The scene is set...

A few more of our Hallowe'en decorations. Hallowe'en gives me a chance to be theatrical and childish. 

                         There'll be other years when we can be scary. The princess phase won't last...(we nicked    this idea from Pinterest)

 These are some of my ancestors. I feel a bit guilty using them as Hallowe'en decorations but they look great! (Er, the photographs below, not the skull!)

There's an old gin trap on the mantelpiece. That was a car boot sale find. You can see the Devils picture in the background. Er, and a hairbrush. Actually that's probably the scariest prop in the house at the time being!

Sparkly sign from Wilkinsons

Spider web tablecloth from ebay

Have a good one! Linking up with Faith Hope and Charity shopping

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Head injury, head lice and Hallowe'en witch shoes

It's been quite a full on half term already. I was called to my daughters school on Friday afternoon as she'd had a collision with a bench and had a huge egg between her eyes. Poor thing. We went to A&E to get it checked and everyone around us in the waiting room seemed to have gastroenteritis. I wanted to scream at my daughter to not touch anything in there as sick was cleaned off floors all around us. Ugh! I wanted to leave children's A&E and go and sit with the drunks.
Anyway after a few hours we got seen and were sent home with the head injury leaflet and had a thorough hand washing! Her swelling is going down and she has two lovely black eyes. That'll save on face paint on Hallowe'en!
Then yesterday we found head lice. Great. We used the Hedrin once treatment which suffocates everything in 15 mins so you can comb them all out. It is fab! It's a silicone spray and I used it on my dry damaged hair after I'd done my daughter and I reckon my hair sucked up all the silicone as once it was washed it looked fantastic, like I'd straightened it when I hadn't! I think I'm going to use this once in a while, as it's like silicone implants for your hair!
We are now gearing up for the arrival of my dad and my daughters classmates for our Hallowe'en party. I've been stealing ideas off of pinterest!
This one is really cool although I probably haven't done it justice.
Marilyn Girling from Seeing things that aren't really there invented this technique and kindly gave me permission to write about her. Her blog is full of spooky touches and theatrical ideas and I love it.
Here's what we did.

We found some shoes from a charity shop. (They look like new but one has lost the bottom of the heel.)

We stuffed the toes and covered them in papier mache. Apparently yellow pages are better than newspaper as you get a finer surface. But we didn't have any.

We did three layers, the last being white paper. Then I set my daughter to work painting them red. I'm a firm believer in child labour.
Once they were dry I fell over one and broke it and had to start the process again to repair it. This post should have been done last week! (Yes, my daughter gets her clumsiness from me!)
Once they were dry for the second time, We covered them in PVA and red glitter and put stuffed stripey socks into the shoes.
Now, really these legs should be coming out from under the shed but the weather is not being helpful today so we propped them under my daughters bed.

Aren't they fun? We're looking forward to scaring her friends on Wednesday night. We could have made them more authentic with the correct bows on the front but the party goers are 6 years old and I doubt they are movie buffs.
And Marilyn's version is here.
Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

Linking with Carter's Cottage

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Designer Spotlight: Lynn Morgan Design

Lynn Morgan Design was established in 1982, and Lynn's design philosophy is to have a clean, crisp, dramatic look with a touch of whimsy while maintaining a traditional approach.
I love that none of her work really looks the same. She can do black and white, and then do the Nantucket blue style, and do a fun almost Caribbean style room. And I think she pulls them all off wonderfully! All are classy yet with a punch of fun.
Here is some of her work.

To see more of Lynn's portfolio, visit her site here.

Have a great weekend!

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Trick or Treat

I have been finding some really cute Halloween costumes on Pinterest lately. Man, I can't believe all the creative people that are out there!

Via

Via Pinterest

Via Wildinkpress.com

Via Pinterest



Tumblr
 

Via Pinterest

 

Via Pinterest

Aren't those adorable?

My 11 and 13 year old still haven't gotten their costumes yet! Yikes, I better get a move on.

If you have kids, what are they going as this year??





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Halloween Finds at Etsy

Have you ever bought anything from Etsy? I have a few times, and love looking at all the different shops at all the handmade products. There are some really talented people out there!

Here are some fun Halloween decorations that I found on Etsy. Some of you may be crafty enough to make some of these yourself, but I think that the crafty gene bypassed me big time.




Via Everly Lane Design

Via Luna Cab Co

Via cagedheat3

Via Frog Prince Paperie

Via Sharmilaw

via Ever Blooming Original

Via Linden Lime

 

 

 

Have you found some good things on Etsy lately? 

 

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Exterior Update

I can finally add some updates on the exterior of the house after our remodel, and removing our fence.

Here are the before, during and afters.

Before

 



During

 

After

Before

After

During

After

After

 

Before View

View After

 

Before View



After View

Before View

 

After View

 

The pictures really don't do this justice. I can't tell you how much better it is without that fence. It doesn't feel so claustrophobic in those rooms anymore and I love seeing more green instead of looking at a fence wall.

I can't wait for the trees to grow taller though. I am sure our neighbors would like that as well, so they don't feel so exposed with us looking directly into their backyard. These trees are fast growing though and shouldn't take too long.

This was definitely one of those projects that we sit back and say "why didn't we do this sooner?"

 

 



 



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