Because You Know You Want One...

I've been looking at a lot of Halloween stuff lately on Etsy.  While I'm not the person that has everything decked out and I don't even wear a costume, I do love Halloween.  Last year it was easier to decorate because we were living in a smaller apartment, and basically you blow up a balloon and the place would be decorated.  This year we're in a smidgen-ly bigger place, but I am on a shopping hiatus.  It's sometimes a very cruel world, something that I hope to tell any child I have as soon as they are able to comprehend English.

So these are for you. In case you want to buy them. Which of course you do.

Okay, I'm conflating Day of the Dead with Halloween. That is bad of me.  But not bad enough that you should deny yourself this colorful, spooky yet happy garland.

How cute is Vicki the Vampire? Just look at those teeth! And the skull bow! She could greet the guests at your party.

Those same guests could receive a goody bag tied up with these little cutie pumpkin tags.

And you should make cupcakes. And hug 'em with these wicked wrappers.

How awesome would it be to have this skullduggery soap?

This punch needle embroidery is calorie free.  So simple, yet it makes me smile.

I love things that glow in the night, like this luminary.

Back to that hypothetical child of mine.  I floated the idea of creating a gallery wall of the following prints for the nursery wall, which my sister thought was fantastic.  I worry about her.  

I love these prints by Lupe Flores. (Yes, that pic on the right is way over yonder.  I can't format in blogger--this should not be news to you.)

And ah mah gah how could I forget what I covet most of all:

Is there really anything I could say about this hat that the picture doesn't already show? 

Anyone gearing up for Halloween? Do tell!!

Valentines

I'm not big into Valentine's Day. But I'll tell you what I am big into--Etsy.  So if there's a holiday and Etsy sellers are making stuff related to that holiday, I am all over it.  At this rate, I'll be celebrating Arbor Day with abandon.

No, don't worry, I'm not going to go overboard (that might have been the word used by Kevin the Grinch) like I did for Halloween and Christmas.  Even I, in my Etsy-crazed state, realize that Valentine's Day just doesn't have the oomph and magic of other holidays, and I don't feel the need to decorate.  But if I did...

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Perhaps a little something cute?

(Seriously, it took me reading this 3 times to figure out what it said. )

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Perhaps a little more cuteness?

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These are so adorable yet elegant, too.

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Magnets? Everyone needs a magnet. 

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It's nice to have a little reminder of love around the home, and this one's great because it's in all-year colors, not in blazing pink and red. 

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I asked Kevin if he wanted to get this for me and silence ensued. That's okay, because there's this...

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 Oh my goodness can you stand the cuteness? Can you STAND IT? (psst, I couldn't, so I bought one)

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I've been into this sellers' holiday banners--I got one that says "Be Mine".

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I'm still into my skull and creepy-funny-cute things.

But I also snooped around for things that make you giggle with a little shiver.

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Why so pensive and glum, Mr. ... Thing? Surely nothing could be as bad as...

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....having your heart ripped out.  Little girl, you look like you need a friend.

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A friend with green hair.

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Or a friend with red hair.

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Or an embryo holding a heart. 

I enjoy bringing you the best of what Etsy has to offer.

Christmas Decorations

My goodness. It feels like the longest week ever. Also, I lost two blog followers! Why do I care? I don't know. Hence the joys and lows of writing a blog.

But! It's nearly Christmas. And I have holiday decorations to show you, which makes me happy.

Let's start with what the apartment looked like when I gathered everything that needed to go up around the apartment.

Note on lower right: dog food not meant to be included in decoration.  Note TV, where Bones has been put on hold.

Among the collection you'll see votives, garlands, ornaments, my keys, a camel, Christmas tree-shaped candles (whenever did I get so cheezy), a table runner, and a half-baked centerpiece.

I've never been to the KMart in NYC at Penn Station, and I have to say its holiday section pretty much blew my mind. It was huge. I spend over an hour trying to decide what to get.  I was also wearing my winter coat the whole time, and got sweaty.  I picked up these pine branches and sparkly garlands.

This is about 1/7 of the amount of garlands that I bought. 30% off.  The checkout lady asked me if I was decorating Rockefeller. Why, should I?

As you can see, I wrapped the sparkly garlands around the pine branch garlands and strung 'em up wherever I could around the apartment.  I got the "merry christmas" banner from Etsy.  Then I strew shit all over one shelf because I didn't know what to do with it.  Incongruously, you'll also see a Halloween card, which is from my sister, which I save because I love her and the card.  Oh, there's also a smoke detector. Clearly I had a strong vision for the decor.

Close-up of banner

For some reason, I was OBSESSED with filling a vase with winter wonderland stuff.  The pine cones and fake cranberries were purchased from Pottery Barn.  I spent an inordinate amount of time deciding between hurricanes and vases, and even went so far as to make Kevin and one of our friends sit in Crate & Barrel for 30 minutes as I picked up various vases and just stared at them, trying to envision fillers.  You know why I did this? I saw stuff at Pottery Barn like this, and I'm extremely susceptible to suggestion. So I have this one random vase.

