Faces of Halloween

This sweet family - our neighbors just a few houses down the street - are always my favorite trick-or-treaters. This year I almost missed them because the Geek opened the door and I only realized who it was after they had already crossed the street to get to the next home. But I did caught up to them and was able to take the annual Halloween picture of them.

We had our good friends Bim and Patti over for Halloween - not for dinner, but for "snacks". We had a lot to eat. This was the cheese and prosciutto board.

Can you see what the board represents? Yes, the state of California.

I had baked my "famous" whole wheat bread to go with it. There were also smoked salmon, roasted eggplant and meatballs.

Here we are around the table, having a wonderful time together. Bim is German, Patti is American and our conversations are always a hilarious and slightly chaotic mix of Germish or Denglish (take your pick, both is the same). 

And something to laugh for you - a staring contest between Kibeau and a visiting raccoon one night this week., taken with our outdoor nighttime camera.

All these lovely faces are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

Haunted Neighborhood

 

The closer we got to Halloween, the more "creepy" decoration appeared in my neighborhood. Some were very creative like in the setting above that displays an entire scene. But I noticed that this year there were dominantly skeletons on display. I wonder what had happened to the ghosts that used to "roam" our neighborhood in October.

The above scene is across from our neighborhood market and therefore I pass it pretty often. It seemed to me that I either hadn't noticed everything before or things were added to this scene over the last few days. I don't think they will get full from their barbecue...

I have to admit, the rattlesnake - or what is left of it - made me laugh.

I'm not sure I would appreciate a welcome committee like this one.

Were they playing ball with the skull and just got tired of it, in need for a break?

At least this pair had the decency to throw on some clothes.

And I fear these witches aren't up for anything good.

Finally I found some friendly ghosts. Hurray! Not all is lost.

Of course you all know what comes after Halloween - Día de Muertos. Even I own a Talavera Frida catrina.

You know who will love all these skulls? Nicole for her Friday Face Off.

And at the end, the sweetest Halloween face of them all. Little Franklin, my friends Matt and J's little rescue dog. Isn't he a cutie?

Happy Halloween, everyone!

It's Almost Halloween

 

Halloween used to be a fun holiday for us as long as Kaefer was still living here, and especially when she was younger.  I used to decorate the house and we both had a lot of fun with that. Nowadays my Halloween decoration is reduced to a bare minimum (as are also any other holiday decorations). There are two craft pumpkins outside in the front garden that I painted several years ago.

A few years ago I had bought eight small pumpkins and painted and arranged them so they looked like a big Halloween crawler.

That was the last time I actually did any kind of Halloween decoration. By now I have given most of my Halloween decorations to the family with two small children two houses down and thus can still enjoy them when they put them up in their front garden.

I think I just prefer pumpkins in their natural "dress".

But since Rain's topic this week is "Halloween Decorations" I simply can't resist posting this creepy find in one of the back alleys I love to walk. I processed it to make it a little bit more sinister.

And what about some sweet little spiders which I'm sure some people think of being creeping? For my part, I like spiders. Aren't these guys pretty?

For the dinner part of Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date I want to tell you about the shrimp gratin I made last Saturday for dinner with friends. This is what it looks like before you put the finishing layer on top:

And this is what it looks like when you take it out of the oven:

It is very easy to assemble and cooks in just 15 to 20 minutes. Everybody liked it. I didn't use panko bread crumbs but regular breadcrumbs and I also used different cheese (Emmentaler and Gruyère and no mozzarella). I would stick to the ¼ teaspoon of red-pepper flakes if you don't want it too spicy. Thus it had a "kick", but didn't set you on fire. You can find the recipe here, and for those of you who can't access NYT Cooking here it is:

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays in the US. I like its quirkiness, the creativity and fun. Decorating the house has been something I always looked forward to it.

This year, however, has been different. The Halloween spirit never reached me - I was just too busy - with preparing and teaching my German class, with taking and editing high school senior pictures. I love doing both, but Halloween had to pay the price. My Halloween decoration this year came down to this:

I apologize to the birds for misusing their birdbath... good thing that there are more than just this one in my garden.

However, while walking around my neighborhood I noticed that there were more Halloween decorations than last year, and that made me really happy. The masked pumpkins were here last year, but they have multiplied this October.

They also got some spooky visitors.

The Geek and I love to take a walk after dinner, and we met quite some glowing creatures on our street.

Even though I haven't been in a real Halloween mood I enjoyed all these creatures very much. This one is my favorite - the bat dog!

