October Life Update; Happy Halloween!

Hi readers,

I just wanted to say Happy Halloween to you all and share my pumpkins for this year! I carved three different pumpkins over the last few days and the two above are outside my house right now. I really liked the baby bat and then I went for a scary raven and skull.

At the weekend, my boyfriend and I craved the two below; a witch and her cat. I left these at his house. We both enjoyed spending the time being creative! 

My boyfriend also took me on a ghost walk around Hoghton Tower which we had visited before. It was a really spooky walk around the old manor house with people telling us different tales about the ghostly encounters. We didn't see anything but at one point it felt like someone was tickling my back! We had a good time though and it was lots of fun.    

Today, the house is decorated and I've done some baking. I have also made gift bags for the kids this year as we ran out of sweets last year! So now I just need to wait for the darkness to come and then the fun can began! I hope everyone had a good time to night! 

Oh and I made a new friend too. Look at this cute little bat! 

Stay safe everyone and have lots of fun! 

October Life Update Part 2: Happy Halloween!

Hi readers and happy Halloween to everyone! 

So, it's fallen on a Monday this year, which is pretty cool cause I get to share Halloween on the actual night! Also, though it does mean that I've had to get ahead writing this because I've plans and I'm just so busy right now. Which is good, but also not so good. Anyway, in to this post. So the Jack O'Lantern above is my tester one. I wanted something real simple and quick, which this tree was, but I know it's a bit messing because I had to hurry making it. 

I made this on Thursday because my brother who's just moved out wanted pumpkin pie, which he would have missed out on as he moved on Friday. I'm super going to miss him as we get on great and he's moving far away. Well, about 5-6 hours drive away to Southampton which is past London and we live in Manchester. So, he wanted pumpkin pie and then it seemed a waste to let the outside go to waste, so I used it for practice.

Also, I've been having a go at taking some better photos. So hopefully that'll be useful. So this year I've three pumpkins, which I think is like the max I've every had. I've not carved all three though. I've only every done two. The third one was craved by the new man in my life. We've still just dating at the moment, but things are progressing. This was the first time he's carved a pumpkin! It was actually great fun doing it together. 

Here's the pumpkins before carving.       

This one's mine and I decided to go with a Count Dracula face, but I didn't get it right. So it kind of looks like a weird face. 

This one is my date's. He went with a really scary face. We also switched out a candle for this light up balloon which made his even more creepy.

I think it all went well and they turned out pretty good. I just love shopping in October and all the Halloween stuff really attracts me. I've tried hard not to spend as much money as I normally do, but I think I've not been able to stick to that! The first thing I brought for Halloween was actually this baby werewolf plush soft toy. He's from Build-A-Bear and I just fell in love with him so much! He's so fluffy and I find holding him real calming. Which has been great for my anxiety problem. I could have brought this little ripped up blue denim jacket for him, but then he'd also need pants. I do kind of like him the way he is, but maybe I might make him clothes at some point - be a lot cheaper! 

I treated myself to another bear from Spiral.com this year too. Last year, I got the vampire Vlad and this year I got the grim reaper teddy. They also have a cat with bat wings which I might get next year. These two look so cute together though! Also, they match what my date and I dressed up as, which was a little strange! 

  

I always love all the different cups, mugs, goblets, jars etc that the shops sell and you can get. I don't actually have many myself as I don't use them, surprisingly! However, that changed when I got the purple plastic bat sippy cup! I totally love it and I don't think there's a day gone by since I got it about three weeks ago now that I've not used it! The bats have googly eyes on and it's actually a really big almost a pint I'd say in size. Now, the mason jars. They are huge in America and seem to be growing in popularity here in the UK. I got the white one which has like Witch's drink on it first and then brought the orange for my date to have. So we'd be kinda matching, which I thought was cute. The fourth glass was actually the first I brought and I was thinking of using it more of a tea light holder or maybe a little vase. 

