off a few thin branches (He won't miss them) and assembled this rickety fence. I hot glued the whole thing together and then spray painted everything in flat black. Then, I cut up some of the creepy cloth and glued it to the foam base to camouflage the foam board. Cool, huh?
(Not pictured, but I later added some highlights to the fencing with some glitter paint.)
Light-up Jack-o-lantern
How to:
2 acrylic pumpkins
tea light, flame removed
Painters tape
black spray paint
No Haunted Hamlet would be complete without a few light-up jack-o-lanterns. I got the idea to make these, when I saw a bag of this fall bowl filler. It had mini acrylic pumpkins that were so beautiful, I thought, "I need to light these babies up!"
First step is to drill a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin. It was pretty easy since the heat from the drill melts the acrylic a little and makes a perfect hole.
Tape up the drilled hole in the bottom with painters tape, cut into a small circle, and then tape up your jack-o-lantern face. Don't forget to tape up the light bulb on the tea light too. Spray paint. Let dry. Remove tape with tweezers.
You will need to touch-up paint the face a little and add finer details like the teeth. (I had to add paint to make the eyes smaller on the two below.) Spray a little pool of the spray paint onto a piece of paper and use a toothpick to add paint for detail work and to fix any scratches. I checked where the pumpkins needed additional paint by placing it on the lit tea light and painting it while it was lit up.
Assembly
Now it's time to assemble the whole thing...
You will need:
3 strands of 20 light Orange Halloween lights
3 Candleholders in various heights
two lengths of Creepy Cloth (I got mine from the 99CentsOnly store)
I used some candle holders and a small wrought iron basket turned upside down, for the background houses, but you can use boxes or anything that has different heights.I wrapped a strand of 20 lights around the base.
Next, place two layers of creepy cloth over the candle holders and place one of the trees in the background.
Add another 20 light strand of Orange lights to the three houses for the background. I taped the strands to the bottom of each house and then placed them on the candle holders.
Repeat the taping of the last 20 light strand of Orange lights to the remaining two houses and place in foreground.
Add your trees
Add graveyard and light up jack-o-lanterns and you're all done! Happy Halloween!
