Today is one busy day for me and my crew, we’ve got parades and parties and trick-or-treating to do. But this busy mom is not gonna fret, she’ll be spending the day with Bo Peep and Jango Fett.

How was your weekend?  Ours was just swell. I’ve got a big story I can’t wait to tell! We worked through the weekend on our latest plan, with Skil Saw and Dremel and nail gun in hand. Tomorrow I’ll show all our hard work to you, together we built ourselves something brand new.

Till then, wishing you all a . . .

jack-o-lantern image via country living

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I had coffee with a two blog friends yesterday who live in my town (Cathe and Elise) and we got to talking about some holiday creations we’re planning with fonts (stay tuned for some magic!) but then that got me thinking about how much fun it really is to play around with different fonts on the computer.

My graphic design skills are limited, but I do love to play around with all sorts of different fonts and create simple cards, printables, or labels.  Halloween is one of those holidays when it’s especially fun to combine images and fonts together, and last year I made beverage labels using the free software from Picasa, here’s a look back. 

I created several kid friendly beverage labels including juice box labels …

soda and large juice bottle labels…

… and three different water bottle labels too (only one shown).

Download and print the above labels here. 

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I love it when people decorate their homes for Halloween, especially when it’s not too gory and oh so clever. I’m not one to go all out for this particular holiday, we just don’t get a lot of trick-or-treating kids at my door. But just around the corner, the kids all flock to to Mic’s place, he’s a legend. I just had to share the coolest Halloween house in my neighborhood.

Meet Captain Mic, a true buccaneer at heart.

Mic’s wife stamps hundreds of those bags every year and fills them with treasure for all the kids (chocolate doubloons and candy gems inside).

On an ordinary day the house looks like this:

For Halloween, Mic transforms it into a pirate ship!  This was last year’s version, he built the bow, raised the mast, hoisted the sails, and took over as Captain of the Mourning Star. 

iPhone pictures do not do her justice, the “ship” is simply incredible! All the kids in town love this stop along the trick-or-treat trail.

Skeleton pirates fire the homemade cannon (check out the chain and rope details) and they walk the plank that Mic also constructed, aarrgghh. 

To get to the door, you must pass through this skull arbor, beware! 

On the lawn is this coffin raft he built, I love all of the details, the pulley, the ropes, the bamboo oar, and the rat!

Captain Mic pulls out an old rowboat and fills it with another skeleton pirate.

Get near the front door to ask for candy and this scurvy dog awaits.

Mic definitely gets in the spirit of Halloween with his incredible pirate ship house! It’s fantastic by day, but veeery spooky at night, all lit up with his pirate music playing.

Mic couldn’t be nicer and the kids love the big show. He definitely gets my vote for the Coolest Neighbor Award.  Got any spooktacular Halloween houses in your neighborhood? 

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The kids were watching the classic Snow White the other day and there’s a scene where SW is running in the forest and the beady eyes are everywhere and she freaks out but it turns out it’s just bunny rabbits.  

I share that tidbit with you only because it was the inspiration for my latest Halloween project, a framed chalkboard drawing of a forest with those glowing beady eyes that spook kids big and small.  Here it is, my latest (cheap) art idea just in time for Halloween.

This quick art project cost me nothing (well, I didn’t shop for anything new) and took less than an hour.  I found this old frame at a thrift store many months ago, it came with a nature painting that I may or may not keep, I’m undecided. Anyway, I paid $5 bucks at Goodwill and it was sitting in my garage. The rest of the supplies, (the foam board, chalkboard paint, and twinkle lights) I already had on hand. 

To make this I followed these four steps.  1. Cut a foam board to the size of your frame, then cover one side with two coats of black chalkboard spray paint.  2. Sketch then fill your chalk trees, 3. Use a small nail to determine location of glowing eyes, and 4. Insert tips of twinkle lights behind back of canvas.  Boom, you’re done.

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Happy Halloween weekend y’all!  Do you have a relaxing weekend planned or is your calendar packed with costume related events?  We happen to fall in the latter category, but the rain is putting a damper on all the festivities planned.  No worries, we’ll just trick-or-treat with our umbrellas and rain boots!

Meanwhile, here’s a few fun and inspirational links that inspired me this month, enjoy!

Melissa’s autumn walk at 320 Sycamore

Ashley’s simple and salvaged tablescape at Pure + Lovely.

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