Halloween Archives - It All Started With Paint

October in the City

October 5, 2019 By Linda 14 Comments

Fall Front Porch with Pumpkins and Mums – Chicago Front Porch for Halloween.

It’s the first Saturday of the month and you know what that means …

okay, so you probably don’t know what that means since it’s only the second month I’m participating in this blog hop.

But for future months it means it’s time to for me and some of my blogging friends to get all warm and fuzzy for the upcoming month by sharing … well … things that make us warm and fuzzy about the upcoming month! It’s part of a Cozy Living series organized by the fabulous Jennifer at Town & Country Living. You’ll find the links to my fellow Cozy Living bloggers at the end of the post.

There are some years when October is right up there as one of my favorite months of the year: those years when October delivers the most amazing Indian Summer. Perfect crisp-but-not-too-cold temperatures requiring only a light jacket or sweater or hoodie. A month when you can swing open the windows and let all that fresh (city of Chicago) air inside!

And then there are the years when October does me wrong. When it’s day after day of gray skies and rain. When light coats and sweaters are covered by heavier waterproof jackets and rain boots.

But either way … whichever October decides to show up … my all time favorite part of this month is dressing up the front porch for Halloween!

And I gotta tell you, Chicagoans takes dressing up their front porches for Halloween super seriously.

Olympic level serious.

Some with much bigger displays than any Christmas lights show.

Some go super, duper spooky.

Some go super, duper cutsie.

And some (like me) some try to strike a balance in-between.

I’ve changed things up over the years (though the mums & pumpkins combo on the steps has pretty much remained a staple). Like back in 2012 when I had bats flying across the door.

More recently, at my daughter’s insistence — I’m thinking she’s siding with the super duper spooky folks — we’ve recently added some skeletons to the mix.

Our front yard was pure dirt last October (thankfully there is some nice lush grown-from-seed grass out there now). But last year we placed the bones in the yard, and after a few heavy rainfalls, the skeleton looked like it was just unearthed …

and ready for an episode of Bones! 🙂

Be sure to visit my Cozy Living blogging friends to find out what gives them the warm and fuzzies in October!

Duke Manor Farm / Creative Cain Cabin / Sincerely Marie Designs / Town and Country Living

Vinyet Etc. / Finding Silver Pennies / Hymns and Verses / It All Started with Paint

when trickers become treaters

October 31, 2012 By Linda 14 Comments

I thought my level of stress about the kids would decrease as they got older.

Silly me.

Little did I know that stress is like matter. It never goes away. It just moves through different states …

Solid. Liquid. Gas.

When the kids were still little and new, I stressed about everything. About them getting hurt. About how we needed more locks on our doors … and why, for that matter, do we have a French door as our front door? And our back door too …

More often than not I couldn’t watch Oprah because her show was about child abductions or child abuses or starving third-world children …

… and those stories not only broke my heart, but fanned the flames of my stress.

During that time my stress was solid. Omnipresent. Top of mind every minute of every day.

As my kids grow older and more independent my stress is transforming …

… liquefying …

… as I wait impatiently for my son to return home from school. And freak out when he fails to answer my cell phones calls and texts.

I can’t even think about him heading off to college in just 2 1/2 years without lapsing into a full-on panic attack. My daughter tries to introduce the subject on our walks to/from school but I have to shut her down.

And a whole new state of stress kicked in after reading this post from one of my favorite bloggers the other day. You see, she fessed up that she bought her kids not one but two costumes this year because she’s already worried about the time when they no longer want to dress up.

Ouch.

That one hit me hard. Because this is the first year my son doesn’t want to dress up.

That makes me sad.

On the plus side, he really does look forward to handing out candy to the next generation of trick & treaters …

P.S. After I wrote this post, my son starting asking if we had an extra sheet. Turns out, when he hands out the treats he’d like to be dressed like Charlie Brown’s ghost Halloween costume. Complete with a bucket of rocks …

P.P.S. Just wanted to let my friends, family, and readers on the East Coast know that you’re in our thoughts and prayers.

why do i feel like someone’s watching me?

