Halloween Fever

I have all the symptoms. My heart is racing. My palms are sweaty. I can’t sleep. That’s right. It’s a serious case of Halloween fever. But the mundane errands still exist (holiday season or not), so I recently visited the nearby 99 cent store for paper towels. (I try to use dish towels a lot, in the interest of saving trees from being turned into paper towels, but I do still use paper variety, too. It’s a change-in-progress…) Anyway, the 99 cent store has good deals on paper towels and after I’d chosen three rolls, I became distracted by the decorations for sale. As you know, I like to make my own, but if I were not inclined that way, I could find a ton of decorations for a song at this store. The one Halloweeny thing I did end up buying was an orange table cloth. It’s the vinyl kind that people use for parties. It was HUGE, and I immediately  envisioned  transforming our plain garage door into a festive welcome area, beckoning trick-or-treaters toward our front door. The garage door is a giant canvas just sitting there, mostly undecorated, most of the year. Besides, big is fun and with a giant plastic table cloth (for only 99 cents!) I could have a HUGE pumpkin decoration on the door. Big results, small cost. Yippeee!

First I cut the tablecloth in half, putting both halves side-by-side on our biggest wall inside. I taped them together on the back, and then drew a pumpkin shape, plus eyes, nose and mouth. Since I already had black paint at home, I painted the features and soon it was time to put The Great Pumpkin outside. (Linus from the Peanuts gang would say that mine is not The Great Pumpkin, and he would know. Have you seen “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?” It’s terrific!) My pumpkin doesn’t take up the whole front of our 2-car garage but it is eye-catching nonetheless. Once I realized I still had leftover table material (the corners of the tablecloth) I decided to make smaller pumpkins just in case anyone passing by might be unsure of whether I like this holiday. The garage door is now almost like a pumpkin patch, perhaps a tribute to Linus, as he awaits The Great Pumpkin.

 

Here I am next to it, to give you an idea of the scale.

The fever? Yes, I’ve got a bad case of it. Halloween is less than four days away. Don’t be alarmed if I vanish like a ghost in a minute. This feverish fanatic still has finishing touches to put onto her costume…