fast & easy halloween costumes are close as the recycle bin

All Hallow’s Eve is just around the corner and everyone is thinking about costume possibilities— even these guys!

Revived melty candle. See the full how-to here.

Dressed up for the day (and the day after!) Inspired by #CreativeSprint post by @icklewitch.

Claire Garland knit pattern black cat and white mouse. See more patterns in her Etsy shop.

Going as twins this year! Knit cat mask.

Coming up with a costume, any costume can be taxing enough, but it isn’t always easy to get out and shop these days… Ordering online is a good option, but sometimes time or money is tight. Sometimes a good solution is as close as the recycle bin!

Last Minute Costume Kit (helpful items)

• brain (non zombified preferred, but, eh, it’ll do)

• the internets (if you must, in small doses only— waaaay too many ideas out there)

• kraft paper, grocery bags

• color construction paper or felt

• tacky glue — saves SO much time attaching

• glue gun (so-so on these g-darned painful implements of frustration and strings of glue)

• small sewing kit

• string/twine

• strong tape, any tape

Okay—

Now... think outside the box of preconceived notions and DO NOT under ANY circumstances appropriate sensitive cultural identities!! If you are unsure, just don’t do it.

However, have at it with gnomes, sprites, elves, natural elementals, etc... or sort-of-grown-up Groot thingys...

Be a little weird… We don’t always get a day. This is ours.

autumn mood bowl

Tucked cozily in the linen drawer, an arrangement of cloves, dried oranges, fir, and bay leaves create a nostalgic holiday scent.

diy jack-o-lantern candle

Zombie candle returns from the dead: Upcycle a thrifted candle or less-than-perfect closet find.

Remake a damaged piece into Halloween decoration! This candle got a leeetle too warm in storage.

Warped candle, meet runcible spoon — handy stand-in until sculpting tools are located.

In progress…

Set up a work area. Protect surfaces from wax shavings that will ensue. Mark up a design on the damage face and start carving. Use a picture as a guide or your imagination.

Zombie pumpkin ready for table decoration!

lifecycle of a centerpiece: ready to upcycle

Deconstructed centerpiece— one small bit of trash… the rest drying for use in an upcycled fall wreath.

Thrift store wreath to use as a base for upcycled fall decor incorporating materials dried from a September centerpiece.

Set to work! Surface protected, turntable set up and proper tools at the ready— delete tired, dusty or fusty materials from the thrift store wreath base. Attach dried materials saved from fall centerpiece with wire or hot glue.

When using materials for a wreath, it helps to divide them by type before beginning. Start by laying out elements around the wreath before attaching. Attach wire to the heaviest items by wrapping wire and stem with florist tape— brown tape, in this case. Wire the stems onto the wreath base. Regular stems can be glued in place with hot glue. Start with the heaviest and bulkiest elements and finish with the most delicate.

Hang up and have a look! Almost ready for the front door.

Et voilà !

falloween with kids...and COVID

How to accurately describe parenting through a pandemic? I’d ask other parents in my circles, but we’re all tapped TF out. My kids are little, which presents its own challenges, but one silver lining is that they’re not entirely aware of everything that’s changed or been lost over the past year and a half. My youngest was born a few weeks before our area locked down in early spring 2020, so she doesn’t know all that she’s missed out on. My now four-year-old? Not so much. She’s acutely aware of missing swimming lessons, playing with cousins, and climbing around playgrounds with friends yet to be made. It’s been rough. We have vulnerable people in our family, so we’ve been on the extreme end of cautious. We almost lost a very dear friend in the first weeks of the pandemic. It snapped us into shape real quick, and how close it was shook me and hasn't left me. 

But being so careful has meant sacrificing a lot, and it’s taken a toll. We’re going a little bonkers, feeling cooped up, and we miss interacting with others. (I’m not even sure I still know how to interact with other adults.) I see lots of families venturing out, doing things that worry me too much to do with my kids. I was a worrier before becoming a mom, and the arrival of my first kiddo amped up the anxiety big time. Now as a single parent, it’s all on me, and the fear of making a mistake can be overwhelming. But I feel guilty that my kids are missing out on different experiences. I worry that their development will be stunted or something. A “lost year” is quickly turning into two, and it represents my youngest’s entire life. I’m not sure she even realizes that there are many other babies out there. We just had no idea what this was going to turn into when it started.  

