Halloween 365

Hi everyone!  I haven't blogged in a few days!  I must have been busy arguing with my neighbors and drinking wine.  But I am so, so happy to be blogging right now!

In my house we are truly a Halloween 365 Household.  Meaning we use and embrace the holiday and all that comes with it all year round.  I have Halloween decorations that stay up year round, but not only that.  The things we love here in my house are distinctly Halloween-y. 

It helps to live in The Halloween Capital of the World, Anoka, MN (despite my stupid neighbors and all the people who voted for Michele Bachmann).  No matter what day or month it is, whenever you driver in to Downtown Anoka you are greeted with this:

These assortated ghouls live on the back of Anoka Drug.  A pharmacy in Anoka that only the elderly use, from what I can determine.  This mural is fairly new.  It used to be a witch flying over the shadow of the moon with "The Halloween Capital" painted underneath her, but I guess they felt she was outdated and needed to spruce up the mural.  Personally, I find this particular mural both cheesy and accurate.  On each side of the rivers in Anoka live all kinds of creepy types. Mostly drunks from the various bars.  

Inside my Anoka home however, we use all sorts of things that one would only associate with Halloween and ghouls and that type of thing.  Especially when it comes to my daughter, Violet, and her things.  Yesterday we went to Toys R Us and I came across the display of Name Cups.  You know, the personalized cups with Kayla and Kenzie and Brooklyn and every other trendy name you can think of.  Of course there was no Violet (just like there is never anything that says Roxy or Roxanne....I know your pain, baby girl.) So instead I bought her this:

I'm a little obsessed with this cup.  It has monsters on it and not ever remotely Halloween time!

The bat detailing on the side really sold me on it.  I washed it and gave it to Violet this morning filled with water.  Which she promptly spilled all over the place.  Oh well.

I got to thinking, "How much other stuff of Violet's have I bought just because it's something I like?" (answer: everything, since she is only 16 months old and yet to verbalize any opinion she has formed.)  I searched around in her toys and came across these:

The Count, of course!  Technically I bought this since Violet is a biter (we are trying to transition out of this stage as soon as possible since I am afraid to hug her sometimes) and Elmo is the living worst.  And my sister already co-opted Cookie Monster for her daughter and we didn't want to be copycats.  Plus, the Count is a counting vampire, he kind of belongs to us.  The paint job in my kitchen is kind of going to shit, isn't it?

  Yes, yes, this is the plush version of Frankie Stein from the Monster High line of dolls.  My husband was instant on buying her one for Christmas and I let him.  Violet isn't terribly keen on this particular doll, I think it's the yarn hair.  She also came with some sort of ugly dog with X's for eyes but I think our real dog has now made him one of is own toys, which is fine since that dog was kind of gross.

Like I mentioned before, I am a stay-at-home mom most of the time, but I also do daycare for my niece Evie four days a week.  Well, the girls are now both over a year old and they are both really getting in to books instead of just using them as teething objects.  This is their current favorite:

I bought this book at Barnes and Noble during the Halloween seasons last year for Violet and we find ourselves returning to it again and again.  It is very cute little picture book and the illustrations are very Tim Burton-esque:


   

The story is about a little girl who gets gifts from her "Mummy" all 13 nights of Halloween.  Of course, the witches are my favorite:

11 Witches!  How 'bout that!

Now aside from all the things that I get my daughter that pertain to my interest, I also have a few Halloween-y things I keep out all year round that I use.  For example, the Halloween Quilt I made a few years ago with the help of my Quilting Extraordinaire Mother-In-Law (seriously, I have never sworn so much in my life than I did making this thing.):

 I love my Halloween Quilt and busted my ass making it.  So you are going to have to look at a few more pictures of it.  Here it is close-up:

There are about six different fabric patterns in this baby.  And that's only the front!  Here is the back:

And:

I love the back.  I would have made a whole quilt of just the backing, but as I learned during this process....I hate sewing machines.  And sewing.

Along with my vast collection of witches I also have the occasional random Halloween type knick-knack hanging around my house.  Like my Corpse Bride figurines and my Munster Barbies:

I love my Munster Barbies so very much.  My Mom gave them to me as a Christmas present one year and now they are worth nearly 200 dollars!  But that's not why I love them, I love them because I love Barbies and I especially love collectable Barbies (which I drooled over at Toys R Us yesterday, a feminist like me, I know!)  Also, did you guys hear that Eddie Izzard was cast as the new Granpa Munster in The Munsters re-boot called "Mockingbird Lane"?  Now I am going to have to watch it because I love Eddie Izzard!  Bastards!

These guys live in our upstairs TV room, along with this candle that is currently melting on one of the Halloween dishes my sister got my from Hallmark:

I have several Halloween-themed dishes that are used year round.  Mostly, my coffee cups:

Technically, this is Jim's coffee cup, but since he doesn't drink coffee I use it.

And of course:

My Anoka Halloween mug!  This was actually a gift from the Anoka County Historical Society for volunteering there.  It was filled with ghost-shaped suckers and various other candies that I readily ate.

Also:

My black cat mug!  I actually used this one this morning and took it out of the dishwasher for the purpose of this blog so that explains why it looks dirty and gross.  It is currently back in the dishwasher.

I enjoy surrounding myself with Halloween all year 'round.  Halloween is the best time of the year!  And my part-time gig working at Party Papers, the haunted costume shop in Anoka, certainly doesn't hurt either!  I worked there last Thursday, and no, we didn't have any incidents with our resident ghost, Morris, but some drunk guy came in and stumbled around and acted like a weirdo.  So, there is that. 

Anoka has a lot of drunk people at any time of day, any day of the week.  Have you noticed this pattern?  It really is a great town though.