Happy Halloween!

 

EAT LOTS OF CANDY!

 

CARVE A PUMPKIN!
                                                        

 

 

GO TRICK OR TREATING

 

BUT.....

 

WATCH OUT FOR THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN!

 

 

Halloween Gifts!

Can't believe tomorrow is the big day! We are expecting cloudy skies with a chance of a shower but, for the most part, the weather should be okay. Today at Caitlin's school is "Halloween Happening", Halloween carnival-type event. This event is so much fun--trick or treating from classroom to classroom, dance music, carnival games, crafts, all the fun stuff kids love! I'm so excited for her. Tomorrow she gets to wear her costume to school and her class is having a party. It has been a wonderful Halloween time!

I wanted to show you some of the gifts that Mary gave me when we visited her on Sunday:

 This cute little guy! Love him!

 

An adorable broom that says "witchful thinking".

And some more decorations! The first one is three dimensional and very sparkley!  The jack o' lantern has the tissue accordion feet and arms--how sweet!

 

 

Stacking boxes!

 

 

Oh, and I was boo-ed gain! Found these great cloth napkins, skeleton dish towels and lovely sunflower dish on the front porch.....I'll have to use all my Nancy Drew skils to figure this one out! Whoever it is, they sure know my colors!

For the rest of the week, in between the trick or treating tomorrow, I'm going to make some ornaments for my Halloween tree for next year. I'm organizing my supplies in my craft room and getting all set to just enjoy this magical time.  Have a great day!

I Have This Friend....

I have this wonderful friend for twenty-five years who loves Halloween like I do. She is actually the only person I know here in New York who is as crazy for Halloween as I am. Someone whose heart flutters at the sight of  black cats and jack o' lanterns. Someone who has loved Halloween for all the right reasons since she was a little girl (like me!) and gets excited over the smallest decoration!Someone who shops for Halloween allyear long; not just in the Fall. That would be my buddy Mary.

Well, she came to our party on Saturday as she always does and on Sunday we visited her. She recently downsized from a large size home she had shared with her husband. Here was her lovely home in Smithtown.

 

2012

 

She moved to an adorable cottage (no photo of it yet!)  last Spring. She always decorated more than anyone I ever met and she decorates like a pro. I was wondering how she would do in a much smaller home. Her big house had been filled to capacity with Halloween greatness!Along with her move, she downsized some of her collection and passed some of it to me as I have mentioned in some previous posts.Did her new cottage hold any Halloween surprises? It sure did! I was so happy to see how she transformed her new home into a Halloween haven! Here are some photos. I was only able to take a few

 pictures because we were busy talking and eating! Let me tell you, she found an adorable cottage that belongs in a storybook! She decorated from the moment you walk in the front door and every single room!

 

Entry Hall mirror

flickering orange lights in her pot belly stove

 

Vampire that is made of metal (really nice!)

A corner of her livingroom



Isn't it great?

One last thing...as usual! You know those candle holders where you slide the votive in the back of it? Well, I was looking at a pumpkin one I have from Michaels from about ten years ago and thought how cool it would be for our fish, Cuddles, to swim through it! I put it in his fish bowl and he swims in the back and out the stem! or in the back and out the mouth! Try it!

It works like a decorative shell or castle that you would buy for a fish tank only mine is cuter!

 

Hope you have a pleasant night friends!

Party Post!

After all the planning, all the crafting, all the decorating and the baking.....and then it's over in a flash! Our party appeared to be a success--my son said it was our best yet. 20 kids and 10 adults and it all went smoothly (maybe one little glitch or two with the popcorn machine) but other than that just lots of fun playing games, enjoying friends and having some goodies to eat! I think the biggest hit of the party was the cotton candy machine! And for the first time we did a contest where the kids voted for two prizes--cutest costume and scariest costume! Here's my cutie dressed as a Candy Corn Witch!

It was a chilly and windy day and most of our games were held outside. The wind and the cold didn't stop the excitement of this gang! They happily did sack races, relay races with ping pong eyeballs on a spoon (!), balloon darts candy game, bean bag tossing and a couple more. Here are some of the kids. Zombies were big deal this year; we had a zombie ballerina and a zombie bride. We also had Thing 1 and Thing 2. One little girl came dressed as a Roman Goddess! and Rapunzel visited too!

Of course, the cotton candy was a big hit! So was the mummy wrap!

