Found My Vibe

I like Halloween. Really, I do. I mean, I don't like everything about Halloween, but there are things I really like about it. Only, I don't really love my Halloween decorations. I just never figured out a vibe I liked. I'm not into the really spooky or gory stuff, and I don't really like the cute stuff either. But I really wanted to enjoy Halloween this year. Looking forward to a holiday is good for my soul. So I made a list of movies to  watch (Over the Garden Wall, Nightmare Before Christmas, Practical Magic), I made a list of audiobooks to listen to (The Louis Barnavelt Series, The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid), and I even had a playlist that I listened to every once in a while. But it was a designer friend on Instagram who gave me the sudden inspiration for what kind of Halloween decorations I like. It's hard to explain but my girls and I, the first weekend in October, suddenly saw the light and within two days, one trip to the DI and one trip to a craft store, we came up with my favorite decorations ever. 

A jar for spells: (Actually my designer friend gave me a box filled with these treasures)

Romney was instantly into this vibe and quickly made me all these little tags, complete with burning the edges. Crow's Breath, Ghost Shadow, Stitching, Toadstool Tears, Chicken Feathers.... plus she made several little drawings of spiders and toads and crows. They added so much to our collection!

Chase has had a couple of real alligator heads in his room that he let us use, and I made one purchase of a large centipede encased in acrylic that's really cool. (I wanted the bat but it was $80.) But a lot of things are actually treasures that we have found as we have been digging dirt out of our basement - old bottles and lightbulbs, and some old playing cards I found inside the victrola I refinished last year.

The best of all though was creating a dissected bat I knitted. My friend Becca was the one who first found the pattern and made one a couple of years ago. I spent one weekend knitting it up - it went so fast. I love it so much.

So thank you Tawnee for helping our family find our Halloween vibe. We enjoyed this decorations all month long and I can't wait to get them out next year and maybe even add to them. Maybe I can find a pattern for a dissected snake or something?