Día de los Muertos

This year for Halloween I was a Day of the Dead skeleton bride. 90% of the costume was the makeup, which I thought turned out fabulous. I used Tulip brand face paint, which was wonderful! Great coverage, went on easy, stayed dry (with baby powder), and washed off clean at the end of the night. I used Tulip brand rhinestones and skin glue - which also stayed on perfectly. (No, I am not being paid to endorse Tulip, I was just that impressed!)

I put two black roses and a feathered head piece from Mood in my hair.

I painted a black turtleneck from Good Will with the filigree bones and glitter. The dress is compliments a costume swap with Andrea.

I even carved my pumpkin like a Day of the Dead bride!

Mrs. Tonya Ghastlie

I am so happy to have found so many other Ghastlies loving women in the blogosphere. I had a blast last week checking out everyone's ghastlie creations and entering to win prizes. YAY! Now it's finally my turn to share!

My very first Ghastlies project means so much to me for several reasons. When I found this fabric line, I was not a quilter - and had no desire to become one. I loved the fabric so much, I bought it anyway. At the time, the only use I could think of was a quilt. (I know now that is NOT the case at all!) But I am actually glad that I didn't think to make other things with it - because now I am a quilter and I love it and it's all because of the Ghastlies!

So this is my very first quilt - made start to finish completely by me with no idea what I was doing the entire way through! Now, why do I love quilting? Many, many reason, but the number one reason is it makes me feel close to my grandma. She passed away nearly a decade ago - much, much too young - but she was a beautiful person and wonderful quilter.

I owe a big "Thank You!" to the Ghastlies for making me a very happy quilter.

On to the projects:

Queen sized Ghastlies quilt. 

Scrappy Ghastlies pillow.

Two sided Ghastlies bookmarks.

Reversible Ghastlies mug cozies. 

Ghastlies fridge magnets. 

Ghastlies Dinner serving tray. 

Ghastlies half apron.

I have one more Ghastlie project I'd like to show you, but it's not mine. My friend Staci over at One Girl made a dress from the white Sebastian print. And a cape! They are amazing! Check them out!

And now the best part: The Giveaway! What can you win? Ghastlies goodies of course!

The winner will receive the Ghastlies half apron, plus a Ghastlies mug cozie and bookmark. To win, subscribe to or follow my blog using the links at the top left or in the right sidebar. Then leave a comment telling me what your favorite Ghastlies project has been (mine or from other Ghastlie ladies' in the blog hop. You can see all the projects so far on my Ghastlies Pinboard) That's it! I will leave the giveaway open through Friday, November 4th and announce the winner on Monday, November 7th. Don't forget to leave your email or some way for me to contact you if you win.

I will also randomly choose one commenter to submit to Madame Samm to win today's grand prize. That winner will be announced here later this week. (UPDATE: Mrs. Pickles won the daily prize. MY giveaway is still open through Friday, November 4th!)

And don't forget to visit the other Ghastlie women who are posting today:
Mrs. Tiramisue Ghastlie
Mrs. Angela Ghastlie
Mrs. Pauline Ghastlie
Mrs. Karin Ghastlie
Mrs. Barb Ghastlie

Have a Ghastlie Halloween!

Ghastlies Blog Hop Pinboard

Update to the Ghastlies Blog Hop: I've created a board on Pinterest of all the projects. There are already 17 from today's 5 Ghastlie ladies! Follow the Ghastlies Pinboard here!

Don't forget to visit the 5-6 ladies daily to win great ghastlie prizes! There are links to this week's featured bloggers on the below post!

Ghastlies Blog Hop

Remember last year about this time when I became obsessed with the Ghastlies fabric? I'm still in love and apparently I'm not the only one!

Just in time for Halloween, I and 50 other Ghastlies loving ladies have put together some great ghastlie projects for a blog hop! The blog hop was coordinated by the one and only Madame Samm who has also arranged for some great giveaways - daily and grand prizes. Many of the ladies (including myself) will have a giveaway with our posts as well.

If you have this thing for Ghastlies

and they have tied you in a knot

and you wish you could get them out of your mind

than this may be a thought.

We heard her plea for a cure

Mdm Samm was pos/it/ively sure

that we could stitch the nights away

in hopes that we MAY----???

BUT....

The side effects are Ghastlie

there is no mistaking too.

