Our Favorite Spooky Kids Books

Over the past month or so, we have taken out every spooky or Halloweeny book we could get our hands on at the library. We've all put in our votes and these are the ones that came out on top...


Haunted House Party
Written by Matt Mitter and illustrated by Viviana Garofoli
Published by Reader's Digest Children's Books

This first book, Haunted House Party was handed down to us from our cousins and I can't seem to find it anywhere. So unfortuanately, you may never get an opportunity to share our love for this great little book. It is a board book and my kids can recite every word in the story. My son is so inspired by this spooky tale that he has chosen to be the main character, Mr. Bones, for Halloween this year! I just made him a nice big yellow bow tie with red polka dots for his outfit.


Vunce Upon a Time
Written by Siobhan Vivian and illustrated by J. Otto Seibold
Published by Chronicle Books LLC 2008

This one I've written about before. Vunce Upon a Time is a fantastic story about a lovable vegetarian vampire named, Dagmar. It's safe to say that this is one of my all time favorite children's books ever! The story is great and the illustrations are outstanding!


The Perfect Pumpkin Pie
Written and illustrated by Denys Cazet
Published by Atheneum Books for young Readers 2005

Denys Cazet's The Perfect Pumpkin Pie is a tale of a "ghostly fussbudget with an appetite for a good pie". We all love this story and the gruesomely fun illustrations. It's a new family favorite!


Vampire Boy's Good Night
Written and illustrated by Lisa Brown
Published by HarperCollins Children's Books 2010

While we all enjoy this book,Vampire Boy's Good Night is my daughter's choice for favorite spooky book. The illustrations are adorable and the characters are very endearing. The story, about a real vampire boy and witch who don't believe that children are real and then find themselves at a children's Halloween party, is super sweet.


Cake Girl
Written and illustrated by David Lucas
Published by Andersen Press Ltd. 2009

Cake Girl is another favorite of my daughter's. Witch is lonely and makes Cake Girl for herself for her birthday. Cake Girl teaches Witch about friendship and Witch has the best birthday ever with her new friend. This is a very charming book. We love it!


Skelly the Skeleton Girl
Written and illustrated by Jimmy Pickering
Published by Simon and Schuster 2007

What a great little story about a skeleton girl who finds a bone and searches her haunted mansion to find the owner and a new friend. We've also read Jimmy Pickering's Skelly & Femur and we loved it too! Now having gone to take a peak at his website, we are excited to read some of his other spooky tales!


The Curious Demise of a Contrary Cat
Written by Lynne Berry and illustrated by Luke LaMarca
Published by Simon and Schuster 2006

This last one was chosen by me. The kids aren't as in to it as I think they should be. It could be that they are just too young yet to appreciate the hilarity of this story. Cat gives Witch attitude one too many times and once she's had enough, well, that's the end of poor cat. The pictures are fantastic and the story is really great! Definitely on my list of favorites.

Have a spooktacular Halloween friends!

♥ Andrea ♥

Moxy & Toots

*image courtesy of Adrienne Boyer*

Hello!

Today I'm here to introduce you to the work of a lady who I have known for many years, Adrienne Boyer. Adrienne and I went to high school together and I have fond memories of art class with her. Back then, I remember being quite impressed with her creativity. She has a fantastic imagination! I was so happy to reconnect with her in the last few years and see that she is still living a creative life.

I've been wanting to write about Adrienne's delightful monster shop on Etsy, Moxy & Toots for a little while now because I am totally in love with her plush. Her monsters are absolutely charming! I freaked out at the adorableness of her new Halloween stuffies and really wanted you to see them. Here are just a few of her recent spookies. The mummy totally kills me!


*image courtesy of Adrienne Boyer*


*image courtesy of Adrienne Boyer*


*image courtesy of Adrienne Boyer*

Another product that is regularly available in the Moxy & Toots shop are these sweet little munchkin baby rattles. They make a perfect gift for the littlest people in your life and can be attached to a link for the baby on the go. So much love goes into making each of her handcrafted pieces. They really are wonderful keepsakes.


*image courtesy of Adrienne Boyer*

Adrienne also sells her work at Higglety Pigglety in Port Hope, Ontario. Now if you can't make it to Higglety Pigglety and you would like a monster that you don't see in the Moxy & Toots shop, feel free to contact Adrienne on Etsy for availability of your favorite spooky plush. She is happy to take custom orders also. So drop Adrienne a line to commission her for something special!

And if you admire Adrienne's work as much as I do, show her some love by liking the cute Moxy & Toots Facebook Page

We've been reading a ton of Children's Halloween books. I'll be back in a couple of days to tell you all about our favorite Halloween books for kids!

♥ Andrea ♥

Spooky, Crafty + Vintage Halloween

*image courtesy of Cali Lee*

I love vintage Halloween items! One clue that I'm getting old is that I think things to myself like, "they just don't make 'em like they used to," and that sentiment is certainly true for Halloween decor. So I've spent some time looking around the internet for some vintage inspiration. This website, Jason Wilcott's Vintage Halloween Pages is pretty great. On their Halloween Folk Artists Page, I discovered my new favorite artist working in this genre, Cali Lee. Take a look at Cali Lee's gallery page. Her work is so awesome!

We started our Halloween crafts early this year. These jack-o-lanterns were carved many weeks ago and have long since decayed. My son is a little obsessed with mustaches at the moment so we had to make a jack-o-lantern with one.



