Halloween 2021 Wrap Up

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween season.  I know Halloween has been over for nearly two weeks now, but I thought it would be fun to give you a little window into what Halloween looked like for Brian and me.  Let's start with our day-of costumes.

I went as a scarecrow.  I put together a look similar to this one during October of 2020 (I dress up all throughout October) and liked it so much that I wanted to make it my Halloween day look this year.  Since Brian and I do a couples costume for Halloween day, I needed a corresponding costume for Brian, and I thought a crow would be the perfect counterpart.

This was another costume idea that originated in October 2020.  If you've seen my 15 Halloween Costumes from My Closet post, you may recall that I included a scarecrow and crow couples costume as a bonus idea.  That time, the crow look was fairly simplistic, essentially just a black paper cone beak.  This year, I wanted to make Brian a crow mask.  I freehanded some feathery shapes on black felt and came up with this design.  I'm planning on including the crow mask template and directions in my Halloween 2022 lineup, so if you like this mask and want to make one of your own, keep your eyes out around August or September of next year.  I'll probably include a scarecrow makeup tutorial then as well.

Now let's turn to decorating.

I didn't do a lot of decorating this Halloween season, but I did deck out the front lawn a little to spread some holiday cheer.  When I was little, my dad used to have us paint pumpkins as opposed to carving them because carved pumpkins rot faster.  Also, no pumpkin guts to contend with if you paint.  Last year, I ended up painting a pumpkin for our doorstep as part of a Halloween challenge, and I had enough fun with it that I wanted to try it again this year.

I had this idea of painting a silhouetted nighttime cemetery scene.  I don't really do a ton of art, so I was kind of expecting this to go disastrously, especially since I just kind of winged it.  But I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

The other piece of my Halloween setup was my cemetery.  This is my favorite Halloween setup each year.  Six of the headstones I carved myself, and I have tutorials here, here, here, here, and here if you'd like to see how I made them.  It has a special place in my heart, and if I could only set up one thing for Halloween each year, this would be it.

We decided to set out premade Halloween goodie bags again this year.  We placed them in the graveyard this time around and once again, they were a big hit.  We only had four left over at the end of the night.  Even if things are safer next year, I'm thinking about putting the treats outside.  Not everyone likes being social or feels comfortable interacting with strangers, and some folks may worry about being judged for being "too old" to trick-or-treating.  If more people are able to enjoy Halloween this way, I'm all for it.

Let's move on to the treat bags themselves for a sec.

Since we've started making treat bags, I like to include a mix of chocolate, non-chocolate, and non-candy options.  That way, hopefully there's something for everyone.  Here's a look at some of the candy.

And here are some of the non-candy treats.  Aren't they adorable?  I had to keep reminding myself that these were for the trick-or-treaters, not for me.

We also made an instructional sign, since the bags did blend in a bit with the leaves.  I used one of the free templates in Canva, and it took me under five minutes to make.

Here's a close up on the sign.

And that's a wrap!  Hopefully you enjoyed this little tour of our Halloween setup.  I know it wasn't as elaborate as it has been in the past, but hopefully next year I'll be a little less busy and also have the motivation of a Halloween party again.  Also, Halloween is not a one-day affair in our household, so even though I didn't have as much of a setup, I still celebrated all through October with spooky costumes and outfits as well as spooky reads.  And editing my horror novel, which I'm *almost* done with, for now.

How did you celebrate Halloween?  Are you missing Halloween, or are you ready to move on to other holidays?  Things will be taking a Christmas-y turn on my blog here soon, but if you're looking for more Halloween content, I post almost exclusively Halloween content August through October.  Sometimes May through October if I have a spooky-themed birthday party.