I happened to be watching a Rick Steves show on Denmark and in the show they were describing a way of living that they had. It was called hyggelig (hoo.gl.ee). This hyggelig meant you always have a drink, some food, and at the very least a candle between you and your company. It meant feeling cozy at the very base translation of the word but actually much more, it was your surroundings without anything that would make you feel ill at ease or emotionally overwhelmed. It was actually the pursuit of serenity, of comfy, of homey, of anything that brought that warm fuzzy to your soul.

My jaw dropped at this Danish discovery of self. That one single word summed up the pursuit of my entire life. Hyggelig!!! This blog is about just that, all the things that make me feel hyggelig. My only hope is that they inspire you to find your own hyggelig too. Imagine a world full of hyggelig, just imagine...

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Crafty Monsters




Sometimes a lazy day (recovering from crazy girls night out) is just the perfect time for a nice long chat with your big sis. In fact it's perfect when you are wondering what in the heck to do to your porch that will have minimal cost and big impact for All Hallows Eve.

Of course she reminds me that I have all those canning jars turned votives from our housewarming party to put out. Her idea by the way. Then I think "Oh, I could wrap them in crape paper!" and then being brilliant like she is, she tops me with "No, vellum!". Too bad I couldn't find any colored vellum at the craft store. Black poster board and tissue paper will have to do this time.

Try not to be too perfect or symmetrical with the faces. The imperfectness of  it is what adds to the monster feel.


Oh boy! This is fun! Only I wish she was over to help make them but I'll just have to be satisfied with her reaction when she sees them on All Hallows Eve to celebrate my birthday. 



supplies

- black poster board cut into strips to fit around a canning jar or vase with 1 inch overlap
- colored tissue paper 
- glue stick
- exacto knife
- cutting board or cardboard
- canning jar or vase
- sticky velcro circles
- pencil

Draw your monster faces or any Hallows Eve shape onto your poster board.
Cut out your face with an exacto knife.
Spread glue around cutout openings and smooth a piece of tissue paper over glue.
Wrap around canning jar and and adhere velcro to hold together.
Remove from canning jar and place monster over a lit votive.

Make sure your flame is well protected from the poster board or place your candle inside the canning jar for extra protection.

It was such fun thinking up scary monster faces and great practice for pumpkin carving this year!
Think of all the places you could use these. They could be put in a circle with all the faces facing out for a great center piece on your dining table, on a mantle, in the window facing outside, or on your porch to greet trick or treaters as I'm going to do! 

I hope I've inspired you to create some monsters of your own...

Happy spooking!

5 comments:

  1. These are awesome! Maybe if I get really into Halloween, I'll have my many, many kidlets make some of these that weekend, since we'll have them all with us anyhow.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! I hope you do have a monster making party and then post pics of them so I can see : )

    ReplyDelete
  3. The girls and I are going to make these tomorrow night!! Great idea!! Thanks for the inspiration!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your very welcome and they are a super blast to make!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well we're all about the creativity and uniqueness....not everyone in the neighborhood will have these!! :)

    ReplyDelete