I am a massive fan of candles as most of you know. But we don't get many autumn/pumpkin scented candles here. So when I see one I always end up getting it. I found this abandoned on a side shelf of Halloween masks and though I tried to find some more, I couldn't. I smells great though. I also got the new Yankee Candles scent which was called Forbidden Apple. Which smells awesome, but I do feel let down by it because apple is one of my favorite smells and I have a big Granny Smith scented Yankee candle which smells almost the same to me. I've got a caramel/candied apple too.

Okay, so this year for the trick or treaters I just got a big bag of 'monster' sweets/candy. I made goodie bags last year and ran out, so this year I'm just going with this. I've a sweet tooth but Halloween sweets just appeal to me even more. My favorites are the Chewits fangs, but I can only get them from one shop for some reason! But they are so good. 

My mum actually brought me the Twinkies - we don't have them in the UK and only certain shops - American themed sweet shops have them. But we found these in the world food aisle in a supermarket and I just knew I had to give them a try! They are brought out for the new ghost buster movie, but I guess the supermarket was like they are Halloween-y. They are key lime flavor which is like one of my favourite things, but you can't actually buy a key lime pie or anything else that flavor here. No idea why, I'd love that to change! 

Then there's a packet of witch's fingers which are peanut butter and strawberry jam centered- so tasty. And a big box of fancy chocolates. These are so good and just I could eat them all. My mum originally thought I'd give them out to the kids, but they are too good for that and too cute! 

Halloween fancy chocolates.

I've actually brought a lot of table clothes this year. I got three. Though one I'm actually using as a veil for my costume though! That was the first and it's actually the cloth I used for the table to take this photos with. The second cloth is the colorful plastic one. Even though I'm not having a party and don't need to cover a food table, I thought this would be great for actually going on the table/s outside were the pumpkins are to be displayed. The second cloth is the sliver bat one and that actually has a runner with it too. It was expensive but I love the fabric! Then I got so spider cobwebs as I really need some more that were not white or black.   

 Today, has been really crazy. Had to carve the pumpkins and decorate the house. Luckily, I'd got a few things out of the attic for that, but I think the big box of stuff is under my bed somewhere and I didn't have time to get that. Anyway, the front of the house looks pretty good. It's kinda the same how I had it last year I think. I wanted to get like some gravestones and them dotted around the front lawn bit, but I didn't have the money. I also saw some more skeleton creatures - rats, ravens, spiders, but I couldn't find any when I went back for them. It looks the part anyway.

We put up the decorations up first thing and then we carved the pumpkins. This is how the display looked this year. 

Then finally there's us in our costumes. I went as a vampire bride and he was a grim reaper.

And I just have to show you my dad's costume! This was the one he made last year, but it's still so awesome. My mum and I helped him make it.

We decided to go to a local ghost walk tonight and though we didn't see any ghosts it was fun, and I learnt a little about the town I live in. We walked though the graveyard too and I took some creepy photos.

On Saturday evening, My date and I went into Manchester for a meal to celebrate my new job! I'm now a causal receptionist at the youth center. I've been volunteering on reception for the last 8 months and then this job came up and I totally aced the interview. So we went out to celebrate that. Also, Manchester was dressed for Halloween and there were a few different events on, but I think we must have missed them. Still though, I love the paper pumpkin lanterns in the trees and the gate was pretty cool. The town hall was lit up green, but you couldn't get there because they are busy putting up Christmas stuff and yes that is a big inflated Santa in the background!

Lastly, and I know it's not really got anything to do with Halloween, but I wanted to share this awesome wool I found. It was really cheap and I'm going to knit a nice woolly scarf with it!

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has had a fun night! See you all next week!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

Hi readers and happy Halloween,

I've spent all day being busy sorting stuff out, carving pumpkins and decorating. I'm now finishing writing this and editing it as I wait for the Trick or Treaters. So, firstly my pumpkins. I decided to go with Sparky from Frankenweenie and Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas. They turned out pretty good and I've already had some neighbors and parents really liking them.