Much of that first year is blurry, but when I started to reclaim some sense of control, or the ability to revive certain traditions and “the things we used to do,” it was that first Fall. Falloween is my favorite season and lasts from September 1st until Thanksgiving, roughly. It could be 90 degrees here and humid as hell, but I'm baking some damn pumpkin bread or stirring a giant pot of butternut squash soup. This season goes so quickly, sometimes you have to will it into your day or house. 

Last year there was so much we didn't know, so there was so much we didn't do. Like trick or treating in the usual way. We did a Easter egg type hunt in the backyard with little pumpkins filled with toys and treats. My parents and I posted up behind different doors, and my kids trick or treated up and down the hallway of my house. COVID greatly influenced which events we participate in, and how we participate. We had to get creative if we were going to enjoy some version of our traditions. 

Now that we’ve got an entire year and some change under our belts, and the grownups are vaccinated (Hallelujah!), we can weave in more activities that we’re comfortable with. With kids too young yet to be eligible for COVID vaccination, we’re still prioritizing safety. 

Safe(r) fall activities 

Keeping in mind the CDC’s emphasis on vaccination, masks, distancing, outdoor activities over indoor ones, and small groups instead of crowds, and advice on high, medium and low risk activities from sources like The Mayo Clinic, we’ll keep it small, outdoors, and local. 

There is no shortage of great lists out there with every Fall activity you can imagine. This one from Real Simple lists 62 of the best Fall activities. 62! From hayrides and apple picking, to bonfires and drive-in movies, there are plenty of safe(r) options to consider. 

You’ve got picnics and parks, farmers markets, pumpkin patches, hiking, camping, outdoor theater and concerts to enjoy outside. And there’s a ton of fally goodness that happens inside: small gatherings, or cooking with the kids, carving pumpkins, or creating something special with fallen leaves and other treasures from the yard. Nothing beats getting outside while the weather is cooperating. Some fresh air and running around, taking a moment to appreciate this transitional season— a pause between the bright, hectic summer, and the muted, stiller winter.

To kick off our celebrating this season, my parents, my littles, and I ventured out to an apple orchard. It was perfect: mild and sunny weather at a beautiful outdoor location. A bit busier than I expected, we were still able to keep plenty of space between us and others, even when the kids were running around. It was an adventure for them— a new experience and a new place to explore, and, hopefully, a new tradition for us. Oh, added bonus: like many orchards, this place also offers summertime berry picking, and, you guessed it: pumpkin patches later on. So we already know one place can return in a few weeks for the ultimate Falloween souvenir. 

diy on a dollar: fall leaves

Another sustainable seasonal idea: Upcycle paper grocery bags into colorful Autumn decorations.

Cut open a grocery bag and fold accordion style. Use stencils, trace real leaves, or, heck, just take a guess! Then cut out multiples to scrunch and crunch around centerpieces, use in wreaths, or scatter on the table.

Use the bottom of the bag as a palette and sponge color onto a few or all.

You are doing DIY on a Dollar! You've got FALL in the bag 🍁 🍃 🍂

diy on a dollar: fall ideas

Dryer vent tube secured with hot glue, painted with acrylic paint. Add leftover faux leaves and/or dried material. Twist of paper and cut grocery bag leaves.

More pumpkin fun with simple, economical materials. Pots migrating inwards after summer? Repurpose them for Fall with paint inspired from vintage cards or felt cut outs — bring on the Kawaii smiles!

Any craft is welcome therapy, especially if the kiddos are involved! Perfection is soooo not the goal... but PROCESS! Much loved pumpkin from preschool days has pride of place.

The Three L’s of My Fall Mantel

Mantels can be as simple or as complicated as you want. They can follow a color story, theme or like mine, be a hodgepodge of collected items from over the years. I really only have one rule for my mantel: Everything MUST fit in one storage container.* It’s a mantel. Not a Christmas tree, but more on that some other time.
*Fall-specific decor, but feel free to pull other items from around the house. 

Yes, we all love elaborate mantels on Pinterest, but then you have to store all that sh*t, and let’s be honest; unless this is your first year, you have enough sh*t in your [insert storage space of choice]. Even if I buy something new, as I did this year, it means something must go if it all doesn’t fit. But I will say, I have a black belt in how to organize a store container. 

Otherwise, it’s game on. The rest is up to you, go for what feels good or have a plan. As a Virgo, I like lists and planning, so for me, I look for three simple things when putting together any decorated space: levels, layers, and light.

