Spooky Halloween Tree Primitive Doll

Meet my newest original design – a spooky primitive tree doll for Halloween or every day! When I was a little girl, my Mom would put up paper Halloween decorations in the kitchen of our 1771 farmhouse every year. One of them featured a creepy old house with a spooky tree behind it and trick-or-treaters approaching the door. I was so scared of that tree! Memories of that old decoration inspired me to create this doll.

primitive Halloween tree doll

This Halloween tree can be displayed standing propped up as a shelf sitter or as part of a primitive display, or hanging on a wall or door.

primitive Halloween tree

Halloween Spun Cotton Ornaments 2013

As some of you know, I made a big move from New Jersey to the beautiful Teton Valley of Idaho in the nothern Rockies last month – and I am absolutely loving my new home.  Now that we are all unpacked and settled into our new home, I am getting started on my holiday 2013 line of spun cotton ornaments.  These two witches are are the first in the Halloween collection for this year.

spun cotton witch ornament

spun-cotton-witch

Next I will be working on creating some patterns for my doll designs, as promised – stay tuned!  I have a new Halloween doll in the works too.

Prims Magazine Spring/Summer 2012 Issue

The Witch in the Moon - featured in the Prims Magazine Spring/Summer 2012 issue

I am pleased and honored to share that my Primitive Halloween Moon (aka The Witch in the Moon) design is featured in the Spring/Summer 2012 issue of Prims magazine!  You can find him on pages 96-97, and I am including a photo of his spread below – click the image above for a closer look.

Some of you may have seen this feature already but found me away on vacation when it was released, but I am back open for business now after an exciting and fun two-week road trip through Utah, Arizona and Nevada.  I have gotten a bunch of pattern requests for this design, so I am now strongly considering releasing my very first pattern soon – stay tuned!

Primitive Halloween Folk Art

Time got away from me this busy holiday season, and I never got a chance to post all of my newest designs for fall and Halloween before it was time to start working on orders for them.  So now that I have already started working on Christmas versions of the two primitive dolls below, I figured I should finally post their Halloween versions first.

primitive cat doll in a witch hat

This is a reclining primitive Halloween cat doll, dressed in a black witch hat and a black cheesecloth scarf.  Look for her in a Santa hat in my Etsy shop later this week.

handmade spooky Halloween moon man in a witch hat

And this is primitive Halloween moon wall decoration wearing a black witch hat. I envisioned him as a Halloween man in the moon, but some think he looks like an old crone, which I can see too. S/he will also be in my Etsy shop wearing a Santa hat later this week.

handmade spooky Halloween moon man

Halloween Spun Cotton Ornaments

spun cotton ornament

Halloween spun cotton ornament

spun cotton Halloween ornament

spun cotton dog ornament

spun glass Halloween ornament

The ornaments pictured above are my newest spun cotton and spun glass designs for the 2011 holiday season. I am now working on another batch of Halloween primitive dolls – a black cat, a witch cat, and a witchy moon. More spun cotton Halloween ornaments will be added next week, and perhaps a Halloween paper doll or two.

spun cotton ornament display

Halloween Ornaments

The orange and black chenille Halloween ornaments below are the latest additions to my line of chenille ornaments for the 2011 holiday season.  Click an image to visit them in my Etsy shop.

halloween folk art

primitive halloween ornaments

What will emerge from my workspace today?
artist workspace

I have new spun cotton ornaments and spun glass ornaments in the works – they will be added to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop later today and tomorrow.

Happy Halloween!

Hallowe’en Greetings! Our carved pumpkins are all lit up and ready to greet the trick-or-treaters. We have a kitty theme this year – happy cat and scary cat. They decide who gets tricks and who gets treats!

carved Halloween pumpkins

And speaking of treats – I received the most wonderful surprise in the mail today from my bestest customer Sally!

