But my kids kept begging, and I felt guilty for not making the house look haunted and creepy. 

So I decided to keep it minimal and confine the decor to just the entry and dining room (less work, too).   Now I’m glad I caved to the pressure. 

My Halloween tablescape consists of some white pumpkins, a few black crows, some random bones and skulls . . .

Cheesecloth makes easy spiderwebs to drape over light fixtures and furnishings.

Mystery books with creepy bookjackets, glitter skulls, and a severed hand poke out from beneath a turkey feather wreath on my entry table.  FYI:  placing a wreath of any kind on a cake pedestal enables you to decorate around and underneath the wreath as well. 

The black crows and spider webs will go back into storage next week, but my owls will hang out with me throughout the winter season.  Can you find the three owls in this post?  There may be a prize . . .

Our tin knight exchanged his vintage jewelry for a spooky chain.  But he’s still wearing that fur stole . . .

So I’m back on the “good mom” list with my kids, although my 7-year-old said it’s just not scary enough. 

This, from the child who won’t go upstairs alone because she’s too scared!!!

Maybe next year I’ll again embrace the whole haunted house look, like I’ve done in the past.   Here’s one last shot I took later in the day – every October, the light does this creepy thing on the walls in the front rooms in the afternoons.  Super-spooky and just in time for Halloween!

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A snip-snip here and a little rip there transforms this seemingly-harmless material into something spook-tacular!

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What a cool way to tablescape for a Halloween party!

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I like to drape cheesecloth over sconces and light fixtures, like this one in the entry of my home.  It creates a spooky glow among the black crows, spiders, and glitter skulls under glass.

What simple materials do you use to make your home spooky at Halloween?

Family fun Paper Doll Costume

To bee or not to bee, that is the question . . .   For this cute costume, braid yarn to make a beehive of “hair.”    Add a few sticks, leaves, and a flower.  Make bees from craft pom-poms and attach them to wires that are anchored in beehive hairdo.  A yellow turtleneck and black leggings complete the look.

This fairy godmother/harlequin gets her ruffles from simple coffee filters!

Paper grocery bags and an old mop are the necessary ingredients for this cowboy’s attire.

Being an Ice Princess is cool!  White/silver hair spray, stick-on rhinestones, rhinestone jewelry, and a white dress is all you need.

 This one could work for a boy or a girl – a matador!

 Martha Stewart

 Homemade hula girls:  old mop heads for skirts, cardboard ukuleles, and gift bows as leis!

 Martha Stewart

This flapper has a one-of-a-kind skirt.  Guess what it’s made of?  Teabags!

Orange shirt and pants and a leaf garland from a craft store transform this little girl into Autumn.

I never promised you a rose garden.  But I promise this rose garden costume will be the hit of the block!   Anchor inexpensive wired butterflies from the craft store into a pretty hairdo.  This costume is crowned by a little picket fence in her hair – so clever!

For more unique Halloween costume ideas, click here.    So what are your little ones gonna be this year?

Hope you all have a great Halloween!

When I was in college, I lived down the road from an abandoned old house that used to be a teachers’ boarding house.  It was an elegant old structure that had been neglected for decades.  It was a modified Dutch Colonial style that reminded me of Amityville Horror. My friends and I snuck into that house on a handful of occasions, always in awe of the haunted nature of it and of the things that had been left behind.  Bookcases still held scattered school books and annuals covered with cobwebs.  Old clothes from the 1950′s still hung in some of the closets.  Stained old mattresses littered the floors.  Their was a large room with a fireplace that felt like a ballroom – mottled mirrors took up the expanse of one entire wall, cloudy with age.  When you walked into that room, the deteriorated carpet fibers rose like feathers and blew around your feet.  The stairs were so rotten, we were probably at risk of breaking our necks the one time we dared to climb up into the attic.  There we found boxes and boxes of old Life magazines and broken furniture.  And that creepy Amityville half-fan attic window.

