You Never Know When There May Be A Camera Involved! Stay Pretty, Even When You Are Scared!

As we all know, Halloween is right around the corner, (remember the part where we anxiously await the end of the night so that we can raid our kids' candy buckets?)  This time of year, along with the anticipation of hoarding candy, many of us visit our local corn maze or haunted house.  I remember visiting haunted houses as a teenager and getting the "you-know-what" scared out of me.

You always have the chainsaw wielding, Jason mask-wearing scary man, and the ghosts and murderers jumping out of dark corners...If you think about it, there is only so much variation on the themes of a haunted house, and only so many scenarios in which to enlist, but year after year we continued to be frightened by the same things like it is the first time.  It is a bit like the typical scene in a horror movie where the girl hears a noise in a completely blacked out home with no cellphone coverage,  and always searches for the source of the scary noise in the darkness asking "who goes there" as she approaches her doom. We are all victims of our own need for adrenaline in the "safe" fear of haunted houses and horror flics!  So maybe part of the anticipation of Halloween is sugar coma...but the other part is an adrenaline rush from haunted houses!

Well. I don't know if you have ever had a photo taken of you in mid-scream?  If you have visited a good theme park with scariness, they usually have the hidden cameras to snap the photos and let me tell you, it is pure gold.  There is nothing like watching someone "lose it" and fall ungracefully (unhurt, of course) to bring about a good belly laugh, but there is the photo of someone's genuine fear response that is classic and also arouses a good bout of laughter and finger-pointing...

Thank you Nightmare's Fear Factory for that camera in the darkened corner...




Okay, really?







Now you see what they mean by a picture says a thousand words?







Just make sure if you get a little spooked this Halloween, that you look good when you scream your head off, because there may be a camera involved...






Happy Halloween!  And if you want to see an entire collection of pure funny, then go to Nightmares Fear Factory facebook page!  This Haunted House is located in Niagara Falls, Canada and it looks like they may have a little variation on that theme I was talking about earlier.  Or maybe not, maybe these faces are a response to a chainsaw wielding teenager with a Jason mask on, in a dark corner....

Release Your Creative Mojo! Wool, Felting and Pumpkins Oh My!

Well it is time to pull that felting basket back out of the cabinet and start teaching myself how to felt!  At the end of last year, I entered the world of felting by purchasing 2 needles and some felting wool. I came home, watched a 5 minute video on YouTube ( you can learn to make anything from a youtube tutorial) and  30 minutes later, I had created a little bluebird.  I was blown away. Now granted, it was a scary little bird, but it WAS a bird.

Well things got a bit busy for me soon after, so I put my basket aside to pick up at a later date.  While that basket sat in the cabinet, my imagination ran wild and I had several ideas about items that I could create...and today I opened up that door to give myself a little refresher.  Now I have only created that one famous bluebird, so my version of a "refresher" actually means, I need to teach myself how to felt because I have some ideas that I want to get cracking on! I thought I would start small, literally.  A pumpkin sounded good...here goes...

So here is my masterpiece!  My first pumpkin...I know, I know, I have a long way to go, but most of the ideas that I have only include a small amount of felting and I will need to use my "jewelry making" experience to execute the rest.  I need to keep practicing so I guess I will be attempting all sorts of creations to get some techniques down....I have a  feeling I will have my own version of a pumpkin patch before this is over.

Well, I need to get back to the pumpkins, but I want to share some photos of the inspiration that occupies a corner of my studio...calling for me to get started on these new ideas that I have been pondering for quite some time! As you will see, it is quite hard to resist. Just a big bowl full of goodness...

Well, stay tuned...Hopefully over the next month or so I will bring my ideas to fruition and I will share them with you here...and if all else fails I will have a collection of pumpkins, right?

Do you knit, crochet or felt?  I would love to hear from any amazing fiber artists out there!  Aww, come on, don't be shy!  Also, do you know of any good classes?  We are certainly surrounded by some wicked good talent, so if you have participated in any notable classes in Western North Carolina or Upstate South Carolina,  please comment!

Stay tuned to see my ideas come to life. What are you creating right now?

A Little Halloween Decor...

Well Hello October!  So we are just a little closer to that chilly weather that I have been anticipating...and now officially in the month of Halloween!  did someone say candy corn?  Okay, so why can't adults do a little trick-or-treating?  We all know that we enjoy "borrowing" our kids' candy and who doesn't like a little superhero costume every now and then?  At least as adults we could "make up" for that one awesome costume that alluded us as a child, or it could be an opportunity to don that wicked cool costume that your best friend wore in the third grade when you were forced to wear the hand-me-down scarecrow costume for the second year in a row!  Let's face it, it would be like a life time full of therapy, one night a year...I'm just sayin...

Well for some reason I am feeling a little more festive this year and decided to dress up a couple of spots in my home for the upcoming Halloween night (Okay, lets be honest,  I started reading Harry Potter and am beyond addicted-hence a renewed interest in everything Wizard-ish and reminiscent of Hogwarts).  Nothing fancy or ornate, just a little spooky.

I thought I would share a couple of photos of my "spooky."  How do you decorate your home for Halloween? Where do you get ideas and inspiration for your decorations?  What is your favorite decoration for Halloween?  Oh and of course, more importantly, what is your favorite candy?

I already had a large gray weathered bird cage and a small metal cloche cage, so I just purchased some crows, webbing, deer moss, and metal chalkboard signs at Michael's for a total cost of about $15.  I used some branches from the yard and just placed the items together carefully, no glue gun or adhesives.  This way I can use the items again and everything comes apart easily. I haven't painted the black chalk board signs yet, but they will say something like, " Do not make eye contact with the birds" and for the bigger bird, "Bird $25.00" and then I will cross out the $25 and write in "free."
    After Halloween...my gray cage is utilized year-round, empty, as decor in my home and the small metal cloche will have a small live plant grouping placed under it!  Bye Bye Birdie!

And remember, one bag of stretchy spider web fabric from Michael's goes a VERY long way-  If you are on a budget or maybe you just want to keep it really simple and realistic.  You can create some monumental spider webs in just a few focal points in your home and around your front door...then when it comes time to clean up, just pull them all off in less than 5 minutes!

Happy Decorating!  and let us know about your favorite decor and candy...