lantern tricks

Last year I announced to Jay that Hallowe'en was the one "holiday" I was going to purposely decorate for. Luckily, he didn't mind the idea and even helped out. And where last year's attempt was a little haphazard, this year is completely different. I heart these Jack-O-Lantern lanterns.

I wish I could take credit for them, but truthfully, I saw similar lanterns in a store window that came with faces already printed on. My trick was to buy plain orange lanterns (a fun trip for Jay, Sadie and me to Chinatown last weekend) and draw our own faces on them. Sadie drew one all by herself and helped out quite a bit filling in the bigger faces. Then I found this string of copper ball lights that my Mom gave me last year, which couldn't have been more perfectly suited. The lanterns just clip on to the top of the copper light, and I spaced the lanterns to leave other lights exposed. At night, the shadows that the copper strips produce add an eerie feeling to the lanterns that they just don't have during the day. Then some orange and black-and-white polka dotted ribbon on the door, and voila, we have a Hallowe'en porch. All that is left is the real Jack-O-Lantern, but he won't make his appearance until Hallowe'en night. I'm loving this "holiday" so much I'm even going to take the day off work.

I mean, someone has to be here to walk the 4 year old Cat-Princess-Bunny to school in her costume.