Eek! Halloween 2009

Ok, so you've seen how the house looked Halloween. The giant spider was a big hit and Im sure we'll use that again but I wanted to do something different this year. We have an grade school nearby and the feedback we get from the kids is so encouraging - it really makes me want to go all out. So here is what it looks like now...






It could have probably used another skeleton or two but overall, I think the concept worked well. I'm not quite done - it needs a few more finishing touches but we've had monsoon like rains here this week and I'm running out of time.

The idea of the climbing skeleton didn't start with me. I found it here. But obviously we couldn't nail the skeletons into the stone without damaging our house so we used fishing wire at various points to hold them in position. Thankfully the storms this week didn't move them out of place (shocking!). We got the skeletons at Oriental Trading using as many coupons as a I could find, fishing wire from a bait & tackle shop (they looked at me really strangly when I told them I wanted to hang skeletons - it was august!), styrofoam skeleton heads from Michaeals (coupons!), little ravens from the 99 cents store, large raven from my halloween supply box.

So what do you think? Anything (quick and easy) I could add or tweak to make it better?

Where we went...

Thanks to everyone who played the guessing game about our last trip.

1,000 points each to From the Right Bank and Lime in the Coconut for correctly identifying Bali. (Anon correctly identified Hong Kong but since she didn't leave a name, I've got no one to credit)

As you can imagine, I have plenty to say about each location but I've run into a snag. I expected to have loads of photos to show you by now but I just haven't had time to go through just yet. With Halloween nearly here and me with zero free time lately, that isn't happening. So if you enjoy my travel posts, I hope you'll stick around until I have a chance to put one together.

Halloween Flashback: 2008

In case you didn't see it, I entered Paula Grace's Halloween contest for a bit of decorating help (I could really use a fresh set of eyes for inspiration). If you haven't already checked it out, please go take a look and vote for your favorite.

With that in mind, I thought it might be a good time to do a little bit of a flashback post to last Halloween for those that weren't readers at the time. For my long timers, feel free to just skip over the rest of this entirely.

A little time travel music, please. Poof - its Oct 31 2008.





As for exterior decorations, I went in a different direction this year. I'll be posting photos soon (just as soon as Im home in time to photograph it!) so keep an eye out.

Halloween Freebie: You got to coordinate!

Eek! Halloween is just a few days away now. For those party hostesses out there, I hoping you are much better prepared than I am. I have so much to do before Saturday. But who cares about that? Let's get to the freebie!

Don't get too excited - it's really just an add on to the Halloween Toe Tag invitation (below) I shared with you earlier this month.


For those that used this as their halloween invite, I edited it to create a smaller, simplier version. I think they would work nicely as favor tags, wine glass markers, napkin rings or anything else where a hang tag can do the job. Same deal as the invites - print, cut, thread with some string and enjoy. Here it is:


{Click here to download}

A note of thanks to the bloggers who featured this freebie: Creepy Cupcakes, Hot Pink Petticoat, Living Locurto, Moody Fashionista, Design Dazzle, The Magpie's Fancy and One Pretty Thing.
(if you have featured my invite and you're note here, please let me know)

The award for best feature goes to Paper Crane who printed the invites and photographed them beautifully too.


If you ended up using these for anything, I'd love to hear/see all about it. Otherwise, happy haunting. More Halloween posts coming this week.

Halloween Invitations: Q & A

Thanks for all the kind words on our Halloween invites. I was quite happy with how they turned out so its fun to share with all of you too.





Bridie asked for a behind the scenes post but I'm afraid I can't oblige. I put these together a little at a time over several weeks and didn't photograph it. (Even if I had, you'd mostly see the back of my head at my computer playing around with the design itself. Not something I can break down in a few bite sized steps.)

That said, there were a few direct questions raised Vanessa IG Muse, Angela, Sarah, koodeker Rebecca, littlealexa, Vintage Junky, Wanderluster Mrs. Jetplane I figured I'd answer here.

How did you print on cardboard boxes?
I didn't really print on them but rather transferred the image I label design using this hot iron tool. It’s a little time consuming to do this way - if I were making more, I could have them hot stamped by a pro shop.

Did you come up with this yourself?
As I mentioned in the original post, I can't take the credit for the idea - it came from the devilishly twisted mind of Mr. Limestone.

How did you seal the box for mailing?
I used brown mailing tape from Staples on each side of the box. It just so happened to be the exact same shade of brown paper on that was on the box so it was a great match.

How much did it cost to mail them?
I don't remember the exact amount. $1.50 is coming to mind but it might have been $1.90.

What kind of printing did you use for the books?
I was only making a small number, I used my crappy old ink jet printer and it worked just fine. If I were doing more or was doing client work, I'd have them professionally printed.

How did you keep them from shifting when you mailed them?
Hot glue is my friend. Only burned myself once - must be a record!

Where did you get all these things?
Short answer: Here and there. Long answer: Stakes came from a toy set of child size spatulas I bought from the 99 cents store and had to be shaved down with a dremel followed by a little distressing and cheeseclothing; Silver Bullets were inert brass bullets with a coating of silver paint, little bottles and mirrors came from ebay, holy water came from the tap, matches came from my kitchen drawer.

How did you ship water and glass?
As far as I know there is no issue with shipping glass. The rules on the water thing seem a bit fuzzy. This was a tiny amount of water in those little bottles so I figured I'd live on the wild side and just see how it went. (The more stringent rules seem to be about mailing liquids greater than 4 oz. but I might be wrong) Seems like it worked out.

Will you post any photos of your Halloween party?
I am notoriously bad about photographing any kind of entertaining as it happens because Im usually too busy enjoying myself but I'll share what I have. I don't have anything out of the ordinary planned for that day - its going to be a pretty laid back get together.

