Halloween at Our House

Halloween is my favorite holiday, and Eric is good about humoring me.  I mean, he likes it too, but I'm pretty crazy about it.  Normally, we do a huge party on the closest Saturday, and to decorate, I take down all of the regular stuff and put up all Halloween.  I have a ton of Halloween decorations; I do Halloween the way some people do Christmas.  The movers when we got married and moved in together were making fun of how many boxes of Halloween stuff I have.  To give you an idea.

This year, we didn't do the party.  I was a little sad about it, but I was sick for a week, then Eric was sick for a week, then we were sort of OK, then Eric was sick for another week, and by the time we were both mostly feeling better it was way too close to the intended party to have time to properly decorate and shop and all.  So no party.

We did do the front yard, though.  Can't not do the front yard.

We had a ton of fun doing it up.  I'm hoping it'll encourage trick-or-treaters, since we had so few last year.

I know we had one thing we didn't have last year.  Or for many years before that now.  The  past several years, Halloween's temps have been in the 60s.  I love it, getting dressed up and sitting outside to hand out candy.

This year?  Snow.

You can't even see the spider in that one anymore!

Snow does not go with our haunted graveyard motif!  Sigh.  We had fingers crossed that it'd be melted by Halloween night.

Though we didn't host ours, we did go to a Halloween party on Saturday night.  I wore my Renaissance Faire garb.  Eric?  Eric has this terrific Venetian mask from New Orleans, and wanted a velvet cloak to go with it.  We went with velveteen, but I got to work.  I checked out these instructions and these, and used primarily the second ones.  I also took some dimensions from my Harry Potter cloak.

I changed 'em a bit, and cut 3 pieces for the body, each 55" long.  The top of the back panel, I made 10".  For the top of the front panels, I measured 30".  I made the bottom of the back panel the full 44" of the width of the fabric, and did the same for the front panels.  Then I cut the front one in half lengthwise, for 15" at the top of each and 22" at the bottom.

I cut two pieces for the hood, basically measuring by eye.  I sewed them together and hemmed around the face opening.

Then, I sewed each front panel to the back, and sewed on the hood, then hemmed around the body too.

I added a hook and eye closure.

And then a couple of buttons for looks.

I somehow misjudged the size and didn't make it as big around as I'd have liked.  I have no idea how that happened, and as it is I didn't have enough fabric purchased to make it any bigger.  So it's more of a cape that a cloak, but it worked.

He wore it for Halloween night too, to greet unsuspecting trick-or-treaters.

I was Hermione.

The girl working the register at Walgreens when I raced there for more candy said I had the perfect hair for it.

And Meg was a witch.

Oh, and on Sunday night one of the other attorneys in my office had a party to go to, so she borrowed my clown costume and came over for me to do up her face.  I'll have full photos from her later, but this is what I got.

How adorable is she?!

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Artist Spotlight: Part Sixty-One

I don't actually have a specific artist for you this week, so I'm going to point you to a terrific place to purchase handmade (or sell it if you're in the business), the Handmade Artists Shop.  The range of things you can find there is incredible.  Of course, Reef Botanicals has a shop there too.

But you know about our stuff.  So what about the others?

Well, there're these great manga art prints in the Tatsu Shop, like this Dance of Leaves.

Or this beautiful Rainbow Vitral crystal copper wire pendant found in Catinalife Creations.

This beautiful crocheted Infinity Scarf can be found in Bernoulli's Attic.

The Enchanted Candle has adorable fairy houses like this one.

This knot a shield flask from Cabachon Persnickity would be great to bring to the Renaissance Faire!

And this eyeglass holder from Forked Up Art cracks me up!

I've barely scratched the surface of the Handmade Artists Shop for you.  You really need to check it out yourself to see all the crazy awesome stuff.

Artist Spotlight: Part Sixty

Wow, I've done quite a few of these, haven't I?  Well, I've got a treat for you this week, something different.  Glass (and clay) artist Kay, of Kayz Kreations.

Kay has been doing stained glass and mosaics for several years and enjoys both, especially her ability to create unique and charming items for home and garden.  Hailing from Killeen, TX, she definitely has an affinity for items with Texas themes.

Like so many of the artists I bring you, Kay is multitalented.  She started with a stained glass class at a community college and was hooked.

(Have you started your holiday shopping yet?  How perfect would this be to decorate your home for your holiday dinner or party?  Or as a gift for someone you love?  Find it here.)

A year later, Kay took a mosaics class and started to run with that too!

I love the humor in that one.  So cute for a kid's bedroom or clubhouse door!  Or heck, there are days I'd love to hang it on my own door!

About 2.5 years ago, Kay took a fused glass class and added that to her talents too.

As a lover of gardening, a lot of her items and themes are for the outdoors, like these fun garden stakes in stained glass and clay.

Or these great birdfeeders.

And this really pretty birdhouse.

She used recycled bottles for this fun wind chime.

And she's even expanded into the world of jewelry!

You can read on her blog how she won a contest with this cool and interesting necklace.

And you can shop her wares in her Etsy and Zibbet shops.