The Friday of Labor Day weekend I went on a shopping adventure. I went to Abilene. I go about 2 or 3 times a year for some pretty big shopping excursions. I live in the middle of nowhere, yet the middle of everywhere. It's really in the middle of the state. But I do live in a smaller big town. I guess that's the best explanation. But we do not have a "real" mall and we do not have some of the major chain stores that Abilene has. So here's Part I of my shopping adventure.
Not in any particular order, because this wasn't my shopping order, more just my photo order. And I will be combining 3 stores in this post, since I only got a couple things at each store. But I'll give my overall evaluation on Halloween-ness too.
First up is Target. Unfortunately Target, just like Walmart is not up for Halloween just yet. I could rant about Walmart's decision that Thanksgiving comes before Halloween based on my trip on Sunday to my hometown, but either way the major chain stores I guess are still taking care of the back to school customers, even though in Texas kids have been back in school for a week.
Sorry, for the rant. But Target did have a little bit of candy out. I did get myself a bag of candy corn. I was slightly horrified at how bad candy corn is for you. I love love love candy corn. So do my dogs. (Bailey I knew about, but Charlie likes it too). But I have been doing Weight Watchers since the beginning of the year. So learning a serving of candy corn, which is only 19 little corns, is actually 4 points. Yikes! But totally still worth it. At least once in a while. And I've been doing good on having an open bag of candy corn. Self control. Yay!
Sorry for the candy corn rant. Now onto Target for real this time. Since there wasn't a lot of Halloween out, I ended up visiting the platter and dish section. I bought some really cool platters last year, so I knew I wanted to check it out again.
I got a silver platter last year. Basically the same, but not hammered. I really like this one better anyway. It's 12 inches square. I ruined the one I bought last year. I figured out why this year. I had let it soak in the sink, for like a really long time...and it got funky. I couldn't get it clean. But I did find out when I bought this new one that it should only be washed down with soapy water. So lesson learned. And a newer platter. It was right around $15. The white one is a ceramic one, that says dishwasher and microwave safe. It was on clearance for just over $13. Note the red sticker? It's huge though. It's 14 inches square. And it's very white an neutral. I do like to buy things for Halloween that can be used all year. Since I will be putting out lots of dishes for the party, I definately needed serving platters.
The next store is the dollar store. The real dollar store, Dollar Tree. We don't even have a real dollar store in Brownwood. You know, where everything is actually $1. I got some plastic silverware (it's silver, and it's somewhere...I didn't get it's picture.) I also bought some Spanish moss for my invitations. But my big "find" were the glass plates.
I had searched online to see if they had them, and they did, and they really had them in the store. I could have ordered them online, but then I couldn't pick them out and make sure there weren't any defects. I got 14 of them just in case. But I should only have 14 people. You can't beat $1 each for a plate. And in reality if I bought 2 package of paper plates that were nice and Halloweeny I would spend almost $14 anyway. So why not get completely reusable plates? I have a vision. I will explain more when I get my next online order. Oh year, I already tried to get the stickers off...they are going to be a challenge. Maybe that's why they were only $1. The sticker stays...forever.
Dollar tree did have some Halloween stuff. I looked quickly through it, but everything did look just a little cheap. Which is understandable at the dollar store. One thing I did want were these felt cut outs, but they only had 2 left of the ones I wanted. So oh well. On to the online order plan B.
The last stop in this post is Ross, Dress for Less. I got a lot of stuff here last year, but this year they seemed almost really picked over already. I was really tempted by a ceramic cake stand with orange ribbon, and it was only $8, but I figured I didn't need another breakable item that could only be used at Halloween.
I did get these two really cute pumpkins. I've pinned a bunch of pumpkins wrapped in lace, so this was already done for me. They are really light weight, which is good for some of my shelves that don't hold a lot of weight. And then there is a sparkly spider and bows on top. So it fits into my theme idea and they were $4 and $6. So not bad on the price either.
Part II of the shopping adventure will be Hobby Lobby.
