(WARNING! Photo heavy post coming your way!)
Ahhh, I LOVE Halloween!
Love it.
I don't love to dress up. And although I love the candy, I try not to steal it from my kids eat it. TRY being the operative word there...
But I do love the decorating. LOVE IT!
Halloween and Christmas are the only 2 holidays I decorate the house for, and when I do it, I do it! So that's what I spent doing all day last Sunday...
Here's a tour of this year's Halloween decorations around the house -
This is the front entryway of our house. A few years ago my friend Karen and I stumbled upon a local artist - Jeni Gochnour - that makes these fabulous painted gourd figures. You can learn more about her on her website here. I'm slowly adding to my collection. I just love them!
This is the fireplace in our formal living room. I bought this fun Happy Haunting Halloween Banner Kit from Janet Hopkins at Inspiration Unlimited - she had such fun stuff and ideas there, more to come in my tour! Sounds like she may have a few kits left, check it out here.
And a side table next to the fireplace.
I saw the idea for the spider flower arrangement at marthastewart.com. Love it! I already had the flowers and spiders, took me literally 30 seconds to stick the spiders in the flowers.
Also in the same room. I think the large pillow was a Target find last year, not sure though. Love the mix of different fonts on the pillow! The large glitter skeleton is hanging from the switch that turns on the lamp.
This is the hall from the entryway into the great room. This spot normally holds family photos, but gets transformed for Halloween and Christmas.
I found the awesome 'Eat Drink and Be Scary' sign at a great little boutique in Henderson, Nevada called Magnolia Lane when I was teaching at Inspiration Unlimited. If you're ever in the area, pay a visit, the store is awesome!
Two more fun purchases from Janet on this shelf in the hallway The Haunted Halloween Art Print on the right side of the shelf (available for download and print on her blog for only $1.99 here!). I loved the way that she displayed it at Inspiration Unlimited so much that I did exactly what she did with it - framed it and added Tim Holtz feet to the bottom of the frame. Such a fun, inexpensive idea!
This skeleton card was another print out of Janet's. Again, loved her display at IU, so I borrowed her great idea and added it to the shelf. Cut out the card, adhered it to a piece of a cardboard box to give it so sturdiness, inked the top, distressed the edges and displayed in an old metal tape measure that I found years ago in my junking adventures.
Last year I bought a bunch of orange rubber pumpkins on clearance at Michaels. I spray painted them a matte silver and they're throughout the decorations. I like to mix in non-holiday stuff that I already have when I'm decorating and make it work. The '31' is a vintage desktop calendar that I change the date on for the holidays.
A table in the kitchen. More non-holiday stuff incorporated here - a cake stand, glass cloche (bell jar) and a vintage glass apothecary bottle filled with glitter skeletons.
The kitchen table - a raven that I attached to a fun birdcage I found at the Farm Chicks Antique Show this summer in Spokane. I use lots of old books in my decorating. The skeleton is sitting on top of 3 old books. Ladies from IU that bought one of my Hodge Podge books - this is what I do with the actual 'book' part after I've cut off the cover!
(getting tired yet?! I said I go all out!)
The couch table in our family room. I use the same jar for both holidays, just switch out what I put inside the jar. More old books used - on the left are 2 Bobbsy Twin books that were my mom's when she was a little girl. On the right, a few old black books.
And finally, the fireplace in our family room.
I bought the vintage mirror at an estate sale years ago. The person I bought it from said it was from a dresser set at the Sun Valley Lodge in Idaho from the 1950's. I used it last year on the mantle for Christmas and thought it would be fun to work in for Halloween.
I found the black wreath this year at Target. It's made by Smith and Hawken and has roses all over it made out of wood. You can kind of see the detail in the pic below, it's hard to get a good picture of it with enough contrast. Here's a link on their website of one in cream - much easier to see the detail in the roses. 
I love the bat garland peeking out of the bottom of this photo. I bought it last year (Martha Stewart, from Michaels) and used it again this year in a few places around the house. Also used another vintage desktop calendar to display the date - reads Mon 31 OCT.
So, there you have it! Lots of Halloween goodness!
Side note - I only do decorations on the main floor of the house. I said I love to decorate. I didn't say I'm obsessed ;) Although, if you asked Nick he might beg to differ.....
;)