Another garland for the back door and a wreath from the farmers' market

I strung a couple of garlands across the length of one of our walls, secured by those removable 3M Command hooks, and punctuated them with ornaments from Crate and Barrel.

And, similar to the Lobsters, we bought our small (although the Lobsters' is much bigger) and overpriced tree from a street corner, carried it home, and decorated the crap out of it.

I bought this cute ornament in Kansas City:

And this one, which I put front and center:

My sister also bought one, and we said each year we'd both get one ornament that was the same and hang it on our trees.

I also picked up this little doodad--which stands in for an edible gingerbread house. I can't hang it on the tree because the house is a dense little sucker and would pull our mini-tree down:

The votive holders are also from Crate and Barrel--aren't they pretty? Yes they are, Mina, yes they are.

The table got decorated as well (this picture was taken before a dinner party, we don't usually have place settings just hangin' out on the table):

I also got this adorable luminary set from Etsy:

After all this running around and decorating, I was seriously sore, people. (As well as poorer.) It was pathetic.  It was the most exercise I had gotten in who knows how long.  But it was worth the effort.  The apartment feels festive and cozy, and makes me want to bathe in eggnog all the time.

Halloween

So this is practically a week late, but Happy Halloween! As I mentioned, I've gotten much more into the holiday spirit. Lucky for my credit card! Kevin made some reference to "Etsy Frenzy" the other day. Pssh.

I started decorating at the beginning of October--you know, to set the mood and all. And to prove to Kevin that all this effort was worth it.  We ended the month by having a few people over on Halloween for drinks and snacks (and by "we" I mean "I", because Kevin sadly had to go out of town, which had NO EMOTIONAL RAMIFICATIONS WHATSOEVER I assure you).

Ahem. Back to the decor. "Decor" is sure a fancy name for Halloween cheesiness, but whatever. 

The two things which I think had the biggest effect were taping up various Halloween-themed cutouts (painter's tape and I became very, very close during this whole process) and strewing fake cobwebs all over the place.

I bought a custom order of large die cuts from Scrapbooking Stuff on Etsy.

Then I started plastering them wherever I could.

The front door:

Eventually I also added a "Happy Halloween" sign glitter skull garlands like these from RubyRockwell:

...buut you don't get to see those because like the awesome blogger I am, I forgot to take pictures.

No matter, there were plenty of other things to focus on.  Like decorating our entryway:

And creating bat-tastic scenes:

 

Look, even Kevin got in on the action (ha):

 

I think he should dress up as Lurch from the Addams Family. Is that mean? I think it's clever.

Anyway, the day came for the party, and I commenced running around like banshee collecting all the doodads that I wanted to "casually" scatter here and there:

As you can see, I collected mini pumpkins at an alarming rate during the month of October.

I took some pictures, but not of everything.  I covered our dining table, coffee table, and kitchen counter with black plastic tablecloths.  On the dining table, I placed two different kinds of grilled cheese, red velvet cupcakes, and a bag of Halloween candy favors for folks to take home.

Here's the dining table:

Grilled Gruyere, Peppadew Pepper, and Spinach Sandwich bites.  I *made* the signs. From scratch.  Black glitter paper from Paper Presentation, writing in silver ink pen, and stickers thrown in as a freebie from RubyRockwell.  I know, I made folded tent cards.  I'm pretty much amazing.

Grilled Cheddar, Apple & Sage Sandwich Bites

 Da cupcakes

I bought the sugar skulls and laser cut spiderweb holders from New York Cake & Co.

The favor bag spilling over.  I bought the felt purple Halloween bag from Papyrus.

I bought these little guy from a nearby antiques store. I love him.

Almost as much as I love my skull.  The paper lanterns were from the local party store.

I also picked up these cute haunted houses from the antiques store (altho they're not antiques):

On the coffee table I placed a cheese board, olives and nuts:

Whaddya mean it's hard to see??

Our side table displayed a vase of quinces, a tower of candy, and this little ghosty whosty.

Sadly, I completely neglected to take pictures of the kitchen counter, on which I placed a rum punch bowl with a huge ice cube in the shape of a hand, and a fondue pot (which is stretching it, because it was a minor disaster) with bread cubes and veggies.

Doubly sadly, I didn't take a good pic of the pugs in their costumes.  But here are Mrs. and Mr. Lobster giving the pugs the attention that they crave.

Afterwards, we went to a neighborhood Halloween block party, where they close off a few blocks and the houses get all decked out (which is unusual in NYC, since decorations would probably get stolen in most places).

 Do you see Harry Potter (or as Mrs. Lobster says, Hairy Pawter. harhar)?

We were joined by a ladybug, gentleman bug, a flapper, and a woman-who-played-a-soccer-game-and-then-hauled-ass-to-my-apartment.

And there you have it.