Events in Glasgow this Halloween weekend

Thought I'd quickly share with you a few events that are going on in Glasgow this Halloween weekend:

Spooktacular Treasure Hunt at Buchanan Galleries

Pumpkins will be popping up in stores throughout the galleries this weekend. Shoppers have to search for the 10 hidden pumpkins for the chance to win a £250 Buchanan Galleries gift card. You can pick up an entry form at the information desk on the 1st floor. And the best bit... every child that hands back in their form will get a trick or treat goody bag.

'Eldest & Littlest' pumpkin from Stripe Communications :-)

Hallowe'en Hoot at the David Livingstone Centre (the National Trust for Scotland)

Arts and crafts, stories and more are on the cards at this children's Halloween event. Tickets are £5 and you can buy them online here.

Paisley Halloween Festival

There is going to be an illuminated Halloween parade down Paisley High Street this evening from 6-9pm, ending at Abbey Close where there will be a stunning fire garden created by outdoor arts company, Walk the Plank. The Town Hall will host craft workshops and face-painting and on the streets you'll find performers including fire jugglers. Sounds like it's worth a visit if you're in the vicinity.

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Ghost Hunting at Mugdock Country Park

If you're feeling brave (this one's not for me!) then you can head into the grounds and dark dungeons at Mugdock Country Park on Saturday night at 9pm where Fizzigig Entertainment will scare the life out of you. Eek!! Age limits apply and booking is essential. Tickets are £8.

Glasgow Science Centre

At the Halloween Fright Night (Fri 31st Oct, 6-9.30pm) at the Glasgow Science Centre you can take on the undead in the Tower Base... see how the apocalypse began and get ready to survive the ultimate zombie showdown. I've been watching The Walking Dead this past week, so this would be right up my street!! Tickets are £6 per person.

Eats from the Street at Glasgow Fort

If you've had enough of the Halloween chat, then pop along to sample some street food at Glasgow Fort this weekend. Eats from the Street is going to be located outside Argos from 11.30am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday featuring the following traders: Zoete Koek, Mighty Mexican, Breaking Bread and Nusou.

{Halloween Fun}

My kids are at the age now where Halloween is lots of fun. We've been busy deciding what to dress up as for the school disco and I think we'll try and visit a few of the neighbours too whilst we're at it!

I thought I'd share with you a few of my Halloween finds...

First up is an event in Glasgow being held this weekend by Rowdy Roddy Vintage at The Sparkle Horse, 16 Dowanhill Street. It's a free event with Halloween games, pumpkin carving, home decor, costumes and more.

There's also a Baby Loves Disco 'Boogie Halloween' event at Hummingbird on 2nd November, 1-3pm and a Pop Lock-In at the same venue, same date for 4-11 year olds at 4-6pm. Have a peek here for more details.

I've also come across some tasteful Halloween decor... we're not having a party so I'm not going to go crazy, but I might put up a couple of garlands and try and carve a pumpkin. My cousin Scott creates the most amazing pumpkins each year, and hopefully he won't mind me sharing the one he made last year...

Tinkerbell! Isn't this so cool!! I'll be attempting a more straight forward design!

John Lewis is one of my favourite department stores, and they have loads of Halloween goodies. This tissue paper garland is great value at just £2.50:

Tissue Paper Pumpkin Garland from John Lewis

I also love this felt ball garland from Violet and Percy:

Halloween Felt Ball Garland, £8

These bat garlands and tassel garlands are also amazing:

Velveteen Babies Bat Garland from Molly Meg, £17.50

My Little Day Black Tassel Garland, £12.50

If we don't get time to bake any Halloween inspired cakes for the neighbours (I've ordered some bat shaped sugar sprinkles and edible wafer cake toppers!), then these Hotel Chocolat treats from John Lewis are ideal as a wee favour.

Yikes Milk Chocolate Treats, £2.50

I've got some other Halloween ideas over on this old post and there's also some ideas on my Halloween Pinterest board, which you will find here.

Halloween - do you love it or hate it?

{Glasgow What's On: Ghoulish Gathering}

Details of this Halloween event that's happening this weekend arrived in my inbox and I think it looks rather good, so thought I'd share with you all here:

Ghoulish Gathering at Sparkle Horse hosted by Rowdy Roddy Vintage

October 26th, 12 noon - 4pm

16 Dowanhill Street, Glasgow, G11 5QS

Halloween games, pumpkin carving, home decor & Halloween costumes!

