Shivers of Delight

Tomorrow morning my husband and I jump in the car and head out to Marshall, Michigan for the Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween art show. I am so EXCITED!  If you're going this year too, make sure you look for me and say hi! I'll be at the early buy part of the show at 8am, and I'll be wearing my new, bright orange, Halloween Witch dress- if I can wear my pumpkin shoes, I'll have those on too. This show really kicks off the season for me and believe me when I say it is magical. To be surrounded by such amazing Halloween artists all in one place is awesome, but add in the beautiful booths and you'll be in spooky heaven. If you haven't been before, make sure it's on your bucket list. Keep an eye on my Instagram account for photos of my trip. I hope to see you there!

What's the scariest hour of Halloween? It's not midnight or even 3AM. It's not the hour when your trick-or-treat candy is about to run out and you see a busload of kids pull into your driveway- although that ranks up there.  No, the scariest hour of Halloween for me is the hour before our Halloween party is about to begin. Ask my husband; he'll tell you. He gets really nervous as that hour gets closer. He tries to stay at least 8 feet away from me and gives me sly, worried, sidelong glances. He gets very quiet. One hour before the official start of our party I turn into a panicked maniac. I'm like a cross between a mad scientist and a werewolf. Simultaneously throwing food and alcohol around and biting the heads off anyone trying to help who cannot read my mind. My stomach is in my chest and my heart is in my throat.  What are you doing? Fan those slices of cheese! No the cookie tray is all wrong! Alternate colors for gods sake! Who put these napkins here! Turn the ...

It's not like I haven't tried several times before over the years, but each time I thought I found a way to easily document my Halloween art collection it failed. If you've been collecting Halloween art for a few years, I'm sure it has crossed your mind that you really should be writing down information about what you've purchased. I've been collecting for many years, and every time I thought about documenting the collection my eyes glazed over.  My first attempt at least four years ago was to use an app called Sortly. I love Excel spreadsheets and thought that an app might work well for me. I could take a picture with my phone and enter the info about the piece right into the app. There was also a variety of folders you could use and at first it seemed great. But after about 2 weeks, I realize that while it was useful it wasn't easy for me to just look something up quickly and I soon stopped using it. I had to pay for a yearly subscription and after a year ...