Bird is the Word

I like Halloween a whole bunch.  Don't get me wrong, it doesn't hold a candle to Christmas as far as I'm concerned, but it's still a lot of fun.  This neighborhood we live in is totally packed with small children.  And every year, legions of them knock on our doors and demand candy (very politely).  They're so cute that it's hard not to oblige them.

Since Mr. Right and I live in the same neighborhood, but not the same house, we bounce back and forth from year to year.  This year we did his house, and left a sign on my door that said:

We're at (Mr. Right's address)
Come over and say the Secret Password
For an extra treat.
The password is...
BOOGER!

I can't tell you how much fun it is to answer the door and have cutely costumed little kids yelling, "Booger!" at you.  Pretty awesome, that.  And special thanks to our friend A for coming up with the password on the fly. 

For several years now, I've had a copy of Martha Stewart's Halloween magazine (I think it might be from 2005) that featured these really cool backlit bird silhouettes as window decorations.  I had all of the required materials, but was really intimidated by the instructions, so much so that every year I'd haul it out, look at all of it and put it away.  But this year, we finally took the plunge.

The instructions have a grid (about 2" x 3") with a bird design printed in the magazine.  The idea is for you to recreate the grid at a much larger scale, then draw the design one block at a time.  Right.  I am a lousy drawer (one who draws, not what you pull out of your dresser... is that even a word?), so this part left me kind of skeptical.  But I figured now or never, so we pressed on.

I enlisted Mr. Right and A to make 6" x 6" grid patterns on black weed blocker material (they're engineers -- this is their wheelhouse), while I knelt on the kitchen floor and drew birds.  For 2 1/2 hours.  On hardwood.  Owwie.  I'm sporting some serious bruises on my knee bones, but it was totally worth it.

We didn't finish until about 6 o'clock, but I'm super happy with the way it turned out.  We also scanned, enlarged and printed and cut out giant bird footprints which we glued to the driveway and porch leading up to the window.

In all the crafty frenzy, we totally forgot to carve our pumpkins. Talk about lame.  Fortunately, I had a couple of fake, plug-in jack-o-lanterns that did the trick.  And now we have pumpkins for Thanksgiving decorations.  Bonus!

In addition to candy, we handed out trick-or-treat packs of play-doh that were a huge hit with the neighborhood kids.  Parents thought they were pretty cool, too.  And it turns out that Mr. Right is also a fan of the play-doh.  Who knew he was such an artiste!

And now, I'm headed off to ice my knees...