Are you and Mr. L gearing up as vampires?
I wouldn't consider this specific to vampires really - its more generic Halloween fictional characters. Anyway, we're not dressing up as vampires. We're not dressing up as anything specific actually - more generic ghoulish types. I'll share photos when I have them.

Did I spy Over the Taupe polish on your fingers?
Close. Its called Chinchilly by Essie. (now long gone and replaced with torn up nails and overgrown cuticles)

Halloween Invitation Reveal: Creature Survival Kit

With Halloween just a little more than a week away, its time to (finally!) reveal the Halloween invitations. Sorry for keeping this under wraps for so long - I hope I haven't raised the bar too high.

Exterior box. I wrote in the guest's addresses inside the oval.

A little backstory: My original idea was to put the invite on a full size wooden stake (the vampire slaying kind) using the same method I used for the bachelor baseball game invitations. My problem was I wasn't quite sure how to mail those. So I raised the problem to Mr. Limestone and he came up with the idea of making a mini survival Halloween kit complete with silver bullet and holy water. My love of boxed invitations is well known so it should come as no surprise as I loved that idea and got to work on all the particulars.

I'll admit that this invite was quite a lot of work for something that is essentially completely unnecessary. But I just love getting little parcels in the mail (don't you?) so I thought this would be a great way to celebrate Halloween. If there is ever a time to be cheesey and frivolous, Halloween is it. My guest list is pretty small so I didn't have to make too many of them which made the job a lot easier.

Inside the box, a tiny booklet is tied down with some black grosgrain ribbon.


Untie the bow to release the booklet. The cover, meant to mimic the look of an old book, reads:
All Hallow's Eve
Creature Survival Kit
Non Timbo Mala
(latin, loosely translated to mean : FEAR NO EVIL)


Turning the page, the invitation itself is revealed. Clever verse penned by none other than Mr. Limestone. It reads:
May the contents of this parcel
be your blessed charm
against the beasts of the night
awaiting to do you harm.
May your journey be ordinary
If you decide to leave
to join us in celebration on
All Hallow's Eve.


Underneath the booklet, you catch a glimpse of the survival kit contents
1. Wooden Stake for vampire slaying
2. Silver Bullet werewolf extermination
3. Holy Water exorcism rituals and warding off evil spirits
4. Mirror undead detection
5. Matches destruction of monster remains and lighting of torches


The final page of the booklet just reads "Happy Halloween" along with an RSVP date.

So that’s it. I hope my guests got a kick out of the idea. I was happy with how it all turned out.

Disclaimer: No real bullets or holy water was used in the production of this invite.

I'm back!

Its been a whole two weeks without a peep from me. Have you missed me?

I'm sure many of you have already guessed my blogging break coincided with some travelling for us. Well, you'd be right! We visited not one but two fabulous locations. Since I went right back to work, I haven't had a chance to go through my photos yet but I'll be posting more about the trip next week.



Anyone have a guess of where we went? (For those in the know, keep mum.) Two photographic hints above - one for each locale.

If you're itching for a virtual vacation right now, please fly off for a peek at some past trip recaps: Moscow 1 & 2, London, Tokyo, Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Alaska 1, 2 & 3 and Paris.



I'll be back tomorrow with the big reveal for my Halloween invites.


Last but not least, I want to give a giant bear hug to each of my guest bloggers - Paula Grace , raenovate , Fixing it Fancy , Restyled Home , Emmy Lu , casaCARA , Home in the Country and From the Right Bank. Your contributions made made it so much easier for me to go offline and really enjoy my blogging break. I really can't thank you enough for the time you took out to share your projects while keeping this place interesting. In case you missed any of them, please check them out here: Guest Bloggers.

Guest Post: Right Bank to Left Coast Then & Now

While I do love where I live, I am always impressed when I meet someone who has moved around to experience other lovely cities. So it should come as no surprise to you that I was thrilled to hear from Alek of From the Right Bank to the Left Coast when called for guest bloggers.

If her backstory isn't compelling enough, her blog features decor porn from all over the globe. What more can one want?

Hello, I'm very happy to be guest blogging here today. I started my blog when I moved from Paris to Seattle as a place to organize the thousands of design ideas I had collected on the web and to document my progress in setting up a new home.

When we first moved into our house, I wondered about making the pieces we had in our Hausmannian apartment work in a contemporary Northwest house. But I’ve always liked mixing styles and eras and as it turns out, that approach is serving me well.

(left: Paris dining room, right: Seattle dining room)

We had a pretty unique dining area in our Paris apartment which was round and that just called for a round dining table. When we moved to Seattle, the table moved with us and it's working out well in our new dining room. We also bought two antique chandeliers in Paris which we brought over. Let me tell you, that was no easy feat! But it was worth it because they instantly added a lot of character to the brand new house. In our apartment the crystal one hung in the entry and the Murano one in the dining room. In our new house, they've switched places.


(left: Paris Living Room; right: Seattle Living Room)

A couple of other things that made the transatlantic move are an orange "Pop" chair and a pair of Louis XVI chairs. The Louis chairs are now in the dining room and the Pop chair sits in our living room. As you can see, they are two entirely different settings but I think these pieces work equally well in both. Now if I can just find a spot for the rest of the pieces I've got hanging around . . . I hope you enjoyed this little peak into my homes. Thanks for having me, Stefanie!

I hope you've fallen in love with Alek's homes as much as I have (can't take my eyes off that murano chandy!) If you want to see more, travel over to her blog.

And that brings us to the end of this guest blogger series. A tremendous thank you to all the wonderful women who have taken time out of their busy lives to help me take a blog break!