Halloween spooky season

It's officially Spooky season, which means one thing only.. Go wild with all things decor from front door wreaths garden decortions pumpkins skulls anything spooky, costumes, parties, you name it Halloween allows you to express your inner wild child.

What do you envision Halloween being ? Do you have any memories from a young child ?

I love the concept of Halloween, from being a little child I remember going to my cousins house. We would all be in bin liners for capes, and have the plastic witch masks hats ans fake fingers. The estate she lived on had some really good houses that went all out for Halloween, it was like stepping into 'Halloween town' or this is what I visioned it to be like.

Yes that's right it was back in the 90's there was actually places that celebrated Halloween like the Americans, people would be having Halloween parties, and answering the doors all dressed up, I remember a man and wife always dressed up as devils.
So Halloween was embedded in me from an early age. Looking back now while writing this blog... I am actually thinking maybe my love for all things American actually runs deeper than I first thought.

The History behind Halloween

Halloween is seen as an American culture, but did you know that the origin of Halloween actually comes from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, people would wear their own costumes and light bonfires to warn off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honour all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.

Do you ever wonder...

Where did the whole aspect of Halloween we know today start?. Who was the first child to go knock on the door of a strangers house and ask for ticks or treats.
Like anything else it only takes one clever marketing campaign to sell more of something for it to become a huge tradition each and every year, Halloween is seen in some peoples eyes, as more important than Christmas.

What do you do for Halloween?

For you family, we celebrate by decorating the house up, we don't go over board as I like to add a little more each year to add to my collection. Even though I could go absolutely wild with decorations around the home, for me Christmas is more important.
We usually start 2 week before Halloween, I will change my wreath off the door to my Halloween wreath, which I obviously made myself. Check out my shop if you would like to see more.
link.
Then I like to get the kids crafty with some of my left over materials from my work, last year the kids helped me make a garland for the front door. let say it's made with love.. beautiful love.

We then let the kids pick out there fancy dress costumes, it is me so its usually a rushed job, because I have left it last minute, but the kids are usually happy with what I get them. They do sometimes think I am a millionaire, when it comes to costumes, even though we must have over 30 costumes accumulated up over the year, that they could wear.

Then on Halloween we all go out trick or treating with the kids friends, its quite a big deal around where I live. Each year it seems to get bigger and bigger, the more people that find out it the best place to go Trick or Treating.

Oh I nearly forgot obviously we have to do pumpkin carving the days leading upto Halloween which means another tradition that has only in the last few years become more popular in the UK, and that's pumpkin picking. We love getting muddy pushing a wheelbarrow through the ploughed fields, getting it stuck every 2 metres, to see the joys on our kids faces when they pick up their favourite pumpkin to find they have just put their hands through a rotten one. To get home and start the pumpkin carving, again this is something the kids think I am amazing at dad is much better at it than me. I have in the past done one of these fancy carvings, but having 3 kids screaming at me to do some character they are obsessed with all at once, leads me to do the normally triangle teethed pumpkin.

Then there is the films... I don't particularly like really scary films, I am happy with hocus pocus, Halloween town, haunted mansion, nightmare before Christmas the list goes on but I am sure you get the idea.

One thing on my Halloween bucket list.

Is overlap Halloween at Disneyland Paris with Christmas so I get best of both worlds. We did Disney at Christmas in 2019, and it was amazing, people were saying Halloween is just as magical, in its own spooky way.

DECO MESH

Deco mesh is relatively new to the UK market. It has being around many years with crafters, but it's only recently it has really taken off as a popular item to have in the craft box. Especially for businesses like mine that create decorations and themed seasonal decor. 

Deco mesh is most widely recognised in the United states of America. It is an extremely popular material to have over in the USA, you can find it many craft stores. 

But for us UK citizens, we don't have this luxury, so for us it means we either have to import from america itself, or buy from a small stockist, that imports from america. Which means it can become extremely expensive for us small businesses trying to keep our heads afloat. 

Benefits of Deco Mesh 

1. The majority of deco mesh is waterproof, which makes it an amazing product for indoor and outdoor use. Please bare in mind their is several different types of deco mesh. deco mesh itself is plastic, and can be easily used on most things. But then there is poly deco mesh, poly burlap mesh, and the list goes on.
2. You can cut the mesh and create swirls, to create a feature within the decoration you are making, like the image above. You will need make sure you have a good pair of sharp scissors, if possible fabric scissors as they help to avoid fraying of the fabric.
3. I also have a new way of cutting the mesh and thats with a wood burning tool, this allows the material to bond back together, but please be aware this needs to be done in a ventilated area, and you will need something underneath the material that is fireproof to avoid any damage or worst case a fire. You cannot use a woodburning tool on some of the mesh, for example so the ones with metalic threads running through it will not work affectively. 
4. The colours and patterns you can use are endless, and each season more and more designs are coming out. 
5. The ways in which you use the deco mesh is endless aswell, there are so many different techniques to use with deco mesh, from the ruffle affect, swirls, wirls, but i am not a technical girl. I learn the ways of deco mesh but can never remember the technical terms. 
6. Deco mesh is amaxing for beginners to learn how to be creative with wreath and garland making, as your skills get better, you can advance to the tricker techniques. 
7. Deco mesh wreaths and garlands can last for many years, alsong as they are looked after, once they are out of storage you just need to plump them back up, and fiddle with the mesh to get it looking perfect again. 

Remember there are many different varieties of deco mesh, and the price can vary massively, the majority of the time, if its cheap you will find you have to put more work into getting it to do what you want it to do, it will more than likely fray easier, and in my experiencer you actually use more, because it is more transparent than the more expensive rolls. 

You will only figure this out with experience, and what you prefer to work with, some crafters I know hate deco mesh and cannot use it all. But for me I think it makes the decoration come to life.