I’m JACK, the Pumpkin King!

Here is a list of things that get me high on Halloween:

1. Costumes. Duh. Homemade ones are the best, like when my mom made that cranberry-colored velvet dress and pink faux fur stole so I could be a Rich Lady in first grade. High five, Mom! What’s your fave costume, now or gone?
2. Candy pumpkins. I like to pretend I’m the giant from The Brave Little Tailor, who picks up a horsecart-ful of pumpkins and dumps them in his mouth. Remember that?
3. Thriller. Word, MJ. I will dance like that herd of zombies, maybe in my next life.
4. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The wisdom of The Brown: “Never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker.”
5. Jack-o’-lanterns. For more, see Figs. 1 & 2.

Despite the non-Smallishness of buying a farm-fed squash raised especially for slicing, Mr. LS and I hosted a carving festival with a few friends, some butternut squash & pear soup + hand-twisted soft pretzels (yes, I married an incredible man-chef), and some pumpkin cookies from my friend Jill.

But, in the spirit of Small living, both the man-chef and I tried to recycle pieces of our pumpkins as artistic additions to our jackies.

Fig. 1: Mister’s Devil.

Fig. 2: My Dead Prom Queen.

In both cases, we reused the mouth cutouts as embellishments, affixed with toothpicks: Mister chopped his in half for horns; I flipped and fastened mine for a clever little crown.

Tell me about your Great Pumpkins. Classic? Unconventional? Kooky?

Yes, but tell us now about The Grunge. And the pillows.

Smells like teen spirit all up in here. Check out kelly+olive’s easy tutorial on how to turn a secondhand flannel into a pillow cover. For your couch, for your bed, for the saggy booths in that ratty club where you can totally come as you are (even in your {pearl} jammin’ DIY plaid bloomers!).

Via CRAFTzine.

People in glass houses…

High five to Heike, who built a wee-little outdoor shed from discarded windows:

Design*Sponge featured Heike’s “hideaway” (a misnomer, right? I mean, it’s made of glass.), lauding the reuse factor: “it’s so great to see people who are inspired by something seemingly left over and fit for the trash,” D*S dueña Grace Bonney writes, “and end up imagining (and creating) something new and beautiful.”

My Small sentiments exactly.

The Choir’s CraftCans

Reuse alert, via my pal The Choir’s house: old cans and containers, rinsed and repurposed as craft-supply corrals. Doesn’t get much Smaller than that, and it gives his art room a distinctly Warholian flair. Nice job, friend-o.

Grocery Cart Island

Nope, not a tropical oasis. A set of repurposed grocery carts to function as a kitchen island. Ingenious, and totally DIY.

Read about how the owner crafted this kitchen contraption at The Kitchn.