"'Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world." ~William Shakespeare

Oh, dear. How I have neglected you, dear reader(s). It's been over a month and again, I have no excuse but that I've had a lot on my plate. Since Sept. 26th (my last post), I've celebrated my 28th birthday, moved into my new office and responsibilities, took my first trip to Tennessee to visit a friend, lost a fish, lost a guinea pig (very upsetting), had another fish get sick and get better (though he may be blind in one eye now), got a new niece, visited festivals, planned (and survived) a museum fair, had crazy storms destroy many of our Halloween decorations, taught 3 workshops, saw a coworker retire, celebrated my 5 year wedding anniversary, had weekend guests, received snow before Halloween, got lazy with my Halloween costume, and still have yet to carve my pumpkins. Whew. Happy Halloween!

November should be a trifle better. At least I hope so. I'm only doing 4 workshops, after all. :)

As mentioned, (unless you skimmed over it), many of our Halloween decorations were destroyed by storms this year. I have some lovely metal fencing, an arch, and a twisted lamp post that got blown over numerous times. The arch's lights aren't working and I'm hoping nothing snapped. The lamp post isn't working at the moment but I'll try putting another light bulb in before trick-or-treating tonight. I had two creepy gargoyles that sat on the railing at the top of the steps on either side. They also blew over (which NEVER happens). One lost an ear and the other one shattered almost the entire head. I was going to try gluing it back together but just didn't get to it yet. Many of my light strings didn't work this year, including a spider web that I just bought last year and hung on our new fence. I was very disappointed with that.

Needless to say, I'm not feeling very Halloween-ish this year. We have yet to carve pumpkins and since our snowstorm this past weekend, it feels as though it's nearly Thanksgiving! I did manage to create an adorable little crafty project for my Tennessee friend's kids. I wanted to make something that they could hang up year after year that was also personalized. An idea for a felt jack-o-lantern with each child's name "carved" into it popped right into my head!

I sketched it up on tracing paper a few times to get the sizing and letters right before I cut my pattern.

Then, I started putting layers together. A full orange felt layer was the back and I decided to use scraps of yellow fleece (from my Peep creations which I realize I never shared with you all) as the lit insides of the pumpkin. I cut the individual layers out of the top layer of orange so that it would look carved. I used fabric glue all around the edges to keep it all together.

I added light yellow bits of felt to give dimension to the carved letters, again just using fabric glue. Then I sewed the decorative lines of the curved pumpkin shape. Finally, I connected all the pieces with a blanket stitch around the edges, leaving a space for the stem. I decided to do a looped piece of felt so that it could be hung on a doorknob, hook, or wherever you may want to attach it.

I chose a different shape for the second pumpkin just to make each more unique. I think they both enjoyed their gifts and I greatly enjoyed my visit!


Happy Halloween!