Hallowe'en Decorating

Last year, Nebalee found the coolest Hallowe'en craft that we were unable to do, because finding pool noodles in Colorado in October is practically impossible. However, this year, I stumbled across some at the Dollar Store, and snatched up enough to make both of us the gothic candle craft that we couldn't make last year.

All it took was $20 in pool noodles, $5 in spray paint, $5 in black ceramic plates to act as bases for Nebalee's, and $83 solar tea lights. Yes, you read that right, eighty-three dollars! So much for a cheap craft, lol. The solar tea lights are worth it, because of the time saved in not having to turn on and off all of the tea lights if they were battery-operated. To me, it's worth it to not have to waste time remembering to go out and turn on twenty lights, then turn them off in the morning.

I knew I wanted two sets to put at the end of Whimsy' archway, and two sets to put into Maggie's gothic bird cages, plus two sets for Nebalee's house. The first thing I did when I got home was to cut them in staggered heights, then tape them together so I could glue them.

All taped and ready for gluing.

For a smart person, sometimes I'm not so smart. Do you know that hot glue and foam pool noodles don't play well together? If I'd stopped for three seconds and thought about it, I might have picked up some glue when I picked up the pool noodles. I finally figured out a way to make the hot glue and the foam pool noodles play nicely enough to stick together. Jay then added some wood glue (the only glue we had at the time) around the top, and let it run down so it would look like melting wax once painted.

Wood glue on foam takes forever to try, and I impatiently waited until it was "dry enough" to take outside and paint.

Once they were all painted and dried, I took them to their assigned spots. I wired the two for Whimsy to her arch, since I knew the winds would blow them away if I didn't. I mean, if the wind can blow down a whole outhouse, my foam gothic candles wouldn't stand a chance. With them in place, I again had to wait for the tea lights to be delivered. And then I had to wait until I had time to go add them to the candles.

The tea lights didn't fit down inside the hole of the pool noodles, so some creative carving was required, which was messy and time consuming, but so worth it!

The first night, I only had time
to carve holes in one set of candles.

But look at how amazing these are!

It took a week after the first tea lights were installed to get the rest installed. Digger and the Gremlin were over the night I was carving and installing the rest of the tea lights and I basically just ignored them in my quest to complete the project. I think they'll forgive me.

I love them in the gothic birdcages,
and they're protected from the wind.

I realized that my candelabra would go very nicely on the shelves I moved into Maggie, so I moved it from the potting bench over to the shelves. Those tapers are battery operated, so they only get turned on for "special occasions", i.e. when I feel like walking out and turning them on.

Last month, Jay had won a gold skull in a game, and he thought it would be great in Whimsy, if I added a tea light to it. He's right - it would look amazing in Whimsy, but once I moved the candelabra to the window shelf, I decided that the skull needed to go there, too. Since we live on an old farm, "treasures" resurface every spring, and I've been collecting them. This year's treasures included a lot of animal bones, so I made a temporary wreath of rib bones for the base of the skull.

I just love the way this all came together. Yes, Maggie is a bit lopsided, with the candelabra and skull in one window, but I still love it. There's still time, I might find something to go in the other window before Hallowe'en. This is honestly the first time I'm disappointed that we never have any trick or treaters.

This just makes me so happy. <grin>