Trick or pug

Triceratops & Lobster are ready to bark at each and every trick or treaters tonight.

Halloween decor

Time to decorate for Halloween



Spooky mantelscape.



A bit outside.



My favorite vintage plastic mold lights.





I get you coming and going...

Halloween bump

Had to do it. You don't get opportunities like this often.

Happy Halloween

Wyatt is enjoying his first Halloween. As a black cat he takes special pride in the day.

Of course he has his big brother, Stewie, to show him the way. What are the chances we get TWO cats that tolerate pumpkin t-shirts?

Oscar and Hugo helped us hand out candy. Barking at costumes they didn't care for. We had 80 trick-or-treaters tonight.

These are Aaron and I's jack-o-lanterns that we carved.

I modeled for my own pumpkin.

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!

Halloween nails

How cute are these Halloween Jamberries? They make me feel Halloweeny every time I look at them.

Halloween Decorations

It took me awhile to put up my Halloween decorations. I was enjoying fall.

Halloween mantelscape.

Skulls, owls, and glitter.

Kitchen decor.

A lil pumpkin in the window boxes.

And in the planters. I got these light up solar pumpkins at my number one spot... dollar tree!

Top Eight Halloween Spooky Yet Not Too Scary Movies

I don't know why but I don't feel Halloweeny yet. I haven't even put up my Halloween decorations.

In order to jump start the Halloween season, here is a list of my top eight Halloween movies. I wouldn't 100% say these movies aren't scary. Sleepy Hollow has some gross scenes and Bram Stokers Dracula has some scary parts. I just generally don't care for horror and slasher films that make you jump out of your seat or look behind you when you walk in the dark like The Exorcist or Friday the 13th. I go for more classic vampire, zombie, werewolf type movies or humorous/odd ball flicks.

Sleepy Hollow - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is such a good traditional Halloween tale. Tim Buton adds some twists in this version and I like Depp's quirky portrayal of Ichabod Crane.

Edward Scissorhands - Did you know that the character of Edward is based on the screenwriter's Caroline Thompson's dog? That is why he barely speaks and walks around with wide eyed innocence.

Little Shop of Horrors - I get the music in the movie stuck in my head pretty easily. It's kinda weird to think it was directed by Frank Oz. The film has a dark side and I typically connect Oz with Miss Piggy and Bert on Sesame Street.

Beetlejuice - Do you remember the cartoon Beetlejuice? So weird. Turns out there are plans for a Beetlejuice 2 in 2016.

Adams Family - The spooky film industry must be a small one. The screenwriter for Edward Scissorhands, Caroline Thompson, is also a writer for The Addams Family.

Ghostbusters - I am really looking forward to seeing the Kristen Wiig, Chris Hemsworth, Melissa McCarthy version of Ghostbusters coming in 2016. Dan Aykroyd is one of the writers.

Bram Stokers Dracula - I can't explain it. I don't like movies about things that go bump in the night but I like just about any vampire film. Interview with a Vampire, Queen of the Damned, The Lost Boys, Underworld, and even Blade.

Psycho - You might call this the "I't's a Wonderful Life" of horror films. It was groundbreaking and still a classic. Had to give it a shout-out.

Psycho was Alfred Hitchcock's first horror film. He filmed it in black and white because he thought color would be too gory. Yet the "blood" in the shower scene is Hershey's syrup, because it showed up better in the filming.

There were a lot of other movies I considered - Nightmare Before Christmas, ET, Hocus Pocus, Casper... but I was trying to keep it to eight.

With that said here are two bonus movies. Sweeney Todd and Dark Shadows - I didn't originally include these because my list was getting a little Johnny Depp heavy.

Here were my top 8 Christmas movies if you are curious.

Solar powered spookies

My blog is starting to sound like a Dollar Tree ad, but I can't help myself. We go there for basic items like bulldog clips or rolls of craft paper. Then every once in awhile I find something really cute. Like these Halloween solar toys. I really like the ongoing action, but I also spend too much time moving them around into bright spots so they keep going.

Went a little crazy over the solar toys at the Dollar Tree. #halloween

A video posted by Jenny Cisney (@ljc) on Oct 3, 2015 at 7:23am PDT

Actually I have been on the lookout for these for awhile. I spied them on someone's desk a year ago, but every time I went to Dollar Tree they were sold out. This time when I saw them, I got one of each kind.

