Hallowe'en Ghost Story...

We may have gone overboard this year.

We're not having a party, more of a Haunted House experience for our Trick or Treaters. We don't normally get any as we're on the edge of town so I have leafleted the area to lure people over here. Connie and her friends will have lines to say. Should be fun... if anyone comes. If they don't, we have a lot of sweets to eat. It's a win/win situation.

Shall I tell you my ghost story? It happened four or five years ago I think. It was between Hallowe'en and Christmas.

One evening my husband was out. My daughter was upstairs sleeping. I was in the living room with the cats. The telly was on.

Suddenly both cats jerked their heads up to look at something in the hall outside. There was nothing there. The cats were frozen as whatever they saw really caught their attention. And held it. They stared, transfixed for over a minute, then finally relaxed and looked away again, settling down. A minute can be a long time.

The point they were staring at was at the height where an adults head might be if they were coming down the stairs. But no one was coming down the stairs. I was a bit puzzled by their behaviour so I went out into the hallway. Just to check if there was anything there that I couldn't see from the sofa.

What I found in the hallway was an overpowering smell of mens aftershave. No mistaking the smell. It was intense. I went upstairs to check on my daughter and she was sleeping soundly. I wasn't frightened. I just thought it was really odd.

I spent two years with a man from Kosovo who thought it was a good idea to wear two aftershaves at once.
You know, mix it up a little.
Create a little blend.
Yes, I did. Two whole years.
I am an incredibly tolerant human being.

When I smelled this overpowering fragrance I actually wondered if he had died and come to say goodbye. You know, apologise for being a total dick. Something along those lines.
(Our love did not end well.)

He hadn't died according to his facebook account a few days later. It wasn't him.

I have my suspicions about people who used to live here. I've heard stories from several sources. I wonder if it was one of them.

It's never reoccurred. I have occasionally felt afraid when going to bed but I tend to be rational and practical for the most part.

I had an odd thing happen in my last house too. Every night I'd shut my door, get into bed and turn out the light and the door would open, just a little. The door mechanism was one of those little roller ball catches, you only had to push the door open or closed, not turn a handle. But still, it was odd. Was it an ill fitting door frame do you think? Or some spirit who liked the door left open? Who knows? Again, that was never frightening either. Just puzzling.

I'm definitely a believer in the supernatural. I've had many experiences. Known things I've had no rational way of knowing but known them nonetheless. Like I know that blue is blue. An absolute certainty.
I have a friend who has felt the same thing. Once, we might have been burned at the stake as witches. Nowadays, we'd be medicated. Times change but understanding hasn't moved on a great deal.

I'd love you to share your spooky stories in the comments below.

I must away, there are pumpkins to be carved and fairy lights to unravel. I wish you all a fun filled Hallowe'en with more treats than tricks.

Linking with...

So... Hallowe'en...

I should have written this post yesterday but it was all a bit frantic round here as we were preparing for our Hallowe'en party. My daughter has had the most miserable half term as she's been poorly for the whole week. We had a trip to the doctors yesterday and she found no sign of a chest infection or anything and declared her to be not contagious so the party went ahead. Because we'd spent the morning at the doctors I was way behind on my Hallowe'enery. The afternoon was a blur of activity.

We always do a fancy shmancy pumpkin with templates and a Joost Elffers tribute pumpkin with the stalk as the nose. I love the work of Joost Elffers.

We had seven seven year olds and we were clearly on the same wavelength as they thought everything was ''So cool.''

idea from Pinterest

In a few years it will all be ''so lame'' and I will have to up my game.
And actually scare them!

The dresser made a great gruesome display cabinet.

Morrisons supermaket is where we found some cool new decs this year, like the fingers here...

...and the blood splattered arm.

Not to mention the cockroaches...

At last, a practical use for a white painted staircase!

 

The girls enjoyed their tea party...

And there were cobwebs galore...

Then we all went Trick or Treating round the neighbourhood. They were very happy with their overflowing
buckets and their going home presents...

idea from Pinterest

Now it's all being boxed away in the loft along with a few 75% off bargains I picked up today for next year.

I hope you all had a good Hallowe'en.

Right then. Christmas...

The scene is set...

A few more of our Hallowe'en decorations. Hallowe'en gives me a chance to be theatrical and childish. 

                         There'll be other years when we can be scary. The princess phase won't last...(we nicked    this idea from Pinterest)

 These are some of my ancestors. I feel a bit guilty using them as Hallowe'en decorations but they look great! (Er, the photographs below, not the skull!)

There's an old gin trap on the mantelpiece. That was a car boot sale find. You can see the Devils picture in the background. Er, and a hairbrush. Actually that's probably the scariest prop in the house at the time being!