I can't believe how long it took me to make them, even though they were simple designs. I watched nearly all of the second season of American Horror Story and I was glad of the distraction because asylums, torture and hospitals are the worse things for me and I can't really watch stuff with those things in them. I've got the last two episodes to watch now, but the setting has mostly moved out of the asylum now. I'm looking forward to watching the third season a lot more now and that's about witches which I'll be fine with. Anyway, here's my pumpkins close up;  

I'm hoping they'll keep the evil spirits away night! I've had 22 trick or treaters so far and I'm out of sweets. I made 20 party bags up and believed I'd have some to left to eat afterwards and now I'm having to give away my person Halloween sweets. I've never had so many kids before, but it's getting a bit later now, so I might have said goodbye to the last of them. 

I also manged to do the lantern from my last post and I'm really happy with it. I decided to not use the black marker to color in the outline as instructed, because it just wasn't working. So, I used my black glitter paint again and I added some purple glitter paint into the inside to give it more sparkle. I've still got another two to do, though they are going to have to wait till another time now. But I'm not too bothered because I'd love it to be Halloween all the time anyway! I'll be posting them up in November now and showing how I got on with them. Then In December, I'm going to do Christmas scene ones. 

In the kitchen yesterday, I made gingerbread ghosts, pumpkins and bats. I used a different recipe to the one I normally use and though they turned out okay, they are far from perfect. I think the problems from my Halloween Count Down part 2 post also effect me and again. They do taste fine, but I wish they looked better. I was tempted to put them in the goodie bags for the kids, but then decided against it due to not being sure if the kids were going to be okay with them and if the gingerbread icing would survive. My last biscuits went down so well and I can only hope these do to. I think next year, I'm so going to stick with the recipes I know work and do turn out really good. Who knows what I'll be up to next year, though?

One thing I always think about at Halloween is how many pumpkins are wasted. I know that sounds like an odd thought, but none of of the pumpkin goes to waste in my house and so tonight I made roasted pumpkin seeds. These are really easy to make! I washed and dried the seeds then added in some brown sugar and cinnamon. I cooked in them in the oven for an hour and half on a low setting. They are a tasty and health snack! Plus they can be added to lots of different dishes too.  

With the rest of the pumpkin the plans are to make my mum's pumpkin pie and a pumpkin soup. With her being away at a party, I've not been able to make those tonight and I've frozen the pumpkin so we can use it when she returns. I'll write about that next week because pumpkin pie is something no one should miss out on!

Here's a photo of all the stuff I got to go in the goodie bags. I was hoping to get some toys and maybe theme stationary too, but none of the shops I went to had anything like that. I just liked the idea better then mixing everything in a bowl and the kids really like them. I think I'll have to look at getting some more next year though because this time has been really busy. That's if I do decided to do it again though. 

I've fond memories of trick or treating with my family and friends or else going to parties and I just like the idea of those memories starting in other people. A part of me does wish I was hosting or going to a party tonight though. Oh, well, maybe next year.... 

I think that decorating the house has to be my second favorite part of Halloween. (Pumpkins come first!) Being home alone and not actually having any plans isn't a great feeling and so to cheer myself up, I took a trip into the attic to find my Halloween decorates, yesterday. I found one box that had some stuff in, but nothing worth getting it and the second box had only my large pot lit up pumpkins, Spider chase lights and a box of parrot lights from my 21st birthday party. I'm really not sure where the rest of my stuff has gone to. There must be another box in the attic or else it's stored under my bed. Anyway, I decided to do what I could, but in handing the pot pumpkins to my mum their cardboard box completely split and she got whacked on the head by them. 

