Friday, October 30, 2009

Halloween Witches & Books We Love!


Hay-ho for Hallowe'en!
And the witches to be seen,
Some black, and some green,
Hay-ho for Halloween!
~Anon.

Tomorrow is Halloween, but we're not anywhere near ready for it. We were on the road for 3 weeks, driving from California to Illinois to visit family, and along the way, we picked up the swine flu (luckily at the tail end of the trip so we could recover comfortably at home). In any case, it's been a l-o-n-g illness and I realized that we never went to the pumpkin patch to see the scarecrow we made for it, we never picked or carved pumpkins, we never even decorated our house; however, we did read lots of books about fall and Halloween on our road trip and at home.


And over the past two days, I got the urge to needle felt a large witch with purple curly hair and here's how she turned out!


We draped some silks over a 1/2 wall we have and Elena decorated it with the Fall treasures we made by hand this past year...(except for the mini witches from Magic Cabin)...


As far as favorite books, a complete seasonal treasure and one of my absolute favorites is "A Time to Keep: Book of Holidays" by Tasha Tudor. I had forgotten all about this book, but on my trip to Chicago, I spotted a copy from 1977 that was hand signed by Tasha Tudor, made out to my sister, Caroline! (Yes, Car it's still at Mom's house!!!) I am in awe that my mom had waited in line at a book signing for some of Tasha's amazing work.

Of course, I had to buy my own copy and here is an illustration from the October section:

I am also so partial to Tasha Tudor's work, because she LOVES corgi's and they are always in her illustrations. We are corgi owners/lovers, as well.

Anyway, some of the other books we have read this fall in preparation for the season are:

- "Woody, Hazel and Little Pip" by Elsa Beskow
- "Autumn Story" Brambly Hedge series by Jill Barklem
- "The Little Scarecrow Boy" by Margaret Wise Brown
- "Tops and Bottoms" by Janet Stevens
- "Autumn Leaves" by Ken Robbins
- "Pumpkin Light" by David Ray
- "Pumpkin Soup" by Helen Cooper

Tomorrow, we're heading to Grandma & Grandpa's house to Trick or Treat! Luckily, the girls want to go as bats, like last year, the wings were hand sewn by our crafty Grandma :D

And I'm hoping that Daddy will bring home some turnips for us to carve into lanterns for the big trick or treat fest! If he succeeds, I will post pictures of them asap.

Happy Hallow's Eve to you all!

2 comments:

  1. Goodness, I suppose it is common enough in Waldorf circles, but I feel like I have almost found a kindred spirit!

    Your blog is really beautifully put together and interesting to read.

    Tasha Tudor is who I want to be when I grow up, we get this particular book out at the beginning of each month or holiday season, it really is lovely. I often write about our "hearth"/fireplace as the warm heart of our home. Our farm will be in France, we'll be taking a preliminary look at some next summer when we go. Of course, we homeschool, blog about it and have the same background pattern for it, sigh, and I thought I might be original!

    So glad I stopped by! Keep up the writing.

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  2. I just love that holiday book...forgot all about it from my older daughters (there are 12 years between them and my son!)Thank you for reminding me what a treasure it is.

    I like Needle felted witch's skirt...so full and mysterious. I wonder what she has hidden under it ;-)

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