Smashing Pumpkins

I love holidays that include crafting, like Easter and dying eggs, Christmas and making sugar cookies.

I have such fond memories of my sisters and me standing in our kitchen, covered in sticky, smelly egg dye, dunking our hard boiled eggs in as many colors as possible. I am sure they were a mess but we were proud and fought for our favorite eggs the next morning after the Easter Bunny had hid them. My older sister always won, she was always the smart one and remembered all the good hiding spots from previous years while I, on the other hand, dawdled around looking in places completely unsuitable to hide eggs, while my youngest sister chewed on the plastic grass in her basket. 

Baking and decorating Christmas cookies is a tradition that will never be lost in our family. Our decorating and creativity has only grown over the years, as one of our cookies for Santa lost an arm this year so we decided to decorate it with blood and stitches. So mature and appropriate... Santa obviously loved it as he still left us wonderful things under our tree and in our stockings.

So who is itching for it to be Christmas season now...

well not yet! We absolutely cannot skip over Halloween or Thanksgiving for that matter. Fall holidays are the best!

My memories of my childhood Halloweens are just as magical as every other holiday. We rarely went with store bought costumes, but rather preferred my dad to make us unique ones. Those that made it in the Halloween Costume Hall of Fame include a Hershey's Kiss (until it rained...), a Christmas present (which made it impossible for me to climb any stairs leading to houses), the Queen of Hearts (the actual playing card), and my favorite--  the Statue of Liberty (complete with working torch and Bible that held my candy).

But before the big night of devouring candy and showing off our costumes, my family always carved jack-o-lanterns and it is a tradition that will be my favorite no matter how old I get. One year, as a child, we decided to forgo actual carving and paint our pumpkins to look like Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales. They were dead ringers for the actual cartoons.
Last year, I strayed away from cartoons and scary faces and went with something much more practical for my current love... a giant cupcake carved into my pumpkin.

I have been collecting ideas all season and can't wait for the special night when I sit down with friends and carve, paint, or glitter (or all of the above) this years pumpkin.

All ideas are from Apartment Therapy 

Until next time.

I put a spell on you.