And if you can't make it along on the day, Rowdy Roddy Vintage have a variety of outfits and Halloween goodies here on their website. I'm loving this 'Mummy's Little Misfit' T-shirt!

{My Life in Photos}

We have been busy bees in the Glasgow house these past few months! Here are some of the things that we've been up to...

Getting dressed up for Halloween - my fairy princess and Superman!

Ten Pin Bowling with Becky

Bowling was a big hit with both my little ones - I'd highly recommend it if you haven't been. And I thoroughly enjoyed it too - was ages since I had been bowling! (I also managed to get a higher score than Becky!!)

Soft play!

Babycino and cupcakes

My sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby girl

Lots of cups of tea in bed!

Snuggles and Disney movies

Bunches for the first time!!

We visited Santa at Eden Mill

Loving the reindeer & other farm animals

Mulled wine in the slow cooker!

We decorated the house and filled our advent calendars with chocolate coins

The Christmas tree (which I insist on being all gold!)

My Christmas fairy helping with the washing up!

My Christmas tree bunting which I picked up in the sale from Laura Ashley at the start of the year. Looks perfect in my green and red kitchen.

{Chocolate Spider Lollipops - Done!}

I'd previously posted some Halloween Ideas, one of these were some pipe cleaner spider lollipops which I thought were a super cute Halloween favour for my son to give to his nursery friends. I also created a free Halloween printable that I have used to add a message to the spiders. I printed the design onto card, cut out the scalloped circle using a hole punch and attached it to the chocolate lollipop with a glue dot. Instead of a hard candy lollipop I bought some chocolate ones which I thought would be safer for 2 year olds. However, the chocolate lollipop is rather heavy compared to a hard candy lolly so it was a bit difficult to get the spider legs to sit right to hold it up, but the back two legs are propped under the chocolate to support it and I think it still looks ok.

Here is a photograph of one of my finished spiders. (My tag is slightly different from the free one because I have personalised it to say who it is from and I've blurred out my little ones names for the purpose of this blog. You could easily handwrite a message on the back of the free tag to say who it is from.)

I hope everyone at the nursery enjoys them (I must admit that I've eaten 2 of the chocolate lollipops - it was a quality assurance thing! - and they were yum. Not sure it's great for the healthy eating though!!).

{Halloween Printable}

This is my first free printable, so I hope it works ok!

I've created a design that I plan to print onto thick card and cut out into tags using a Fiskars Seal of Approval Squeeze Punch (Extra Large). I'm then going to tie the tags onto some halloween lollipops using orange ribbon for my son's nursery pals. I bought some chocolate lollipops at Dobbies Garden Centre yesterday and I'm hoping that I'll be able to make these into scary spiders as per my Halloween Ideas post. If the tags don't look good on the spiders, then they will be tied onto the lollipop ghosts.

You can download my free printable here.

I drew the pumpkin myself using Adobe Illustrator but I did follow a tutorial by n.design studio. I'm new to Illustrator though so please bare with me as I get to grips with it!

Please let me know if you have any issues with the file and I'd love to hear your feedback...good or bad.

{Halloween Ideas}

So, we're now into October... can you believe it!?

This will be our first Halloween with two little ones, so I've been trying to come up with a suitable costume for them. I came across some great ideas from Pinterest, but decided upon a pirate outfit for my son and my daughter will go as his parrot!

Pirate Pyjamas from Next

No-Sew Parrot Costume from Baby Rabies

I've got a red tutu for my daughter to wear and I'm going to attempt some sewing to add feathers to a baby vest and I'm going to team this with some yellow tights or leggings... Think I'll also try and get a pirate hat for my son to complete his outfit. Watch this space!

I'm going to make these spider and ghost lollipops for my son to give to his nursery pals. I bought some black pipecleaners and googly eyes this morning from eBay.

Spider Lollipops from House of Baby Piranha

Halloween crafts from One Charming Party

Here are some ideas I've come up with for decorating the house. I have never decorated our house before for Halloween other than the odd blow-up pumpkin but I thought it might be nice to have a few decorations here and there, especially if it's ones that get the kiddies involved...

Pumpkin handprint painting

Handprint spider

Skeleton Gingerbread Cookies

Ghost Poop favours for Trick or Treaters

Here are some more grown up decorations for Halloween and Autumn that I love...

Pumpkin Centrepiece

Pumpkins on Candlesticks

Pumpkin House Number

Pumpkin Carving

Check out my Pinterest boards for other ideas... LOVE Pinterest!!