This past week was Halloween, the final event in my favourite month of the year.
I love October for many reasons: the month starts off with my birthday, a week later we have thanksgiving (Canadian), and then two weeks later we get Halloween and all the candy! In between: there are excuses to gather and be between friends; times when a heavier coat is needed and you can feel the chill in the air and see frost on the lawn; and a time to start thinking about your holiday plans in a more serious and tangible way.
This October also saw our first snowfall! We got about 2cm last monday, and no one was expecting it. It added a layer of creepy-ness to all the outdoor decorations as tombstones, bats, spider webs and pumpkins suddenly had a dusting of snow – it shrouded the base in mystery! and made for some touch-and-go driving as everyone scrambled to regain their snow-legs and driving skills again.
Around our humble abode, I put the final touches on our decor, and planned-out our pumpkin stencils.
This year I decorated the entire house for 10$ well spent at Dollarama and a little elbow grease – here’s my tale of Silhouette Halloween Decor.
The windows
I bought 3 packs of cut-outs: bats, spiders, and rats. I used them to create shadow scenes in the windows. All of our windows are street facing, but I concentrated mainly on the ones that give onto the street where our cars are parked. I used ribbon and some black electrical (or gun) tape to stick them in the windows, and create the illusion of stories!
In our dinning room window we had a rat army going to war with each other, and a couple who thought they should start climbing. We had spiders weaving a web right above them, waiting to get their prey. In the kitchen window we had spiders descending from above to ensnare any hapless fool who wandered by. In the living room window upstairs, bats took flight from a nest! In the guest room, spiders and bats made peace as they shared the evening sky. ’twas terrifying, I’m sure.
I was very proud of how it all looked once the curtains were drawn and everything was back-lit. It made me appreciate my thrifty-ness a whole lot more!
Inside the house
I kept the decorations to a minimum.
I bought a series of little birds (2 and 3$ each) and used them to haunt the upper-shelves of the bookcases, and placed one in our wreath.
I also picked-up a halloween “spooky” lantern for a dollar, and a glass vase for a dollar which I painted (with glue) to look like spider webs.
I took over the chalk board in our kitchen to proclaim my ghoulish and eternal love for my husband, and added a bat with strobing eyes to our letter box in the kitchen.
Furbaby reactions
As soon as I put the decorations up in the windows, Bruce was terrified! He didn’t understand them at first, and spent 10 minutes barking at them hoping they’d die or fly away. Poor guy.
Boots, the cat, had nothing to say. Tobias either.
The pumpkins
Our pumpkins were pretty snazy this year. Last year, I carved Boots and Bruce’s silhouettes into the pumpkins, free hand. IT LOOKED SO COOL.
However this year we decided that since Dan was here (#armylife) he should carve one.
I chose to do our monogram, < aHd > and he chose to do the r/redditguy.
Sure enough, our pumpkins were masterpieces, and I took many pictures.
Our costumes
Dan and I went as black cats! Black and ginger cats to be precise, but most little kids chalked it up to black cats.
We were gonna take it to a creepy cheschire cat level, creepy smile included, but when the cheap face paint I had failed to provide the desired results, we decided noses with whiskers was enough.
Bruce went as Sgt K9, a crafty little army pooch costume from value village, and Boots and Tobias decided they didn’t want to partake in Halloween after wriggling out of their costumes (a ghost and a pumpkin, accordingly).
The evening
I made pumpkin cheesecake to tempt us away from all the candy (which I had been devouring for weeks already), and we had a lovely dinner of quinoa, pumpkin, fall carrots and asparagus. It was a healthy compromise to negate all the candy.
We had some friends over to hand out candy, play settlers of Catan with us, and enjoy a beer or two.
Sadly, the torrential downpour prohibited the predicted 200 kids from coming. We got a good 50, and decided they should get the lions share of candy.
How was your Halloween? Will you ever use silhouette Halloween decor?
Enjoy!
