Customer Reviews

Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Being a HUGE Halloween fan, I would have never thought that Martha could have any good ideas for Halloween decorating. Her decorating ideas are always so cute and cheerful, right?

How wrong I was! This book has wonderfully dark and gothic decorations that really capture the essence and magic of Halloween. Even the ideas for the kids are tasteful, without being overly cutesy.

Add to this great ideas for seasonal food (who knew you could use pumpkin in so many different ways), excellent costume ideas, and party ideas, and you have a great 'grown-up' Halloween decorating guide!

And for those reviewers here who complained that the book was only a collection of Martha's previous magazine articles: The title is "Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living". The "Best of" title should have clued you in that this was not brand new material. I'm sure the audience for the book was people like me, who have never picked up Martha's magazine before. I know I buy every Halloween issue now, as well as other seasonal issues.

This book is what I expected: a compiliation of Halloween ideas from past issues of the MSL magazine. If you've saved October issues over the last several years, you may be disappointed that this book doesn't have anything new (but it's convenient to have all these ideas in one place). I'm glad I bought this book, as I subscribed to the mag. just two years ago.

Many of the crafts in this book require patience and skill, and really are for adults and older children. I've made simplified versions of the shadow lanterns -- my family's delighted with the results.

If you're looking for easier Halloween crafts and projects, there are many wonderful books on the market. My children particulary enjoy _The Halloween Book_ by Jane Bull (DK Publishing), a kid-friendly guide to preparing for the holiday.

I found the contents of this "book" to be terrific. It is full of lovely pictures and creative, scary, unique ideas. Some of them are very labor intensive, but anyone familiar with Martha would expect that. On content alone I probably would have given it 4 1/2 or 5 stars. However, I was extremely disappointed in the format. When I opened the box my first thought was, "I don't remember ordering a magazine." That's really what this is. No, it does not have any ads and none of those annoying little subscription cards fell out of the pages but those are about the only differences. It is no thicker than a standard magazine, and in fact, not as thick as most of my issues of Marth Stewart Living. Because it is a book that should get a lot of use over the years, I can't help but expect that it will look dog-eared very quickly. I would much rather have spent a little more and gotten a hard cover version or at least a thicker book with smaller, sturdier pages.

....It is a good book. Like the other reviewers, I bought Martha's Halloween magazine last year, and it has all of the same things, with only a few minor changes. I was also very dissapointed with the book, because the magazine was good and I had hoped for more of the same. So if you don't have the magazine, buy the book. If you have the magazine, save your money.... the one or two additional projects don't justify the cost.

If you bought Martha's Halloween magazine last year, PLEASE DON'T BUY THIS! It is nothing more than alot of the same idea's and pictures, except with a hefty price tag. I was very disappointed in it and will return it.

I love Martha's Halloween Ideas. So much that I bought the special Halloween issue last year and also that I've saved old October issues of her magazine. This book is a compilation of those things. I was hoping for some new ideas, but this book had none. If you haven't seen her ideas before, this book would be great. I feel like it was a waste of money for me.

My mother-in-law actually bought this book for me as a joke. I LOVE Halloween (and LOATHE Martha Stewart), so she thought it would be a good gag. When she handed it to me, she said she thought it would be funny, but she had looked through it and thought I might actually like it.
I started to flip through it waiting for the kitschy-cutesy Halloween stuff to come grinning out at me, but there was none! Martha is known for her "Good Things", but when it comes to Halloween, she knows her "Bad Things" too!
Lots of classic spooky atmosphere decorations, and tons of great ideas that I had never seen before. If I had to buy just one Halloween book, it would be this one - seriously.
However, don't get carried away on Martha's excellent handling of Halloween. Her Halloween CD is the same old drab fare that you can find on any cheesy Halloween sounds album.

I really enjoy the book, seeing that I missed out on the special edition of the magazine last year. I love the photography and the ease of directions and instructional photos(the little dracula kid still weirds me out though) I have spent a year online looking for tasteful but creepy "organic" Halloween ideas. But after all that time, this book still has the best feel. I do agree that some new ideas would have been good.

Here it is, the best of Martha Stewart Living Hallowe'en content through 2001! Everything is here, packaged so efficiently and beautifully that even die-hard Martha Mag collectors will want it. There are great crafts, recipes, and costume projects, but the real fun of this book is in simply looking through the pictures and informational bits.

Everything is so clever, and presented so creatively! Put it on your coffee table!

I was hoping for sophisticated and stylish ideas for a halloween party. This was more like construction paper grade school crafts. I was very disapointed.