Happy Halloween!

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

From Wiki:  "Making jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween may also have sprung from Samhain and Celtic beliefs. Turnip lanterns, sometimes with faces carved into them, were made on Samhain in the 19th century in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands^. As well as being used to light one's way while outside on Samhain night, they may also have been used to represent the spirits/fairies and/or to protect oneself and one's home from them."

I remember my Granda telling me just how hard it is to carve a turnip lantern!

Have a safe and fun Halloween!


If you can, please leave your comment here instead of on Twitter. Thanks! Have a fabulous day!

Thrill The World

The beauty of living in a small town is one gets to know people of all ages.  One of the young ladies I sit on a committee with emailed me about the Thrill The World event she is involved with.

Thrill The World is an annual worldwide simultaneous dance of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”  Volunteer event organizers in cities around the world organize events using the Thrill The World leaders manual and Thrill The World tool box.  Anyone can organize an event! No age requirement or experience necessary! And there is no limit to the number of events in each city!  Each event raises money for a local or not-for-profit charity of their choice.All official Thrill The World events are included in the numbers for setting and breaking world records

A dance studio in town offered Thriller lessons through the week and on Saturday night everyone gathered in the town park.  I put the Little Prince down for his nap late so he would sleep later and be able to come to see the 'spooky dance'.  He loved it!  We had to explain this doesn't happen every night after he goes to bed!

The bandshell in town park - already zombies are lurking!

They got a great turnout!  The park was packed!

The registration tent - every name is recorded for the world record.

The town clock chimed 9pm and the dance started!

Thank goodness for dry ice machines!

It was so much fun watching everyone - reminded me of being 12 years old!

I just realize I know someone in this photo!  I didn't recognize anyone that night because of all the makeup and costumes!

 

It was definitely a family event and people put a lot of effort into their costumes.

Dancers were on the stage in case anyone forgot the moves!

It was a great way to kick off Halloween and I cant wait to see it again next year!

Have a fabulous day!

Happy Halloween!

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 From Wiki:

"The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls' Day (November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas."

In Scotland and Ireland, Guising — children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins — is a traditional Halloween custom, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money.  The practice of Guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood."

I remember my Granda telling me how easy carving a pumpkin is compared to carving a turnip!

I just had a flashback to my first Halloween costume.  I was at my Grandparents' apartment and my Gran wrapped me in a towel, put her shower cap on my head and took me door to door to visit all of her friends.  When asked I told them I was a lady who just got out of the bath.  I might've been 3 or 4 at the time and I was awfully cute so I probably got lots of candy!

A Scottish comic called Oor Wullie is a good example of how important that Halloween turnip was!



Have a Spooky Day!

An evening in the city!

I am so far behind in my blogging!  These photos are from October 12th when High Heeled Life and I went to Toronto for the True Prep event. 

We went for a walk around Yorkville and stopped in Holt's and MAC for a few essentials then went for dinner in a cozy Italian restaurant....

My dinner was the most delicious mushroom risotto with goat cheese salad!

HHL ended up ordering what amounted to two salads...dear wait staff, please let patrons know if what they ordered sounds like two different things but are actually very similar.

The greenhouse has been decorated for Halloween!

We always stop in at MoRoCo when we are in Yorkville.  It is this adorable chocolate and macaron shop with a beautiful restaurant attached.  We have been there so often the staff remembers us.

Pumpkin spice macarons!  Yes Please!

Pumpkin Spice Truffles!

I love their wonderful little chocolates and cookies!  They come in at least 50 flavours and the staff is very knowledgable and friendly.  We always have a good time when we go in.  If you are ever in Toronto you must visit them or we will meet up with you and take you!

What better way to celebrate such a fun night! 

All good things come in little blue boxes!

Have a fabulous day!

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy.  Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas."  The custom of wearing costumes and masks at Halloween goes back to Celtic traditions of attempting to copy the evil spirits or placate them, in Scotland for instance where the dead were impersonated by young men with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white.

So you see...Halloween has been around longer than Canada and America! 

Have a fabulous day!

Easy Autumn Decor

With a 2.5 year old child in our house we have to come up with simple and sturdy decorating ideas.  Just before Thanksgiving I realised we really need something for the cabinet at the front door to make our entryway feel homey and warm....

A large vase stuffed with an autumn leaf garland and filled with dogwood branches.  I put some rocks in the bottom of the vase to keep it from tipping over.  I found autumn coloured balls last year at Christmas and I had them tucked away in my autumn storage bins.  My autumn friendship gifts are dwindling in numbers which makes me very happy!  An autumn scented candle completes the scene and fills the front hall with all of the autumn smells we associate with the season.