Last year I had a pathway running up my front lawn. I ended up buying a roll of burlap and putting it from the cemetery fence up to my regular front pathway. I ended up using some of my solar lanterns to hold it in. Every time the wind blew it would get all twisted up. I know they have these magic big staples that are supposed to hold down landscape fabric and the like, but I bought the burlap after the summery season, so they didn't have the staples. I already bought them for this year. But either way, I wanted another pathway, but I wanted it to be lit this year. The solar lights weren't really enough light and I had some purple tree branches that just looked awful.
So here's my inspiration picture. It appears to be from Martha Stewart, but I found it on this blog.
So the other day I shared my Buy Costumes order, which included these pathway lights.
Well, this was my test run for Halloween. It was still August, so we're in the backyard with 6 foot privacy fence, and it's already been taken down. I try not to look like the crazy person all the time.
First I took everything out of the box. There's the strand of lights, the instructions, and the little stakes. I am not really planning on using the stakes. Then I plugged the lights in to make sure they worked. One didn't come on a first, but I just tightened it up, and ta-da, it worked. Good thing, because there aren't any extra lights. I really kind of wish these came in LEDs instead. They are not quite as bright, but they don't get hot and use less electricity.
So my vision wasn't exactly the pumpkins on the pathway anymore. I visioned lanterns on hooks. I had picked up some summer lanterns in the Big Lots summer clearance. They only had 6 left that were not broken, so I had bought all 6 of them. I had been looking for the shepherd's hooks online for awhile. They were somewhere between $8 and $50 and had crazy shipping charges on them. I had looked in a couple of stores, but hadn't found them. I got the crazy idea to check HomeDepot.com and saw that not only did they have them in the local store, but they were $6.97. Much better. My new vision is the lanterns on the hooks.
So I set up the shepherd's hooks that I bought in my backyard. Don't mind the crazy stack of 2x4 pieces. That was a project from last year. It's supposed to be lawn Jenga. It needs to go into the trash because it's been outside for the last year and the table its on is about to collapse. I should have put it away. But it's just in the way now.
So I added the lanterns to each of the the hooks.
I got the lights out and decided to hook them onto the lanterns for spacing purposes. I had 10 lights, but only 6 lanterns, so I have some lights that will be down at the bottom of the stakes at the ends. I plan to get some of those plastic pumpkins to put around them. So it will be a combination of lanterns and pumpkins. I would use real pumpkins, but unfortuantely they rot. And I leave my display up for a month. Rotting pumpkins not so pretty.
I got out the fancy little stakes, well four of them to place the bulbs that were hanging out on the ground. I had to do a little moving around of the hooks to make sure everything fit comfortably. Now I wanted to the lights to actually go inside the lanterns. They each had a removable section inside that held a candy, so I just completely took all of these out.
See the little tiny tabs and the holes, well maybe not in the picture. But I was able to carefully place the wire into the two tab holes used for locking the candles in place. I know I will need to come up with something more permanent. But for the test run, it works.
And here is the entire strand of string now inside all of the lanterns.
Now the part that kind of sucked...waiting until it got dark. So about an hour and a half later I got to turn the lights on.
My camera made it look lighter outside than it really was. I liked the orange glow, it definitely looked like little flames inside. The gratuitous close up.
And then I just had to wait about another 15 minutes and 30 mosquito bites later to get the actual this is what it will look like when it's dark picture.
Don't worry, it's all been taken down. Even the hooks. I had to mow the lawn. So now I just have to wait 4 weeks until I can put it up for real.
This post is about one of my projects from last year. I actually made a small graveyard fence two years ago. It was quite honestly a disaster. I tried to use 1x2's and drill holes that were too big for the wood and too small for my PVC pipe to fit into. I ended up cutting the wood in half and screwing it back together around the PVC and still had to use an entire container of Liquid Nails and it still completely fell apart. Besides the fact that I'm still not sure how I made it stand up, I think it was carefully leaning against my house and some of the tombstones, I ran out of spray paint, so depending on the angle you looked at it, it was still white. It went straight into the dumpster when Halloween was over. The disaster that it was in 2010 made me determined to make a really awesome fence for 2011.
