glowing

Halloween Party Games

Now in Etsy!

Every Pumpkin Counts

Halloween is only a few days before Election day.

Support your candidate by carving a Barack-o-Lantern!



Stencils and inspiration are available at Yes We Carve.

Trick or Treat Tag

those cupcakes are pure evil

If there's one thing I enjoy as much as creating Halloween props, it's creating Halloween desserts. These cupcakes are a modified (and dare I say, improved) version of one of Martha's Halloween cupcakes. Why mess with an almost-perfect recipe? Because I don't like licorice and marshmallows in my cupcakes, that's why. The final tally isn't in yet, but these may have set a new cupcake-eating record at my house.

haunted hantsport

I love "true" historical ghost stories and whenever I travel, I try to find a local ghost walk or graveyard tour to add to my sightseeing schedule. Fortunately, not far from home, there are several old mansions with reputations for housing wandering ghosts. Many were the homes of sea captains and ship builders. Old sea captains' homes are notorious as a haven for ghosts. And last night, one of them was hosting a moonlight tour. (The house, not the ghost.)

Churchill House in Hantsport was built by Ezra Churchill in 1860 for his son John Wiley Churchill as a wedding gift. It has its reported sightings of wandering women, running children, unexplained chills, slamming doors, ghostly music heard in the night . . . but I thought the creepiest story was the one associated with this painting, which is found near the stairway. The painting is of Tennyson's Lady of Shalott, reportedly Churchill's favourite poem. He had the painting hung in the entrance of his home so it would be the first thing to greet him each time he returned. According to the legend, at midnight during a full moon, the lady's hand drops and trails along in the water, the clouds scud across the sky and the boat is rowed along by the oarsman. No full moon last night, nor was I there at midnight, so I'll have to take their word for it.

Down the street from the Churchill mansion is the town's old graveyard. And yes, members of the Churchill family have their very prominent grave stones there. But theirs wasn't nearly as interesting as some of the others, like this plot. Sometimes the need for privacy extends beyond the grave.

grave inspiration

According to my calendar there are less than two weeks until Halloween! Two weeks! The last time I checked, it was September. I was patting myself on the back, feeling smug, feeling confident, feeling well-prepared, congratulating myself on being well ahead of schedule. And then, a few busy weeks and suddenly . . . it's mid-October! The time for indulging in the luxury of autumn holidays and procrastination is gone. It's time to get back to work.

One project that I've been postponing in favour of others this fall is tombstone building. Since this is the first year my haunt will venture off the front porch, this will be the first year I've attempted to create tombstones. Since I'll be venturing into unknown territory, I've been putting it off and working on more familiar projects. Until today. Tombstone-building starts now.

I decided on styrofoam as my material of choice. When I arrived at Home Depot, I realized the foam sheets were huge. This was good and bad. Good because I could likely create three tombstones from one sheet of foam. Bad because there was no way I would be able to transport the full sheets in my car. I would have to cut them first. And as I stood in the parking lot about to make the first cut, I realized something. This is a building supplies store. They have cutting tools and are likely more skilled with them than I am. What was I thinking? So back into the store I went. And in seconds, my new styrofoam had been neatly sliced into four sections. Some paint, rollers, and brushes, and let the tombstone creation begin.

Being a master of vague ideas, I haven't given much thought to embellishments at this point. I sometimes think I would prefer to leave them basic and unadorned, much like the markers in very old graveyards. Perhaps a worn and eroded look, with the writing barely visible. But I'll worry about that later. Probably when I'm also worrying about how to secure them to the ground in the howling October wind. For now, I'll be satisfied to complete the basic shapes.

And for inspiration, I can look to this graveyard that I recently visited in Concord. Nothing extraordinary about the tombstones. Except that they extended all the way to the back porch of the house. Close enough to rest your coffee cup on.