Happy Halloween

I had planned on posting a ton of pictures and ideas this month leading all the way up to Halloween, but time got the best of of me and I didn't have the time or energy to photograph all the crafting I did for the party. So alas, here's a long pictorial of the October festivities that have led up to Hallows Eve.

More Halloween

Halloween has officially arrived at the stores, and I must say some store displays and merchandise selection are beyond creative and others just didn't hit the mark. Stats of course looked great, and Cost Plus was impressive too (sorry for the crappy iphone pics):









I hit Target last weekend and was incredibly disappointed. Michaels was not that great either.... I am hoping they are going to step it up at the end of September and bring some new stuff in, cause right now they are booor-ing!

Halloween preparations

I am getting started on my Halloween festivities, and decided to take a trip to Stats to check out their displays. If you haven't been there before, it is definitely worth a visit. They have the most fantastic party supplies and decorations, especially for Halloween and Christmas. This year's selection of decorations did not disappoint.











I cannot wait to begin my crafts.

Handmade holidays

This year's recession-slash-general doom and gloom that everyone thinks is going to stay through 2009, prompted the husband and I to opt out of the gift giving part of this holiday season. While neither one of us (that we know of) is heading towards job loss or anything concerning, but we just decided that with the purchase of a house, a wedding and a lot in between, that is seemed totally unnecessary to go out and buy each other a bunch of crap.



It made things easier and a hell of a lot less stressful. We had a great thanksgiving dinner, followed by a relaxing day hanging out at home (no malls!). Tomorrow, we will have a nice Christmas dinner and spend the evening relaxing around a fire and most likely watching a classic holiday flick. This whole financial malaise has really got me thinking about consumerism, our excesses, the loss of personal-ness in everything we seem to care for. And it really motivated me to decide that from now on, I am really going to try and only give out homemade gifts. Yeah, it's easy to say now because I don't have to think about christmas again for 11 months, but I'm really going to try. Not only for the holidays, but for birthdays, house warmings, anniversaries, etc...

Just looking around the internet I have already compiled a list of possible gifts that can be easily made at home. Of course, knitting gifts will always top that list, but I have some other hand-made gift ideas too...

A succulent arranged in a pretty pot;

Something yummy, like madelines, spiced nuts or fancy cookies in a chinese take-out box;

Bath salts in a pretty jar;

The possibilities are endless, if you are a crafting junkie like myself! I better start planning now...