Halloween 2011, in pictures:

This is a "before" shot of the pumpkins my friend M. and I carved. She was the only one able to come to my house for a carving party. One other friend had tickets to a football game in Charlotte and the other had to attend her little niece's birthday party. Still, M. and I had a great time Sunday afternoon even if it was just a party of two! We drank hot mulled cider with rum while we worked, and carved two pumpkins each.

The Tiki god pumpkin is mine. I drew a stencil with a picture from "7 Tiki" brand rum as my inspiration. The rum comes with a little booklet around the handle that has pictures and descriptons of seven gods from the South Pacific. I tried to recreate "Kalougata Atua", "The Spirit of Unknown Fates".  This god, according to South Pacific legend, is the master of all our fates.  He decides our fortunes, good or bad.  He is also believed to be a talisman of good luck, and the wisest of the gods.  Well, I hope he's not offended that he ended up looking like a cat thanks to my superfly mad carving skills! hahahah. I didn't quite mean for that to happen!

I originally intended to have some pumpkins carved like skulls around him, as well as a bowl of dried apple shrunken heads. As usual, my ambition was beyond what my free time allowed. Maybe next year. The rest of the pumpkins we carved from store bought stencils (and we used the really safe cheapo tools that came with them--no use taking any chances while drinking rum punch!).

These guys were just hanging out in my dining room. Boo!

This little dude made the mantle above our fireplace cheerful!!

My friend M.'s beautiful little girl!  They surprised us by stopping by. When I heard the doorbell ring and found this little fairy standing there I had to grab the camera and capture the moment! Isn't she adorable?  She was by far my favorite trick or treater of the night! Overall we had a poor turnout of kids--only about a dozen showed up--but it was pouring rain all afternoon up until 5:00, and was also very cold. I heard that the trick or treat event at the mall was a big success. I guess people were looking for a warm, dry place to take their kids! Still, the handful we did see were awesome, there were some really good costumes this year. And I had big treat bags stuffed full of Reese's cups, Nerds, Laffy Taffy, Twix bars, and puffy foam stickers of pumpkins and ghosts to reward the ones that braved the weather and came out.  It was lots of fun!  I have too much candy left over, though. I'm planning to take it to work today to get rid of it.  I know what will happen if I don't!


I had a great time on Halloween.  Earlier I worked at the information desk at the bookstore, and I wore my homemade witch hat all day!  M. helped me trim it Sunday night after we carved pumpkins.  It was a plain black hat from Target (the only hat that fit my big head!) so we added a ribbon of dangling bats and purple beads to the brim, and a filmy veil with purple sparkles in back.  I got several compliments on it, and it was fun to make!

The witch is in!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, filled with magic and fun!  I can't wait to catch up on all the final countdown posts I have yet to read, and big thanks to Danni over at http://thewhimsicalcottage.blogspot.com/  for hosting the 2011 Countdown to Halloween blog party. It's been a blast!

Happy Halloween!!!

More pictures to follow later today: more pumpkins, a homemade witches hat, spooky decorations, treats, and more!  Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Day 30--It's Halloween Eve!

It's 2am on Halloween Eve and I just finished decorating cupcakes and stuffing treat bags. Time for bed! I just wanted to jump in and say Happy Halloween Eve to you all!

I will be posting lots of pictures of the celebrations at my house over the next few days. And I am looking forward to reading about/seeing pictures of everyone else's fun!

Busy weekend coming up!

All of a sudden, we are mere days away from Halloween and I have a ton of things left to do!  The next few days are going to be really busy for me.  Among other things, I need to clean my messy house and buy a few last minute items for my Sunday afternoon pumpkin carving party.  I will have to do both before and after work today and tomorrow, since I'm not off again until Sunday.  

It's going to be a fast, busy weekend!  How are my fellow Halloween-heads' preparations going? Is everyone organized, ready, and calm, or are you more like me--racing around doing all kinds of last minute tasks like a headless chicken?!  One day I will (maybe) (haha) learn to manage my time better so that holidays didn't always find me in this situation!

Oh, and I'm eating too much Halloween candy. Again.