Halloween candy and card

She sent me a beautifully handmade, amazingly detailed Halloween card, which I adore, and an assortment of Halloween chocolates, which I have been munching on all day! (I looooove chocolate!) There were actually a few more little jack-lantern chocolate balls in the bag to the left at first, but I couldn’t resist eating a bunch before I took the photo. 🙂 THANK YOU, Sally! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The Witches Ball 2010 in Mount Holly, NJ

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending The Witches Ball in Mount Holly, NJ for the second year in a row with my husband Max.  This event is now one of our much-anticipated Halloween traditions!  The caliber of costumes that folks come out in rival what I have seen in Salem, MA or the NYC Halloween Parade.  This year we brought a couple of cameras and a tripod, and were able to capture some fun – and scary!, be forewarned – photos of the event.

Moan-a, the giant witch
Moan-a, the giant witch, welcoming us to the Ball.
The Witches Ball 2010 - Mount Holly, NJ
This sign was greeting us near the start of the Ball.
The Witches Ball judging booth
The judge's stand at the costume contest. (Click to enlarge.)
The Witches Ball - Spirit of Christmas shop in Mount Holly, NJ
View of the Witches Ball crowd. The building in the background is a delightful Christmas ornament shop called Spirit of Christmas. Max and I bought several ornaments there. The proprietress was very nice, and told us the building was built in 1775. It was so charming! (Click to enlarge.)
The Witches Ball - historical costume
A favorite historical costume. (Click to enlarge.)
The Witches Ball - Best Witch costume winner
Winner of Best Witch Costume - Linda Chamberlain of Mount Holly, NJ.
The Witches Ball - scary costume
This was my favorite costume of the night. He had two strings of skulls hanging down his back, too.
Creep Show Zombie
The Best Over All costume contest winner - Brett Walker of Gloucester City, NJ - Creep Show Zombie.
Creep Show Zombie and devil friend
Creep Show Zombie and devlish friend.
giant devil costume
Scary giant devil costume with Mona in the background.
The Witches Ball - devil costume
Spooky photo of the giant devil costume. (Click to enlarge.)
Terri Lindahl-Castro of T.L.C. Interiors
This is Terri Lindahl-Castro sitting outside her shop, T.L.C. Interiors. She had the coolest interior design shop I have ever been in. Her sense of style is amazing! She also designed many of the props at the Ball.
The Great Pumpkin
I'm The Great Pumpkin. Don't think I'm not!

The Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze 2009

This past weekend I made my second annual trip out to the Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze in the Hudson Valley of NY.  It featured a display of over 4,000 individually hand-carved glowing Halloween pumpkins on display in the form of dinosaurs, a UFO surrounded by aliens (my favorite part this year), pirates, a beehive abuzz with bees, sunflowers, and more.  The setting was on the riverside grounds of the historic 18th century Van Cortlandt Manor.  It was a cold but thankfully dry night as we wound our way through the spooky sights and sounds, sipping hot apple cider and munching apple cider donuts from a local orchard. Below are some of my photos from the evening.

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze 2009 in Historic Hudson Valley, NY

What Fun at The Witches Ball!

I am back from my first craft show, which was also my first Halloween party for the year, and feeling energized.  Halloween is my favorite time of year, and this festival was a great way to get into the holiday spirit!  The decorations and Halloween colored lights throughout the streets were amazing, there were plenty of yummy treats to be had (my favorites being the warm and fresh kettle corn and the hot apple cider), and many people went all-out with their costumes.  It was so fun to see all of the creative costumes throughout the night from my booth viewpoint.  It was also great fun to see and hear people’s reactions to my products and help them with their purchases.  Many comments during the night really made me smile. Here are some of the photos that I managed to snap during one of my brief forrays outside of my booth (note to self: bring my tripod next time).

The Witches Ball 2009 in Mount Holly, NJ

The Witches Ball 2009 in Mount Holly, NJ
This was the giant witch that greeted visitors to the Ball.

The Witches Ball 2009 in Mount Holly, NJ
That’s my booth on the right, and to the left was talented painter/sculptor Linda Mehnert. I bought one of her cat sculptures and just adore it!

The Witches Ball 2009 in Mount Holly, NJ
This was the view of the booths to my right from inside my booth.

And just to give you an idea of how amazing the costumes were, here is a photo that I borrowed from The Witches Ball Costume Contest Winners page of their website – this was my favorite costume of the night, which I was lucky enough to get to see up close (the wings were jointed and moved – and the detail in her dress and choker were amazing).

Best Fasntasy Costume at The Witches Ball 2009 - Bride of Death