I have just started to read "Schulz and Peanuts - A Biography" by David Michaelis. It's 566 pages long and when acknowledgments, source notes, and the index are added, it jumps to 655 pages! Charles "Sparky" Schulz was a very complex man. For me, more than "Where have I gone wrong?", it would take less time to ask, "Where have I gone right?" :>(

I first made these about 13 years ago. Over the years I've adapted the originals. I've not sold these in 11 years at craft shows and am going to try again this year. You use empty paper towel and wrapping paper rolls. I prefer to sew my "dress" and "sleeves". Basicly you cut the fabric the height of your roll and cut the sleeves as long as she want to make the arms. You make a tube for the dress and sleeves. I glue a piece of card board to the bottom and fill the roll with rice or dry beans. I take the dress and hand gather one end, then I glue that to the top of the tube so that the bottom covers the cardboard. Then put a pipe cleanner in the arms and gather in the middle and hand sew. Glue the arms to the back. The head is a styrofoam ball with quilt batting around it glued to the top of the roll. I used my stove eye covers to trace a circle on muslin that I pulled the edges to rip it and wadded it up to make it wrinkled. Then draw the eyes and mouth, drape over the head and tie with jute cord. The pipe cleanners can be shaped to pose the arms and that's how you attach the halloween bucket. I think they look cute on a buffet, dinning table, coffee table etc. email if you have questions. Susan in Bama Here is a link that might be useful:

One year for a treat I did a small ghost out of white construction paper folded in half at the top. I cut the ghost free hand, added eyes and a grin. Inside I taped a piece of gum, but I would think candy would work too.

I don't think we have a Dollar Tree, Minnie, but I'll look at our local dollar stores and see if I can find those cauldrens...sounds like a great little decoration. :-) Janet, we really don't have the tools to cut plywood yet - just moved into this house a month ago. So the simpler, the better... I was just thinking (again) that I could get gray garbage bags, stick cardboard forms in them, and then do the lettering in black pen. That would be realistic enough, I think, and still "weatherproof", if I used a laundry pen. :-) I can't really use candles to light them - highly unsafe with my uneven yard (it's sloped pretty steeply towards the street), and I'd be afraid of forgetting them once everyone is inside and starting a fire on the lawn. Too risky, but I *was* thinking I could get some really cheap little flashlights (black), and lay them on the ground in sets of two, with blue cellophane over the lense...just get batteries at Costco. ;-) Muchies - I was going to just do a "finger food buffet" of sorts, but DH is thinking pizza wouldn't be too bad. We could make it ahead of time with pepperoni in jack-o-lantern face shapes, and maybe dye the cheese red or something...still working on that, but you can see the post on the Cooking forum. :-)