Halloween-ing the house!

     Halloween is rapidly approaching, and around here we're spookifying the house in preparation. Here's a quick, easy, and cheap way to bring a little creepiness into the home (I say this as a total hypocrite -- I can practically hear Morticia Addams saying "...but Debbie....pastels?" every time I walk into my room. Oh well. Split personalities for the win!). 

Step 1: Raid the woods. 

     Take a walk through your local foliage and collect some nice twisty twigs. Try your best to keep them away from your giant dog who is comically obsessed with sticks. 

As a side note, this picture reminded me of a children's book my mom used to read to me that had ragdoll children and they had to go through a thicket at some point and it wasn't supposed to be scary but I always found it tremendously upsetting for some reason (I still get anxious thinking about it) and now I can't remember what it's called and I can't find it on Google and I've been looking for over an hour and I'm worried it may just be a manifestation of my anxiety that I invented as a child and it's not a real book at all and I'M FEELING VERY AGITATED is what I'm getting at.

Step 2: Paint it black. Then add glitter.

     Throw down some newspaper or a dropcloth or what have you and hit the sticks with some black spray paint. Then, while the paint is still wet, sprinkle some glitter on top. 

I wish I'd seen that smudge on the lens earlier. Let's just pretend it's a ghost, in the spirit of Halloween. Oooh, a lost soul who wants me to have poor quality photos -- scaaary.

Step 3: Arrange fittingly. 

     These particular sticks were destined to become a nest for this fine fellow here.

    
     And of course I couldn't resist a spookified version:

     And done! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. The best part about this little Halloweenification is that you don't have to worry about storing this from year to year. It takes a tiny smidgen of spray paint and glitter that you probably already have, and sticks. You can't get much cheaper than free, so go ahead and toss them when the season of creeping is over.