Holidays - some Halloween favorites

Hello! Got around to putting my Halloween decorations up today, and while I don't go all out for this holiday, I do have some favorites to show off:

A talented friend sent me this card that she'd crafted so well, as she always does:

Another very talented friend made the following:

And another friend made the skull-like ornament you see hanging up in the display rack I'd mentioned a few posts back:

I made the ATC's that are hanging up on either side of the skull ornament, using my usual mix of vintage papers, rubber stamps, art paper scraps and whatever else struck my fancy. 

I also made some of what you see in the following picture:

I painted the bare wood pumpkin shape in the back, and in the front are wooden blocks I decorated, again using a variety of vintage and newer papers and rubber stamps. The blocks were seconds from Learning From Scratch.

I didn't make the following, but it was so charming and so reasonably priced at a craft show that I snapped it up:

This little witch ornament has a place of honor of top of the tabletop-sized reproduction feather tree that I change with the seasons. She's only 5" high but has a lot of detail for her diminutive size. Because of that, I thought the $4.00 I paid well worth it. Purchased at the Covered Bridge Festival in Parke County, IN.

I also did not make the next item, and it was even cheaper - $3.00 at a thrift store this summer. I had a hard time believing they didn't try to get a higher price for it:

She's nearly 3' long and very well made!

I love decorating with vintage items, but vintage Halloween pieces are very pricey. Therefore I was delighted to find the following two items to hang up in my windows:

I paid a quarter apiece a few years back at a garage sale run by a woman who was closing down her daycare. I could tell that these decorations been around awhile, but didn't know how old they were. Looked at them closer today and saw that one still had its original price tag on it: 25c at F. W. Woolworth. You don't see prices like that on today's Halloween decorations! (and of course you don't see Woolworth's anymore either) So I knew these had been purchased some time ago. Looked on eBay for more info - and saw sellers listing identical decorative items and stating they were from the 50's or 60's. Noted that one seller had listed their item for $29.99. Mine are a little beat up, so perhaps they're worth the $9.99 another seller was asking. Either way, a far cry from the quarter I had paid!

I love the following jack-o-lantern:

I got it at a cute gift shop in southern Indiana, a place we used to frequent while doing day hikes on the Knobstone Trail in that region. If I recall correctly, the sales clerk told me that the pumpkin was made from a coconut husk.

The witch hanging below dates from 1978. I was a freshman at Michigan State University when my family sent it to me. Everyone at home had signed it, and the various family pets (at that time several cats, several gerbils and one dog)had their names added as well.

It was rare that I got something special in the mail from my family when I was at college, so I treasured this and have hung it up every year since then. It's even more special now that two of the family members who had signed it have since died. 

One of these two was my mother, who had crafted the following witch doll:

She made the doll in 1996, when our daughter was 15 months old, and mailed it to us. We were living in suburban Philadelphia then, so it was a special way for my mom to connect with our daughter, who loved the doll from the start. My mom did a ton of sewing for her many grandchildren!

That's all for now - hope you enjoyed seeing what I have!