Happy Halloween

I can't believe Halloween is today!  I swear, time has sped up and October was the fastest month ever on record (or was it just us?).

We may as well just rename it Hunt-ober, since this month really revolved around our little man.

Now that Halloween is already here, I'm kind of sad it went so fast.  I was enjoying the spooky additions to our house, and I think Ketchum had finally figured out that pumpkins were not treats for him that I accidentally left on the porch.

I'm thinking I may be able to repurpose some of our less-spooky decorations into more harvesty/Thanksgiving decorations....but we shall see.

Something we can't repurpose are the fantastic ghosts I made.  They are much too spooky for our Thanksgiving table.

I had originally planned for Hunter and I to do this little project together, but then I realized he is only one, and he doesn't enjoy crafts the same way I do.

So I waited until he was asleep and made myself some ghosts.

When I was little, my mom would help us make some cheese cloth ghosts, so I thought I would try to recreate that childhood memory (since I had already recreated Chris's childhood ones).

I picked up some cheesecloth at the grocery store (because I didn't have a trip to the fabric store in the books) and made some starch/paste out of cornstarch and water.  

Who knew that if you heated water and cornstarch in the microwave, that it turned into a crisco-like paste?

Oh the wonders of the internet. 

I just googled around and found this tutorial and loosely followed the recipe for their starch.

I basically just dunked my cornstarch into the paste and smooshed it all around until it was completely covered.  I did it while it was still warm (but not too hot).

I draped it over a blown up balloon that I taped to a pitcher and used two layers to make it thick.

I left them on the counter for two days until they were really dry (I think I may have overdone it with the paste, since they took a long time to dry).

I popped the balloons and glued some black felt fabric on them and plopped them on the table and mantle.

They probably won't last for years and years, since they will probably get crushed in storage, but I'm enjoying them for now.

I've only got one more day before I have to ditch the spooky decorations and break out the gourds and turkeys (yes, I broke down and bought a white ceramic turkey).

Hope you have a wonderful Halloween.  We are heading to the Children's Museum to see the kids costume parade and get some cute photobooth pictures of our little guy.