Halloween DIY Ideas

Decorating with some favorite Halloween DIY’s for the season!
Halloween dishes
 
Halloween Decor Detail

Thrifted dishes with waterslide decals.

Spray Painted Sinister Halloween Ceramics

Spray painted ceramics is an easy, very fun DIY project. (Instructions for both of these projects- and more- can be found in my book, Wise Craft: Turning Thrift Store Finds, Fabric Scraps, and Natural Objects into Stuff You Love.)

I surprised even myself when I jumped into decorating for Halloween as soon as the calendar said October, but I did. I guess doing these projects has warmed me up to the whole idea of Halloween. (Plus, its another reason to rearrange things around here, you know?) I’ve been keeping a few of the completed projects in orange bins down in our basement so that I could easily find them. I still need to put up the black ivy and spider web for the front yard…the kids are insisting.
 
Halloween Decor Nancy Drews
I pulled out a few Nancy Drews with sinister titles for the living room side tables.
I am currently hunkered down and working on Holiday DIY projects and having some fun. I don’t know why I still get surprised at what can be made with humble thrift store items, but I do. The fun is in the transformation!
Halloween Day of the Dead Couple
Little do my kids know, but this weekend I’m taking them to a Christmas tree farm for photoshoot props.
Cause that’s how we roll around here….

Stacks of Books


If anyone is looking for kid’s chapter books at Seattle Goodwill stores, I must apologize now, because I think the kids and I cleaned house around town yesterday. I told them they could have any chapter book they wanted, so “go get to shopping!”. (We are on Spring Break, and I insisted everyone have an ample supply of books to lose themselves in.) As a mom, isn’t it the best when we get to say a resounding “yes!”?
 

Worth Documenting

 

Today reminded me of the huge bonus we as a family get by having our office at home- days with lots of good, creative energy filling the house. Music playing, plenty of coffee going, creative people all around, making projects happen, doing great work. I am so grateful for the talented people that work with us.
The kids did some intense Spring Break creative work of their own today too, on Lego structures. Stayed in their rooms for most of the day, literally coming out just for meals. Seems they were right where they wanted to be.
The photo is a little peek of our family room. Peter gave me that
wooden viking, one of my favorite things (although his sword
mysteriously broke recently….hmmmm……) I’ll show you the rest of the room soon!
Thank you all so much for your comments and emails. I never say thank you enough. I never get the chance to answer enough of your comments, with even quick things like “Thanks, what a great idea!” or “No way! I hadn’t even thought of that!”. Its probably corny to say I appreciate and read everyone, but its true. I have told Peter that I feel I have friends all over the world because of this space. To stop and think about that in that context can make it feel immense and huge. But somehow, through talking of craft, and family, and home, and life, we all bring it to a personal level that we all identify with. That’s very comforting to me. Thank you for that.

Visual Cues

 

I am going to blog as often as possible this week, simply because I’m just not feeling like blogging. Can you tell? Does that reasoning make sense? (I know, me neither.)
When I redid the family room last week, Ian and I spent an afternoon tasking ourselves with checking every marker its usability, tossing the dead soldiers, and sharpening all the colored pencils (add it to your Christmas list moms…an electric pencil sharpener is the gift that keeps on giving, trust me). I sprayed a clean soup can with white spray paint to hold the colored pencils. And? What do you know? Suddenly everyone wants to draw. Imagine!
 

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