I have four 7 foot sections of fence that I connect with 4x4 stone look alike posts. The distance across my front yard is about 32 feet from my mailbox to this little stone trimmed garden that I really want to remove, but just haven't gotten around to yet. I connect two of the sections together and have two fences with a space in the middle. I had every intention last year of making an archway, but I realized it was much more likely to fall over. It can get really windy in Texas...straight line winds. I lose things often. And if it storms...that's really not good. So keeping fence up, definitely a good idea.
I do want to apologize in advance for my lack of step by step pictures. This was an old project.
Supplies for one fence section:
- 1" PVC pipe - 5 pieces @10' each (cut down to 14 pieces at 40 inches each)
- 4" PVC pipe - 1 piece @ 10' (will make the circles for all the fence sections, but cut into approximately 1 1/2 inch pieces)
- 3 - 1x3 @ 8 ft (both cut down to 7 ft)
- 1 - 4x4 post @ 8 ft (2 pieces at 45" each)
- 1 - 2x8 (4 pieces at same length as width of board, approximately 32 inches)
- 1 1/4" exterior screws (you will need 42 for this one section)
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks to go with it
- Black Spray Paint (Flat Finish)
- Beige-y Spray Paint
- Stone Spray Paint
- Corner brackets (4 are needed for one fence section, screws usually come with brackets)
- PVC fence finials (I found them here for 28 cents each, but shipping was just as much as they were, but they make the fence)
Making this fence is very time consuming and honestly, was a giant pain, but it was seriously worth it. People think it's wrought iron, especially in pictures, but it's PVC and wood spray painted black. But if it is made correctly it should really last. Something else to keep in mind, you have to store it if you're going to keep it. It disassembles back into the 7 foot sections. I have mine against the walls in my garage. Two on each side. So even on the really narrow side next to my car, I'm able to fit 2. It's really only as wide as the 1x3. I had thought about putting hooks on the walls to keep them up higher, but I still don't think more than 2 would fit width wise easily. It's also just under 4 feet high, so you could just stack 2 high in a standard 8 foot section. Also by them being 7 feet wide they will fit tall ways in a standard 8 foot ceiling easily.
Okay, now that I've given you the warning that you only want to make this if you have the time energy and a place to keep it, here's the how to.
First is to cut the three 1x3's down to the size of your section. I chose 7 feet. After they are cut down to size you have to drill the holes for all the poles. Of course before you can drill, you have to measure. The holes on mine are not quite perfectly spaced, but it works out to be about 6 inches from center to center. I recommend drawing and measuring it out several times. But you have to have your poles at least 4.5 inches apart in order to fit the big circles in.
Now for the most time consuming part, drilling all those lovely holes. I went through 2 drill bits to make all these holes. I clamped together the 3 pieces of wood so that the holes would line up. I had to actually use my corded drill instead of my cordless drill because the cordless just didn't have enough power to bore 1 1/4" holes through three 1x3's at once. Here is my drilling set up.
Yes, this is my living room. Yes, I made a ginormous mess in my living room with saw dust. I think there may still be some sawdust stuck in those blinds a year later. I don't really recommend working in your living room, but it was hot. I started making these in July last year. It was pretty much the hottest and driest summer I've ever experienced in my life, so air conditioning was a mess for this completely frustrating task.
So once all those holes are drilled (14 per section...so just multiply that by the number of sections.) And figure out how long that is going to take you. I really had forgotten about the sheer amount of time I spent drilling holes, so the end product is worth it. But going back and thinking...it's not an easy breezy project.
So once all those holes are drilled, the hard part is done. PVC comes in 10 foot sections at my local home improvement store, so I'm guessing it does in most. I don't do a lot of plumbing. The poles are the 1" PVC. To make it simple I just cut each post into 3 equal pieces, so that works out to be 40 inches each. This really doesn't have to be perfect, but it all just depends on your level of perfectionistism.