October 25, 2012 By Linda 28 Comments

Did you ever feel like someone was watching you?

And I don’t mean in some stalker-ish hiding behind a bush or watching through binoculars kind of way …

I mean right in plain sight.

Sitting across a conference room table from you in plain sight …

In the company of other people in plain sight …

And, admittedly, looking straight at you because you’re talking … in plain sight … in a meeting . A meeting you arranged.

But they aren’t just looking at you …

… they’re looking through you.

True story.

Fifteen years ago. New York City. Doing some meet-and-greets with media we worked with regularly. Now granted I was 15 years younger … 15 years – and pounds — thinner … and 15 years of gravity had not yet taken its toll …

But one of the meet and greets was staring at me so intently … intensely … it caught me off guard. Made me extremely uncomfortable.

I questioned if perhaps I was mistaken. Maybe he stared at everyone like that. Maybe he made everyone feel uncomfortable …

And I questioned myself right up until we stepped outside the front door of that building. That’s when my co-worker rounded on me and was like “what was that?” and “why was he staring at you like that?” …

So it wasn’t my imagination.

And I never did find out what was going on … I left that particular job not too long after those NYC meet and greets …

Thankfully, my Halloween googley eyes don’t look through me … or make me feel uncomfortable.

After all, they’re just made out of four different sizes of Styrofoam balls I picked up at Michael’s. And colored with a sharpie. And attached together using some toothpicks …

… and attached to the front fence with some command strips.

Now I’ll just wait and see how well they hold up to the elements … and the neighborhood dogs …

* House of Hepworths * The Shabby Creek Cottage * Momnivore’s Dilemma * The 36th Avenue * Somewhat Simple * Live.Laugh.Rowe. * At the Picket Fence * Jennifer Rizzo * Redoux * Chic on a Shoestring * Funky Junk Interiors * Tatertots & Jello * I Heart Naptime * The DIY Showoff *

if it ain’t broke … bats on the door decor

October 22, 2012 By Linda 45 Comments

I subscribe to the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ club.

I also believe the ‘you can’t build a better mousetrap’ theorem. Unfortunately, I have personal experience with this one. And let me tell you, hearing that snap and that squeal is one of the most unpleasant sounds. Ever. But it works. Effectively. Efficiently. Quickly.

Oh, and I’m a card carrying member of the ‘why reinvent the wheel?’ society.

Now, with all that said …

… please don’t get me wrong.

I don’t eschew progress. I don’t squash creativity. I’m a strong proponent of forward thinking ideas.

And while I believe in the tried and true … I truly believe the tried and true can always be improved upon.

Take, for example, that big wedge of Swiss cheese on the mousetrap proposition. Outside of a Tom & Jerry cartoon, I don’t believe it works all that well. But peanut butter on the mouse trap? Yeah, that works …

Snap.

Squeal.

And take, for example, my fourth ever blog post. The post where my Halloween front door idea was inspired by Country Living magazine and Martha Stewart (dot) com to have a bunch of bats fly across my front door.

Last year I used three sizes of bats. Cut out of black poster board and affixed with command poster strips …

Whereas this year I made a slight adjustment.

A small improvement, if you will …

… and only used two sizes of bats.

That’s right folks. I went all wild and crazy and skipped the largest of the bats …

I know, I know. I took a big risk on this one …

So, what camp are you in? Are you a ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ kinda gal — or guy — like me … ?

P.S. This post was measured against my new “at what price?” standards and it passed “Go” and collected 200 dollars:

It was free. Check.

I had already planned to decorate the porch this weekend. Check.

And it improved our home and our life since my daughter has been pleading with me to get our Halloween on already. Check.

