so long, decorations

The decorations are coming down, and honestly, I’m not that sad to see them go. I love putting them up and basking in the glow of the lights when they’re up. But then it feels equally right to pack everything up after the hoopla winds down, and move into the new year feeling a little more unencumbered. Plus, we do get a last hoorah: we push our tree out the front window of our apartment and then drag it to the corner, which always provides a final little burst of joy.

You may have noticed I have a thing for hauling branches and fallen bits of trees inside. This one came home with me on a morning dog walk, and I set up it in a neglected little corner to arch over a doorway. The only other thing to do was hang some simple straw ornaments from Ikea.

And while I’ve been getting antsy to put everything else away, this is one that might linger (or not, I still haven’t decided). The bare, wintry branches are lovely to see when you come into the front hallway.

In this last photo, you might just make out the fuzzy silhouettes of paper decorations I made and hung to create a kind of curtain effect above the stairs. They added a clean, wintry touch and were super quick and satisfying to slice up one evening.

So long, holidays. It’s been nice spending time together.

tempting the occult?

No offense to Tarot believers, but these are some pretty menacing graphics that you use to read my soul.

We’re still shaping our Halloween party ideas, and this year I’m feeling a strong pull toward the macabre. I picked up a deck of Tarot cards in my favorite bookstore the other day, where they were kept under lock and key. They had to page someone to come open the case, and when the very square-looking bibliophile showed up with the keys, I tried my best Wiccan eye glower.

It didn’t work.

So I fessed up that I was going to use these cards as decoration, and he totally got into helping me find the ones with the most ominous illustrations. Oh look, here's a really creepy dude!

I’m not done with the cards yet, but here’s the first project. I hauled some fallen branches out of the park, spray painted them a glossy black, and then hung feathers and the most spooky cards among the dark branches.

So if crows swoop out of the sky and witches put a hex on my house, I don't know if I can plead ignorance.