Levels 

This is a pretty basic one, but as a graphic designer in my professional life, I like to think about what you’re looking at from left to right and I don’t want it to be the same across the line. So I build things up to varying heights to give some visual interest. And no, that does not mean it has to be symmetrical. Unless that’s your preference and then, hey, good for you. For me, I spent a sh*t ton of time on this and I want you to look at it for a minute or two. It’s about the details. 

Layers 

While mantels are usually fairly shallow, you can fit way more on them than you think! Using things like wood crates, books or candle holders can be used for stacking and creating depth. Also don’t be afraid to let things hang off the edge or droop over if you need to. Maybe you put a pine cone at the bottom of a candlestick or a small pumpkin on top of a vase. Anyway you like it, use this tip for fitting more on your mantel. 

Light 

Yes, candles. But also think about where your natural light or light from your fixtures hits your mantel. Mixing metallics, glass, and other shiny things can also help give your mantel depth but reflect light into the smaller, darker spaces of your mantel. 

Color is another way to help direct light. When you think about colors, think about coordination and contrast. Lights next to darks, shiny next to flat. 

Just for fun, here is my list of random objects that I keep around and have sourced from all over. Thrift stores have a ton of great items, as do garage sales and yes, even Target and Big Lots. But I don’t think I’d go outfitting my mantel from a big box store. The trick for me is mixing it all together like you planned it. 

Ingredient list:

• Candlesticks

• Old books

• Garlands of any sort, paper, fake foliage or felt.

• Dried items

• Ceramics

• Wood

• Crates or containers

• Candles

• Candle holders

• Photos

• Pine cones

• And of course, Pumpkins, but not just real ones. Raffia ones, ceramic, glass, etc. After all, It’s decorative gourd season.

Five smells for the love of Fall, that are not Pumpkin

When styling a scene for your home, especially a seasonal one, don’t overlook scent. Scent can be powerful and evocative, transporting us to specific memories or traditions. If you don’t happen to have ingredients or oils on hand to whip up your favorite Fall scents, our friend and guest voice Marie is here to help with recommendations.

Deep inside my tattooed, red lipstick and all black wearing soul, is the most basic of stereotypes: “Girl who loves Fall.” She indulges in more than a few pumpkin spice lattes, takes photos standing atop a carefully selected pile of orange, red and brown foliage, and sips Apple Jacks (recipe below) in front of her chiminea. It is, even more than Christmas, my favorite time of year. 

Beyond the traditional Midwest family outings of various produce patches and picking activities, working on your knife skills with gourds, is one underrated tradition that I love— selecting a fall fragrance for my home. And while I love the smell of pumpkin spice in the morning, I prefer that smell in my coffee. So put the Glade pumpkin spice candle down and feast your nose on five smells for your home that will make your guests stop and ask, where you got that candle. 

No. 5: Midnight Forest - For the ladies who like to cuddle up to a good smelling man, this candle is for you. Do you ever walk by a man who gets you to double take just because he smells good? This is that in a candle. This is a great candle for a bathroom. 

No. 4: Blue Mint - If there is one candle that takes me from fall right into winter, it’s this candle. Not as icy and the name suggests, I love this candle in my bedroom because it makes me want to cozy up with my weighted blanket and read until Spring. 

No. 3: Smoked Wood & Amber - Don’t let the name fool you. This doesn’t smell like burnt wood, but the best damn fireplace of all time. The amber is the sweetness that counters the smoke, which is just a hint. It’s warm and inviting and was gifted to me by a very fancy woman who was the premier buyer for the home department at a high-end department store. So if you’ve ever wondered what fancy women’s homes smell like, this is your Huckleberry.

No. 2: Rose + Cedar - This candle smells like a fancy cabin. And the wood wick gives it that cozy fireplace vibe. If this candle came as a gift, it would have hot cocoa and a red and black checkered blanket in a wire basket with it. This is my second favorite fall candle and one that is burning on my mantel as I write this. 

Told ya.

No. 1: Cedar + Magnolia - Truthfully, I have all the size variations on this candle. It is my Sunday morning cleaning candle and my Friday night cozy up on the couch and watch movies candle. A sweet floral with a just enough cedar to get you in the mood for scarves and sweaters. This is my go-to for fall parties, hostess gifts, and a signature smell in my home. 

Displaying your fall candles at home:

Have more than a few fall scents you like? Of course you do. Take a vintage tray, charger, because let’s be honest, if you have chargers, you probably don’t use them enough, and display all your fall candles together on a mantel, coffee table, or your dining room table. Even a small wooden cutting board would work. Note: If you decide to use pillars, make sure they are sitting on something to catch wax, the last thing you want is a perfectly usable cutting board regulated to decor only because candle wax dripped on your cutting board.

