Once in Blue Moon

 Something fairly rare is going to occur on October 31, Halloween night, this year. 

There is going to be a "Blue Moon."

This is the name for a second full moon in one calendar month. 

But this year, 2020, the Blue Moon is even more unique. 

A Blue Moon only happens on Halloween about every 19-20 years and a Blue Moon that is visible in every time zone only happens every several decades!! The last time this occurred- blue moon on Halloween visible in every time zone- was in 1944 during WW2. 

So, honestly, what is going to occur is very rare and why we use the idiom "once in a blue moon" to describe something that rarely happens!

If you want the scientific details I've got a quick explanation below from Brittanica's website:

The period from one full moon to another is about 29 1/2  days, so when two occur in the same month, the first of these full moons is always on the first or second day of the month. February, which has only 28 days (29 days in leap years), can never have a blue moon. Months with 31 days—January, March, May, July, August, October, and December—have a much better chance of hosting a blue moon because of their length. On average, a blue moon occurs once every 33 months or full moons, 41 times per century, or about seven times every 19 years. An even rarer event is when two blue moons happen in the same calendar year, which happens about four times per century.

I hope you have clear skies wherever you are and can see this beautiful occurrence.

The Spookiest Week of the Year!

 I'm more of a Fall decoration gal than Halloween per se. 

We definitely did more Halloween decor when Mollie was young but it was never really spooky. Just cute and lots of pumpkins!

BUT... I love these terra cotta jack-o-lanterns so much. 

About as "spooky" as we get!

I had one that I bought many years ago at a Fall Festival when we moved into our first house.

It was broken during a move and then last year I found a small one at a thrift store. I started searching for them and collected quite a few. I check every time I go because I have found them on the "holiday" aisle at GW even in January. You never know!

Last year they hung out on a bamboo baker's rack on the screened porch.

 I bring them out each October and they are quite popular on my Instagram account.

(I found 3 at one time! Good thrifting day!)

I thrifted all of mine but a couple of them were originally from a place called Craven Pottery in Georgia. They have a ton of cool things that I would like to go check out in person soon.

And they have multiple sizes of the terra cotta jack-o-lanterns! I may need to get a really big one for next Halloween!!

I hope your week is full of treats, not tricks!

Plastic Pumpkins Go Glam

I realize that painting plastic pumpkins is not a new and exciting idea 

but this turned out pretty cute 

and took about 5 minutes so I thought I would share.

We had an event at church and I wanted some Fall-ish decor

 but I wanted something a little different and fun.

And very inexpensive.

I bought plastic pumpkins for a dollar. 

(I saw them at the thrift store today for a quarter 

so you could really create these for a bargain.)

 I used my favorite gold spray paint to change their look from plastic orange to classy gold. 
It is amazing what gold spray paint can do!

 Then I drilled a hole in the bottom the same size as a bamboo garden stake I already had. 
Make it a snug fit.
 I pushed the pumpkins on to the stake and used a little bit of black tape to wrap around the stake right under the pumpkin so it would not slide down. I used a 1/2 inch wide strip so it blends in with the bamboo markings. 

Then I went to Lowe's near the house and bought all the clearance mums they had!
I paid a dollar per mum so this was a pretty big look for not much money. 
Everyone kept talking about how fun they were and because they were so inexpensive we put them everywhere and then I sent them home with the volunteers at the end of the event!

Everyone had a big smile on their face!

...And Coming in at Number Three!!!!

The air has been clear and crisp in Atlanta the last few days.

A change from our humid, Summer days

 (which I love and I'm not ready for Summer to go)

but everyone else  is excited for Pumpkins Spice lattes and

 Pinterest is one big Pumpkinfest!!

This blog post about this stack of pumpkins from a few years ago

 is my third most popular post of all time!!

If this seems a bit too large or involved then

 you can always make these - a much smaller scale!

But if you are into bigger and better than I "mustache" you to make this guy!!

or you can keep it simple and squishy fun

and just make these with the kiddos!!

Linking up:
at Zevy Joy's Fall Inspiration!
and  White Spray Paint Blog!



Happy Halloween!! or Pin It For Next Year*!!

I went on a little road trip through ...

...land of cotton...

... snowy fields everywhere...

...then I crossed a beautiful bridge...

...and ended up in the land of salt marshes and pluff mud...

... and the next morning I crossed over the dunes...

... and there was the amazing beach and blue skies...