Vintage Halloween Blow Mold Lawn Ornaments - and a little history

This is taking me dangerously close to having another collection, but when you love holidays and decorating as much as I do, it’s hard to ignore blow mold decorations.

Blow molds are those light up Santas you see in yards at the holidays. And not those fabric ones that require a fan. The old school plastic ones with the hole in the back. They are called blow molds because that is exactly how they are made. Plastic is melted and then blown into a mold using air pressure.

I tried to find information online about the history of blow mold decorations but it was a bit scanty. There is a bit in this blog post and this blog post and this blog post. From what I can tell they have been available since the 1940 but it was the Pink flamingo lawn ornaments in the 1950’s that made them really popular. The famous pink flamingo was designed by a guy named Don Featherstone if you can believe that. AND he passed away recently ON June 22 WHICH just happened to be one day before Pink Flamingo Day! Coincidence? I think not.

Blow mold lawn ornaments still seem to be going strong… as evidenced by this Facebook page and this Facebook page. I like smaller sized ones, that sit on a table rather than the large sized ones. And now, I am really into the Halloween ones. Particularly vintage Halloween ones.

I went to an antique shop with my mom and I was on the look out for them. I wasn’t disappointed as I found two for $7 each. There was one more I didn’t get and now I’m kicking myself.

I’m looking forward to putting them on display for Halloween. (Holding out for October however)

Trick-or-Treat, Happy Halloween!

Despite the rain tonight, I got out the walkway pumpkin lanterns, spooky sound effects and fog machine to greet trick-or-treaters.

We got 83 trick-or-treaters, which considering the rain, wasn't bad.

When my parents were visiting last week, my mom brought me this ghost that we used to hang up when I was a kid. It is sound activated and either cracks you up or scares the wits out of you. The pugs set it off all the time which makes them bark and set it off even more.

I hung it out on the porch for Halloween and every time kids would call out TRICK-OR-TREAT, it would go off and scare the pants off the parents standing at the bottom of the steps. Good times.

Ready to scare the socks off some trick or treaters then compensate them with candy.

A video posted by Jenny Cisney (@ljc) on Oct 10, 2014 at 2:59pm PDT

Halloween at the office

We enjoy a good holiday celebration (aka food) in my office so instead of just one day, we had two days of Halloween treats. This was part of the spread on Day One.

And this was a fresh spread for Day Two. Seriously we love to eat at work and sometimes I wonder what would happen if we had a situation like this... "Cake Left Out In Break Room With No Instructions" Hah hah - that article cracks me up.

"At press time, the sight of the company’s IT technician walking down the hallway with a slice of cake had reportedly triggered a mass scramble toward the kitchen."

Anyhoo - on Day One I brought in my old standby party food - artichoke dip (recipe). I added a twist though... Skelly here was crawling out of the dip.

On Day Two I didn't have time to make something because there was also a jack-o-lantern carving contest at work. I combined my snack food with my entry into this presentation - guacamole puking pumpkin!

There were some great pumpkins around the office!

Three monsters

The lil' monsters are ready for Halloween!

Whups... Stewie monster ate the other two.

Wally in costume

Wally is visiting us with my parents. Sorry Wally. When you are at my house you might have to wear a costume.

2014 Halloween Dinner Party

Aaron and I threw our somewhat-annual Halloween dinner party this evening. I say "somewhat" because we missed it last year.

Instead of the usual mingle-roni style party, this is a sit-down dinner party. I really like setting up a long table with place settings and creating a mood with only lit candles for light.

We don't have a huge crowd... just enough so we can all visit and catch up with one another over a meal.

I made these little ghost napkin rings/favors out of mini-gourds for the place settings.

I also made a spooky tablescape to help set the mood.

Pretty gross right?

My mom helped me make kimbap for appetizers and store-bought pot stickers went with them nicely.

Aaron grilled up the bulgogi that had been marinating for 24 hours.

Look at this dessert table! All our guests brought a fabulous dessert.

I was thrilled they all came in costume.

Aaron and I went as Day of the Dead characters. I couldn't bear the idea of wearing all that face paint at the last minute and got us masks instead. It was a great spooktacular evening.