Halloween. I'm not crafty, I'm just clever.

Ah, as we enter the end of September, the fun holidays begin. Halloween, my fav, is just around the corner, followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas. A food lover's dream, and my bank account's nightmare.

This year, since the husband and I are both in new jobs, we can't exactly ask for these coveted holidays off. Halloween is typically a huge affair for us; hundreds of dollars and months of work poured into completely unique costumes that are then shown off at the West Hollywood Costume Carnival. But since I'll probably be working that evening (and he the morning after) we have decided to pour that money into decorating the house, since we actually have a house to decorate this year. The theme? The Nightmare Before Christmas, of course.

Problem #1: I'm a chef, not a seamstress. Sure I can hand-stitch what I need to when a costume requires it, or when I did theatre in college and needed to help sew someone into a costume between scenes, but to create elaborate decorations? Hmm.

Problem #2: I'm a chef, not an artist. My painting skills are limited, though what I can do is pretty nifty. So there will not be giant stand-up cutouts of Jack Skellington, but maybe I can make the "days till Xmas" clock. Hmm again.

I'll post pics as we go along, but we've both got some clever ideas to decorate the way we want, without having to enlist an army to assist.