Halloween Illustrators Cyber Party

Jan Clifton Watford created a Halloween Illustrators Cyber Party event, and this is my piece for it. Those of you who are Facebook friends with me already saw this and will know that Anne S. gave me this idea to draw.

To see more of the other illustrations for this event, go to http://www.pinterest.com/jancwatford/halloween-illustrators-cyber-party/pins/

Have a fun Halloween!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Spirit of Halloweens Past

The boys with their "pukin' pumpkin"

I'm positive I've done a similar post to this in the past. In fact, I'd bet money on it, but it's been a few years now, and who the heck ever actually searches my blog, besides me?

So, it's time to do another Halloween-costume-reminiscing blog. My boys haven't dressed up in years, but I used to be pretty creative in the costuming department if I do say so myself...before middle-aged brain and laziness set in.

The first Halloween that Son1 was around for, I made him a Super-baby outfit:

Poor Son2 always got the hand-me-downs:

The second Halloween of Son1's life, I made a Gingerbread Boy outfit for him, which I don't have a good photo of, so here's one of Son2 wearing the Gingerbread Boy outfit when he was around 2 years old. Son1 wanted to be Scooby Doo that year, so that's what I made for him (I'm pretty proud of that face that I drew free-hand!).

The next Halloween, when Son1 was around 3 yrs old, he was a Ladybug (with a lollypop dangling from his mouth).

The toughest costume I had to tackle was when Son1 decided that he wanted to be a goldfish. Goldfish?! What? Son2's in the back with the used-ladybug costume.

Then there was the less than memorable zombie phase. Where Son1 got the idea that he wanted to be a zombie was beyond me. And there's Son2 with the old Scooby outfit...

One of the costumes that I was the most fond of was also the last one I made. Son1 was wearing the LEGO brick costume that I thought turned out pretty cool. Son2, on the left, was wearing an elephant costume that my sister and her husband got for him (maybe they got tired of him wearing hand-me-downs?).

And that's it. That's the history of Halloween costumes for my kids. Hope you've all had a fun Halloween!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Happy Halloween!

I'd mentioned to Emily over at The Little Window Shoppe that I thought a fun Halloween post would be to show photos of my kids' Halloweens Past - all the costumes they had worn. So here they are...

Ds#1 at about 10 months old as Superbaby (easiest costume on Earth or Krypton to make):The next year, I made ds#1 a Gingerbread-boy costume, and we even won a prize for it, but I couldn't find the photo of him (but you'll see it below when ds#2 wore it).

After that, because all second children must wear hand-me-downs, ds#2 was Superbaby, and ds#1 got the nifty new ladybug costume:
The year after, ds#1 wanted a Scooby-Doo costume - that one was a bit of a challenge for me as I had to free-hand draw Scooby's face. Ds#2 wore ds#1's old Gingerbread-boy costume.Ds#1, continuing his trend of making me sew difficult costumes, wanted to be a goldfish for Halloween that year. Nobody, but nobody, sells patterns for a goldfish costume. Thank goodness felt is a forgiving medium. Ds#2, natch, wore ds#1's old ladybug costume.The following year, I got off easy. Ds#2 wore the old Scooby costume, and ds#1 wanted to be a zombie! So I tore up some clothes and put face paint on him. Works for me!The final year the kids dressed up, my sister's husband, bless his thrift-shop loving heart, found an elephant costume for us. Yessss!! Ds#1 decided he'd like to be a LEGO brick. Luckily, I found instructions for how to make one at About.com.And that was it. After that, we did treasure hunts at home where the kids didn't have to dress up, and where we gave them treats such as books and small packets of LEGOs. They claim to love that much more than they ever liked trick-or-treating, which is great because it saved me from ever having to sew or create a costume again.

Wishing eveyrone a safe, happy Halloween!

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet." ~ James Oppenheim

My nails and cuticles love Gracefruit!

As you can tell, I keep my nails as pretty as a Hollywood starlett's. *cough* How did she know that my pampered hands (Hah!) magically become sandpaper this time of year and that my cuticles start cracking off, and I have a habit of biting them and then bleeding to death?? Never fear, my poor bleeding fingers, Gracefruit is here to the rescue with her Nail & Cuticle Stick! It's in a terrific take-along form, smells delicately lemony, and feels so good when I rub it in. Maybe now my poor dh can finally stop smacking me on the wrist and saying, "good gawd, woman, will you stop picking at your fingers?". ;)

Halloween's almost here! Urban Debris Artlog has some delightful holiday projects and stuff you should check out, like this Witchy Bird:"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet." ~ James Oppenheim

Halloween Cocktail

Fine Living has some interesting Halloween drinks for adults. Imbibe and enjoy! ;)

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Soap bags

And I am NOT referring to all the fine ladies who make soap...gack! Have I saved myself from a near faux-pas?

I'd mentioned that ds#1 wants to sell Halloween soaps that he's made, and I offered the option to bag them up in cute little Halloween motif fabric bags. Well, here they are:I got the fabric from a lovely Etsy gal, SweetSpice, and they were perfect for this project.

Edited to add: I could have sworn I had posted about ds#1 making Halloween soaps that he hoped to sell, but Heidi's comment made me double check and duh! I had never posted that here. Ok, here's a photo of the soaps:"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Halloween Soaps...get yours now

Instead of handing candy, why not give kids something that not only won't rot their teeth, but will help them want to wash up after touching sticky candy?

Tadpole #1 made these yummy smelling skull and crossbones soaps.

[caption id="attachment_61" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Halloween Skull Soaps"][/caption]

Each set comes with one skull and one crossbones (weighing a bit over 1oz), and costs $1.50 in a clear plastic baggie or $3.00 if you want them in a cute, handmade Halloween fabric bag.

These are the bag choices:

[caption id="attachment_73" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Halloween Soap Bags"][/caption]

They make adorable party favors!