Happy Halloween!

Today we're taking a break from our regularly scheduled post to celebrate a holiday in which we can actually be applauded for wearing sweatpants and eating chocolate all day.

I think we can all agree to celebrate that!

Since the posting day magically fell right on Halloween, our true Disney Dates will be resuming later, and instead today you get a little craftiness and a little spookiness! And some interesting Disney news, as well.

First off, Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has found some time to play dress up and indulge. Stay safe if you're out there tonight!

In honour of this most auspicious of occasions, my pretty pumpkin from last week has had a makeover. She is no longer looking quite so friendly!

Considering pumpkin and apple were our last two special ingredients, I thought I'd introduce them to each other. I'm sad to say it didn't go that well for apple....

Happy Halloween, all!

Max is dressed up in a mask he made (that's right- he designed it, carved it, shaped it, stained it... all the leather work from a scrap piece into a masterpiece! Curly beard and all!) as a druid. He's also wearing a sheepskin cape and spent the night drinking mead. We're a bit weird here, guys. But hey, that's what Halloween is for, no?

We're currently camped out at home, throwing candy at the kids who come to our door.

Ok, not actually, but our bowl is a double hander and most kids are carrying two hander bags as well (I was SO not allowed to do that! What!) so a couple times I've ended up trying to shake some candy in. Sometimes this goes well and all goes smoothly; sometimes disaster strikes and candy scatters all over!

Alright, I'll be honest- that's not disaster in my book. For one thing all the candies are wrapped and for another, the highlight of my night is watching ninjas, fairies and dinosaurs attack each other over fallen candy scraps. It's like a tamer, fantasy-inspired Hunger Games out there. The last one left alive gets the candy.

Kate Hust, I believe, is the artist behind the idea

Aside from this highlight, I'm also getting a big kick out of my newly completed little project, something I'm quite pleased with.

It's all natural, eco friendly, totally free and totally easy autumn decor. I'm enchanted with how these turned out! It's a great little project, because I'm always bringing home the beautiful leaves we find on our walks and I never actually have anything to do with them, so they always kind of crackle up and end up being a bit of a mess :( So, this is the perfect solution. An easy way to turn those beautiful leaves into a long lasting and beautiful bouquet!

The tutorial I worked from (which can be found here- I originally found this on Pinterest but it didn't have the artist credited, so I tracked it down to the best of my ability)  used florist tape and a slightly different method. I used a flat surface and rolled mine rather than folding around the rose like she's done. I also elected to avoid the florist tape because this whole project is 100% free and eco friendly.. until you tape it up! It frustrated me, so I went questing for something better. I stapled the bottom of one flower before I realized I have all I need already! Since my rolled up flowers don't need much to stay in place, I took to using one stem to tie the bottom together, and it worked great! I'm proud to say these roses are now 100% leaf :)

As you can see- using a stem to tie. Also a view of my rolled rose from the top!

Look at these colours! Could you resist?

Altogether, I think I spent an hour on 11 roses, including gathering time. They're really super fast to make. The only thing is you only have about a day to do it, because once they dry they'll break instead of folding.

So! This has been our Halloween :) I hope yours were good!

Onto the Disney section of the evening, then. I'll preface the news with these hints:

Too subtle? Ah, alright, how about this one?

It's official, folks: In a seriously good week for giant mergers (Penguin and Random House have confirmed that they will be merging, as well) Disney has bought Lucasfilms, for the pocket change of 8 billion bucks.

Well. I wish Disney was interested in my student loans, that's all I can say.

There's been a pretty big reaction, with a lot of people feelings strongly on both the hooray! and GTFO Disney! sides of the fence. Selfishly, I'm totally ok with the purchase, and here's why:

--Though I love the product, there's no denying that Disney is a Monster Corp, with all the negative side effects that entails. It's not the worst out there (side-eyes Wal Mart) and it does do some things right; at least a portion of the pocket that is 8 billion bucks lighter is doled out to Charities, and working for Disney is no bad gig. But the mega corp status remains. However: the mega corp specialized in entertaining the pants off you, and decades of practice have rendered Disney more than capable in that regard. Star Wars will change, yes, and the new movie already in the making will no longer be 'pure'. In this regard I wish to point out that the Avengers is far, far from pure, and Disney entertained the pants off of you with that, didn't they?

--At the head of Marvel and Pixar, Disney has been remarkably willing to step back and let the magic happen. We can certainly hope to see more of the same now that they're holding the monetary reins of Lucasfilms.

--Also, while Lucas has in his career revolutionized film, let's be perfectly honest: He can't direct or write to save his life (or his company). Lucas seems a bit bitter towards all the geeks who have pointed this out, and I think that the enterprise that is Star Wars will actually be better off in the hands of a successor to Lucas, who is freshly in love with the world, rather than embittered by it.

--Certainly we owe Lucas a debt for the creation of the story and the legitimacy he brought to epic Sci Fi. I don't know if I'd have said the debt was 8 billion, but hey, no one asked me. For Star Wars, however, I think that the transfer to Disney is all good news.

There is of course a lot of other angles to consider; the monopoly that Disney has over film is somewhat alarming, and die hard fans are unlikely to be excited by a change of this magnitude. Nevertheless, Disney has shown it knows how to handle a nerd or two, and Star Wars could use the re vamp. So lets look at the bright side of this death star and anticipate Star Wars 2015, which in all likelihood will entertain the pants off of you.