I was a little upset that they both smashed but then more so about my mum. She got a concussion and went into shock. I was really thinking my dad would have to drive her to the hospital or a walk in center. But once she had sat down and didn't feel sick and dizzy any more, she seemed okay. That though led to a small argument with my dad as my parents at that moment were getting ready to go away for the weekend and to a Halloween party with my dad's diving club. I felt pretty bad about the whole thing and my dad moaning about my 'wrong time'. I should be use to that over the years, but once again I had been going through the whole debate about not going into the attic and not decorating the house, but deciding that I really needed to. (This enters into another long story, which I'm hoping to write about at some point in November / December) I was hoping to find some super glue and get them repaired, but I can't find any and I've so not had the time today.

Anyway, here's a photo of the front of my house; 

I was hoping to do a little more decorating, but it rained heavily in the night and everything was soaking wet still. It's not meant to rain tonight, but it's been looking like it might do. I wanted to put my skeleton dog out tied up on the grass with an bowl and a bone, but I got scared someone might steal him. Which I know is a bit of a silly thought to have, but yeah.....issues. Don't think most of the kids would have seen him anyway because the front wall is high. Also, I never found the rest of my decorations.

Lastly, I'm about to burn my favorite candle; Happy Halloween from Yankee Candles. I know I've wrote about this one before, but I just love it so much. I got luckily too because I found it at a really good price on Amazon and after deciding there was a high chance I'd never find one at that price in the future due to them now retiring it and the fact they only released a limited number around Halloween anyway. I've got three of them now and one of which I'll never burn because I'm hoarding it away! Also, the photo isn't mine because my camera has run out of battery.  

Thanks for reading! Please remember to follow and share. Also check out my other blog: https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/ and get ready for a new month of stories starting tomorrow. 

Preview for next month;

The Little Paris Bookshop Review 

Welcome To Night Vale, A Novel Review

November Update 

Possible posts:

My long term health problem

Youth Centre work 

Preparing for Christmas  

October Update : Counting Down To Halloween, Part 3

 Hi readers,

I've got a mixture of things to share with you today in the third and finally count down to Halloween post. Kicking off this time are these Halloween lanterns ; http://adventure-in-a-box.com/enchanting-halloween-lanterns. I fell in love with them and really wanted to give them ago. As soon as I started buying and gathering everything I needed, I had all these ideas to make different ones. The one above is my practice one as art/drawing/painting is a weak spot for me. I'm so glad I decided to have a practice first because I learnt a lot from it. 

I'm pleased with how it turned out, though I wish I couldn't have got the orange background paint a little bit better. There are lots of different ways to make these lanterns and I guess depending on things you might find one way easier then the others. So, how did I make my practice one? Firstly, I printed out some designs that I found free to use online then I cut them out and arranged them on my clean dry jar. I stuck them to the outside with some tape then got a Sharpie permanent marker and drew around them all. I also drew a bumpy line to connect them all and represent a hilly landscape. Next, I painted in the outlines and the bottom of the jar. I used glitter black paint because I love how the candlelight catches of glitter and it just enchants it a bit more. I put on three coats because the paint was thin and I wanted there to be no leakage of the candlelight. 

I then mixed orange glitter paint with water and placed it inside the jar. I swirled it around and tried to get a good coverage. I was happy with it when it was done and left it to try. An hour later, I noticed that the orange paint and water mix hadn't stuck and had pooled at the bottom of the jar. I swirled it around again and spent time rolling the paint around to try and get it to stick. When I went to bed, I left the jar on it's side and whilst most of the paint had settled, it still hadn't dried. I added more paint, because I think I might have used too much water. I left it to dry and though it turned out a little bit patchy in places, it still looks good enough. 

My other one I made today was this The Nightmare Before Christmas image. The photo is a bit bad and I'm sorry about that, but my other problem was I didn't actually get the spray paint right!   

I sprayed too close and too much and thus really didn't get the right effect I needed. The other jar did spray alongside this one, was to make a lantern using the witch/ moon cat village scene from the above link. However, I used too much was was unable to trace the images through. I don't know what I'm going to do with that jar now, maybe just do like I did with my first one and trace them on the outside? 

