Welcome to my Halloween party and my 100th blog post!

I'm so happy that you dropped by! Come in and warm yourself; you must be chilly, tramping for miles through Blogland to find yourself in this neck of the woods. I bet you don't even know where you really are!

Please come to the table and warm yourself with a hot cup of tea, and some delicious Halloween goodies.

Here is a special treat just for you!

And a plate of witches' fingers...a meal isn't complete without it!

Now that you are full, I'm sure you'd like to meet the residents of the house you suddenly have found yourself in. Here is the adorable and not in the least bit scary pet of the domain:

And now it's time to meet your hosts...if you dare...

Now that the scary introductions are over, let's go outside and see the place you are visiting, and get a feel for the lay of the land...

I think it's more scary inside, don't you? This is how the House of Houben was decorated in 2007. If I put the '08 decorations up this early, my neighbours might report me. Tee...hee! So I'm going to take you on a little tour of past Halloweens.

We'll begin with the pumpkins. For years I carved the ordinary Jack o' Lantern smiley face, and then I discovered FREE stencils online. Here is my first attempt at stencil carving in 2004: (it really isn't in the least difficult if you have the correct tools)

In 2005 I reverted back to a Jack o' Lantern face; I missed it too much:

Hmm...it seems that I felt the same way in 2006, but I did use a stencil:

In 2007, I found a unique stencil that wasn't another face pattern and who knows what I'll carve this year! However, I bought 2 pumpkins so please drop by for another visit in a few weeks time.

Being a collector of Chatty Cathy dolls, I decided to incorporate them into my Halloween window scenes. My first display was in two sections of the living room windows, in 2004. The effect was so cute, I've continued the decorations each year and it's quite a hit with the neighbourhood kids. I've seen an increase in traffic to my door! I used to hand out 30 treat bags, and now it's up to 60!

Do we look spooky enough? Please tell the truth!

Here is the window display in 2005: (I began decorating the 2 smaller windows to the left of the large one, and in '07 I had so much Halloween stuff I could fill all five windows!)

I used to have a difficult time finding Halloween decorations here in Canada, but not anymore! I love to sew, and I've created my Chatty's outfits, except for the pumpkin one which I purchased at Build a Bear shop.

We have come to an end of the tour. I hope you've enjoyed yourself!

Here are a few of the outfits I've created for Chatty Cathy: I bought the cute sweater in the first photo, at Michael's craft store, but I made the velvet skirt and the little bag. I sewed the little dress in the following picture; I've been sewing since 12 years old. I sell my creations on eBay under, you guessed it; "House of Houben".

In celebration of my first blog party and my 100th post, I will be having a Give a Way contest! The rules are simple; leave a comment below, and I will draw one name for a HALLOWEEN GIFT, consisting of something edible and something cute. I will draw the name on OCTOBER 31st, in order to give everyone taking the tour a chance to drop in.

Thank you so much, Vanessa, for dreaming up the Halloween Blog Party idea! It's been such fun!

By Loretta Houben