... then I wandered over to a beach of eerily beautiful, huge driftwood trees...
... but what I was truly supposed to be doing was
teaching at a conference on Jekyll Island, Georgia.
Lucky me.
Hands down the best place for a conference is the beach!!
I planned a little make and take for all the teachers 
who gave up their Saturday to come to a conference 
(even if it was at the beach!) 
and since it was the Saturday before Halloween 
I decided that we would make a variation  
of this super popular project/post, the snowman in a baggie, 
which has been viewed and pinned zillions of times.
So, gather up a baggie
 some red and yellow food coloring
 hair gel, hand sanitizer 
or mix up a batch of unflavored gelatin if you are worried about young children,
scraps of black peel and stick fun foam, plain black fun foam, white peel and stick fun foam and pumpkin seeds.
You can make this for pennies.

Using the black peel and stick fun foam, cut out eyes and a mouth. Stick on the outside of the baggie. Add teeth, if you want, cut from white peel and stick foam.
 ( They look like Chicklets gum to me!!)

Then squeeze some hair gel into the baggie and a drop or two of  red and yellow food coloring. Drop in a nose shape cut from foam that isn't sticky back.
This can be a lesson on color mixing and shapes!!!
Then just squish the baggie around until the hair gel is completely orange.
The object of this fun activity is to squish the nose shape that is inside the baggie into it's proper place in the pumpkin face. They can squish it around over and over again!! Great motor skill activity and it's relaxing as well.  
If you teach really young children you can put the activity together and then tape the baggie down to the play table and they can manipulate it on the flat surface - easier for little ones or in a special needs class.  Everyone loves this squishy project!!
And for added authenticity you can drop a few pumpkin seeds in the baggie and your pumpkin has seeds in the goopey inside just like the real deal!!

 

 

He'ssquishy, gooey fun!!
* I tried to post this sooner but I had some technical difficulties so you can pin it for next year and be ahead on Halloween activity planning !!!

From spooky to something sweet....

... this 75 % off paper mache spooky house is changing holidays.
No pumpkins, bats or ghosts for this house. Can you guess where I am going with this one??

 
This will be a bit of an expirement and I'll show you how it turns out - if it's cute :)
 
But before we move on from Halloween - does it make it things look spookier if it's in B/W mode ?? :)

 

The Great Pumpkin....

... with a 'stache!!!
This was the pumpkin I made for our "Trunk or Treat"* two weeks ago. He has been hanging out by my office door and one of the kiddos told me last week that he was "her dream pumpkin!"  :)

He'll only be around one more day and then I get to figure out where to store him until next year. I keep making huge decorations and then, reality.... where to put them??? :)

I'll worry about that on November 1st!!!!

Happy Halloween!!



* a  pic from Trunk or Treat. Everyone decorates their trunks or dresses up and the children go from trunk to trunk getting lots of goodies. It was so crazy and fun - about 450 showed up - that I didn't get many pictures!! ( this is my gig so I was busy, busy and not a good photographer!!)

College Girl came home for the event - she can't stand to miss this event. She's been at Trunk or Treat since she was little, then she started driving and decorated a trunk and now she comes back to hang out at my trunk. You can see the great big pumpkin behind them. A friend helped me make the photo booth mustaches so every child could have one!!! Kids of all ages wanted them. They were so much fun!!

Showtime!!!

One day down and one day to go !

Here is my little booth. I was worried about having enough stuff to fill it but it worked out. Most of my "art" is made from recycled and found items, scraps of paper, fabric and ribbon, etc. so I decided my display would be the same. I gathered up all my galvanized items from the house and porch and a galvanized ladder from the backyard. The "filler" around the base of the trees is shredded newspaper and the tags are paint strips - may I say that I have used paint strips for art and gift tags since before anyone even thought up Pinterest :)



This was first thing in the morning!

 

 By late afternoon all the pumpkin stakes except one lonely guy were gone along with the snowman and gingerbread ones !

 

I sold most of these long signs and took some orders, too.

 and people started to ask : Are you going home to paint some more tonight??

I decided to be wise and go out to dinner with a friend instead!

I was pooped - Craft Shows are fun but they are work!!!!

I'm off to the show... have a great day!


Linking up:



Things I do when I need to be painting...

I've been busy at work, busy at home, busy with College Girl (which was a ton of fun!), busy getting ready for the craft show, you know... busy like everyone else.

And I need to be painting but instead I have been...

arranging my spray paint in spectrum ( rainbow) order. That's how my scrapbook paper and recycled plastic lids are organized... for some it's alphabetical but for me, it's by color! Is that weird?

... and unloading pumpkins at the church. I love these "white" pumpkins.

 

 

... and I have been getting ready for the craft show. I made a ton of ornaments and canvases but time is short now and some of my ideas will have to be saved for another day,

I'll be sure to take some pictures at the craft show and let you know what creative and clever things were there!!