Halloween Swap

Just a very quick post, as I am soooo busy at the moment.  I was very late in putting my name down for Kimberly's September swap, I had somehow missed the original post. So the first thing I had to make after we got back, was the set of Halloween tags for the swap. Lol, oh the frustration! I know that Halloween is way more popular in the States, but I thought that I would at least be able to get some Halloween themed papers, stickers etc locally without resorting to the internet. Nope. Nada. Silch. And there was no time to order off the internet.

I didn't even have any plain orange paper, but I did have some scrunched up orange tissue paper an Etsy purchase had been wrapped in ( tehehe, thank goodness that I save just about everything ). I glued it to some paper so that I could run it through the printer. I used Glossy Accents on some of the  cut out images, like the cat and the skull, tinted the little witch green, and used some black lace and orange ribbons.  I also made a little orange bead dangle for each tag. I was surprised that I managed to find a few orange bits and pieces in my stashes, even though orange really isn't a favourite colour of mine.

I made five, only very slightly different tags -

If you are in the States, you still have time to enter the swap on Kimberly's blog. Tags are due Oct. 1, 2012.

Toodlepip xxx

No pumpkin pics

I grew up in Germany, mumble mumble years ago, and Halloween celebrations as we have them these days were totally unheard of then. Allerheiligen (Allsaints) on 1st Nov. and Allerseelen (Allsouls) on 2nd Nov., were very religious festivals, sombre affairs remembering the dead. The Florists started preparing weeks beforehand, making arrangements like these -

My grandmother used to work for the local florist and spent many hours in the basement of the shop making these wonderful arrangements, and I spend many happy hours helping her.

Then we would all go the graveyard, place our floral arrangements on the graves, light candles in coloured little pots like these -

and although it was a time for quiet contemplation, remembering our loved ones, very peaceful and quite serene in a way, it was also quite a social occasion, as one would of course meet many other family members. Even as a small child, I was not scared of going to the graveyard, it was somehow like going to church, with all those people and candles around, and it was quite beautiful really.
( All the above photos are courtesy of Google Images )

When I was thinking about what to post on Halloween, not having any halloweeny/pumpkin pics of my own, I remembered some photographs I had taken earlier this year at a craft fair. It was held in the gardens of a beautiful mansion

In order to get to the gardens to set up though, we had to go the back way, past the church you can see in the background and through the graveyard, and I was fascinated by the beautiful old gravestones.

I spent a few minutes after the fair taking some pictures, and today seems like a good opportunity to share them with you. They are not ghoulish in any way, I just love the beautiful designs on them, and the way the years, moss and lichen have softened them and created patterns of their own -

These two angels were facing each other on the gravestone. Weatherworn and timeworn, it was very hard to make them out, but I thought they were quite wonderful -

I only had few minutes, so unfortunately I didn't get a chance to go all round the church, or have a look inside. But this wonky little side door did catch my eye -


Enjoy whichever way you are going to spend this weekend! xx