Getting our Spook On

It's my favorite time of year again...HALLOWEEN! Here are a few pics from my hauntified front yard:

The metal flower decoration is just something I keep on the door year round. For Halloween I attached some mini rubber skeletons to it. The sign is Martha Stewart from a few years back. I just love how everything pops against my front door, which I painted in Martha Stewart's "Barn Red" last fall.

Aaaaaand of course there are pumpkins and mums in assorted colors. I am so excited about all the varieties of pumpkins you can find now! Although you can't really tell in this picture, the bigger guy on top is the red warty sort (my personal favourite :)).

It's such a simple craft, but my girls spent a good hour making dozens of these jack-o'-lanterns to decorate our front windows. I love how creative they got!

Last weekend we went to Dollarama and I gave the girls ten bucks each to pick out whatever Halloween lawn decorations they wanted. Now there are gory body parts, skeletons and grave markers dotting our lawn. My fav dollar store find is this seven-foot spook.

How do you decorate for Halloween? Do you keep it sophisticated and restrained or do you go all out? I would love to see your pics! Upload them to The Hydeout's Facebook page...and in the meantime, I leave you with this photo of the hairy dude who appears to have taken up permanent residency on my front swing. Happy-Howl-o-ween!

Chalkboard Wall

Do you have an eyesore in your house that burns your retinas every time you look at it, but you just don't know what to do about? Believe me, I have several, but I finally came up with a solution for one of them. I am a firm believer in first impressions, and the first impression guests were treated to at my house wasn't as stellar as it could be. Oh, there are a lot of things that could be improved about our entryway, but the thing that bugged me the most was the 8' oak kitchen cabinetry panel that is parallel with our front door.

Before

You might say, what's the big deal? And, honestly, you would be right. But I am not one for bare walls, and this expanse of bare wood in a finish I never would've picked for myself was just begging for a makeover.

So what does a girl with no less than five chalkboards or chalkboard-styled pieces of art in her house do? Why turn this eyesore into another chalkboard, of course! I know you've seen this done many a time before on HGTV and Pinterest, but chalkboard walls are really handy. Now I can change up my greetings with the holidays, post menus for all the gourmet dinner parties I host (uh, yeah, like that's going to happen), and leave notes for family members in a pinch.

After

All you need to transform a wall into a chalkboard is some Rust-Oleum Specialty Chalkboard Paint (it even comes in different colors), and some latex-based primer. I did one coat of primer and two coats of paint. Not bad for an afternoon project! What do you think? Are chalkboard walls here to stay or are they a trend that will look as dated as stencil borders in a couple of years?

Vintage Toys

When you go to someone else's house for the first time, what is the one thing that makes you feel most at home? For me it's that sighting of a vintage toy. I am a kid at heart. And I love, love to decorate with kids' art, kids' books and kids' toys (the vintage kind, that is...you won't find me lining my mantle with my daughter's Beanie Boo collection any day soon ;)).

The best toys in my opinion are the ones I grew up with in the 70s and 80s. They don't make 'em like this anymore:

At my old house in Toronto, I used to have a curio cabinet filled with part of my vintage toy collection. I would like to do the same thing at this house, but first I want to refinish the old cabinet. I'm thinking of painting it with Miss Mustard Seed's milk paint in Grain Sack or Flow Blue (www.missmustardseedsmilkpaint.com/colors/)...stay tuned for that blog post!

When it comes down to it, though, I believe that toys should be played with, not kept behind glass so they can one day be sold to finance that Winnebago. My almost-five and seven-year-old are allowed to play with all my treasures...but if I come home to find they've given all my Strawberry Shortcake dolls Mohawks, well, let's just say if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody gonna be happy ;)

Here are some of my favorite toys from when I was growing up. Recognize any of these?

Original 1980s Strawberry Shortcake Dolls

1970 Barbie Country Camper. Look who stopped by for a S'more...it's Jimmy Osmond in the sparkly silver pantsuit!

The Barbapapas

What were some of your favorite toys from your childhood? Leave a comment, or post a photo of your favs on The Hydeout's Facebook page...I would love to hear from you!