If you don't run this very minute

YOU too will catch the FLU...

We suspected all along

this was her master plan.

She did not want to be alone,

with all YOU Ghastlie FANS...

If you have the Ghastlies fever too, here's where to find the cure this week:

Monday, October 24th
Mrs Kirie Ghastlie
Ms Carol Ghastlie 
Ms. Wendy Ghastlie
Ms. Carrie Ghastlie
Mrs Holly Ghastlie

Tuesday, October 25th
Mrs. Annie Ghastlie
Mrs Doris Ghastlie
Mrs Brandie Ghastlie
Ms. Alidiza Ghastlie
Mrs. Judy C Ghastlie

Wednesday, October 26th
Mrs. Barb Ghastlie
Miss Karen Ghastlie
Ms. Loralynn Ghastlie
Ms. Jen Ghastlie
Ms Penny Ghastlie
Mrs Rhonda Ghastlie

Thursday, October 27th
Mrs. Katherine Ghastlie 
Ms Sharon Ghastlie
Mrs. Gooden Ghastlie
Ms. Selina Ghastlie
Mrs. Melinda Ghastlie

Friday, October 28th
Miss Trudi Ghastlie
Ms. Deonn Ghastlie
Mrs. Marlene Ghastlie
Mrs Kim Ghastlie
Mrs Tammy Ghastlie

Next week there will be a whole new batch of participants. I'll be featured on Monday, October 31st. Happy Halloween!

As I mentioned earlier each day we will have a giveaway. Some of the other bloggers have made special projects to giveaway and we will have daily SPECIAL PRIZES from these sponsors....to sweeten the CAULDRON....

Some of our Sponsors:
Alexander Henry Fabrics - lot's and lot's of Ghastlie Fabric
Colonial Needle - sewing basket
Janes Fabrics - Kona fabrics in PINK - fat quarter bundle
Reliable Iron - orange Velocity 50
IHAN ( kelly ) - aurifil threads
Coeurdalenegifts - 2 sets of Halloween lights
Forth Worth Fabric Studio - gorgeous gift set of Ghasltie fabric
Creative Grid - 3 Rulers their top 3
Blue FIG - wheeled bag in PINK
Beam N Read and custom Ghastlie Buttons

Our 1st Prize Giveaway today will be this...

4 Yards of this GHASTLIE Collection from our sponsor Alexander Henry Fabrics

The winner will always be announced on Mdm Samm's Sew I Quilt blog. To win, follow directions of the daily bloggers and make comments on their blogs.

I've seen some sneak previews of the projects and prizes. You will not want to miss a post. Everything is so creative, wonderful and, of course, Ghastlie!

Hello. My name is Tonya and I am an addict.

It's not drugs or alcohol or even chocolate. It's Pinterest. I cannot stop.

Wait. You don't know what Pinterest is? I don't know whether or not to gush about it and encourage you to sign up, or yell "Run! Run away and don't read on!" So proceed at your own risk and know that Pinterest is wonderful but it will steal hours and hours of your life.

In their own words, "Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests."

It's a personalized, virtual bulletin board with beautiful pictures of food, clothing, home decor and anything else your little heart desires. You can categorize everything onto different boards. The best part is that it all links back to the original source, i.e. the webpage with the recipe, tutorial, online store, etc. I love that I can look at all my recipes at once.

I have been LOVING Pinterest for fashion and sewing ideas too. However this seems to have lead to a bad habit of clothing and shoe shopping online. Which makes my PayPal account sad but me squeal in delight when brown paper packages show up on the doorstep.

So what else besides recipe and fashion am I pinning? My 301 (yikes!) pins are on 20 boards including sewing inspirations, crocheting, tattoos and henna, travel, home decor, color combinations, graphic design, Halloween, gift ideas and products I want. Check them all out on my Pinterest page.

It also has a fun element where you can follow boards and people so your homepage has a cornucopia of ideas handpicked by like minded people you've chosen to follow. Pinterest will send you an email (if you want it to) to let you know when people repin your pins. I get a silly amount of pleasure when I get one of these with a huge list.

It's an ego boost. "They like me. They really like me!" Or at least my pins... But whatever. I enjoy it! Joining Pinterest is by invitation only, so if you're interested, let me know and I'll email you an invite. But remember - don't say I didn't warn you about the hours, days and weeks of your life that will suddenly go missing.