No, the house wasn’t haunted.  But the memory of that house still inspires me around Halloween.   Now, I’m not littering my rooms with stained mattresses or anything.   It’s just an inspiration.  I don’t use just a few spiderwebs here and there.  Those bags of spiderwebs are cheap.  I use LOTS of spiderwebs and stretch them across pictures, photos, lamps, accessories, chandeliers.  Cheese cloth works great, too.  It’s a little more expensive, but it’s easier to use and looks dramatic.

I found this large, old picture of a woman playing piano 10 years ago at a yard sale at an old Victorian house.  It was $10.  I bought it immediately, but only to bring out and hang at Halloween.  Dark and creepy, I wouldn’t want to see it everyday.  But I switch out my mantel painting for one month of the year to creep up the place.

I also pull out anything lace I can find.  There’s something old-lady spooky about that.  And they remind me of spiderwebs.  I drape it on tables, chairs, sofas, whatever.

At this time of the year, I clear off anything colorful from my mantel and tabletops.  Then I start pulling out things around my house that are black, brown, or dark green.  And I try to look at things I have with a fresh eye – what COULD look spooky?  It’s all about context.  Something not so spooky the rest of the year looks very spooky when grouped appropriately and draped with cobwebs.  I’ve always thought these wedding dolls from my mother’s childhood were spooky – their eyes were lost a long ago.

Last year I bought some Martha Stewart paper mice and spider silhouettes.  You can make your own, but they are inexpensive and available at Michaels.   I stick them all around my haunted rooms.

The best time to buy for Halloween decor is the week after Halloween, when things start going on sale.  It can go to as much as 90% off.  And I keep an eye open throughout the year for sale and clearance items that could be spooky in the right context.  Like these black birds I found this summer for less than $2 on clearance at Target.  And the black glittery chandeliers are in Martha Stewart’s craft line at Michaels.

I like the idea of natural macabre.  Meaning things from nature that look creepy.  Black crows, owls, mice, spiders, snakes, worms, ants – you get the idea.  The kinds of things you imagine might show up if something is rotten or abandoned.  I don’t do monster stuff – I do have small children, afterall.   But I do have lots of bones and skulls.  That’s just nature.

Look around your house for books that lend to the look – based on color, title, or theme.

In a previous post, I’ve spoken about specimen jars and the whole spooky laboratory thing.  I’ve got several “dry” versions scattered about the house.  Below is a Southern Living Trifle Bowl filled with bones.  I’ve also got some chains under glass and some gray mice under a cheese dome.  I’ll probably try some “wet” versions this week.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you might want to check out my post on Halloween Specimen Jars.

This owl window cling is from Martha Stewart’s Halloween collection at Michaels.   The black wreath and feather tree is from Michaels, as well.

Use both taper and votive candles.  This year I used black, white, dark purple, green, and a few red.  Candelabras go from elegant to spooky pretty quickly.

Light a red candle and drip it over white candles to make bleeding candles.   Such an easy trick that draws lots of attention.  That porcelain hand you see usually holds my rings and necklaces in my bedroom.  It doesn’t normally look spooky at all.  Context is everything!

There’s nothing as dramatic as candlelight – and lots of it – in a spooky setting like this.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  And I hope you have a frightfully wonderful Halloween!

Click on thumbnails below for more Halloween decorating details.

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Dry items to use could be plastic bones, skulls, rubber mice, rubber snakes or worms, baby doll parts, black birds, owls, fake roaches and bugs, etc.   I got a bag of bones at Michaels and just dumped them in this glass jar.  Spooky.

Martha put glittery green skulls and bones under a cake dome.  She has a green glitter kit you can buy to make your own fake skulls a-glisten.

I was excited to find these skulls at Dollar Tree.  They are like little shrunken heads.  They are made of foam and covered with black glitter.  I borrowed Martha’s idea and used a cake dome to enclose them.

