Yard Setup for 2008 Halloween

I've been giving it alot of thought lately and kind of have a rough draft of what I want to do in front of my house. I have alot of steps so I will alternate a luminary and then a pumpkin going all the way up. On the landing there will be a witch and a scarecrow sitting having some gruesome looking concoction. By my front door will be big pumpkins on a little table.

I have several yard stakes that will be placed around the edge of my brick flower beds. There will be cobweb strung on the railings with big spiders in them. Bat lights will line the long flower bed that faces the street and inside the front window. I have a sign that will hang from a lamp post on my porch. I will have my ghost ring in the yard around the big tree, as well as, floating ghosts hanging from the tree branches. Tombstones will make a small graveyard and there may just be a few bones sticking out of the ground.

This year I plan on letting the kids paint pumpkins and decorate them however they want. I'm still debating the idea of making a spooky scene in my garage. I'm leaning toward not doing it because I think it would be too much work without Chad here to help me, but we'll see.

Anyway, these are the tentative plans I have so far and they are definitely subject to change.

Lollipop Ghosts

Lollipop ghosts are a very easy, kid-friendly craft and great for those school parties. Pick up a bag of tootsie pops, a box of facial tissue (or you could use tissue paper), and some Halloween ribbon. Make sure to have a black marker handy. Put one tissue over the top of the tootsie pop and tie at the bottom with the ribbon. Use the marker to dot on some eyes. Simple, yet fun!

You could also adapt this idea to hang outside in a tree or from your roof. Use crumpled newspaper and white trash bags with ribbon to make a floating ghost. Secure with fishing line so it appears that they are floating.

More Decorating Ideas

I know it's not GPD yet (I do the last day of the month), but I wanted to go ahead and share some more decorating ideas that we have used in the past.

Last year we made our own tombstones. Just like anything, it was a learning process. My wonderful husband made some tombstones out of plywood. We spray painted them gray and then I used black paint to write epitaphs on them with a paint brush. I highly recommend researching some funny and witty epitaphs and sketch out your writing before putting the paint on the tombstone. I’m sad to say, mine looked awful. I will probably paint over them this year and redo the epitaphs to make them more eye-catching. Maybe add in some dripping red paint to look like blood.

You could also use heavy cardboard to make your tombstones and just paint them gray or black. You could stick some fake limbs in the ground in front of them to make it look like the skeleton is trying to come up or wasn't buried all the way. You could also put spiderweb in between the tombstones to make it look really old.

Decoration Finds

Today I have been searching the net for easy, but nice handmade Halloween decorations. Here are my finds:

• Easy Halloween Felt Banner
• Humorous Epitaphs
• Free Halloween Screensavers
• Halloween Crafts
• Homemade Halloween Decorations Guide

Well, that's it for now. Enjoy!

Dancing Ghosts

There are so many options to decorating for Halloween, it’s hard to pick just a few to incorporate. Last year I saw a ghost circle online and knew I had to give it a try. There were no instructions, however, so I was on my own as to how to make it. Luckily, I have a handy husband.

We bought wooden dowels and Styrofoam balls (these are quite expensive so if you can think of something else, use it). I took a trip to the thrift store for white sheets. I took the balls and inserted the dowel into each one (I had 4). Then I stuck them into the ground in the yard in a circle.

*This doesn’t work well with just 4, I recommend using at least 6.

I had one sheet for each ghost. Draping the sheets over the balls was easy enough, what was hard was figuring out how to keep them there while still having the ghostly effect. I ended up using sewing pins to keep the sheet attached to the balls. I took the corners of the sheets and tied them together to make it appear like the ghosts were holding hands. Now, if you get a sheet in the right size, it should appear that the ghosts are floating, meaning you can’t see the dowel sticking in the ground. Even with the sheets pinned on, they still blew around and even took the ball off the dowel on several occasions. And they weren't very weather friendly.

Definitely a few lessons learned with this experience. I love the concept, implementing it successfully is rather difficult though.

I have come across instructions for something of this nature and they used white trash bags stuffed with newspaper or leaves (this sounds like a much better and more cost effective idea). They tied twine or something similar around the neck of each ghost to keep it attached to the dowel. Tie the ends of the trash bags together and you have floating ghosts dancing in a circle. This year I will be using the white trash bag idea with 6 ghosts and placing them around the trunk of a big tree in my front yard.

31 Days of Halloween

This year I plan on doing the 31 Days of Halloween. One of my goals is to have a fabric or cookie sheet countdown calendar made by October 1st. Included in this 31 Days of Halloween so far will be:

• ABC Family's 13 Days of Halloween movies
• Visit a pumpkin patch/corn maze
• Carve, paint, or decorate pumpkins
• Read Halloween books
• Visits from The Great Pumpkin (with gifts)
• Test run of costumes
• Possibly a party
• Halloween decorations (crafts)
• Make treat bags for trick or treaters
• Try new Halloween recipes
• Watch Halloween favorites
• Attend Heritage Days
• Nature walk
• Drive to look at leaves
• Decorate
• Roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories

These are what I could come up with right now. I'm sure more will come to me later. Once I start finalizing these, i'll post more details about them.

Ideas for Great Pumpkin Day

Great Pumpkin Day is one day of the month, usually the 31st but some do it on the 13th, to prepare for the upcoming holiday of Halloween. Here's some ideas to get you started:

* Start a costume or just buy the needed supplies
* Research decorations you might like and begin making your list of needed supplies
* Try a new recipe that you might use at Halloween
* Are you having a party? Start planning the games or activities.

No matter what you decide to do, make sure you have fun!!