Witch's Lair Dead Ahead!

Attic Gal Rachelle says:

I was feeling WITCHY, so I decided to pull out my Halloween decor and create my witches' lair. Now I am feeling much more comfortable.

Come inside... if you dare.

Near the front is our family graveyard with bones strewn among the headstones. Inside the gate is a stack of pumpkins and a recent addition, a smoldering cauldron that my kids can't get enough of.

Another new addition to the family, a wayward witch who landed head-first in an urn. My kids saw the idea in a magazine, and begged me to copy it. I already had the witch socks. The legs were just poles wrapped with bath towels. I found the shoes at a garage sale. The were black suede, but the soles were light, so I spray painted them with a shimmering metallic black paint. Perfect! I think they are hilarious.

A chair on the front porch invites guests to have a seat that is already occupied by a pumpkin, a crow, and a tangle of barbed wire. Very welcoming, don't you think?

A friendly spider meets you in the entryway.

The sentimental witch has a wall with photos of all of her long departed family members.

On the opposite wall is the witches' mudroom where she can hang up her cape and broom after a long night in flight. Above it are silhouettes of her and her sisters, Hilda and Hazel. Lovely.

I simply spray painted some old oval frames and freehanded some witch silhouettes on black paper and cut them out.

A banner announces "Spooky" as if you didn't know already.

After my ascension to the top of Notre Dame, I have a new-found love for gargoyles. Such cuddle creatures. They watch over my witches lair, but these ones keep the evil spirits in, not out. Nestled among them are black and white photos I took in an ancient cemetery in France. I put the in the silver frames that hold my family pictures the rest of the year.

Also to greet you in the entryway is my favorite headless hanging friend draped in strips of cloth. Out of the corner of my eye I keep thinking someone is standing there. When i found her at a garage sale, I knew she would be perfect for Halloween.

Also in the hallway are a pair of ravens. We painted an old birdcage black and made one of them his own little flag. Quoth the Raven: "NEVERMORE'." Caw, caw, caw.

On the dining room table, a witch has been concocting her powerful potions and secret serums

while a few of her feathered and furry friend look on from above. One of my kids put them there to be funny, but I think the black creatures look great against the stark red and white, so they are staying (at least for the rest of the month. They will be gone by Christmas, I promise.)

I am a big fan of the holey gauze drape cloths that you can hang on everything to make it all super creepy. Something is too cheery to fit into the spooky theme? Just drape it is this stuff. Done. Instant creeps!

And it also helps to have a whole bunch of little grey mice running around the dining room table...

and some big fat cockroaches, of course. And every witch needs a skull with ruby eyes (the rubies were an addition for my twins' Indiana Jones birthday party a few years back. Now I can't imagine him without them.)

The living room doubles as the witches' study. She is quite cultured and has the masterpiece The Moaning Lisa.

The witch's spell library and the candelabra she uses to read them by.

More gauze cloths on the curtains. And the witch's black cat sit atop a stack of old luggage anxious for a trip to Salem. Wonder how she gets that luggage on the broom anyway?

So that is the witch's lair. I think I say this every holiday, but decorating for Halloween is my favorite - at least it is the most fun (plus, you don't have to dust for a whole month!) It really gives me the chance to get creative and silly, and tap into my dark side. (insert cackling high-pitched evil laugh here.)

Boo!

Attic Gal Rachelle says:

I love old stuff, as you know, and when I find something old and cool at a garage sale I have to snap it up and then think of something cool to do with it. Well, while back I came across a box of electrical insulators and I looked at them until I became inspired. They looked like ghosts, so that is what the became. Isn't he cute?

Then, once my imagination was chugging along, the green insulators looked like Frankensteins to me. It took a bit more artistry, but the results are darling. The bolts are actually silver pushpins with the pins removed. (A stroke of genius, I know!)

Another version. Not sure which I like better.

I also took an old rolling pin with black handles and wrapped it with strips of muslin to make a mummy. The eyes are just tucked in and glued and the arms are just a single strip of muslin with a knot tied in the middle. I gave him a pumpkin to hold, and a little spider to keep him company. So easy. So cute.

I love my mummy.

What spooky creatures can you make out of the old stuff you have?

Homey Goodness

I think most people really enjoy the feeling that the fall brings. I know I do. It is so nice to see the weather change (for us it is from 120 to maybe 110). Although our weather doesn't change that much and we are still swimming in the pool from time to time, I still love the decorating, the food, the ambiance that fall brings.

Yesterday I came across this:
It's at the Clean Mama blog. What a super idea! There is even a whole check-list of things to do this month that give you the "feel" of the fall - make something with apples, make a stew or soup, figure out a better way to do laundry, etc... I think I'll follow along and see what happens in my own life (and hopefully posting on this blog) this month.

Have a Homey Goodness Month!

Hanoch Piven

Don't you love discovering new things and new people? This summer one of our local libraries hosted a creative workshop by Israeli illustrator and author, Hanoch Piven. He showed the children his colorful and witty illustrations and then had them make their own.

Hanoch Piven has appeared throughout the last fourteen years on both sides of the Atlantic. His work has been featured in most major American magazines and newspapers such as Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone and in many European publications from the London Times to the Swiss Die WeltWoche.

Since our day in the summer, I have purchased most of his books. We love them! In the inside flap of his, What Presidents Are Made Of, it reads, "What do you get when you put the following together?" Then it shows a picture of a peanut, a ladder and an American flag heart. "You get a portrait of former US president Jimmy Carter, who builds houses for the homeless." In this book, Piven uses objects to characterize the presidents. His approach is so different and interesting. Some of his other books are:





Each of these books are educational as well as humorous. I love Piven's take on art and his way of relaying facts.

Does the self-portrait at the top of the page look like the real Hanoch Piven seen below with my kids?

