Halloween - Cheap and Cheerful

I found Halloween suncatchers on sale for less than $2 each... a paint it yourself kit with plastic suncatcher, color chart, tiny pots of paint, and a brush. My inner child said "I want that!" I snagged two different designs -- total expense less than $4 -- and went home to have Halloween fun.

When I discovered that the white paint I needed for the ghost had dried up in its little pot, I used a glitter glue stick and filled in the ghost with silvery white glitter glue. That ghost shimmers! The suncatchers hang in my kitchen above a row of glow-in-the dark Halloween Pez containers standing like little soldiers in front of the cookbooks lining my kitchen counter. Atop a book is a small ceramic pumpkin eerily lit by a battery operated candle.

Sunday I'll be baking brownies, topped with Halloween sprinkles, as a trick-or-treat for friends at work. Last year I baked brownines in a pumpkin muffin pan, and made orange Jello shots in a skull motif tray. You couldn't really see the pumpkin design on the brownies, and the Jello shots had to be scooped out of the skulls... a major mess, but it all tasted okay.

What are YOU doing for a cheap and cheerful Halloween?

Penny Pincher