Before the party started, my living was filled with 150 balloons that we spread over the backyard for the kids to jump and play in!

My table was set with lots of good food and snacks but as everyone arrived, the table was overflowing with yummy stuff and I had to spread it all out to my breakfast bar and two counters!

Some of my cupcakes.....

This witch pedestal is holding my Frankenstein mini cheesecakes! I dyed them green! (Kim K. You are receiving one of these pedestals in your box!)

Cookies 'n" Cream Scream dessert is a party favorite. I have been making it for about 15 years now!

All in all it was a great time and very little clean up afterwards! The kids were so good!

Thinking back to last year our Halloween party was two days before Hurricane Sandy hit us. Sandy was quite a  disaster. If you remember I had no power for 17 days! And two days after Sandy we had a n'oreaster with snow! And one of my cats who had been suffering for a long time with cancer succumbed and we couldn't even bring her to the vet to be cremated cause the roads were closed and the businesses had no power. Such a nightmare. We couldn't trick or treat cause trees and power lines were still down on Halloween. Roads were not accessible for days. Nine utility poles had fallen on my street as well as over thirty trees crushing cars and hitting houses. A terrifying time! Almost surreal.  One of the Moms told me right after cleaning up from Sandy that her kids did not miss trick or treating after all cause they had so much fun at our party that they felt like they still celebrated Halloween! That statement meant so much to me;  I'll never forget it! Well, this year we plan on trick or treating in the afternoon and then Billy and Caitlin go out at night with my husband to make the 'rounds!

Tomorrow I have some great photos of my good friend's Halloween decorations! We visited her today and she does such a super job. We exchanged our Halloween presents with each other today and she sure did spoil me!  For now, I am headed to the bedroom to watch some tv and relax. It was a great weekend! :) but I sure am tired!  Good night!

Last Day of Prep for Party!

Tomorrow is the big day, and I am happy to say I am just about ready! We have 20 children and various adults coming to our Halloween party and the weather will be chilly and crisp! The fire pit will be lit and will be smelling good along with the aroma of freshly popped popcorn in the air. This year we also added a cotton candy machine. I hope I am able to take photos of everything! Caitlin and I have been busy making party favors. I made my witch hats filled with candy, we made lollipop bugs, fruit roll up bats, and ring pop monsters. My son has been assembling some of our games and setting up where we will stand the machines.
We all have worked really hard this year. We painted a big giant pumpkin board my husband cut out for our balloon dart game. The kids filled the balloons with candy! Every time I see Caitlin she is busy making party favors!

Just for the kids to take home additional goodies besides their goody bag. What was so special is this  year Caitlin was actually making them with me! She's a crafty gal like her mama and we had fun together sitting at the kitchen table chatting and glue-ing and sparkling!

Oh and I got BOO-ED! If you don't know what that means, it  is when someone leaves you packages for Halloween at your door with no card! Sometimes you will be left a little symbol or a paper that says "You've been boo-ed" . The other day I went outside to feed the chickens and bunnies and went out the front door to put something in the trash and I almost tripped over a big bag that was sitting right outside my front door! It was a bag filled with some really great stuff!

Two lanterns, 4 candle holders, some little embellishments, lumineer bags with candles, and this beautiful glass pumpkin!It's the size of a real pumpkin and just beautiful! I plan on keeping it out after Halloween for Thanksgiving. The glass is a frosty glass and it sparkles! All amazing gifts but I had no idea who it was from! I thought of my friend Mary but it couldn't be her cause she is coming to the party plus I know the way Mary presents her packages...all done up with ribbons and wrappings. This bag just had everything in newspaper! It wasn't  my friends Christina or Cheryl....Lets just say I found out two days later and I was surprised cause I never would have thought of her but she's a super nice new friend I have in Commack and she was so sweet to boo me!

I added one more thing to my decor this morning. I remembered I had gotten at an estate sale a vintage witch candle holder and never put it out ever! and I have had it going on 7 years! It was fragile so I had it tucked away from my regular decorations.

She is made of metallic foil and behind her is a holder for a taper candle! Isn't she cool? I'm sorry I hadn't put her out before! The picture isn't so great cause the metallics are shining!

Have a great day and remember ......Today is FRIDAY!!!!!

