October in a (pumpkin) shell

I started this post 2 weeks ago, I promise...and now that Thanksgiving is almost upon us, it really is time to wrap up October!

Here is our new dining room, still without drapes and the faux paneling that I started doing nearly 2 months ago.  At least the lower third of the walls are smoothed out and painted white.

Mr. Crow says that, as long as there are plenty of bugs to eat, he doesn't care about the rest.

Eew.  Such a lovely sight to see at the dinner table.  :-)

My black china hutch looks especially dashing bedecked with Halloween dishes.  If you look closely, you can see the one wall of faux paneling I have finished = I had to get it done before pushing the china hutch back to its final resting place, as the hutch can't be moved when it's all loaded up with a ton of dishware and I wasn't about to unload/reload that thing twice!

Nothing new here, just rearranged from previous years.

 

The egg cups were especially useful to display my Halloween flower blossoms.

 

 

 

 

 

The orange paper lanterns were saved from when I did the decorations for my niece's wedding a couple of years ago - I finally unearthed the box they were in when we moved. 

The black branches that I normally hang the ribbon ornaments on got crushed in the move, so I just suspended them from the lanterns for an easy fix.

My beloved Halloween quilt is very happy on its new wall....

...and the chevron pillow I made from the quilt scraps is quite content as well.

Did I ever show you these pillows last year?  I don't remember if I did or not.

This hexagon one was appliqued onto a linen background and then I handstitched the "web" around it.

 

I must confess, I saw these Martha Stewart mice at TJ Maxx and had to buy them - there's no way I'd take the time to cut them out myself and at $2, how can I go wrong?

 

Another shot of my most favorite quilt.

My kiddos all decked out for trick-or-treating!  Costumes are always a source of last-minute excitement at our house, because my kids change their minds at least 3 or 4 times before Halloween night as to what they want to be.  I've learned to wait until the last week to make them, but this year I was making Hyrum's and Eliza's costumes at the VERY last minute. 

I thought I could get away with just adding ears, a mane and tail to a brown hooded sweatshirt for Eliza's horsie costume, but after spending 2 hours shopping for said sweatshirt, I gave up and, in desperation, bought a fleecy blanket to cut up.  I spent all of Halloween eve designing and making her costume.

Hyrum was feeling grumpy about the whole trick-or-treat thing and stated quite emphatically that he didn't want a costume this year....until he came home from school on Halloween day and said he wanted to be a skeleton.  So I found his sweats and grabbed some fusible fleece that I (fortunately) had on hand and cut out the bones during Hyrum's piano lesson.  The ribcage is appropriately detailed, but in the essence of time I just did very basic (anatomically wrong) bones for his arms and legs, and no pelvis bones...which alarmed Hyrum quite a bit but given the time constraints he forgave me.  :-)  Forty-five minutes later (and no dinner for mommy!) we were out the door enroute to tricks and treats.

True to tradition, I had a Halloween party for my kids and their friends.  This year was rather modest in the fancy themed food department (compared to previous years), but hey - at least we had a party!

Here are my chocolate covered pretzel/caramel spiders, which looked better than they tasted because I couldn't find Rolo candy and used caramel squares instead, but left them in the oven WAY too long so they were as hard as rocks!  Not exaggerating, I assure you = I had to warn the kids not to eat the spider middles unless they wanted a broken tooth or two.  I'll know better for next year.  :-)

I decided to let the kids create their own Halloween-themed treats this year, which was a big success.

I bought those awful, low-quality Ding Dongs and Swiss Rolls (that I can't stand but my kids love) and let them go crazy with marshmallows, candy, and frosting.

They had a great time!  Definitely a repeat activity.

 

No, there aren't Ding Dongs inside this one...I was asked to help out with a small, rather impromptu local wedding and so I offered to make the cake too, since their budget didn't allow for one.

I couldn't find any real flowers (in the 1.5 hours that I had to shop for them before picking up my kids, in a new city that I'm still unfamiliar with) that would work in the autumnal color spectrum, so I had to buy faux flowers instead.

Not exactly optimum, but definitely better than nothing at all, right?  They were very appreciative of everything, I'm glad I was able to help out.

What's October without a visit to the good ol' Pumpkin Patch?

This pumpkin patch/produce market was fantastic = demonstrations of hand-pressed apple cider,

scarecrow stuffing,

even a giant sand dune!

I don't know how kids can stand having sand get everywhere in their clothes and hair, but they sure don't seem to mind!

The hayride was lots of fun,

and of course the pursuit of picking the perfect pumpkin was something Hazel took very seriously.

"This is the one, Mom! " Too bad I didn't get a photo of it after she carved it (all by herself, of course) and before it rotted all over the porch.  Hopefully I'll have my act together a bit more next year....and hopefully I'll post again before December!  Don't hold your breath, though - it looks like I'm pretty consistently averaging 1 post per month.  That just may be the new norm for me this year, at least until things settle down with the new house, doctor's appointments, switching schools/preschools (Hazel's third one since May), etc etc.

If I don't "see" you until the end of November, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Comments

[Edith Songer]

Get your act together . . . You're funny!! I never met anyone who does more in a day than you. If one of my kids told me that they wanted a costume on Halloween Eve, I would graciously show them the dress-up box and say, "Good luck with that."
Everything looks beautiful, as it always does.
Hazel is getting so big! Wish we could see you all again.

[Wendi Lane]

I LOVE the house it looks so fun and the mice are AWESOME!!! The costumes look great and as always your are able to put a fleece blanket into a costume that looks amazing as well as the last minute skeleton..I would NEVER guess!!

Hazel is growing ups so quickly and her hair is getting so long. I am sorry that you have had to deal with 3 preschools what pain :( We think of you guys often and hope you have an AWESOME Thanksgiving!!

[Shelley]

Wendi and Edith, Thanks so much! Yes, Hazel is getting so big it's amazing. Not to worry, she still milks being the baby of the family quite well. :-)
Regarding the last minute costumes; in Eliza's defense, she had been asking to be a horse for quite some time - I just figured it would be easy to find a brown hoodie and put off shopping for it until 2 days prior to Halloween...hence the last minute rush for that one. So really, that one was completely my fault. The skeleton, on the other hand.....
It's a good thing Hyrum is such a sweetie. :-)

[Leslie]

I love to see how you decorate. It's really beautiful. What color did you paint the dining room? Is it a grey?

[office desk]

Loved your new dining room. Your crow is too cute and black china hutch looks great. Overall every arrangement is worth appreciation. You have done a great job!