Ghosties, Ghoulies and Long-Legged Beasties

I finally finished getting some Halloween decorating done!

Normally, I'd have had lots done for weeks, but although I knew I was leaning toward a glitzy holiday instead of our usual creepy one, I just couldn't find the motivation. I was very strict and stuck with only shades of Black, White, Silver & Orange as my colors.

I was trying to be frugal this year, but sometimes something calls to me and I can't leave it behind. Case in point: our university Homecoming was the first week in October & I found this super cool candle stick at TJ Maxx:

It holds a pillar candle and was a bit of a splurge for me at $16, but it was way too cool to leave all alone in the store. I really didn't know how I was going to use it until last night, but I knew it was way too good to pass up. To compare: the glittered skull above came from Dollar Tree for a buck, the boa I had on hand and the candles always stand in that silver tray, I just change out the items around them to make a new seasonal arrangement. So that whole arrangement was $15 less expensive than my one candle stick!

I also fell in love with a silhouette of witches dancing at Gordman's, but so far I haven't figure out where to use it. I don't feel so obligated to use it however, since it was only $6 & because they had only two and both were flawed, she gave me a discount.

I tried my hand at glittering my own tiny skulls this year:

What a mess! But the results are cool. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it out on a Dollar Tree skull or two. We had glitter in our food for days, but as they say "this too shall pass".

I really liked the glittered ball fill from Hobby Lobby, but overall, was not impressed with their Halloween selections for 2010. I did feel inspired by a few things, but nothing enough to bring home with me. I used more of the fill on our coffee table:

I was inspired by Jessica of Craftily Ever After's beautiful lace wreath to make my own version from things I had around the house:

I made it from an old wreath, some orange fabric that I ripped into strips and an old pair of stockings. Some hot-glue, some Halloween ribbon and a vintage button held in place with pearl buttons and voila! It's not nearly as classy as Jessica's, but I can make a lace one another year.

I also put out my usual collection of ceramic jack-o-lanterns, but there's nothing very interesting about that.

vintage pattern

While doing a tiny (as in I spent a total of under $2) thrifting, I found this great vintage pattern:

Here's the really fun part: It's marked with $1.50 as the original price and I paid 29¢! I'm pretty excited about it because it's *just* the style I was thinking of for some black dotted swiss I have. The pattern even has the little slip for underneath! PERFECT!

The not to good news: It's only a 32 inch bust! So, this is going to be a learning project for me. I'm going to learn how to grade a pattern-eek! Luckily, I only need to bring it up 2-3 inches in the bust. I haven't had a chance to measure the pattern pieces yet to see how much I might need to regrade the waist & the skirts should be pretty easy (although I have HIPS, so that will be a lot more added inches than anywhere else)

I figured for 29¢, I could risk it & try to learn something new.

I'm Back!

I've been MIA lately, but for a really good reason. For the last 8 weekends, I've been busy playing/working at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival with a little business I share with my mom called Fest Friends.

This, along with my real job have been occupying so much of my time that I barely had time to do laundry, much less anything else.

This is going to change in October & I'll be back to more regular updates.