Halloween Columbus style....

Halloween was practically perfect for us. Bryan came home and we went out around 6:30. When we left I was worried about it being too early to go out. For some reason I've always felt like it had to be dark to go out.... maybe that's just part of being raised in a family of night-owls? But when we got to the neighborhood we were t-o-ting in there were kids everywhere. We went to a neighborhood across the street from us since there wasn't much Halloween life in the complex. ( I bought a big bag of candy thinking that all the neighborhood kids would be going around, but we only had one trick or treater..... who we had to invite to come by!) Daniel had a blast going door to door. He never spoke to anyone above a whisper and everyone thought he was adorable. (of course they did, right? I couldn't be biased at all could I? Nope, definitely not) We only went on two streets but Daniel got quite the load of candy. (especially when you consider how much we still had at home! I was going to mail it out to my nieces and nephews, but I don't think my siblings would appreciate that, so it'll go to Bryan's lab partners or into the trash!) When we got home Daniel ran inside, dumped his candy out all over the floor and stripped down to his diaper! He was ready for his candy binge. He actually did really well and only had a couple of pieces of candy that night. I've put it up on top of the fridge to slow him (and me!) down. One interesting tidbit I learned from my neighbor who is in dental school is that cavities aren't caused by how much sugar you eat, but by how often you eat it. So maybe I should just let him go all out one day and get it over?

I had fun getting ready for Halloween by decorating our little place. Living far away from family gives you lots of time for other things! We went on a drive a couple of weeks ago and saw some GORGEOUS fall colors. (You really need to click on this to get the full effect, it was gorgeous!)

We stopped at a farm while we were out and bought a ton of pumpkins.(for way cheap!) I love me some pumpkins! (those are also the infamous hurricane vases I spent $5 and a lifetime at walmart for)

I made a Halloween banner that I finished at about 8pm on Halloween. Oh well, I guess I've got it for next year! I'm thinking about laminating the individual letter blocks to make it easier to store and make it last longer. Do you think that would destroy it and make it look chintzy?

I got the idea from Candice Stringham's blog (link on the right of this page). I used Halloween-ish fonts and printed out/hand cut the letters. Then I glued glitter on them and mounted and matted them all. I was a good outlet for me. For some reason cutting paper is really soothing to me. (I'm a weirdo, I know)

Another creative endeavor I am working on is painting our apartment. The main room is mainly a color called "Pebble Path," but I bought a Butternut Squash yesterday (going to make some soup) and it's almost exactly the same color! )(Just pretend you don't see the mess!)

Our accent wall is a stormy gray/blue in suede texture.
I've been planning on painting the kitchen area a lighter shade of blue or brown to kind of just blend in with everything, but I bought a pomegranate the other day that looks stunning with these colors. I can't decide. I may have a red kitchen...... it's all an experiment. It might just be too overpowering. I'm trying to see if I like to be surrounded by color or if I like the feel of a more "clean" pallet. We'll see I guess. Any thoughts?