However, I please to say that I learned from my mistake and I got another jar, which I'll be using for the scene correct, if not a little under colored, but to be honest after all the troubles I've had with stuff today, I don't mind. I did my two others jars which are actually cookie /kitchen food jars that I brought for £1 in ASDA Homewares, at the same time and got a nice effect on them and their lids. I've this awesome idea all set to do with them. I just ran out of time and I don't want to rush them. 

That's the biggest thing I found out about doing this project; not to rush. I'm really bad at drawing and I think my worries about these turning out how I really wanted them has been playing a big part in my mistakes. Now, I'm going to try and stop thinking about that and just get them finished. I want the two cookie jars to go outside on my front porch area - somewhere! I wish I could but the others in the front window, but that's going to be hard to do as it's a jungle of plants and ornaments. Plus we have colored glass so they won't be easily seen. Hopefully, by Halloween I'll have made them and be able to post them up.   

The other project I completed last week was this one. I made a bat and a ghost out of toilet roll tubes. I thought they'd be a good idea for the kids at the youth center as I went back to work since being off ill last Tuesday. I didn't get a chance to do the activity though as I wanted to take it easy and someone else had already set up a dot-to-dot drawing art for the kids to do. I shall be doing them tomorrow though with my felt pumpkins - see part 1 for them- and I know the kids will love them! 

There's lots of different ways to make these. I didn't follow anyone else's pattern and I just free handed it. I got a cardboard tube and flatted the top part. I then shaped the corners into points for the ears. I covered the whole thing in black tissue paper then drew bat wings and cut them out from the same tissue paper. I stuck them on the sides before adding white and black circles of the eyes. I decided to complete the bat with a strip of red and two white fangs. 

For the ghost, I balled up some white tissue paper and stuck it on the top, before measuring out enough white tissue paper to drape across the tube. I stuck it down at the top with some tape then made some black eyes and mouth, which I taped on too. 

I'm happy with how they turned out and just wish I had enough time to make a witch - I've seen one on Pinterest or maybe a vampire or a pumpkin too. I've seen some spider ones which look pretty good too. They are so easy and simple to make, yet look effective. I also thought about getting some white string or thread and hanging them up. A collection of bats would look nice in the hallway.
    

Today in the kitchen I made Headstone Biscuits. The recipe for these came with a chocolate moose tray bake graveyard in the third cooking book I own. I made the tray bake three or four years back and it turned out really well. However, I like making the gravestones more! These turned out so good and am way pleased with them. They are a vanilla butter biscuit with a hint of ginger and cinnamon, which I added myself. I spent awhile decorating them too and thinking about what to put on them. I don't think they are going to last very long around here though! My parents have been sneaky eating them since I told them they were like my test run and not for any purpose. 

I've got two other recipes for gingerbread Halloween shapes to try later on now. I'll be writing about them in my Halloween post. Hopefully, I'll get time to make at least one of them, because I've signed up to be a stand in member of staff at work over the half-term holidays, so I might get called in. I so need the money for Christmas and to put towards a car. Anyway, moving on.   

Of course, my candles this week have to be Yankee Halloween ones! I'm still annoyed that there's only the choice of two this year; Witches Brew or Candy Corn. I do like the smell of the Witches Brew as it's just patchouli, which is dark and spicy but not overpowering. The Candy Corn on the other hand isn't sweet enough for me, nor does it fill the room and linger like the Witches Brew and other scents do. I really hope next year Yankee brings out some new candles and/or works on improving the smell. I'm loving my new pumpkin wax tart melter though! The whole range can be found here; http://www.yankeecandle.co.uk/en/uk/halloween/icat/halloween

Comparing these candles to the set I brought off Amazon, I do have to admit that I was more impressed with them. I like the mixture of smells and the different choice I can pick through. I'm burning the purple Witching Hour again, mainly because it was already in my white wax melter. It smells like patchouli, cinnamon and jasmine, though I know there's a few other things too. I've still not tried Witches Brew, Tricks or Treats and Mulled Cider. I'm sure I'll have time before Halloween though. Here's the link if you are interested and please read count down part one for more information. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Halloween-Scented-Wax-Tart-Melts/dp/B00FBM8680/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1445613462&sr=8-21&keywords=Halloween+candles

This week I'm writing my novella Trust. The six parts will cover everyday (starting yesterday and ending Friday) expect Halloween, on which there'll be a Halloween night themed story. Trust is the story of newly made vampire Fern and her maker/lover Brook. It's about Fern's changing and growth as a vampire. It's also about the conflict between other vampires and the challenges they have to face in 2015. 

