Tricks & Kits

Tonight's Halloween, so let's get the tricks out of the way.

Trick 1
 Create a 'bone-man' costume from a thrifted unitard.

 Kevin painted the bones on Philip's costume freehand.

Did I ever tell you he was an art major?

Then he sewed gloves for Owen out of craft foam.

It was a trick getting the tension straight on my sewing machine after that!

Yeah, he was feeling pretty good about himself.

Owen decided he was making his own costume this year.

 With a little help from Grand-dad & my glue gun he turned himself into

'Greymatter'

(unless you are a 6 year old boy you will have no idea who that is)

 Another trick......

Getting these kids to clean out a pumpkin.

I had to brake out the sandwich bags.

Sad.

Now for the kits.

I taught an Altered Holiday Slipper class last week, so there were kits to be made.

It was a smaller class so I was able to spend more time on each one.

A unique bag to suit the personality of each girl.

A sassy bag for a sassy girl.

My friend Nicki, see the resemblance?

We had a great day.

A little shopping,

a little creating,

& a lot of laughing.

That makes for one fine day!

While I was working on my kits, the kids had their own to make.

17 each.

That's a whole lotta goodie bags!

They also made each one special.

I think they worked way harder then I did!

I can't believe I posted a picture of my filthy floor.

Boy I wish I knew photoshop!

Earlier today I posted a new online tutorial.

They are for sale in my etsy shop.

I also listed some kits, but I think there is only 1 left.

I'm working on more tomorrow.

Since it's Halloween I have a treat for you.....I promise, this is the last post about ballet slippers!

Happy Halloween!

Wicked HouseKeeping

I'm back from Boston & what an amazing trip it was!

I want to share some pictures & stories, but Saturday is
The Wicked Tea
& I'm up to my eyeballs in kits!

I haven't had time to edit my vacation pictures so instead I'm sharing some pictures from around the house.

This is the basket I bought from Laurie Anna's last spring.

I posted about it here.

Yesterday I 'hooshed' it Halloween style.

Such a cute picture of my little angels!

Speaking of hooshing, I'm working on a little cabinet of curiosities.

The telescope & projector were my father's.

This is our entry.

I love changing it around for the seasons.

My hearth is easier to decorate than the mantel.

Keeping the kids off this chair is no easy feat.

I have a hard time arranging my mantle, it's very narrow.

I bought these Ellery Queen paperbacks at a garage sale years ago.

I think the mysteries came from Half Priced Books.

Did you know Poe was from Boston?

I know people associate him with Halloween & the macabre but he wrote such beautiful & haunting poetry.

Annabel Lee is one of my absolute favorite poems.

I have always wanted to make an altered book inspired by that story.

I better get back to my kits.

I put another pair of slippers in my etsy store, working on some other things as well.

If you want to make your own check out the link on my sidebar for information!

Inspiration Friday/ Haunted House

 Welcome to my little museum of natural science,
otherwise know as my Autumn house.

There are few things more beautiful to me than 'Stuff' that has past it's prime.

Nature always inspires me, living or dead.

It's the cycle of life, right? 

So for my Vintage Inspiration Friday post, I am showing you what inspires my Halloween decorating.

Vintage nature!

My mantle holds a couple of my Round Top treasures.

Like this gigantic sunflower head, I bought from Sweet Pea Gloria.
Remember I showed you this pretty lace panel?

For now it's living over my mantle.

It's so long!

Beautiful old naked books.

Pages from a German nature book.

Lots of little pumpkins.

See the brown cloth pumpkin? Well, it was the beginning of a whole new obsession.

I just had to make some of these for myself.

So the first step......

Gathering!

My poor family was mortified at the pumpkin patch last week. I asked the owner if I could pick up any orphan stems.  I looked like a true bag lady walking around digging on the ground for these babies.

Kevin kept saying, 'don't you have enough?'

Silly boy.

One down, 50 to go!

The leftovers make an interesting still life.

Meet the family pet ....not really!

Around this time of year we are most defiantly more

Addams Family than Partridge Family.

(It's eyes are not red, bad photography)

Last year at Marburger I bought this stuffed duck from Judy Hill.

I carried him around all day like a new born baby, scared to death he'd get bumped or damaged.

Of course my family thought I'd finally crossed the line into insanity with that purchase.

Due to controversy & molting he only comes out a couple of months each year.

 Anne asked me if my Halloween style included blow up monsters in the yard.

Whadda you think?

So there you go, a little tour through my house of horrors.

Now if I could just figure out why the kids have so many nightmares in October!

I have to show you my new love! 

I saw this amazing purse on a blog awhile back but passed on it when I saw the price. Most of my bags are either homemade or from Target. But when I saw her at Lonestar Antique Mall I could not resist!

Isn't she purdy?!

I just saw Tracey has featured this same bag today.

They are available in her French Larkspur blog-shop!

Make sure you go visit Debra at Common Ground for a look at more vintage inspiration!

Hope you have a great weekend. Lily & Daddy have an Indian Princess camping trip, so it's me & my boys!

~Lisa