1880's Halloween

Taking a short break from our party preparations and painting our basement, we had a fun Sunday visiting a restored village here on Long Island in Old Bethpage. Old Bethpage Village was established in 1970; they created a village of historic houses from different parts of Long Island that were going to be destroyed :(  There are houses and shops and barns from all over Nassau and Suffolk County all brought to dwell in one happy place and be restored and appreciated. We have gone here many, many  times. Our schools even do field trips here and everyone enjoys the re-enactments of civil war, the demonstrations of pottery and broom making, etc.  I saw a beautful Shaker basket made before my eyes yesterday!

Throughout the year they do different events--in July it's the 1800's 4th of July, for Thanksgiving they do hearth cooking and for Christmas it is a beautiful walk at night through the village with lanterns to see the homes how that would have been decorated back in the 1800's for Christmas. Such a cool place and EXACTLY what I love. We went for the 1800's Halloween yesterday, and I was so excited to hear the music playing in the town square was a fiddle and hammered dulcimer! I love hammered dulcimer!It's an ancient instrument but plays that old timey music you love! If you have never heard Alisa Jones, you must google her album Home Sweet Home and you will love it too! She has so many great cds but this is my favorite. SO I was treated to hear that lovely music as we walked! What a bonus!

They had a fun activity that Caitlin loved--a monster hunt! As you walked the village you had to be on the lookout for a monster (witch, dracula, frankenstein, etc) peering out at you from a second floor window. If you found all six and wrote the name of the building you saw it in, you got a goody bag!

The employees are period dressed and told us stories about life in 1880 and Halloween and how many of the Long Island owners of these homes still roam the hallways! They are always friendly, we were told :)

One such ghost enjoys sitting in this rocker in the early morning hours and when staff comes in, they feel him brush past them as he leaves his chair.....

Another young ghost  woman named Esther, who never married,  enjoys sewing. Her dress dummy is in the corner of the room and staff says there have been times when they find it moved or shifted! Spooky!

Outside in the barn, men were building wooden coffins.

Of course my husband took a picture of himself in it which I didn't really like too much! But whatever!

I much preferred hearing about the mischief in town from the little kids and pumpkins left on their steps for decoration! 

It was a fun afternoon! 

When we went to see the animals I was thrilled that they even decorated the barn! Our coop at home is decorated for Halloween too!  We were shadowed by a rooster who kept chastising us! He was sitting up high and kept shoo-ing us out! See him on top? 

 Perhaps he was protecting his friend who was hanging below! 

Have a great day!

Crafting Some Party Favors!

I'm a little behind on my work for the party next Saturday. Usually I have already created what I will be giving to the kids along with their goody bags. I like to send them home with something homemade. With so many nice ideas on Pinterest and all the Halloween webpages, it's hard to choose. I never pick anything too difficult cause I want it to be fun to create not exasperating! Martha Stewart has always been my biggest source of ideas. I think she is just a brilliant lady. When I pass the exit for her home in Bedford/Katonah I always say "HI MARTHA!" out the window. (I doubt she hears me)  Now I have Caitlin doing it too and with all our Fall fairs and pumpkin adventures lately, I have passed her exit pretty often!
Before I started some party favors, I took out my pile of Halloween paper plates that I love and have had for a long time. I added a crepe paper ruffle of black and orange to the back of this one--my favorite. It's a great way to turn them into decorations. From all my years of having parties, I have saved one of every little toy I put in all the goody bags over the years. I also saved plates as sometimes the pictures are just so darn great! And one invitation for almost every party. I have emailed my invites mostly in recent years now. I'm kind of sad I started doing that. It was nice to send an invite! It's fun to look back at some of the little goodies that I gave away years back that kids enjoyed playing with. I promise you my Halloween party treasures will never end up on Ebay! I will love them forever! Back to the crafts....
I like to think the very simple lollipop spiders are a staple for Halloween. I just have to make some or it'll be bad luck for party day :)    This year I decided to make colorful creepy but cute bugs!

This little guy landed on my pumpkin! Here are some more. I made about twenty. Just something different.

I also made more bats to hold lollipops and some witches and black cats too!

I have to do my fruit roll up bats and this yearI thought of making owls too. I'm loving owls soooo much! 

I got these cool sprinkles from Michaels the other day! A great buy at 2.99! 

Test tubes! Aren't they neat? Had to have 'em! Next party favor on the list is more witch's hat bags! . For now, I think I'm gonna enjoy a hot chocolate and relax! Happy Saturday evening!