We spent the last week creating art for our Day of the Dead altar with our neighbor friends. I found great happiness and pleasure in creating our Day of the Dead altar. I would work all day, painting, twisting tissue paper, gluing, while it poured outside and the kids played with the neighbor girls all around me. The kids happily created amazing little Katrina dolls for our relatives. We used old fashioned clothes pins and painted them all white. The kids made clothes for them and added yarn hair and then drew on their faces. We used gold wire for little glasses. We talked about who they represented and it was so nice to have it be so mellow and filled with happy memories while we created. We talked about each person, what they were like, how they died. Isabel asked me how long my mom's hair was and if the clothes she picked out were fitting (totally not, she put her in striped pants but I didn't tell her that). We used a piece of my friend's grandpa's shirt to make his doll's shirt. I carved a skull out of a sugar cookie and put it on a tea plate that was my mother's wedding china. Alan helped me dig through photos and memories to find just the right shots. Isabel sculpted my childhood dog out of clay. I made so many tissue paper flowers, all strung on wire to hand around the skulls. We painted out quotes that our loved ones used to say. I wrote down "Run Like The Wind" for my mom who used to say that to me after a kiss as she sent me on my way up the street to school. I wrote "Born To Raise Hell" with a flaming heart for my uncle, for that is what his old navy tattoo read. It was fun and I was surprised at how much pleasure it brought me. Real, deep, fulfilling pleasure. I loved being immersed in something so creative and personal. I love this holiday and I love being so involved in it. I love it for my kids but I really love it for myself. I am grateful I agreed to decorate a store front window for Day of the Dead. I would have not gotten so involved in the making of a true altar otherwise. The finished product is great but just seeing all the bits strewn about the floor together, the photos, the quotes, flowers, candles, skulls, pictures was so beautiful.


The kids were great and created many wonderful pieces for the altar.

It all came together beautifully and we were able to set up a wonderful display for a storefront downtown.

My camera caught all the reflection of the window and hardly any of what was inside.

I plan getting some good shots of the altar sometime soon.

We had a fun time making skeleton shrinky dinks which I then glued to the outside of glass bottles.


The kids concentrated on making mini sugar skulls.

Shrinky dinks, beloved pets and sugar skulls.

A tiny bit of the display I snapped.

It was very sunny that day and my camera caught more of the window reflection than anything else!

But you get the idea, even if you can't see the details!


We were at the Day of the Dead opening celebration this evening.

Folkloric group that performed authentic Mexican and Indigenous folk dance.


The St. Vincent de Paul Aztec Dance Group

I couldn't resist buying a hand painted dish for our home.