It's Halloween Outside

It will be Halloween in a week, and we have been doing some decorating outside.

I love fall and Halloween.  I have decorated for both fall and Halloween at the same time.  I kind of went into panic mode when I saw someone on Facebook post that there are only 10 Fridays until Christmas.  

The cellulitis that I wrote about earlier was really shingles.  I got a wrong diagnosis from the nurse practitioner.  The Dr. is treating the nerve pain.  I feel a bit better and haven't been doing a lot of sewing until lately.  I'll show you what I've been up to later.  

I love these pumpkin topiaries.   I don't have any real pumpkins and haven't for several years.  These are mostly from Hobby Lobby.  It is probably late enough in the season that they are on sale now.  You can read an earlier post on these pumpkins and see what I did with some of them here.

Here is a better look at the pumpkin topiary.  You can see my tutorial here.  My husband put holes all the way through the two bottom pumpkins and part way through the top one.  Then he ran a dowel rod through them that is long enough to hold the pumpkins and stick into the dirt in the flower pot.  

I've had these lighted jack-o-lanterns for several years.  My husband ran the cords to get everything working.  If you look in the photo above, he has something that works with a remote control.  So all I have to do to turn everything on in the evening is push a button from inside the house.  

This pumpkin is in my sewing room window and is from my days working in ceramics many years ago.  

I changed out my fall door swag for a scary wreath with spiders.  

I've added another tomato cage ghost this year.  I had used one of the cages as a Christmas tree in a flower pot, but it is so top heavy that when the wind blows the pot and tree both overturn.  So I'll do something else on the porch at Christmas time.

The ghost is made from a piece of fabric approximately 2 yards X width of fabric.  One of mine is from fabric, but the others are cut from old sheets that either had a stain or hole.  

Here's a quick tutorial, but there is a better one in an earlier blog post here and another one here.    The last link shows how I decorated faux pumpkins with duct tape.  

I used 100 indoor/outdoor mini lights and wrapped the tomato cage.  

The other tutorial doesn't show this, but over the years I've learned that in a strong wind, those cages don't stand by themselves.  So I bought a package of tent stakes available at one of the big box stores where you would buy camping equipment. 

Also, in a strong wind sometimes even though the tomato cage is anchored the sheet blows completely off of the cage, so I fasten the back of the sheet to the tomato cage with binder clips in a couple of places.  These are found at one of the big box stores or office supply store.

I use a permanent marker to draw the face.  I never know quite how they will turn out.  This guy looks a bit angry, I think.  Maybe it's his eyebrows.  The ghost in the earlier photo just looks surprised like he can't figure why anyone would put him out in this chilly, rainy weather.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. 

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.