These next parts -19 to 24- are about the arrival of another vampire, who Fern and Brook have already had a brush with. Fern seems to be falling in love with this other vampire, but has Brook become too distracted trying to defend his home/territory to notice Fern's wondering attention? 

If that's got you as interested as it has me, you can find the full listings here; https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?category_name=trust-novella

I finished reading The Little Paris Bookshop last Wednesday and I've written a small review to be published sometime in November. I also re-broke my not buying any books promise. It's a bit too late anyway as I've brought about 12 books, which for me is actually good because it should be double or triple that really. I brought The Welcome To Night Vale novel and I'm so into reading it right now. I've posted about Night Vale before, but here's the link to them on YouTube anyway. It really is worth checking out; https://www.youtube.com/user/WelcometoNightVale. I'm sure I'll be reviewing it as soon as I'm done! 

Lastly, I brought two pumpkins at the weekend, sorry there's no photo of them, there was meant to be one but they are currently being stored in my mum's car and I forgot to take a photo and now it's too late. But I'll do one before I get carving them. I've still not decided what to carve actually. I wanted to do a wolf but then saw I'd done that last year. I also wanted to do something that children would recognize, like with my 2013 Minecraft pumpkin. I was thinking of a Disney character, but I'm not that big a fan of anything Disney or animation to motivate me enough. I did think about doing a vampire because I've never done one of them, but I've yet to find a design I like. It'd be interesting to do a matching or connecting pair of something though. I'm sure more research would give me more inspiration and now I've got the pumpkins I can really start doing that. 

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave comments and check out my other blog. I'll be posting next on Halloween night and putting up lots of more photos, so be sure to come back then.    

Links To Me; 

https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/thestoryfiles

https://www.pinterest.com/hails9/

https://twitter.com/ironmaidenfan9

Photos; My own. 
(The Frankenstein lantern stared in last week's post, but I got a better a photo of it to share today; )

October Update : Counting Down To Halloween, Part 2

Hi readers,

So, Halloween is nearly here (12 days) what have I spent the last week doing? Well, shopping, baking, writing and sleeping! Also, planning where to put decorations and doing a practice Jack 'O Lantern! (It's the above photo, btw) And this next week it's looking like more of the same things, though I'm returning back to work and I need to sort my last driving lesson out, but more on that next time. 

Okay, so firstly and because I need to get this out of the way, let's talk about my baking 'disasters'. My mum really wanted to make a dinner meal out of a pumpkin and though we had found a few different recipes, I decided to make a lasagna. Normally, it's a dish I can make from scratch or tins/jars etc and it turns out fine. This one; http://foxeslovelemons.com/giving-back-with-pumpkin-kale-lasagna-chewforchange-pmedia/ turned out okay, but it so needed more flavor and it took twice as long as I thought it was going to. 

I'm not sure what happened, but I do know that having to sort out the pumpkin took up sometime and the fact that my oven is broken. That never helps anything, but we get by. My parents expecting it to be done when they came home and not having to wait two hours, got me a bit stressed out too. I wasn't that big a fan of the texture of it either and there wasn't enough sauce. (I'm a big fan of sauce) I think this will be a recipe I might not be returning to. To be honest the lasagna wasn't a disaster, these however were; 

So, these didn't turn out, but I should be grateful that they taste okay. I've made pumpkin muffins before, but when I saw this recipe I really liked it. Here;

http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/spiced-pumpkin-muffins-with-cream-cheese-frosting/

Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the recipe, it's just that I didn't get it right. I've a number of reasons; 

1. I don't think my oven was hot enough nor did it stay at the right heat. 

2. I really should have tried to get more water out of the fresh pumpkin because the muffins were soggy and sank. 

3. I didn't adjust for the use of my silicone mold and I probably put too much muffin mixture in.

4. I accidentally tipped too much cinnamon into the frosting. (I love cinnamon, so that doesn't bother me, but I don't know how that effected the overall taste of the topping.)