Halloween Treasures

It's the first of September! How did the summer go so fast? I love fall, but I really, really hate that it leads to winter so I am always reluctant to be too excited to pull out the boots and sweaters. Maybe that's part of what I love about Halloween. Something to focus on looking forward rather than dwelling on summer ending. Apparently everyone else is ready for autumn and thinking about Halloween too because I'm in FIVE Halloween themed Etsy treasuries already. My favorite is Spooktacular. It's a great selection of haunting and beautiful items.

See the treasury on Etsy

My wine bottle labels are also featured it these:
Halloween is Coming!
It's Almost Halloween!
Season of the Witch
Countdown to Halloween

I really enjoy seeing what other items people pair up with my products. I'm pleased and happy to be in the company of such talented artists and interesting items!

Witchy Wine

I love wine. I love Halloween. And I am newly in love and completely addicted to anything with chevron stripes. (Many more chevron projects to come soon! One HUGE one!) Anyway, I decided it was time for new Halloween wine bottle labels since I have sold so many of the old versions. Where to start? With chevron stripes of course!

So cute! It took some work to get a skull and crossbones drawn that worked with the tiny chevron pattern, but I LOVE how it turned out. 

But you can't have just one design, so here are the rest of the new ones:

These are lot cuter and less glampire than my usual Halloween style, but I am really loving them. What else is different about these? I didn't go with specific wines in the names. This way I think they are also appropriate for a kids party for sodas or juice.

These are, of course, available on my Etsy site.

I am slowly going crazy

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, switch
Slowly going crazy, am I?
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Do you ever spread yourself so thin, you wonder how you haven't blown away like a leaf? I'm having one of those months, years, life times. I love being involved and having a lot going on, but things have been getting a bit out of hand. It's really no one's fault but my own.

Moral of the story? I don't have much time for this post, but I wanted to show a picture of my completed Ursula costume. I am pretty happy with how it all came out.

 

The dress is a summer one from Old Navy that's too long so I've only worn once. I thought the white vine design sort of resembled seaweed. The tentacles are made from triangles of sparkly purple fabric, black cotton and one layer of quilt batting. I sewed them right onto the bottom of the dress - I'll just cut off the inch or two that I sewed them to, then hem to the length it needed to be in the first place. I connected the tops of the two tentacles in front and two in back right to the dress. The left two and right two tentacles have ribbon loops to go over my fingers, so they move with my arms. As we were outside and it was windy, I put on a shrug too.

The eels are felt. I just made elongated ovals and sewed them together like a single piece of an Amish puzzle ball - 2" seams inside-out so I could make their fins. I curled them up and tied them with a rubber band for the week so they stayed that way when I attached them. Then I used a Sharpie to make eyes, nostrils and a mouth. They are attached from the inside with safety pins too.

Shell necklace, crazy makeup and half a can of Auqas Net later, I'm Ursula!

What do you think? 

We are having our Halloween party on Saturday and I think I am going to skip the hair thing this time. It is so gross to have that much hairspray and white coloring in my hair. I was impressed that I retained that volume the entire night!

Tattered Halloween Curtains

After I put up the Halloween decor, my cheery yellow kitchen curtains were looking a little out of place. I was going to sew some tattered curtains but I don't have a lot of extra time these days, so I opted for the no-sew version.

I made them out of crepe paper - although Martha recommends black trash bags. These babies cost about $1.50 for two medium windows! Tear off strips in varying lengths. Wrap around your curtain rod, forming a loop, and Scotch tape on the backside. Then stretch out the sides of the paper, alternating sides and spacing. Be careful not to tear them completely in half, but I just left any smaller tears because I think it makes them look more worn and creepy.

Halloween math

2 fat quarters
+ 1 free pattern
____________
4 Halloween treat bags!

These are so cute, I can hardly stand it. They were super simple to make too. The fabric is Boo to You by My Mind's Eye. The pattern came from the Fall 2010 Quilts and More magazine.

They are just the perfect size for a gooey popcorn ball and a few pieces of Halloween candy. I've made 12 now but I want to make more by Halloween because I have a few trick-or-treaters in mind that will be getting these. I cannot believe it's October already!

Benefit for boobs

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by the local Torrid store if I would be interested in donating a gift basket for a raffle at their event to benefit breast cancer. With about 300 things on my plate right now, I figured what's one more? Plus it's a great cause.

