Pickles are Spooky

Halloween window at the pickle store.

Jack-o-lanterns are notoriously fearful of spiders. The other pumpkins and pickles have no sympathy for the little fella though. So rude.

Let's go Red Sox! {clap clap} {CLAPCLAPCLAP}

Tonight is the first game of the 2013 World Series featuring some of my close personal friends...

From Left to Right: Stephen Drew, Will Middlebrooks, Jackie Bradley, Mike Napoli & David Ross

They stopped by Beth Israel (aka my real job) after the marathon bombings to say thanks, be awesome & check out my window. Job well done.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!

{clap clap} {CLAPCLAPCLAP!}

$5 DIY Googley-eyed Fall Wreath Tutorial

I'm not sure what's happening to me but I felt an overwhelming urge to make an Autumn wreath this year. I've always been into decorating, and over-decorating, for the holidays but I usually keep it to giant fake spiders, severed hands and glittery skeletons. Your standard October stuff. So when I found myself shopping for a wreath making supplies, nobody was more surprised than me. It was as if I blacked out and woke up at the register with a wreath form and fake foliage in my hands.

So, I've accepted it, I like wreaths. There, I said it.

But that doesn't mean I have to make a button covered, gingham scarecrow country crafts with a giant bow type of wreath. I can like wreaths and still make them look like me. It doesn't mean I have to buy high waisted Mom jeans or run out and lease a mini-van. Not yet anyway.

So here is my tutorial on how to make a quick $5 Googley-Eyed Fall Wreath:

SUPPLIES (I got the $1 supplies from the dollar store)

$1 wreath form

$1 fall foliage x3

$1 5pk mini squashes

ball of twine (had on hand)

googley eyes (had on hand)

wire cutters (had 'em)

glue gun/glue sticks (had 'em)

To begin, start by tying the end of your twine to your wreath form and wrap the twine around the wreath for a space about 3" long. This is purely decorative.

Next, arrange your 3 bouquets of fall foliage and begin snipping them off of the main branch with your wire cutters. Arrange the new seperate pieces so that you have 2 equal bouquets (if you plan on making 2 wreaths...which I did because I have a double front door.)

Now begin adding the plastic foliage to your wreath just under the 3" band of twine. I used hot glue to keep the plants in place and then wrapped more twine around the base of each one- mostly because it looks cute but also to secure it in place.

When you reach the end add another 3" section of wrapped twine to finish it off. You can stop here and have a perfectly lovely Autumnal Wreath to hang on your front door but I feel like it's just too regular. It needs something.

In my case, that "something" almost always ends up being googley-eyes. Or "guurely eyes" as my niece calls them.

From the 5 pack of mini squashes I scooped at the dollar store, I grabbed a couple of 'em and gave them life. I am not unlike the good Dr. Frankenstein in this way.

Take your freshly googelied squashes and arrange them at the base of your fallin' foliage until you are satisfied and hot glue them into place.

**Note: my squashes are made of styrofoam which means they basically melt when the come in contact with hot glue. Turn your glue gun to the lowest setting if you have that option or put the glue on the wreath first and allow it to cool for about 3-4 seconds before placing your squash so that it doesn't turn into a puddle.**

And finally, add a twine hanger to the top of your wreath and hang with pride from your front door(s).

Together these wreaths cost me less than $10 and they can be left up through Halloween and all the way through to Thanksgiving. I hope you like them as much as I do.

happy fall!

Out of candy!!

Drawing by Liv Chaffee

And just like that...Halloween was over.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Don't rot your teeth out!

National Candy Corn Day of the Day!

I made this candy corn monster on my LiteBrite (leftover from my weddin') to celebrate today's holiday, which as I'm sure you're all aware, is National Candy Corn Day.

Personally I don't really like candy corn anymore but childhood me used to house them by the bag. I used to eat them white-to-yellow, eating the white and orange first and then saving 2 yellows to stick together and make one big yellow piece. Why I did that I'm not sure but it's a clear childhood memory that comes back to me every Halloween.

For more National Candy Day revelry here's a clip from Unwrapped about how Candy Corn is made:

And also, as long as we're here, a how-to video on making adorable candy corn nails!

Holler!

Mike Wazowski! Mike Wazowski! Mike Wazowski!

My entry for the pumpkin carving contest was a little gourd that just naturally looks like Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. All I had to do was carve out his eye and mouth, stick some arms on him (expired mouth swabs from work) and give him some horns (cardboard) to make him come to life.

Here he is next to real life Mike Wazowski. They could be cousins!

3 Days 'til Halloween!

With only 3 days until Halloween, the pumpkin carving in my house is getting serious.

Come back tomorrow to see our entry in a local Pumpkin Carving contest!

Happy National Pumpkin Day!

Yesterday, motivated by my work's annual Pumpkin Carving contest and by the fact that today is National Pumpkin Day (no lie!) I turned this...

...into this!

I've never attempted to sculpt a pumpkin, I generally just carve a 2-D face and call it a day but I was feeling particuarly ambitious, motivated by a mystery prize from work, and wanted to try my hand at sculpting my gourd this year.

I went to my local art store at lunch and blindly bought these tools to use. What I found was that it's important for your tools to have a sharp edge to be able to slice through the pumpkin, the wire end sculpting tools and the wood carving knives were my best purchase while the wireloop sgrafitto, though it had the coolest name, was pretty useless in terms of pumkinery.

Next I drew a big scary mouth on the face of my "pumpkin" (which you may have noticed is actually an acron squash) and started carving. I used a carving knife to go along the entire outline of my drawing,

and then started gutting it out with the wire-end sculpting tools until each tooth was free. Then I took the skin off each tooth and shaped them so they'd be wicked scary, carved some squinty eyes and Viola!