Why is there a WEIRD story behind everything I do???

If I didn't know better, I might start to wonder if maybe I'm weird???..................Naa.................... Okay, so here's how it all happened. Saturday, we went to the City dump to unload a truck bed full of landscaping debris. All of a sudden I look to the right of where I'm tossing our stuff and I see the most beautiful dead branches ever! The girl in my head says, "Hmm, those would be perfect for one of those dead Halloween trees I see everyone else making in blogland."
So I'm hoping and praying that no one will notice the crazy lady (that's me) taking stuff from the City dump when it's really meant for dumping...not taking. Before I could finish my prayer a man and his wife start backing up their truck right next to ours to get rid of some old wooden thing. I knew without a doubt I'd been caught in the act. So they slowly get out of their truck and look me over, not knowing what to say. Finally, the wife says..."Um, you're taking that stuff back home with you?" I then had to explain to her that anybody who's anybody in blogland has to make a dead Halloween tree. Thank heavens she laughed. The husband was still eyeing me over suspiciously.
So here are the treasures. Aren't they lovely? First I whittled the end of one branch so I could stick it in the PCV pipe (the trunk of my tree).

Next, it's off to the backyard to spray paint.I'm not sure why I took this picture cuz it just looks like someone's putting a clarinet together. This is me painting the duct tape. I also drilled holes in each branch so that I could use wire to secure them in place.
And there you have it. The sordid tale of the scary Halloween tree.

Sometime this week I will be doing a tutorial on cute place mat purses. It's okay to crack up because that's just what I did the first time my cute friend, Cathy, told me about them. However, I had to take it all back once I saw them. Very inexpensive and amazingly CUTE! : )