My kitchen table in our very ugly kitchen.  Renovations are such a commitment which is why we have taken to long to tackle it.  A tall candle stick, orange mums and a sparkly jack-o-lantern.  I straighten the table cloth about a hundred times a day and a certain little boy has yet to master the art of sitting at the table without dragging everying off of it.  The candle was a Moroccan spice scented one - it has since burned down and been replaced with other spicey scents.

Have a fabulous day!

Some late Halloween photos!

Every year this family does this to their house. This is a normal looking house every day of the year except Halloween! Check out the stained glass windows! Click on the photos for a closer look!

I have heard they work in the film industry so that explains how to can get this sort of facade for their house! The garage is behind the wooded door! Sorry I couldn't get better pics, they seemed to be home and I was on their front lawn taking photos!

The posts with the chains on them are cardboard pipes. The next day this was all gone! Such dedication! At night this looks very spooky!

This is what I wore on Halloween. I do realise those are snowflakes but I couldn't find another turtleneck to go with the vest. This is one of the scarves I wrote about in a post a few weeks ago - it has witches and pumpkins on it and I have the same one in green so I can mix and match! I wore this with jeans and high heeled boots and got lots of compliments - I swear it is the scarf!

Have a fabulous day!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!

This is how my day is going to look:

Have a fabulous day!!

Very Easy Halloween Ideas!

With Halloween just 2 days away I thought I would share these easy Halloween ideas! I saw them in the BHG Halloween magazine and thought they were adorable!

This is the only photo I could find on the web of this idea - it is a cheese ball made to look like a jack-o-lantern! Just mix cream cheese with Greek or Italian salad dressing, form into a ball and coat with Doritos. Make the jack-o-lantern face with black olives and use a gherkin for the stalk! In this photo they used very crushed Doritos to coat the cheese ball.

I couldn't find this photo on the web so I took a photo of the magazine - see how the Doritos are still in bigger pieces - I like this one better. If you make the face with the olives first it will be easy to put the Doritos on without having the pulverize them!

Mashed potato ghosts! Adorable! I couldn't find this photo on the web either so I took a photo of the magazine. Just use a large icing tip and put your mashed potatoes in a piping bag and pipe them on cheese topped stew or chili! The eyes are capers but if you don't have those just use peppercorns or anything else you have on hand! I was going to make these with whipped cream for the chocolate pots I had planned but we will be celebrating someone's birthday this weekend we decided to have birthday cake instead!

These are such easy ways to make your Halloween dinner special or put together for a last minute party!


Have a fabulous day!

Autumn decor at my house!

Decorating for Autumn is not something that is done much here. I have never been to a house that has been decorated with more than a pumpkin or potted mum. Our house is the only house in my neighbourhood that has been done up with garland, pumpkins, flowers etc. It makes me kind of sad but it is so nice to see how many of my blogger friends get into the spirit of Autumn and add lovely touches to their homes! I have been inspired to do the same and here are some photos of what I have been up to!


I bought a new table cloth with a more Autumnish feel. The sparkly pumpkin is so cute! I finished off the look with fabric leaves, acorns and candles.

It looks so nice in the evening with the candles lit! I love it!


The mantle in the den. I found this garland at Walmart and with some fluffing and filling it actually ended up looking much better than it does here - I had just tossed it up there for the photo!

Candles, leaves, acorns and mini pumpkins on the dining room table. The table cloth is new too - I didn't seem to have one in my collection that fit the look I was going for!

I was having trouble getting a good photo of this so I turned off the flash - I don't think this is much better tho!

A close up of the acorns and mini pumpkins! They are too cute!

I took everything out of the wall unit and filled it with Halloween candles! Next year I will add leaves and garland - I tried to get more but the only place I saw them was sold out. All of the garland I have was purchased in Vermont and New York when Autumn garland was unheard of here! The ghost lantern was brought back from Nova Scotia by my InLaws - just in time too!

I bought these tiny little pumpkin candles in the dollar store! They are about 2 inches across so they will just last for our Halloween dinner party. If I feel ambitious I will figure out a way to refill them so I can use them again!

Some candles in the living room. I have camels everywhere!

A little vampire friend someone gave me last year!

A cute little teddy bear holding a pumpkin.

Next year I will buy more leaves and garlands as soon as they are in the stores. I was a bit late this year but it was good practice for next year!

I cant wait to see what everyone has done for Halloween!


Have a fabulous day!