Next you cut your 4" PVC pipe into sections about an 1 1/2" wide. I used my miter saw to do this. I didn't clamp it down just very carefully held on. I cut the big 10' piece in half, just to make it easier to work with and then cut the rings out. You will need 13 of them for this one fence section.
Once you have all your 1" PVC pieces cut, then you basically just thread them through the three 1x3's. I don't have pictures of these step by step parts, so hopefully my overly wordy explanations work. Basically the bottom one is about 6 inches from the bottom and the top one is about 6 inches from the top. The middle one is about 4 1/2 inches from the top 1x3. The best thing is to get the top one in place and clamp it. Then put a 1 1/4 inch exterior screw through the 1x3 straight into the 1' PVC pipe. Once you have the top one in place, space the bottom one and screw it in place. It helps to flip the entire thing over so that you can reach to screw it in easier. Once you have the top and bottom in place, you can do the middle 1x3. Use the 4" PVC pipes to space it. You want it to be tight, but still be able to get the 4" pieces inside the squares easily.
Once all the 1x3's are in place and every 1" PVC piece is screwed into all 3 of the 1x3's, then it's time to put all the 4" circles in their places. I did this with just hot glue. I have the big industrial strength glue gun. It doesn't really matter if you have chunks of glue, it takes spray paint well.
After it's all assembled it's ready for paint. It takes a lot of spray paint to get all sides. The PVC is totally weather resistant, the wood is probably not, so you are going to want to get 100% coverage on at least the wood. Any black spray paint should work, but a matte finish will give it that wrought iron look.
After it's painted, I just hot glued the little finials on the top. They do tend to break off a little easily while assembling or moving. But I didn't have any fall off while it was just standing there. So the hot glue holds up to wind and rain (okay, I don't know about the rain, it didn't do too much of that) but it doesn't hold up to too many bumps. My fences are in my garage and putting them away, I think I only knocked off too.
Now the columns.
The middle part of the column is a 4x4 cut down to 45 inches. You need two of these for a section, but you only need 3 for 2 sections. It's a good idea to draw it out and figure out what you will need. I have 6 columns for 4 fence sections because I have a hole in the middle of my fence.
The tops and bottoms are just 2x8 cut to be the same width and length. All 2x8's are just a little bit different in width depending on where you buy them. Mine were 7 1/4 inches. I used 3 inch screws to attach to the top and bottom. Exterior screws are a good idea.
I painted a base coat with a beigey color and then used a second coat of a beige stone paint. It gives the wood column a much more graveyard stoney feel.
Now, assembly. The little corner bracket things are the easiest way to attach. They come in a package of 2 or more and even come with the little screws. It's easiest to attach the brackets to the fence side and then clamp the fence in place to attach to the poles.
How you want your fence to stand...that depends on where you are putting it. Mine was on somewhat uneven grass. So I used rhebar as nails basically. I drilled large holes in the bottoms of the "stone" posts. If you put them in the back, you can't see them from the front, but at least you know it won't fall over. And it gets pretty windy and mine did not fall over once. And my outdoor decorations are up for probably just over a month.
I think the graveyard fence is my favorite part of my Halloween display, but it might just be all the labor behind it that makes me happy of how it came out.
I was playing with my camera with some different angles and settings. I am still learning how to use all the functions a year later. So I'm hoping to get some better shots.
Sometimes I wish that I lived closer to a lot more stores. I grew up in central Jersey and there were at least 5 malls within half an hour of my hometown. I now live in the heart of Texas and the nearest Target is 85 miles away. Yes, we have a Walmart and a couple grocery stores. There is technically a *mall* but it has less stores than I can count on both hands. I end up ordering things online a lot because of these. Ordering things online does sometimes gives you many more options and it's a whole lot easier to price comparison, but sometimes you just want to see what it is that you're getting.
