October was definitely a hold on to your hat type of month, i.e it was tough!! I am glad to see the end of October especially as I’m not particularly a fan of Halloween.

Growing up in England in the 80’s/90’s we didn’t celebrate it, no one did. Out of all the years in my childhood we dressed up once, put on a paper witches mask, had a cape that resembled a bin liner and went to our next door neighbour’s and said trick or treat. Our treat was one little strawberry bon-bon. As kids being only about 9 or 10 we (my younger sister and I) loved it, it was super exciting! After that my parents became very involved with the church and frowned upon anything to do with Halloween.

Even though we didn’t celebrate it in our house we rarely had people knock at the door trick or treating, there were no special parties and you had to really hunt for a costume, pretty sure the local supermarket didn’t sell them. Halloween was something that was celebrated in the movies.

Over the years I have spent many Halloween’s hiding indoors with the lights out and the door locked. It seems crazy each year it gets bigger and bigger and now everywhere you go you can’t breathe for Halloween merchandise, whether that be costumes, decorations or candy. In fact in 2013 the UK spent £230 million compared to the £419 million in 2018. That is a massive growth in just 5 years!

As a mother I am acutely aware of the pressure I am now under to celebrate the season. Of course that is very hard when you’re just not feeling the holiday. So then, of course I start to feel extremely guilty that she is missing out on all the fun. (Although this year she was in quarantine after her operation so couldn’t go out). To be honest I’d rather spend the money on Christmas! Maybe as she gets older I will get more into it but for now I will make do with begrudging it and trying to avoid social media for the FOMO factor and the inevitable guilt that comes with it!

I’d love to hear if anyone else feels the same way, although I think I am in a minority!

So now I have got that off my chest here are some of my makes from October!

Despite being busy taking care of a very bored and poorly pre-schooler, and a poor dog who also had to have an operation I seemed to have managed to achieve something! The thing I like most about these mosaics is I get to the end of the month and feel like I’ve hardly achieved anything and then I put one of these together and think hey I actually did. Truth is if I don’t squeeze any type of sewing in a day, even if it us just basting some EPP I feel so grumpy and irritable.

As you can see there is Christmas sewing starting which I will share with you soon, my Sunflower Tote.   Mabel’s quilt which came in super handy in the hospital when we both snuggled under it in her bed on a very chilly ward (hospitals are normally hot!) It was nice to have it admired by the nursing staff and brought a bit of home to the bed. My Blooming Blossoms are slowly being caught up with, although I am further behind then I initially thought (I originally titled the blog post Box 8 when in fact it was only Box 7!) and November’s box will soon be here! I also started another new quilt because lets face it you can never have too many quilt projects on the go right?! This one really will be to use up my stash though I pinky promise!

I had originally planned to post this on Halloween but real-life got in the way, better late than never right!?