quiet halloween

Not a single child showed up at our door for Halloween.

I suppose I have to accept the fact that, although there are many children in the neighborhood, we're just not going to get kids coming to our apartment door in the city the way we used to when we lived in a townhouse in the suburbs. Our holiday was pretty quiet as a result, but we did have a little celebration with frozen appetizers (shhh) and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. They're topped with the fun Halloween cupcake toppers I received a few weeks ago.

I've been quiet since my little trip since I'm a little under the weather. I caught allergies that developed into a sinus infection which has left me tired and listless, especially since it also spread to the husband...we are sickly little buns at the moment! I do have a bunch of things saved up I can't wait to share, however, and hopefully will be easing back into the blogosphere soon.

A cool Halloween package arrived a few days ago, painted black and covered in spooky spider webs, as well as chock-full of fun items. I really enjoy receiving things that other people make or give me a little glimpse into my partner's life, so this one was really fun to open.

I especially liked the photographs that ICNTECHINICOLOR sent that she took in negative mode of the Sheldon Church in Beaufort, South Carolina. Apparently it's been destroyed twice, once by the British during the Revolutionary War and then again by the Union Army during the Civil War. The church is still used for weddings and other special events, and I'm sure when it's not in spooky-camera-mode it's very beautiful!

There was a tissue pack, a paper pad, a glittery dark wand, a card, a little packet of stamped mini envelopes, a papery pendant, and more, all individually wrapped in black and orange tissue paper.

I also really liked the vintage-image postcard and and ATC she included--my very first time seeing an artist trading card in person, actually! Everything was really fun, though, and I'm lucky to have had such a creative and generous partner.

more halloween cupcake toppers

Received from Stevie over at Crafty Cupcake: one set of super cute cupcake toppers, made with copies of vintage Halloween images! I sent my toppers out last week, and was excited to receive this little packet in return. I just love when swap partners take the time to look over my profile and tailor their craft to my likes, as Stevie certainly did here.

The images really pop with all the warm colors and the cats and pumpkins and kids, and I really love how much thought went into this. Thanks so much Stevie!

pumpkin plushie

Sometimes when you send a cupcake out into the world...you receive a pumpkin in return! It's funny, but it's true.

This little guy was made for me by Crafty Hamster on swap-bot, and I especially like the patterning of the leaves (looks just like a fringe of hair!) and his funny little green stump. He fits rather nicely into the palm of my hand, and he is the very first (and perhaps one of the very few) of the Halloween decorations to make it into the house this year. I think he's pretty darned cute.

halloween packages

Two dreadful packages will be departing from the honeybee household this week: spooky, spooky mail and Halloween cupcake toppers.

Halloween is such a fun holiday, and we used to throw lots of parties and decorate like mad. We've toned it down a bit in the last few years just because it's been so busy and we have to pull everything out of storage. But this year I'm compensating by having a ball with mailing decorated packages instead.


For the first swap, I put together a parcel of spooky Halloween goodies that included:

-- decorated and embossed straws
-- tea-dyed "destroyed" tags that were stamped + glittered
-- stamped mini Trick or Treat tags
-- a ghastly postcard with scary movie suggestions
-- a recipe
-- a spidery pad
-- stickers
-- a little tin of vintage Halloween images
-- candy
-- and a few other fun items.

I decorated the bubble envelope with tons of stickers, stamped images, and black skull CAUTION tape from the Martha Stewart 2010 Halloween collection.

The second package was also really fun to do. The last cupcake toppers swap got such a great response that I had to hold another one, this time with a Halloween theme.

My partner is actually Rachel, the wonderful founder of Swap-Bot, and I made two sets of Halloween cupcake toppers for her using images from Martha's Halloween stamps. For the candy ones (and for the decorated straws above), I used the MSL heating tool to emboss each topper, which created a cool and shiny raised effect. (By the way, I've tried to use a hair dryer to do this...it doesn't work. The tool is very easy to use and the images set fairly quickly.) I also included a set of 6 Halloween invitations that I stamped and packaged up in a glassine envelope.

I hope both partners enjoy getting their Halloween packages! They were lots of fun to make.