Halloween prep is in full swing, or how we spent our Labor Day weekend.

I guess Halloween prep is a constant thing in out house. We are firm believers in leaving a little Halloween around the house all year. Early in our courtship my husband visited a friend's apartment and there was a skeleton hanging on the door. It was May. When questioned, the friend stated that he believed that a little Halloween should stay up all year. Remembrance. Balance. I liked it. Halloween is the one day a year you don't have to be yourself. Some days it is nice to know that Halloween is out there, waiting to release you for the day. It also is a nice counter balance -dark to light. Good to remember. Halloween also lets you give in to your dark side. Sometimes it is just really fun to scare people or freak someone out. You can't do that without nasty looks in June, oh no - only in October.

We have gone into Halloween prep a bit more prepared and a bit earlier this year. Still not early enough (see here and here to see people who go a bit crazier than I do! I will get there someday!) I have always loved Apothecary jars, so we decided to make a little mad scientist supply area on our mantle this year. Not wanting to spend too much money, I started haunting thrift stores in June to find them. I actually found too many, so we have moved the display off of the mantle and we are planning to put it on our piano. I found these silver serving pieces (pre- tarnished saves me time!) to complete the display. I got the whole thing for a whopping $21!  Love it!

You may notice that a couple of the jars are filled already. They are experiments. The greenish one is going to be "eye of newt" or eggs of some sort. It is made from large pearl tapioca that I soaked in water just enough to make slimy but not soft (5 minutes). Then I put it in my jar of choice, filled the jar the rest of the way with cooking oil and added 5 or so drops of food coloring and gave it a stir. Since I used the water based color, it sunk down to the tapioca and settled all over it. I grossed my kids out with it, so I think it was a success. I used the same process with brown rice and red food coloring to create these bloody maggots here.   In theory, this should make it though the holiday season without mold incident since the food stuffs are completely sealed in oil that is in a sealed container. I'll let ya know. So far, so creepy.