I saw two cute pumpkins on social media and I just had to do them both.

For each project, you need to get yourself a nice big pumpkin.

Cut out the tops.

And pull out all those seeds.

Once they’re all cleaned out, you’re ready to go.

The first is the Lazy Man’s Jack-O-Lantern. My friend, Bridget, posted it on Facebook and it is right up my alley!

I always struggle with deciding what sort of face I want to make. With this, there’s no thinking involved. Just use a skewer to poke out two little eyes.

Use the same skewer to score out a mouth…

…going deeper and deeper until you’re cutting it out. And that’s all there is to it. I think it’s adorable.

You gotta admit – he’s pretty cute when he’s lit up.

I found cool pumpkin #2 on the HGTV Instagram page. You’ll need your cleaned-out pumpkin, a box of wine, and some permanent markers for this one.

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Via

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Around this time last year, Pottery Barn had the birdcage picture above for sale. It inspired me to find a big old birdcage of my own and to fill and display it similarly. This PB cage came with a hefty price tag – $199!

I searched high and low for just the right cage, found it, purchased it for $30, hauled it home, and have been struggling ever since with the right place to stick the darn thing!

Turns out it serves as a great vehicle for an ever-changing holiday display. Here is its current incarnation for Halloween.

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I went to Crooked Sky Farms last week to pick up corn stalks and pumpkins to decorate our front entry for fall.

There’s a bit of Halloween mixed in too. I showed you how to make the black feather boa wreaths last month.

I just adore the corn stalks… with plenty of corn still attached. Now I’m just wondering if the corn cobs will dry naturally, rot, attract bugs, or worst of all – attract the local roof rats. Time will tell.

The large pumpkin atop the urn is real, as are the little pumpkins in the lanterns.

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Today we are going to revisit a Halloween favorite around these parts – my Halloween Spiderweb Candy Cake with 7-Minute Espresso Frosting. Click the name of the cake to link to the very explicit directions on how to make this fun cake with many instructional photos.

I thought I would use this opportunity to remind you that there is the “Complete Recipe Index” over there on the left side of the page – near the top, under the “Pages” tab.

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I believe I have created my best Halloween mantel EVER!

It’s kinda hard to get a decent picture with the windows on either side of the fireplace, so I had to wait until dark, which wasn’t much better. This one was taken at night with a flash.

And this one was taken at night without a flash. Neither does it justice, but maybe some close-ups will.

This is the left side of the mantel. Skulls, Glitter, and Glitz are part of the theme.

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… from today, is Halloween!

My Illinois BFF, Jen, called me at 8:34 AM this past Monday morning and was buzzing about a blog that she had just found and completely loved. There was a craft on that blog that SHE AND I HAD to do … right now! (yep, that is her above, I know, she’s super pretty, and yeah, I adore her!)

HERE is the blog … and the project … that we I did that very day.

And here is the story of exactly how that went down:

I jumped in my car, which was serendipitously filled with gas just the day before, and headed out to the closest  99¢ Only Store, which is exactly 3.3 miles from my house, to buy the necessary supplies. There, I found 11 black feather boas, 4 packages of black and gray gauze, 4 black glitter skulls, and 2 silver glitter skulls.  From there I drove across the street to Hobby Lobby and purchased 2 foam wreath forms, using a 40% off coupon for one of those wreaths. Total amount spent – $33.79 plus tax.

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… from Mother Nature and Father Time!

Dave and I at our neighborhood Halloween Party on Saturday night.

It was always our Halloween tradition to make grilled pizzas before the kids went out to trick-or-treat. It didn’t matter if it was just the four of us, or if each of the kids had a dozen friends over, each person present made their own personal-size pizza. Dave and I and any of our friends who pop over will be making pizzas tonight out on the grill.  I’ll share the recipe and pictures with you tomorrow.

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Since standing on my feet in the kitchen for long periods of time is out of the mix at the present time, how about a holiday craft? Now, I already told you in the first installment of Crafts 101, I am not a crafty person… not by a long shot.  In fact, for this particular craft, I needed professional help. Recently, Peggy and I took a class from the very talented Cindy and Lin Sue of Sweet-Stops on how to make these luxurious fabric pumpkins, which are perfect from the first day of fall, all the way through Thanksgiving. Now that’s some bang for your buck! And when I say “buck” –  I literally mean about one dollar! Depending on the fabric you use, or if you use scraps you already have on hand, these beautiful pumpkins may cost no more than that. If you’ve seen them in boutiques, you already know they go for anywhere from $20 to $40 each! That’s just crazy talk!

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I’m off to tape a television segment today for Channel 3-  Your Life A to Z.  It will air tomorrow, Friday, October 14th, at 10:100 AM.  So, instead of posting a recipe, I have some miscellaneous, fun, and important items to tell you about. 

For the last couple of days I’ve been sharing with you items from my weekend shopping extravaganza with Peggy. Both of us are in love with birdcages and we found the perfect one for Peggy’s house. She had an open corner in her dining room and we decided the birdcage would fit perfectly there. She will change it out throughout the year and create holiday and casual vignettes, using the cage as the canvass.  Above you can see what we did for her Halloween Birdcage Vignette and below is a closeup. Doesn’t that look great?!

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