Many of you know Halloween is John’s favorite holiday and the planning, preparation and decorating for this year’s display started months ago. A close look might reveal some familiar elements from previous years but somehow he managed to out do himself and present a completely new environment for this spookiest day of the year.
If you’ve been reading my Shades of Blue posts from the beginning you might notice I’ve skipped ahead a little from late summer but we’re hours away from Halloween and some pictures really need to be shared in the moment.
John thinks/dreams/plans for Halloween year round and by mid-summer he starts gathering materials and planning each room. Even though everything looks best at night lit only by candles and a few carefully placed spot lights I try to take plenty of photos and share them here for everyone to enjoy!
It’s felt like a true roller-coaster ride carried us through the first two weeks of November with days of fun, family, flowers, sadness and wine. We had a great visit with my Aunt, enjoyed John’s over-the-top Halloween decorations, listed new items in our Etsy shop, drank some wine as the election results started to really sink in, ate cake for breakfast and were surprised by these brave backyard flowers blooming their way to Thanksgiving. I have more photos than usual today because John’s hard work demanded more than one shot a day so I hope you’ll accept them as a substitute for more words and enjoy the visual recap. 🙂
I’ll be back with a new post in a few days but if you don’t want to wait please join us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to learn more about any of the images but you don’t follow me on these accounts please feel free to click here for IG, here for Twitter and here for FB or select a photo from the Instagram previews in my sidebar. You don’t need an account at either place to view my photos, everyone’s welcome.
Sometimes these weekly recaps have a theme and sometimes they are really just random snapshots of what it’s like to run through our week. There are times when I like to tell a longer story and have plenty of photos to stretch the event over a few days and then we run into a week like this one where there aren’t many elements tying each day together but they all represent where we were at the time. Today I’ll just jump right in and share the moment behind each shot you see.
Sunday afternoon Finn was sporting Ryan’s old Seahawk t-shirt and his fierce game face told me he was ready for some football. Monday I shipped this cozy blanket to a lovely customer shopping in our Etsy store and Tuesday morning I took another “shot in the dark” photo of these golden leaves under a street light. Wednesday you get a preview of our Halloween then Thursday and Friday illustrate what has occupied most of my free time. It’s election season and I hope everyone here in the US votes! Saturdays shot is of me having a little fun with Siri.
I’ll be back with a new post in a few days but if you don’t want to wait please join us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to learn more about any of the images but you don’t follow me on these accounts please feel free to click here for IG, here for Twitter and here for FB or select a photo from the Instagram previews in my sidebar. You don’t need an account at either place to view my photos, everyone’s welcome.🙂
As promised I have a few more spooky images from John’s latest creations in my newest recap. The past week was filled with Halloween preparations and you can see he really had fun designing and displaying new vignettes. I mixed in a few “daily life” photos to keep my theme of random discoveries intact but as always every image here is something that surprised me or stood out in the midst of a normal day.
Sunday’s project entailed ageing bundles of roses and hydrangea blooms with a light dusting of spray paint, then arranging them in a tall, three-tiered stand to create an abandoned floral centerpiece. Monday’s photo is a line-up of customers standing outside of the flagship Microsoft Store before their launch of the new Surface Tablets. I know it was a big day for the company but I suspect most of these people were actually waiting to see Tyler Lockett from the Seattle Seahawks during his personal appearance. Tuesday I slowed down to shoot another odd roadside find during my morning walk with Finn. Due to the random Hipstamatic treatment the white circle looks like a tennis ball but really it was a fully intact white onion…
Wednesday is our friendly skeleton posing on top of a coffin and Thursday night I stopped to snap a photo of these fall leaves outside my local library. It was fully dark and I didn’t expect the image to turn out but once again Hipstamatic surprised me and the flash choice illuminated each branch with this glowing yellow light. Speaking of glowing, yellow light here is a shot of a re-purposed chandelier lighting my dining room and Saturday’s image needs no introduction – it’s our happy jack-o-lantern shining through Halloween. 🙂
Each photo was taken with my iPhone 6 using Hipstamatic’s “shake to randomize” function then posted without any additional editing. If you like a particular combination and want to try it at home just click on the image to see the lens, filter and flash used. For variety I continue to add new lenses and filters so if you want to try Hipstamatic but are unsure how to start let me know and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.