Kaefer, however, got in the spirit and dressed up. I really really really love it. She made the dress herself - last year, for the Homecoming dance. A great re-use of a lovely dress! I "colored" her hair with a black hairspray so that her hair became darker. She even wore nylons - and it's hot here! Can you see who she is? (Who would wear nylons in 85° weather?)

(Hint: it's a lady from a very popular British TV series...)

(Not) Finding Halloween

This week I tried to find Halloween - as in Halloween decorations in the neighborhood. I went to our historic district that is famous for its over-the-top Halloween. However, this year I found almost nothing.

It struck me as odd since I, who usually loves to decorate for this funky holiday, haven't decorated much myself either. What is some kind of universal feeling?

So I just have a few Halloween decorations that I found and want to show here. Most of them are in my own neighborhood, just down the street. However, those that I did find are really cool - at least I think so.

These glowing ghosts are right across the street from our house and we can see them every night. And this lovely trio I already discovered in September in a nursery in Berkeley.

But - there are two mixed media paintings. After I hadn't painted for several months I finally started again at the end of summer and I enjoyed creating these two Halloween paintings, the cat and the little ladybug girl. They came to life after the wonderful mermaid painting class I joined in August.

I am linking up to Paint Party Friday for the first time in several months again, and to Friday Finds.

Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled

This is one of my favorite quotes by Galadriel in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Ring", the first part of his trilogy "The Lord of the Rings". Later she goes on, "And let not your heart be sad, though night must follow noon, and already our evening draweth nigh." Such a beautiful language - like elves talk.

We are a LOTR family - everyone has his or her favorites. Kaefer likes Galadriel, Arwen and Legolas; the Geek loves Arwen (of course); and I adore Aragorn, Eowyn and Sam. We quote parts of the book (or the movie) all the time and enjoy "speaking Gollum" - Hobbitses and pocketses. Precious.

It came as no surprise that Kaefer dressed up as Galadriel this Halloween. She sewed the cloak herself (she needed 6½ yards of fabric for that) and the Geek made the head jewelry out of copper wire. I made comments...

Here you can see the entire cloak. If you like you can look at the "real" Galadriel (aka Cate Blanchett) and compare (I'm biased here, so don't ask my opinion.  

"May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."

Anything Halloweeny

Spooky Skulls greeting card

Inspiration Avenue's challenge is right down my alley - anything Halloween, oh how I love it. I remember when we moved here I didn't know much about Halloween since we didn't celebrate it in Germany at that time (I've heard that it has become more popular over the past few years). However, it very quickly became one of my favorite holidays and, what's more, the holiday I love to create for the most.

The card on top is my favorite one because I like its (harmless) spookiness and the funny expression of the skulls that always makes me laugh.

Cat with Hat mini notecards

This little cat is part of a stamp set by Rusty Pickle, a company that unfortunately no longer exists. In their seven years of existence they offered great scrapbook paper and fun stamps. I have seldom used a Halloween stamp as often as this little cat. These are little notecards that can be used as lunckbox notes, thank you notes, little gift tags, Halloween treats etc.

Ghosts in Tree

Ghosts in a tree - another favorite. The ghosts are actually punched - I found this gorgeous punch years ago when I was still working in a scrapbook store, before the economy forced us to close shop. The wonderful tree stamp is by PSX, another company that does not exist anymore. Sigh...

Little Halloween Cat - sold!

Back to Rusty Pickle - do you recognize this little cat? Yes, they also had it on a scrapbook paper - doesn't it look super cute? Just in case you haven't noticed, I really like this little cat.

Ghoulish Greetings

This cute ghost stamp is by Savvy Stamps - and it seems that this company still exists! For this card I used the soot technique. You take a piece of glossy paper and move it closely over the flame of a candle, so that the flame just touches the surface of the paper (you have to be careful not to set the paper on fire as I did several times!). Thus the soot settles on the paper. Then you impress the dry stamp into the soot (clean the stamp immediately afterwards) and use a fixative so that the image doesn't smear. It's a fun technique and perfect for these ghoulish greetings.

Halloween Vintage Tags - sold!

You certainly have seen the fun vintage Halloween images. Well, I used them to create Halloween tags with them. Each tag looks different, and that is what I like about them the most. I'm also a real fan of these vintage images, they're cute and some of them downright adorable (like the cats).

If you want to see more photos of these cards and tags, just click on the link beneath them to see more detailed shots.