The event is called Breast Cancer Can Kiss My Booty and it's this Saturday (October 2nd) from 3 to 7pm at Jordan Creek Mall in Des Moines. They are going to have window models, a runway show, swag bags, a raffle, snacks, karaoke, and door prizes. If you're local, I hope you can find time to stop in. They will also have $15 off any pair of jeans when you donate $5 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

In my gift basket/raffle prize I included two different sets of Halloween wine labels, a set of creepy jar labels, a set of four spice jars with Halloween labels, a tote, a set of Boo frames, and two tiny treat bags (post on these to come soon!). Total value of almost $65! I'd be excited to win it, so I hope others will be too!

For the birds

The new Halloween decoration showed up in the mail this week! It's a vinyl wall decal.

I apologize for the horrendous photos. My camera sucks.

I bought this one from Byrdie Graphics on Etsy. I cannot say enough nice things about them or this graphic. The shipping was super fast. The directions were clear and the application took only a few minutes. The result is great! I'm so happy with it!

I leaned my decorative ladder against the branch and added a couple of feathered crows to the rungs. I think the whole thing looks fun together and goes great with my Edgar Allan Poe display.

The cats, however, are not that impressed with the fake birds. Alven has been swatting at them since they went up. They have already been moved once because of him and I imagine Winston will be even worse once he notices them. Ah well.

Little House of Horrors

It's no secret that Halloween is my favorite holiday because it's all about fun with no obligations or pressure, until you become known as the Halloween Queen in your circle of friends. Then the pressure is on to have the best decor and costume, but I still love it.

When getting out your holiday decor takes the same amount of time as watching two and a half Halloween movies, it can be a daunting task. With the help of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus and about half of Bram Stoker's Dracula, we got them all out last night. It's official, we need a bigger house or less Halloween decor. Since a bigger house isn't in the cards for a while, I made a bag for Good Will. It's sad, but past time.

The newest display of Halloween fun came without a single new purchase! It's Edgar Allan Poe's writing desk. I got the idea from a magazine and ended up having everything I needed.

The clock normally hangs in the living room and the framed "chalkboard" is actually a frame I had with black fabric inside and the "chalk" is white paint right on the glass that will easily come off after Halloween. The candelabra is from Good Will a few years ago.

The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe (with dust jacket removed), plus a couple of antique English  literature textbooks and a pair of unused glasses set the stage. The skull just adds a bit more creepiness.

The recently acquired typewritter was my grandparents' and the old photos are actual relatives - great, great grandparents I think. I was going to start typing The Raven, but Terra had a better idea and suggested using The Shining instead. Now the paper says "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," over and over again. What do you think? I really love it.

One more display to show you quick. Most of the items pictured are from Good Will or the Salvation Army including all the candlestick holders and candelabra, the lanterns on the top of the two shorter bookcases and the pedestal bowls. One can of black spray paint later, they fit right into the Halloween display. The books are all books I own and have read with titles like Murder, Entombed and Shadows. Remove the dust jackets and you've got a creepy library going.

I've ordered one new decoration from Etsy this year and I'll post pictures once it arrives along with a few of the other displays in the house and yard. Happy Haunting!

I'm a quilter!

It's official. I'm 28 going on 68. I finished my first quilt this week and I love it and I loved the process of making it! My grandma would be so proud.

I used 4 smaller prints from Alexander Henry - bats, cats, trees and spider webs. Plus one larger print - The Ghastlies - in 4 different colors. The whole quilt is 88 inches square. Every part of it is my favorite part, but my most favorite part is that it's Halloween but not bright orange and black. At first glance, it doesn't scream "Halloween!"

I am calling my freehand curly-q quilting design "bumble bee" because it looks like the path a cartoon bee would leave behind it. My friend Alisa was nice enough to teach me how to quilt on her mom's long arm sewing machine and we had so much fun! I can't wait to finish the other two tops I am working on so we can do it again.

For the back of the fabric, I used another Alexander Henry fabric with craggy and gnarly owls. The swirly branch lines that the owls are perched on are what inspired the bumble bee quilting pattern.

So what do you think? Not bad for a first crack at a quilt!

It was contagious!

I built a Halloween treasury on Etsy and now I'm featured in 6 treasuries!
They're creepy and their kooky, Mysterious and spooky. They're all together ooky, And you can find them here.