Apple Jacks Recipe:

Louisburg Honey Crisp Cider

Your Favorite Whiskey, like this one or this one

Ice

In a tall glass, add ice and 2oz of whiskey.

Top with apple cider.

Make it Instagrammable: Add a slice of apple and a cinnamon stick for garnish. 

Warm version:

Heat cider in a small saucepan on medium low until just steaming, about 7 or so minutes.

In a mug, pour ½ oz of whiskey and top with warmed cider. 

an autumnal meditation

This is the second Fall season of a pandemic that radically changed our lives in varying ways. Last year was rough. Not going to lie. We dug deep and found ways to move forward, to hold what was important more closely— but in new ways. We scrambled a bit trying to figure out how to newly create our treasured traditions and celebrations amongst strange, new constraints. We are not just talking sourdough bread baking, or plastic film hugging walls, but zoom rooms and screen meals and outside picnic parties with china. This year we have more time and wisdom on our sides. We can plan ahead, take the best that last year taught us — let’s go with more intentional, conscious decisions about what matters, who matters most, and how to put that, and them, altogether first, amen.

Meditation: What kind of Fall do YOU want? Drop down the Beauty lenses, activate the “everything is up for change” vision. Look around with those fresh eyes. "Have to”s for celebrations are out the window and a new way of doing sprawls before you. Time honored traditions are wearing new shoes, dancing to new tunes… Avoid the stores and maskless hordes and make your own fall decor! How about a Thanksgiving picnic? Who doesn’t love a turkey sandwich with cranberry relish? Oh, and hand pies… Leaf it to us, we’ll lead the way!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll drop some posts with how-tos for make-dos and make withs what you’ve got that last from the first of Fall through Thanksgiving…In the meantime, wrap yourself in everything Autumn, gather up some pods, and corn, and other naturey bits and bobs to bring inside to honor all you’ve weathered this year. Be gourd to yourself, punkin’, and each other.

It’s Fall, y’all!

September. Have we missed you! Babe, when you roll up on the calendar, you usher in the best months of the year. You bust in trailing leaves, crowned in fruits and grains, trays of goodies balanced against your bouncy bosom, handing out muffins, shouting "Fall, ya’ll!” You are here. Meteorologically speaking, and soon, astrologically as well. We’ve been holding in all of our gourd-related puns for so long we are about to burst. We want to dust the world in cinnamon and nutmeg — to orange up the decor and live our best pumpkin-spiced life! And, 90 degrees or no, we whip out our warmest, coziest throws and wish for it to last and last. But before we dive headfirst into a dog-poo-free leaf pile wearing our favorite sweater while sipping a spill-proof hot apple cider— a word, please.

The Big Boxes That Be are already pushing the great red and green consumer festivus on us, packing the shelves with jingle and jangle. We are here to throw that switch and turn the Christmas train right around. Let’s put the Ho ho holiday back in its box, right back up on the shelf in the closet of assorted celebratory gear, figuratively and mentally. Pause. Take THIS moment in. This glorious, pivotal, equinotic season. This stretch when time   turns   on its axis. The changes happening are a season all on their own. In this pause, make room— create some sacred space to celebrate the mercurial moments therein. Celebrate you. Celebrate yours. The Christmas train will be along to sweep us all up soon enough. For today, and for at least a few weeks hereafter, stop and take this all in. Celebrate the richness, the layers of senseplay abundantly available…the colors, the flavors, those sounds… the atavistic ingathering eyeing incoming winter, felt in the bones. Exit Persephone. Welcome pumpkinpalooza, yes, but also the transitions, the contemplative variations, of precious, fleeting Autumn.

We plan to share some fall-lovin ideas here to help you fill your days and homes. To note the moment. Stay tuned for simple, budget-friendly crafts, makes and alternative activities— with not a Box in sight. So, go ahead— start saving treasure leaves and gathering some sheaves from around your world. If you’re #blessed to live in an area where colors change, take advantage and enjoy those living canvasses.

peek inside: wreath construction

Formerly fresh garden rose wreath showing construction. Lightweight green floral wire wrapped around cut stems.

Structure behind the construction: not always a pretty face. Woven bark wire for stability on back of once fresh picked garden roses woven with lightweight wire to form a wreath.