Rainbow pumpkin varietals at Live Oak pumpkin patch
I love Autumn. Autumn for me means, baking, crafting and holiday decorating. Usually when Fall rolls around I'm so over summer and the oppressive SoCal heat that I'm actually excited to turn my oven on again. This year's Hotumn lasted way longer than most would have liked. It was 103 last week but I'm thrilled to say that it's beginning to feel like fall with a slight chill in the air the past two days. I even was able to put on a sweater! (With my shorts 😝)
Janna Conner Zig Zag Ear Climbers
Being the hip parents that we are, we've been dressing up the past few years for Halloween. Last year I was Princess Leia, the year before that, a teenage mutant ninja turtle. We're usually the only parents dressed up so I can't say that I'm that disappointed that my son forgot to include us in his Halloween costume plans this year. I'll still be in the spirit of Halloween of course. I'll be wearing my favorite skull print sweatshirt along with my Halloween nails! And I may do skull face makeup, tbd.
I used Nars in Venomous and Sally Hansen Dream Sequins to do a coppery glittery fade effect. With all this Halloween flair, it's best to keep the accessories subtle so I paired it with my rose gold Sidwell ring stacks and my Zig Zag ear crawlers.
Since Halloween falls on a Tuesday this year we had all weekend prior to celebrate fun Halloween themed events. We took our mini dachshund Junior to a Dog Costume Contest. I thought we had it in the bag for the small dog category with Jr's jockey costume and then I saw Einstein, the ghost buster dog. His owner had constructed a full ghost buster mobile with flashing lights, ghosts and projectile silly string.
Junior the Jockey @jrtheseniorwiener
Some of my favorites from the dog costume contest at Three Dog Bakery.
My favorite piece of Halloween decor : my dachshund skeleton
After the dog contest we walked down the street to One Colorado for their annual pumpkin decorating. One Colorado has the best kids activities. They're never overly crowded, they're easy to park and walk to and best of all they're free and rotate seasonally. They've had face painting and pumpkin decorating, to interactive performances such as Bob Baker's Marionette, balloon art and magic shows. This year inspired me to decorate my pumpkin instead of carving. That way the pumpkin doesn't deteriorate as quickly and can be enjoyed for longer. Plus, I don't have to clean up all that gooey mess.
I took a leaf stamp, stamped it on and then painted it in with white acrylic paint. When I made a mistake I could just clean up uneven edges with the side of my nail. It took a while but it was enjoyable, sort in the same vein as coloring books for adults. If I had planned ahead I would have used a stencil and a stamping tool with paint to make it go faster. Maybe next year!
Pumpkin decorating at One Colorado, Pasadena
Leaf stamp, then free painted with white acrylic paint
My Halloween music of choice as of late has been
Bernard Herrmann who did all of my favorite
Hitchcock film scores like Psycho, Vertigo, North
by Northwest and Rod Serling's The Twilight
Zone. This version is played by
and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
WISHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!