Coloured Pampas Grass 

It can be a mind field choosing the right decoration for you, espesically when you don't know how to care for dried products. 

To add to the confusion you then have the choice of so many different colours and varieties. Coloured Pampas grass, can add a touch of elegance, to any room, the WOW factor you have been looking for. But before you choose bright coloured pampas grass or dried flowers, their is a few things you should take into account.

•  Bright coloured pampas grass, is a dyed product, so think of it like dying clothing or hair, with bright colours, there can be colour bleeding. Which means the colour can transfer onto other products.

Again like dyed fabrics, when leaving coloured pampas grass in direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time, it can fade, and turn a more pastel colour. I always advise for coloured pampas grass to stay out of direct sunlight. This needs to be taken into account when hanging your decoration.

• Dying pampas grass and dried flowers, can be seen as pot luck. Because it is a natural product, the natural shades can differ this is from the growing process, and it been a natural product. 

Again think of you natural hair colour, we have lots of different shades of colour in our hair, when a hairdresser dyes your hair, it doesn't all come out exactly the same, and this is due to the natural tones in you hair. So if you get a decoration with shades of different colours this is the reason for that. 

• Some stems can be brighter than others, this can be to do with the dying process, or how the dyed product takes to the dye. 
• Pale pastel colours don't last as long as the brighter colours, due to the fact that the fading process is less for a pastel colour. 

Aslon as you keep you decoration out of prolonged direct sunlight it should last for a 2-3 years

Halloween spooky season

It's officially Spooky season, which means one thing only.. Go wild with all things decor from front door wreaths garden decortions pumpkins skulls anything spooky, costumes, parties, you name it Halloween allows you to express your inner wild child.

What do you envision Halloween being ? Do you have any memories from a young child ?

I love the concept of Halloween, from being a little child I remember going to my cousins house. We would all be in bin liners for capes, and have the plastic witch masks hats ans fake fingers. The estate she lived on had some really good houses that went all out for Halloween, it was like stepping into 'Halloween town' or this is what I visioned it to be like.

Yes that's right it was back in the 90's there was actually places that celebrated Halloween like the Americans, people would be having Halloween parties, and answering the doors all dressed up, I remember a man and wife always dressed up as devils.
So Halloween was embedded in me from an early age. Looking back now while writing this blog... I am actually thinking maybe my love for all things American actually runs deeper than I first thought.

The History behind Halloween

Halloween is seen as an American culture, but did you know that the origin of Halloween actually comes from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, people would wear their own costumes and light bonfires to warn off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honour all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.

Do you ever wonder...

Where did the whole aspect of Halloween we know today start?. Who was the first child to go knock on the door of a strangers house and ask for ticks or treats.
Like anything else it only takes one clever marketing campaign to sell more of something for it to become a huge tradition each and every year, Halloween is seen in some peoples eyes, as more important than Christmas.

What do you do for Halloween?

For you family, we celebrate by decorating the house up, we don't go over board as I like to add a little more each year to add to my collection. Even though I could go absolutely wild with decorations around the home, for me Christmas is more important.
We usually start 2 week before Halloween, I will change my wreath off the door to my Halloween wreath, which I obviously made myself. Check out my shop if you would like to see more.
link.
Then I like to get the kids crafty with some of my left over materials from my work, last year the kids helped me make a garland for the front door. let say it's made with love.. beautiful love.

We then let the kids pick out there fancy dress costumes, it is me so its usually a rushed job, because I have left it last minute, but the kids are usually happy with what I get them. They do sometimes think I am a millionaire, when it comes to costumes, even though we must have over 30 costumes accumulated up over the year, that they could wear.

Then on Halloween we all go out trick or treating with the kids friends, its quite a big deal around where I live. Each year it seems to get bigger and bigger, the more people that find out it the best place to go Trick or Treating.

Oh I nearly forgot obviously we have to do pumpkin carving the days leading upto Halloween which means another tradition that has only in the last few years become more popular in the UK, and that's pumpkin picking. We love getting muddy pushing a wheelbarrow through the ploughed fields, getting it stuck every 2 metres, to see the joys on our kids faces when they pick up their favourite pumpkin to find they have just put their hands through a rotten one. To get home and start the pumpkin carving, again this is something the kids think I am amazing at dad is much better at it than me. I have in the past done one of these fancy carvings, but having 3 kids screaming at me to do some character they are obsessed with all at once, leads me to do the normally triangle teethed pumpkin.

Then there is the films... I don't particularly like really scary films, I am happy with hocus pocus, Halloween town, haunted mansion, nightmare before Christmas the list goes on but I am sure you get the idea.

One thing on my Halloween bucket list.

Is overlap Halloween at Disneyland Paris with Christmas so I get best of both worlds. We did Disney at Christmas in 2019, and it was amazing, people were saying Halloween is just as magical, in its own spooky way.