What started as joke tombstones and a new use for one of my mannequins, blossomed over the years into a full-blown obsession. Our only materials are cardboard, paint, and old mannequin parts destined for the landfill. Oh and my husband’s old white t-shirts — I made a dozen ghosts while watching a scary movie in 2021.

This year we added in Swords of Damocles hanging above the heads of trick or treaters (because what describes life in 2026 better than a Sword of Damocles?), and set out the rest of our stash.

“The yard looks great,” I said to my husband.

“I don’t know…it’s a little sparse,” he answered.

I was dumbfounded. We had just spent the entire weekend on Halloween decorations. Did he want more?? I agreed, of course. More is always better when it comes to Halloween decorations.

Target sells mass produced Halloween decorations. I could have gotten them delivered. They would have been fine. But what would have been the fun of that??

And so off I went to Mannequin Madness, my favorite place and an occasional client. I acquired some new-to-us recycled mannequin heads — creepy enough on their own but add some quick blood and stitching?? Way more fun!

I gathered the kids. I sketched my ideas. I even let my five-year-old loose with washable marker, and then wiped it off when she wasn’t looking so my ten-year-old and I could better execute the vision.

What I love about Halloween is the creativity. Imagining a new identity. Carving a jack-o-lantern. Throwing together a costume from whatever’s around the house. 

I believe humans are meant to create. We create lives, we decorate homes, we make and share meals. We create tiny humans, and shape their lives. 

To me, it is the meaning of life, the reason to live. It is breath.

I’ve been selling creative services since I was quite literally a teenager. I’ve made a life out of collaborating with small businesses to bring their visions to life. The transformation — in look and confidence — is what gets me out of bed.

Nowadays, I’m equally likely to be sparsing output from a robot as bouncing ideas around with my clients. What once was an invigorating collaborative process is regularly filtered through a glorified random word generator.

And to be totally honestly, I’ve been super depressed. This mass-devaluation of creative work, the onslaught of AI-generated flyers, music, video, books, emails, reviews, podcasts… Why? Just why?

So we can create more shitty work faster? So we can continually to enrich the billionaire class while we exhaust ourselves with mediocrity and convenience?

What is life for if not for having a wild idea, and seeing it through?

Next year, I plan to add sculpted guts oozing out of the mannequin arms and legs. And I can’t wait.

A few weeks ago, our stroller was stolen out of the front of our yard. It was our fault—we knew not to leave it out and we did anyway. We weren’t completely surprised and, while it was a bummer, we had a backup stroller to use.

I had just gotten fed up with the backup stroller and was looking on Craigslist for strollers to buy. Did you know that some people spend $1,500 on strollers? I guess it’s a status symbol. All of our strollers have always been secondhand, either as gifts from families who had outgrown theirs or used ones we got off Craiglist.

ANYWAY, over the weekend I asked Will and Quinn to go bike around and see if they could find a bookcase for Quinn’s room from the furniture that people had put out on the street. They did not find a bookcase, but instead acquired a used BOB stroller in pretty excellent condition that the fanciest house in the neighborhood had put out for free. It is by far the nicest stroller we’ve ever had. It has cup holders! (The only issue is that the BOB is a jogging stroller, and, um, I don’t jog.)

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We have never once managed to get out a family holiday card, so why would I think we could do a full-on four panel roll brochure newsletter??

Well, I’m nuts. But When our daughter was born at the end of 2021, I felt a satisfying sense of completion family-wise, and I really wanted to start a tradition of sending an annual update to friends and family.

And because I’m me, a simple holiday greeting from one of those awesome websites like minted wasn’t going to cut it.

My good friend and fellow designer Molly McCoy sends an amazing holiday card every year that plays with unexpected cuts to create surprising shapes. She introduced me to the Fold factory’s fold of the week and watching their weekly videos highlighting creative print design is one of my joys.