Which can mean only one thing . . .
It's Halloween again!
I used to wonder how my mother could be so disinterested in Halloween. She never seemed to care about it one whit -- I don't remember her even coming to school to watch us parade around in our costumes. There was never any Halloween decorating at our house. And when we were older, unless the kids were home to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, that didn't really happen either.
I can now say, quite honestly, that it's only one of the mysteries about my mother that I have come to understand completely as I have aged. Because I'm not so much into Halloween myself. As soon as there were no little kids around, I sort of lost interest in it.
Of course, I still continue to buy enormous bags of candy. But I (selfishly) only buy the best mini candy bars now -- if it's a year when it snows or blows and we don't get many knocks on the door, I'm secretly happy because it means more candy for me!
I guess that's not the real
spirit of the holiday, is it?
My Halloween decorating reached a new low a few years ago. I decided to go for "one-stop decorating". So I purchased a large canvas, mounted a few of my favorite vintage cut-outs on it, painted a little border and I can now be happily decorated in 32 seconds just by opening a plastic garbage bag and hanging it on a
pre-existing nail.
Looks festive to me.
For years in the magazine biz, however, I devoted an inordinate number of hours to creating Halloween decorations that promised to "Make This Your Spookiest Holiday Ever!", or some other such nonsense.
Let me assure you that one would need to care much more about Halloween decor than I do to reproduce any of these projects at home. The only one I would have liked to have kept was these little candy containers:
I purchased little plastic "witches' kettle" treat cups, covered them with papier mache and added wire handles before decorating them with paint and glitter. The skull glows in the dark!
Ingenious! (but also insanity).
Don't try this at home.
A few weeks ago I was fortunate to acquire a large collection of a vintage girls' magazine I had never seen before, "Calling All Girls."
Does anyone remember this publication?
"Calling All Girls" will definitely warrant an entire post, but I didn't want to let your Halloween crafting be over before I shared their suggestions for using your leftover pumpkin seeds (I hope you haven't already thrown them away).
The feature begins with this:
"Fun with a pumpkin has really only begun with Halloween if you know the secret. Mrs. Pumpkin Eater probably knew it, and that was why Peter succeeded in keeping her very well as the nursery rhyme claims."
I'll let you judge for yourselves whether or not these projects would keep you entertained if you were living inside a slimy pumpkin carcass. All I know is that if these projects made it into the magazine, I was working way too hard.
There are pumpkin seed Christmas ornaments:
Pumpkin seeds for bath-time fun:
Pumpkin seeds for your year-round gift giving needs:
Pumpkin seeds for your school valentine's party:
Pumpkin seeds to grow in your Easter leftovers:
Pumpkin summer fun:
And then before you know it,
we're back to Halloween again!
Halloween again, indeed.
I hope it's not too late for me to get a pumpkin!
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8 comments:
Well, I don't like Halloween - we never get kids in our neighborhood EVER, I used to take my boys to my friend's neighborhood where they went all out. Every single household sitting on the front porches, all the houses decorated, sigh. We go to Kmart the day after Halloween and buy the 90% off candy, lol.
I do love those little decorated cups....I have a thing for vintage decorations!
Haven't been able to conjure much enthusiasm for Halloween since my kids got older; it was altogether way more fun when they were young. Your idea of an instant canvas decoration is much better than my lame, half-finished (and likely to remain that way) display of spooky figures on our entry table.
Based on a friend's experience, the best use yet for those slimy pumpkin seeds is dumping them outside in a neglected corner and finding a thriving pumpkin patch the next summer!
I am so over Halloween. My kidlets still love it but I am no longer required to make them costumes. (yay)
Luckily for us nobody ever comes to our door so we don't have to give out candy. (yay)
I would, in a heartbeat (unless I were a zombie and didn't have a heartbeat) make those danged cute decorated cups. Just a few tho, not enough to get tired of making them.
I think there is a reason that magazine went defunct.
Actually that project was for Family Circle, which is alive and kicking although it barely resembles its former self. What has happened to the magazine industry is simply appalling! But I say this as I am myself cruising around looking at stuff online. So . . . .
Unfortunately no one pays me to make/display cool stuff online, so I have very little motivation to do so. Especially when it comes to labor intensive Halloween decorating projects!
I think you should make Pumpkin Seed ornaments for the ornament exchange this year :)
Oh how I wish I could have one of those treat cups. They were each so spectacular! Of course I would never dare make one myself but they were wonderful. I imagine you are sad when you think of all the great stuff you made and don't have except in magazine pictures. I know I would be.
And I would for sure love to see what you sould do with pumpkin seed ornaments. Maybe that should be our theme next year!
How can I resist the challenge of pumpkin seed ornaments??!! We would have to stipulate 'no angels,' however, since they've already made those for us. Hmmmmm . . . . very tempting!
As for the candy containers, you could make them 10 times better than the ones I made. We both agree on that, right?
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