Sparkly sign from Wilkinsons

Spider web tablecloth from ebay

Have a good one! Linking up with Faith Hope and Charity shopping

Head injury, head lice and Hallowe'en witch shoes

It's been quite a full on half term already. I was called to my daughters school on Friday afternoon as she'd had a collision with a bench and had a huge egg between her eyes. Poor thing. We went to A&E to get it checked and everyone around us in the waiting room seemed to have gastroenteritis. I wanted to scream at my daughter to not touch anything in there as sick was cleaned off floors all around us. Ugh! I wanted to leave children's A&E and go and sit with the drunks.
Anyway after a few hours we got seen and were sent home with the head injury leaflet and had a thorough hand washing! Her swelling is going down and she has two lovely black eyes. That'll save on face paint on Hallowe'en!
Then yesterday we found head lice. Great. We used the Hedrin once treatment which suffocates everything in 15 mins so you can comb them all out. It is fab! It's a silicone spray and I used it on my dry damaged hair after I'd done my daughter and I reckon my hair sucked up all the silicone as once it was washed it looked fantastic, like I'd straightened it when I hadn't! I think I'm going to use this once in a while, as it's like silicone implants for your hair!
We are now gearing up for the arrival of my dad and my daughters classmates for our Hallowe'en party. I've been stealing ideas off of pinterest!
This one is really cool although I probably haven't done it justice.
Marilyn Girling from Seeing things that aren't really there invented this technique and kindly gave me permission to write about her. Her blog is full of spooky touches and theatrical ideas and I love it.
Here's what we did.

We found some shoes from a charity shop. (They look like new but one has lost the bottom of the heel.)

We stuffed the toes and covered them in papier mache. Apparently yellow pages are better than newspaper as you get a finer surface. But we didn't have any.

We did three layers, the last being white paper. Then I set my daughter to work painting them red. I'm a firm believer in child labour.
Once they were dry I fell over one and broke it and had to start the process again to repair it. This post should have been done last week! (Yes, my daughter gets her clumsiness from me!)
Once they were dry for the second time, We covered them in PVA and red glitter and put stuffed stripey socks into the shoes.
Now, really these legs should be coming out from under the shed but the weather is not being helpful today so we propped them under my daughters bed.

Aren't they fun? We're looking forward to scaring her friends on Wednesday night. We could have made them more authentic with the correct bows on the front but the party goers are 6 years old and I doubt they are movie buffs.
And Marilyn's version is here.
Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

Linking with Carter's Cottage

Home made chalk paint and other adventures...

I love Hallowe'en. In a big way. So when I found this framed print of people in devil costumes by M. de Solar in the charity shop I thought it would be the perfect addition to my Hallowe'en decorations. Only problem was the frame which was a gaudy gold. Not very spooky. So I mixed up some matt black emulsion with plaster of paris dissolved in hot water and painted it without sanding or priming. I'm very impressed with the adhesion. I thought the black might wear off a bit when I waxed it but it hasn't. I think M. de Solar was a costumier in France and complete books of his work go for hundreds of pounds.

Last night whilst watching the X factor it suddenly dawned on me how I could finish off my mannequin seen here, here and here so I dug out this book...

Which has lots of useful styles of calligraphy in chart form for cross stitching like this

and this

and a short while later I came up with this

I explained to my husband I was aiming for the style of vintage French grain sacks and his little eyes glazed over. Bless him.
I'm really pleased I left the bottom of the mannequin cover loose so I could take it off by undoing the lacing!

I found this vintage piece of linen at a flea market, it's a nightie holder I think, but quite holey and I thought I'd turn it into a pretty cushion. But the thing that I didn't like was the yellow of the embroidery. I just thought it would be so much nicer if it were all neutral. So I got some 'Dylon Pre Dye' which bleaches the colour right out of all natural fabrics.
Wow! That stuff stinks! The kitchen smelled like 20 rotting cabbages and my poor husband was threatening to leave as his office is next to the kitchen.
And here is the result

An epic fail. Looks like the yellow is there to stay. And I still get a whiff of cabbage every time I use the washing machine...

In other vintage linen news I got a lovely old mangle cloth from Hitchins Friday flea market in the  more unusual blue colourway. If you don't know, these are what you wrapped your clothes in before you'd put them through the mangle and they're about 3 metres long and make lovely table runners. If I ever unearth the dining table I'll show you how it looks!

The only other cool thing I got this week was this globe lamp for my daughter from a charity shop in town

Yeah, it's wrecking the whole French country vibe I was going for with her room but hopefully it will put a stop to questions like, ''Is England in London?''
And we shall call the room vintage eclectic.

But the most exciting thing of all is that I have finally mastered getting photos and text on my blog exactly where I want them! Finally! ;)

Delighted to be linking with The Rose Garden In Malevik saturday show off.
And  Magpie Monday
And Ta-dah Tuesday at Faith Hope and Charity Shopping 
(My big ta-dah is managing to load the Christmas swap thingy onto my side bar. It only took me 24 hours and invoved me emailing the image to myself, not sure if there's an easier way!?)
And Coastal Charm