South Carolina ghosts part 2: The Gray Man

There is a ghost story that comes from Pawley's Island,SC that I grew up hearing. My dad and his family moved to Pawley's from Chicago when he was five, and he lived there until he started high school. Naturally he heard this ghost story many times in those years, and he told it to me when I was a kid.

There is supposed to be a ghost around Pawley's Island called the Gray Man. He appears on the beach whenever a hurricane is coming, and seeing him is a warning to take cover inland. They say that anyone that sees him will have their property left untouched by the storm, even if their neighbors lose everything. Back in the old days before modern storm tracking the Gray Man is supposed to have been kind of like a visiting angel, doing a good deed for the locals.

Here is a great link I found that goes into more detail than I remember hearing about the Gray Man's story:

http://www.hauntedlowcountry.com/index.php?/hauntlow/south_carolina/the_gray_man/

Ghosts of South Carolina part 1

I have been eager to share some of the ghost stories I grew up with in my part of the world. I grew up in a tiny town about about a 40 minute drive from the coast, so I identify with more of the "lowcountry" legends and tales than some from other parts of the state. Here is a good link to one I remember hearing about as a kid. It's about a young woman buried alive on an Edisto Island plantation in the 1800s. People say you can go see the vault with the scratch marks on the door...and that the unfortunate girl haunts the property to this day:

http://www.gothichorrorstories.com/behind-urban-legends/a-southern-gothic-ghost-story-from-edisto-island-south-carolinas-low-country

It's tougher than I thought...

....taking pictures of my neighbors' Halloween decorations!

It feels incredibly awkward to point a camera at someone's front door, and I kept losing my nerve. I expected at any moment for someone to come out and and ask me what the hell I was doing! Had any of them been outside, I could have asked permission, but none were. And I certainly felt too shy to knock on anyone's door to ask if I could take pictures of their house. So my plan to post a picture tour of my neighborhood didn't exactly work out.

Halloween preparations continue, however. I'm planning a little pumpkin carving party next Sunday, Oct.30, with some friends. It's going to be BYOP, but I will provide the stencils, tools, and other materials needed. I plan to make hot spiced cider with rum, roasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin muffins for munchies.

I bought a cheap witches hat to wear to work on Halloween morning and when handing out candy later. It's a basic, cheap black hat (the only one I could find that fits my ginormous head!) but I'm thinking about hitting up the craft store today for materials to jazz it up a bit! Of course, I will post pictures as soon as I've done it.

I bought my Halloween candy the other day. Last year I bought my candy two weeks ahead of time and ate it all which meant another trip out to buy more. Oh, and there was that lovely 4 pound weight gain too! I will try to have more self control this year, although it's hard when my favorite candies are in the house (a rare thing). There are Reese's cups and Nerds, so far, and I love both!

I'll probably be picking up a couple more bags of some other types of candy later this week--no use doing it too early and having that much more temptation in the house! I give out generous handfuls to all the trick or treaters who visit. I love seeing their faces when they get a bunch of "good" candy, plus I feel the need to make up for some of my neighbors that don't give out candy at all. It's sad. When I was a kid it seemed like it was a rare house that didn't participate, but these days it's at least 50% (I blame the Southern Baptists). So I'm extra generous, and it's so much fun to see the delight on the kids' faces. I love it!

Those are the holiday preparations going on at my house right now. We're exactly one week away from the big day! Halloween is almost here!!

Pumpkins to frighten the neighbors

For the enjoyment of all the pumpkin carvers out there:

"At what point did the carving of pumpkins turn into a "cute" event? When did boys stop carving pumpkins and moms start? Where did we lose touch with one of the years coolest events?

Today we will seize back this ritual. Today is the day we throw away those safe, cute carving tools. Today we will buy a big, ugly, pumpkin so large one man cannot lift or move it. Today. We will carve that sumbitch into something ugly and plop it on the front porch. October 31st we will light it brightly enough to give visiting children suntans.

Pumpkin carving is reborn."

-Extreme Pumpkin.com

http://www.extremepumpkins.com/

Warning: you must have a sense of humor and/or cannot be too easily grossed out or offended to enjoy this site!  I think it's a load of fun, but then, I'm weird.

Tomorrow, a picture tour of my neighborhood Halloween decor!