For online shopping I recommend always using coupon codes and using Ebates or some other cash back option, like some credit cards offer. If you haven't ever used Ebates it's pretty awesome. It's free to sign up and then you go to their site before buying things from other sites and it will link you to the store you wish to shop at. Then a percentage (advertised for each store) of your purchase gets credited back to you. You can choose different ways to get your money back. And no, I wasn't perked in any way to mention it. I just really think it's a good deal. Yes, you can refer people and get money, but I didn't provide any referral link. So I'm not trying to make money off it, I just already have gotten back over $100 in a year. I shop online a lot.
Well my newest online order arrived yesterday. My newest Halloween order that is. This one was from buycostumes.com. (once again, not paid or perked...I just write about what I really do). They do have some pretty good ideas for costumes, but I don't usually buy full costumes online...I usually make them. I've gotten a wig from them before and it was nice and some dog costumes. I think I've ordered from them maybe 5 times before and I get emails, so I waited for a 20% off coupon to make this purchase. I ended up having to pay for shipping, but it was only $6.99 and the 20% off was a much better deal. You can only use one discount code. :(
First I got these pathway lights. They are special lights meant for lining pathways. I have an entire vision for my front path and I stumbled upon these. They were $24.99, but they are individual lights spaced 3 feet apart. I really wanted to line a pathway up my front path without having to turn on invidual battery lights every night and I had tried solar lights, but they work really well for the first hour, but dim pretty quickly after that. They would work wonderfully in July, but not nearly so much in October. (Yes, I actually do wait until the first weekend in October to put my decorations outside).
Next I got this little witch hat on a headband. I found a picture of a giant adult tutu that would make the perfect witch costume. So I really wanted to wear that costume to work. So instead of getting a big huge witch hat, I wanted this little one. I wore my kitty cat ears from my Josie and the Pussycats costume from High School for several years to work. I actually wore a whole costume last year (Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter) so I want to try to do that again this year. I just have some limits since I work in a factory and must wear steel toed shoes...it limits things...steel toed shoes are not cute...no matter what. Enough work ramble, back to the witch hat. It is really quite cute, and a nice almost fascinator size. The "veil" thing is a little strange. It was more spread out tulle in the picture, but I think I can totally make it work. It was $9.99.
I have a small obsession with creepy trees. I wanted one last year. I tried to spray paint a branch that fell on my roof to make it look like a creepy tree, but it just looked like a branch in a bucket. I bought some lighted twigs last year too. They also looked really sad. So if I don't have one for outside yet, I wanted a little baby one. This was my splurge at $29.99. But he's a cute little creepy tree.
The last item I got were some spider picks. They are for like cupcakes. I was a little confused that they just came wrapped in bubble wrap and not in a package. But we may just have to get washed really quickly. They were $1.49 for 12 I think.
Now I'm just trying to keep myself calm as I set off for a real shopping adventure this afternoon. To the nearest place with real stores, you know a Target.
Two years ago was my first Halloween in my house. I love Halloween because of the chance to be someone you're not...in costume that is. I like being scared just a little. And I just really love pumpkins. It may have something to do with being an October baby. I only had one birthday party that was Halloween themed. But Halloween has definitely grown on me more. I think I'm just usually bright and happy and pink...it's fun to be dark and not so totally scary that one month of the year...that I let spill into two...or three...and even four a little bit.
Well since I had my house I wanted to decorate for Halloween. Tombstones were a big debate for me. I think graveyards are cool and creepy, but I live in a very religiously oriented town, and Halloween isn't the most celebrated. The churches have fall festivals to discourage going door to door and begging for candy. I decided I didn't care that much and I was going to make my own tombstones, however cursed I may be.
Supplies:
- 1 - 4'x8' sheet of 1/4 inch plywood
- Jig Saw
- Spray paint - lots of spray paint - solid colors and "stone look"
- 1/4" by 1" stakes
- Nail gun
- Wood glue
- Black Craft paint and craft paint brush
- Outdoor spray polyurethane
The first step was to draw out some tombstones. I guess a pencil is required too. But I just found some pictures online and tried to draw them out as best I could. I got 9 tombstones out of my sheet of plywood.