To all my Halloween celebrating friends I hope you have a happy, spooky and safe Saturday night! We’ve got plans for a relaxing evening filled with good food, scary movies and lots of candy to share.
You’ll see several more holiday themed pictures in my next “Shake It Up” post but here is a preview of another haunted corner in the Kennedy house…
We’re reaching the end of October and in a house where Halloween is everything even our simple, daily views are magically transformed into something spooky. This week I’ve included a few glimpses of our newest decorations and some surprising examples of ordinary moments seen in a new light.
Sunday is a shot of our stairway and the pair of crows who have come to roost. Monday is the Haunted Tarot table and Tuesday is a new mushroom just starting to open, framed with the random selection of Hipstamatic’s new Gongbi film.
Wednesday I planned to capture some of the pretty red leaves on our stairs below the deck but the combination of Hannah (lens), Shilshole (film) and Triple Crown (flash) added a level of creepiness I wasn’t expecting. Thursday is all about the skull and Friday is another image of spring plants blooming out of season. I don’t know where this single Camellia flower came from but Ryan and I found it all alone in the middle of the road during Finn’s early morning walk…
Saturday was a happier find when Ryan and I attended our local Library’s annual used book sale. Imagine an entire gymnasium filled with tables and boxes of books, CD’s and movies with the proceeds benefiting literacy and arts programs for the community. We filled several bags with hardcovers for $2.00 each and paper backs and movies for $1.00 each. So much fun!
Each photo was taken with my iPhone 6 using Hipstamatic’s “shake to randomize” function then posted without any additional editing. If you like a particular combination and want to try it at home just click on the image to see the lens, filter and flash used. For variety I continue to add new lenses and filters so if you want to try Hipstamatic but are unsure how to start let me know and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.
One last scarecrow post to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween!
Yesterday’s beautiful fall weather was all the encouragement I needed for another walk through town to photograph a few more scarecrows decorating local businesses. Earlier this week I shared Jack Skellington relaxing by a bank and Salvador Dali looking for inspiration outside an art supply store. While I have one more art related scarecrow ready for tomorrow, today’s scarecrows are all about travel. Do you recognize these two?
If you were a teenager or parent in the 1980’s there’s a fairly good chance you saw E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Here he is again outside a real estate office looking for a way home…
I’m sure several of you recognize Rick Steves from his travel shows and guide books but you might not know he lives and works right here in Edmonds. His Travel Center is actually across the street from the small building that used to be his dad’s piano store and where young Rick taught piano lessons to finance his first European travels. Even though the space is now a Pub there is still a piano in the back as a nod to the musical Steves family.
October in Edmonds means it’s time for the Edmonds Historical Museum’s annual Scarecrow Festival. Participants have two weeks to decorate and register their creative displays followed by two weeks of public voting before the winners are announced November 1st. The streets around town are full of some really imaginative scarecrows drawn from popular fiction, business themes, the arts and just plain fun but this lonely Jack Skellington sitting in front of the bank was my first photo of the season.
Posted as part of Lens and Pen by Sally’s Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Photo Challenge: Challenger’s Choice (Street Photography).
Halloween is a pretty big deal at our house. Honestly it is my husband’s favorite holiday and he talks about it, plans it and shops for it 365 days a year. Our 2013 theme was inspired by a shoebox of vintage photographs found in my sister-in-law’s attic and abandoned by previous homeowners years ago. Working from these photos we chose to use colors sepia, brown, ivory and black, with some really spooky lighting after dark in orange and amber shades.
Some of them are displayed on shelves in the dining room and others I scanned and printed on transparency film to clip on the iron chandelier in our stairway. These nine images can’t show you the full effect with lighting but you’ll have to take my word for it, the whole house is decked out top to bottom.
We hosted an open-house style party last Saturday and playing in the background was 1920’s and 30’s music along with the soundtrack to The Shining. So creepy…
Happy Halloween!
Northwest Frame of Mind 