When I saw these skeleton potato stamps on the Martha Stewart website, I just had to make them. I didn't bother with the template. I just sketched on the potato with a pencil and then roughly carved it with a knife. And after I finished carving them we stamped them on some acid free paper coloured paper I had cut out a while ago and kept around for crafts. A couple of days later we went for a trip to the dollar store to get some more craft supplies and I happened upon those adorable mini clothes pins. Then I found a length of ribbon left over from last Christmas and whipped up this cute little Halloween bunting. It was just my style, quick and easy.



Of course Martha's always got some vintage Halloween inspiration on her site. Here is their Indoor Halloween Decorations Page. Even though we started early, as usual, I had hoped to do more. We've been so very busy and the kids are still at an age when they just don't have to patience for big projects. But let me tell you, they love Halloween! We've taken out pretty much every book about Halloween from the library that we could get our hands on! I think I may have to make a post about our favorite Halloween kids stories.



We made a hanging ghost for our front window which matches the Ghostie Cozy we made last year from Heidi Kenney's project. He was really quick and easy to make, so I made a jack-o-lantern too.



I had some white fabric hanging around that I couldn't stand so I was happy to find a purpose for it. I took a paper bag and stuffed it with paper from the recycling bin and just rolled the bottom to close it up and crunched it into a ball. I took my white fabric and draped it over the bag and used a needle to thread string through the fabric and the bag to hang up. Then we cut out the simple shapes of the mouth, eyes and a tear and glued them on with fabric glue. Once I hung the ghost, I trimmed the edges of the fabric so it would drape nicely. It's very effective, requires no sewing and took half an hour tops.



And this bat and witch are from an 80's mobile we found at the thrift store. It's fun to hang this in our window. This would have been just the style of Halloween decor that would have hung in one of my classrooms as a kid.



Hey, check out this huge mushroom our friend brought over for us!



We fried it up in some butter, salt and thyme. Usually I love fried mushrooms but this one was a little strong for my taste. My son said it looked like a big brain. So we pretended to be zombies chopping, frying and eating brains for dinner.

I hope you are having some fun with your Halloween decorating.

♥ Andrea ♥

The Unnecessary Death of a Doe

*image courtesy of John Deal*

We've had a death here in the forest and we are devastated. Last weekend we went out for a hike on a lovely afternoon. I was taking pictures in the woods thinking about the nice light post I was going to make on the blog here about the beauty of this time of year. Deep in the forest at the top of a crest, my husband looked down and saw that the water in the creek was red. That's when he saw her. A doe was sitting in the water silently still. She looked at us and we at her and there we stood for a time.

John slowly scaled the ravine making calming noises as he approached her. For a moment she got scared and tried to run but fell just next to the water and laid down. John sat there with her for some time, talking to her gently. He reached out his hand to her and moved in slowly. He placed a hand on her hoof. And then backed away for a moment. While this was happening John was speaking to me as I stood up on the edge of the ravine with the children. We could see that she had been injured and we agreed that I should return to the house to call for help.

The children and I walked back to the house while John tried to calm her and gain her trust. He placed his hand on her hoof again, still talking quietly to her as though she were his child. Then he moved away from her again. When he approached the next time he came from behind her and touched her ear gently and then backed away once more to give her room and to give her a chance to think about his touch and presence. He approached her a final time. This time he stroked her neck. The doe relaxed and laid her head down in his lap.

Back at the house, I phoned animal services and they dispatched someone to come and try to help. I ran back out to let John know that someone was on the way. When I arrived, he was sitting with the deer's head in his lap. It was clear that she was close to death and we were very sad. I returned to the house and called again to let animal services know that things didn't look hopeful. In a short while a man showed up in a van. He said very little and carried no equipment with him. I took him into the forest and as he approached the edge of the gully, the deer became very afraid and tried to run. John attempted to help her and protect her at the same time resulting in an awkward moment between them. We heard another man call out from the woods. It was a policeman sent to euthanize the doe if necessary. I went to meet him. He was very upset. He told me how much he loved animals. Desiring to help in any way he could, the policeman scaled down to join John. Not knowing what would unfold, I took the children back to the house. The doe passed away in John's arms. John and the policeman pulled the deer up out of the water and into a clearing. And there she lies still.

*image courtesy of John Deal*

John, the policeman and myself were all suspicious of the deer's wound. We worried that she had been shot but on inspection, the exit wound was too clean to be a gunshot. When John returned home he was covered in the doe's blood and saliva. He had a shower and changed his clothes. We stood in the hallway overwhelmed by what had just transpired, and we talked about it. We were still concerned about why and how this had happened. John described a broad tipped bolt to me and how it could have caused her wound. We concluded that someone used a crossbow to shoot her. Moments later the police officer called. He was thinking about it too and he'd come to the same conclusion that we had.

I showed John a photo of the young doe who has been coming to visit us with her family since she was just a fawn. It's her. And now she's dead. I can't even begin to express my outrage about this. And I feel powerless to do anything about it and that's why I'm telling you this sad story. Someone has come into our safe and beautiful forest (protected heritage land) and killed a doe for no reason! This is the animal's home, one of the few safe places left for these majestic creatures. We feel like our home has been violated. We feel like our friend has been killed.

*image courtesy of John Deal*

I know that John was able to offer this beautiful creature some comfort in the painful and confusing last hours of her death. And for that, I am so proud of him. I know this has touched him deeply and that our anger will remain for a long, long time to come.

♥ Andrea ♥