I used my jig saw to cut them all out. Quarter inch plywood is super easy to cut with a jig saw, so even though there were a lot of shapes and cuts, it was still really quick.
I was going to paint them outside, good thing to do with spray paint, so I bought really cheap tablecloths and tape the stapled them to my fence and then leaned the tombstones against the fence.
I did a base coat of a few different colors. I had gray, brown, and black paint. I used probably about 12 cans of spray paint in the end, so this is where this project can get really expensive really fast.
The final coat was the "stone look" spray paint. This looks really really cool, but unfortunately it's not really meant for outdoors. This would be why my tombstones don't look quite so good anymore.
The sayings on the tombstones are just painted on with craft paint. I didn't come up with them on my own. I found some online like "Ben Better" and "Myra Mains." Some of the longer sayings my friend had come up with for me. "Poetry," no matter how strange is not my forte.
I used my nail gun and some wood glue to attach the 1/4" stakes to the backs of the tombstones. I cut the bottoms of each stake to a point with my miter saw. I have really, really dry ground, so I had to make some little mud puddles before I could use a rubber mallet to hammer each one into the ground. the posts are about 4 to 6 inches long past the tombstones depending on their size.
This was my graveyard in 2010. After it was all up I ended up spraying the backs of the tombstones with some black spray paint to protect it. I also sprayed on a coat of outdoor polyurethane to protect the non-outdoor friendly stone look paint as well as the craft paint words.
Here is the graveyard a year later in 2011. I spread it out across my lawn a bit more. You can also tell the drought that we had last year with my very brown lawn instead of green. Though dead grass much more fitting for a graveyard.
I haven't decided the fate of the tombstones this year. They are all piled up in my garage under my giant spider, but they are definitely a bit sad looking...they may get a refresher...or a replacement...
I like to encourage the wearing of costumes to my parties. I love wearing costumes. I love seeing other people's costumes. I get ideas. And more ideas. Well to encourage wearing costumes I like to "advertise" a prize on my invitations. Last year I had 3 categories, "Best Dressed," "Best Dressed Couple," and "Most Creative." I haven't decided on the categories this year though, because I have a much smaller group of people coming. I also plan on having a murder mystery type game that would have a prize as well. So I was on the hunt for "containers" to put these prizes in. I saw a pin on making fabric covered cardboard bins, but Halloween fabric is definitely not out yet. While I was on a trip to Burke's Outlet one Friday (Friday is 15% off day) I found two of these cardboard-like containers.
They were $4.99 each (plus that 15% off or $4.24) and I was thinking I would just cover them in fabric or paint them. First thing I did when I got them home, was rip off the pink ribbon. I tried to be as careful as possible, but i did take off some of the cardboard finish.
After thinking about it, I decided I liked the idea of keeping the design. I do like the damask-like pattern, I think it can work with Halloween, like a classy spooky. I really didn't want to have to paint over all that pink with a brush, that's a lot. I went on the hunt for a paint pen. I did finally find one that came in a set of 4 different colors, but the set was $10. Unfortunately Walmart is the only craft store I get to choose from in small town Texas.
So I started to just trace all of the pink with the orange paint marker.
It took a couple days of random tv watching time, but I got all the pink covered up with the orange paint. It didn't seem to be smudging or anything either, which is usually a good sign.
I had been on the hunt for some orange felt, thinking I could use felt on the inside. I knew paper would work, but I would need a pretty big sheet to cover the entire inside. Even after looking as some online fabric sites, I only found orange felt in the little squares. I decided to haphazardly try to paint over the inside pink with some orange craft paint. And it actually worked.
So the last step was to replace the pink ribbon with an orange one. I had some orange grosgrain ribbon left from last year's Halloween projects. I just lined the ribbons up and cut.
I was thinking I would have to glue the ribbon on, but the glue from where I removed the old ribbon was still pretty sticky, so I was able to just line it back up and stick it on. I'm not the best and fancy bows, but it appears to be tied well enough.
And here is the finished product.
And now I just need to figure out what will go inside the Cardboard bag.