Since attending this event, we have been looking for faces within our surroundings. Garrett, my five year old, helped me find these while walking to our hotel one day this summer.






Do you see faces within your community? What would your self-portrait be made up of if you used objects to portray yourself?

For locals:

The S.C.R.A.P. Gallery will be participating in
Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day
on Saturday, September 25.
Join us from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
at our Studio Scarto at Fiesta Mall in Indio.

A special exhibition, Making Faces: Playful Portraits of People You Know by Hanoch Piven will open as part of the Museum Day's activities.

What? You have never heard of Museum Day? No worries. I haven't heard of it until now. Here is some information:

Museum Day is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian Media in which participating museums across the country open their doors for free to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket. More than 1,000 museums across the country will be participating in this special event.

Next time you have a chance at your local bookstore, library, or surfing the next (www.pivenworld.com) be sure to check out the wonderful and creative world of Hanoch Piven. You'll be amazed.

Wreath Re-Do

Attic Gal Rachelle says:

I have been feeling rather anxious to redecorate lately, not that everything needs to be tossed and started anew, but that I just need a little updating. I have been looking around my house for some things that need tweaking or replacing that will make everything seem fresh again. That was my goal for the summer. Well, summer has come and gone, and I really didn't get to any of those projects. I was feeling pretty bad about that, so I decided, just to make myself feel better, I would at least conquer the one decor element that was looking the most tired - the huge wreath above my family room fireplace.

I like it because it is huge and about the only thing I ever found that was the right scale for that massive stone fireplace that has no mantle. I also liked the fruit because the family room is actually attached to the kitchen where I have I have a series of framed botanical fruit prints that I still really like. And of course, when I hung it up 7 years ago when we bought the house, this wreath was much fresher.

But now it needed to be replaced.

I went to my very favorite home decor store, Tai-Pan Trading (more like a super-duper store!) and looked for something to replace it. Tai Pan is especially known for their beautiful and realistic artificial flowers, and they have very talented florists on staff who can do some incredible things. I saw a few pieces I really loved, but they were either too small for above my fireplace, or were the wrong colors, or were just too formal. I didn't find anything that was just right. And that is a good thing too, because anything that was big enough was in the $350 to thousand dollar range. Ouch!

So I decided to rethink things. I decided that I could use the wreath that I already had and strip it down and start over with new flowers and fruit. It sounded like a good idea, but the one thing that has ALWAYS intimidated me is floral arranging. Just ask Attic Gal Alysa. She will tell you that is the one craft I won't do.

Well, not unless I am desperate enough, I suppose.

So I decided to be brave and go for it. I spent the next 2 hours in Tai Pan picking out flowers and fruit that I thought might work. It was really stressful, because I live 1 1/2 hours away, and they only have a 2 week return policy, so I had better choose correctly, because it wasn't like I could run back for something else. That's why it took me 2 hours. Geez.

So today I got up the courage to do the big wreath re-do. I tore the old grapes and junk off the big grapevine wreath, and started playing around with the stuff I bought. I was sure not to wire or glue anything down until I had it just how I liked it.

I actually didn't take very long once I finally got the guts to get started. That hard part was definitely picking the flowers out at the store.

And here it is!

I chose lemons and olives to still use the fruit theme, and to go along with the sort of Italian/French feel in my yellow kitchen. And I chose poppies because they seem very informal to me with their furry crooked stems and bright colors, since it is an informal family room.

I'm sure anyone with a trained eye for floral arranging would find a million things wrong with it, but who cares? I like it and I think it really brightens up the room!

The picture doesn't do it justice. It is big and beautiful and looks pretty terrific in that space.

So, for under $100 I was able to re-do an old, worn out wreath rather than spending many times that on a professional arrangement. Cool.

The important thing is that I did it. I was brave enough to buy the supplies and try my hand at something I was convinced I could never do.

Is there some kind of craft that intimidates you, that you have always thought you couldn't do? I encourage you to rethink that. Try your hand at something new.

Be brave.

Window to My World!

Attic Gal Rachelle says:

I love old windows!!! I can never pass up a cool old window when I find one at a garage sale. I always think of cool projects I can do with them. Well, the time finally came to stop thinking about the projects and actually get them done. This is what I have been working on lately that has kept me so busy and away from this blog:

My dining room had this little niche tucked into the corner that was pretty much useless.

I took some of my treasured old windows to a cabinet maker who built this right into the niche!

Now the space is very usable and very, very cool! I painted the cabinet white, but left the windows on top the original finish because I loved the patina of the old wood. Then I painted the inside of the cabinet a tomato red to show off my milk glass collection.

The bottom door is the window from the first picture on this post. I wasn't so crazy about that wood, so I painted it and added some antique crystal knobs that I also found out saleing.

I absolutely LOVE how it came out!!!

In another corner of the dining room I had the same cabinet maker build a corner cabinet to display some of my very favorite large milk glass pieces. I carefully painted it white. I am so glad I got up the nerve to paint the inside red because it really make my milk glass POP!

In the entryway, right next to the dining room, we had some wood pillars built and I painted them white.

When we bought this house it had no moldings whatsoever - not ever baseboards! The builder told us it was a high-end desert look. Ridiculous. I love moldings and so we have been adding more and more woodwork since we moved in 7 years ago - baseboards, crown molding, bead board, and pillars. I love the look, and this archway is really the crowing piece!!!

And of course we integrated another old window into the design!

These projects took all summer, but they are finally done, and those windows are now fabulously on display instead of stacked in the garage.

Finishing projects like this gives me more motivation to go out and find more cool stuff that I can "someday" do something with because I know that someday will actually come.

Now you go out and do a project that you have been thinking about. The rewards will be worth it!