P.P.S. The link to the marthastewart.com bat template can be found on this post …

P.P.P.S. Be sure to check out Bonbon Break’s fun, Zombie-inspired Halloween issue …they’ve been kind enough to include me and my mason jar votives in the fun …

You Might Also Like:

Bats Flying Across Pumpkin

Pom Pom Pumpkins

Paper Pumpkins

Halloween Home Tour

it’s a cinch … and musings on martha

October 1, 2012 By Linda 21 Comments

Sometimes I wonder what Martha Stewarts’s basement looks like …

Well, not present-day Martha with the empire and the Macy’s ads and the magazine and television shows. I’m pretty sure present-day empire Martha has the world’s most fabulous basement. With everything perfectly – and prettily – organized and labeled and tucked away out of sight. And I’m pretty sure her basement has a screening room and a game room and maybe even her very own Starbucks, just like Tommy Lee …

I’m talking about the basement of the Martha before the empire. When she was still starting out … building her brand … one craft at a time. I can’t help but wonder if that Martha … pre-empire-Martha … had a slightly disorganized basement space filled with seasonal craft projects.

Say, for example, I wonder if you visited pre-empire-Martha’s basement you would’ve stumbled across some fake roses that had been spray painted …

Spray painted flowers in Krylon’s metallic black in celebration of Halloween …

Spay painted with three-to-four coats of black metallic so they would become a permanent Halloween decoration …

… so she would never, ever be tempted to put them in a vase and display them on her coffee table.

Again.

Sigh.

After close to a year of blogging and crafting … and blogging about what I’m crafting … I’m beginning to gain a better understanding of what pre-empire-Martha’s basement may have looked like …

Filled with all her decorating faux pas desperately trying to get a new life with some spray paint… and maybe some glitter glue …

Now if I can just build my own empire so I can relegate all my crafts to a well-organized warehouse …

… after which I will begin drawing up plans for my very own basement Starbucks.

If you want even more basement-busting easy peasy craft ideas, some of my friends are sharing their projects here too …

… just click on the pictures for more.

You Might Also Like:

Ghosts in Mason Jars

Bats Flying Across Pumpkin

Bats Flying Across the Door

Pom Pom Pumpkins

Paper Pumpkins

Halloween Home Tour

halloween in the hood

October 31, 2011 By Linda Leave a Comment

Happy Halloween!

terracotta-pumpkin-halloween-decorations

One of the many things I love about my neighborhood is the number of kids who show up to trick-or-treat at our house. I also love that my neighbors embrace Halloween and get creative with their decorations.

Ernie the beagle and I took a walk around the ‘hood’ and snapped pics of some of our favorites . . .

I love this webbed fence that our contractor neighbor constructed. Very original.

This neighbor always displays picture-perfect outdoor decor.


Ernie growled at this in full daylight. I can only imagine the scare factor at night.

This was definitely a two-person job …

… and I’m “digging” this skeleton vignette out front.

I want that giant spiderweb and spiders.

This thing is like a train wreck — weird and creepy and I can’t stop staring.

This house was the first to get all decked out.

I’m loving these spider pumpkins.

My neighbor next door always jump starts my decorating …

… and the neighbor across the street ups the ante …

… she’s definitely going for that spooky vibe …

… and seems to add more layers and details every year.

I’ll bring this post to a close with some shots of my Halloween house:


I snapped this before adding the bats around the door …

I added some dollar store skeletons to my DIY drop cloth wreath.

The mums no longer look so healthy … I definitely have a black thumb.

And yes, the witch is “out” — and about — snapping pics for the blog …

going batty on all hallows eve …

October 30, 2011 By Linda 12 Comments

Seems like each year at Halloween I add a few more elements to my house décor. This year I came across this fun door decorated with bats …

Country Living

… and thought I’d add it around my front door.

I started with a bat stencil I found here on marthastewart.com. I wanted the bat dimensions to be varied, so I made two additional sizes of the stencil.

On black poster board I used chalk to trace and then cut out six large bats, 18 medium and 10 small:

Using Command damage-free poster strips …

… I arranged the bats so they appeared to be flying across the front door.

Then I stepped back and admired my handiwork.

My next door neighbor actually called me from her cell phone as she was pulling away from the house to comment on my door! She said it was worthy of immediate recognition.