5. Piping icing and me just don't see eye to eye, but knifes to the rescue! 

6. I ran out of time baking and decorating them, due to other things I had to get done.  

Really, it's a good job that my boyfriend isn't big on sweets nor baking, because I was kinda making them with him in mind -since he stayed the weekend- but I knew he might not like the cream cheese or the pumpkin. My parents, well my mum, grabbed two (without frosting and just out of the oven) as they were leaving to go to Scotland for the weekend. Their verdict; they were okay but weren't right. My verdict is that if the above list hadn't happened or was less then they'd have turned out better. They are still edible though, but in future I'll be sticking with my normal recipe.

Moving on to something I did get right, though it's not baking -thank goodness- are these pretty cool tissue paper jar lanterns.  

 

You can find how to make them here; http://mycraftyspot.com/mason-jar-jack-o-lanterns/ but all you need really is some tissue paper, empty washed jars and some fake or real tealight candles. Then you just cut the tissue paper into strips, glue on to jar and put the candle in. Remember not to put the lid back on if you use a real candle though! I made Frankenstein and a vampire. There was also a ghost and pumpkin, but I have enough decorations of those already and liked the idea of bring more different colors - greens and purples in.

I'm not sure where I'm going to put these yet. I was hoping outside on my front wall, but I'd need to get more fake candles for them as the ones I used to take the photo have already been claimed by another project. Still, they look good just on my bookcase and though the photo doesn't give the lit effect well, they did turn out good and were super fast to make.

At the same time as preparing these jars, I did the others for my next lantern project. This one is more difficult and needs more time, but hopefully I'll try and start them next week ready for maybe next Monday's post? Though I shall be doing one on Halloween night anyway. I'm not sure about timings of things right now, but I do know that due to what I want to do with this next project it's going to take a good few days. Also, I'm still waiting for one item to arrive from Amazon.

I've got two more projects on my list at the minute too. Either are related to Halloween though, so have the moment been put on hold. The first is to finish off making small items for my mum's Christmas advent calendar bag. (I know Christmas stuff once again!) but I need it ready by December first and it does seem to be coming fast. I've got like three or four things on the list to make. Got the patterns and stuff ready, just need to find the time and mood to sew. I'll be posting more about that come November/December. Though I'll have to let my mum know not to read my blog! -she sometimes does and there's nothing wrong with that.

My second project is that I've loved the canvas painted button trees for ages and finally I found a YouTube video of someone making one and saw how easy they were to do. For all my creativity and skills, drawing/painting really isn't one. But now I've seen how to physically make it, it's not that hard and I can make to easier if I need to. So, I brought my first ever canvas -granted it was on sale at a discount art/book shop, but it was the right size and price. I got purple and pink paints for the background at the same time. I have a ton of buttons brought for sewing, but they'll now come in use to make the autumn leaves for my tree. I'm so excited and I'm going to do a post all about it next month.  

If you're looking for some Halloween inspiration for your own D.Y.I projects, check out my Pinterest board as there's lots of stuff currently on there; https://www.pinterest.com/hails9/halloween/ It'd be awesome to hear about your projects too, so please take the time to leave comments and links below. I love chatting and reply to everyone.

Oh and please check out my other blog 'The Story Files' linked below, I've got a longer short story up at the moment which concludes tomorrow, but you can still read it all. The stories are all Halloween themed and there is something for everyone on there.

That's all for this week, thanks for reading!

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All photos; my own.