HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

follow that sign

Driving through California this time of year, as I’m sure in many other places throughout the USA, you always see really cool handmade advertisements for Pumpkin Patches from local farmers and the like. We at October Boys look forward to seeing what cool signs these pumpkin sellers come up with every year. Here are just a few from this year.

 

Mr. Bones always brings it!

hmmm we sense a Miss Pacman feel here...

This will get them!

Best in our book

Sweet and Spooky Halloween Cookie Garland

Another project I made this year on my sewing machine for Halloween. I found the patterns for these adorable Halloween felt cookies in a holiday themed craft magazine at Barnes and Noble and had to try it. After making a sample of the candy corn cookie I decided that they would look so sad just sitting on the table so I added a little loop to the back of each one, laced some felted black ribbon through them all and turned it into a garland. It turned out so great that I might just hang it year around in my studio space.

 

 

What a sweet Jack-O-Lantern cookie. Such a nicely glazed top you have, and such intricate features you have...

it never had a chance.

 

bootiful garden

Ray Villafane carved this pumpkin lord at the New York Botanical Gardens's Haunted Pumpkin Garden, where it was captured on still and video. It's quite a sight!

pumpkins of 2010

Two cuties from 2010. Miss them.

 

Jack-O-Lantern Resort

We dont care for golf, but the mascot could sway us!

 

The Jack O'Lantern Resort is conveniently located off of I-93, approximately a two hour ride from Boston, three and a half from Montreal and five hours from New York!

 

 

 

Pumpkin Past

Pumpkins and JOL's from last year.

 

 

 

Pumpkin Liza

HELL YES!!!!

Saw these huge pumpkin pails and had to buy! These are definitely for October Boys! Probably the best thing I have seen this season.  For only 6 dollars!!

We actually bought 4, but the other cutie is in the back seat. 

HAPPY LITTLE JACK

ACEO ORIGINAL PAINTING

buy it here

Stingy Jack

The Legend of "Stingy Jack"

People have been making jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack-o'-lanterns.