Wet is more dramatic and creepy, but probably better for a Halloween party display or just for the last few days before Halloween night.  I recommend using something you don’t mind ruining.  Veggies and fruits make great internal organs.  Try cauliflower, celery root, horse ginger root, grapes (for eyes), and any vegetables that look a little deformed.  Rubber or plastic snakes, mice, and bugs work great.  Fake eyeballs and plastic baby doll parts would be cool.

Place the objects in the jar and fill with water to cover specimens.   Then, add a few drops of food coloring.  You could do blue, green, yellow, or red.  If you want it to look cloudy, add a drop of milk.  When night falls, a few lit candles around the jars would make a very eerie vignette.

Martha Stewart made these specimen jar candles.  For things that might float too much (like veggies), you can get small suction cups and push the small end into the bottom of the cauliflower and suction it to the bottom of the jar before adding water.   Fill the container with water, but make sure to leave a few inches at the top.  Then add the food dye, then sprinkle on granulated wax over the top.   This floats on top of water.  You need one inch of granulated wax to burn for one hour.  You can add more wax if the candle burns down too soon.  Then lace in a couple of cut wicks in the granulated wax.  Specimen jar candles!

Who knew some plain old veggies could make such creepy specimen jars for Halloween display?  Jars of brains, eyeballs, and other body parts suspended in embalming fluid – I can’t help but think of Gene Wilder in Young Dr. Frankenstein and the Brain Depository with the door that reads “Drop Brains In Slot.”

Scary or funny labels make the “laboratory” feel more convincing.

Try printing out these from Dave Lowe’s blog and aging them a little before applying.

Click on these thumbnails for a couple more ideas for specimen jars:

Photo Credits:  Science Blogs, The Decorologist, Martha Stewart, Dave Lowe, It’s A Party.

I love how Andrea uses books with appropriately spooky titles and jacket covers.

Andrea has a way of telling a story, a spooky story, with the way she groups  ordinary and extraordinary accessories.  Notice the amber glass and architectural photos.  They only look spooky in the context of the objects that surround them.

I have this same owl.  Andrea uses these spooky birds with her cream pottery collection and lots of sticks and branches from her yard.

Here’s a huge scary spider crawling over Andrea’s vintage pottery collection.

I asked Andrea why she loves Halloween decorating so much.  She answers, “Halloween allows for the most creativity. It’s a very playful holiday. I can almost tell a story with the décor, set a scene. I like to think about my favorite scenes from horror literature and old ghost stories. Hearing a ghost story makes me feel like a kid at a slumber party!”

I asked Andrea about her use of common objects: “Limbs from the yard – the more gnarled and curly, the better. I find the best limbs under my pecan tree. Nice and splotchy. Very sculptural. And they are free!”

Even old garden statues creep up the scene in Andrea’s fireplace.

As you can tell, Andrea is partial to crows/ravens, black cats, and spooky spiders at Halloween.

Andrea says, “Cheesecloth is one of my favorite things – very inexpensive and connotes mummies.”

Last Halloween, Andrea hosted a delightfully spooky Halloween dinner for some friends.  We had a light dinner, then Death by Chocolate cake.  Look at the beautifully spooky set-up below!

According to Andrea, music is a must-have part of Halloween décor.  ”The soundtrack from The Omen has hauntingly beautiful music.  Lots of creepy carnival music!”

Andrea read aloud Edgar Allan Poe’s A Tell-Tale Heart.  Check out that cool floor candelabra in the background.  I really need one of those . . .

I asked Andrea how is she going to possibly top herself next Halloween.  “Next year, I want to do a Haunted Mardi Gras theme for Halloween.  I’ve got a few pretty masks…ooh la la.  I am crazy!” Crazy like a fox, Andrea.

“And, it’s okay to be a little tacky at Halloween! Am I right???”  Yes, Andrea, when it’s this well done, it is perfectly OK

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It’s October 1st, so you know what that means?  It means Halloween decorating!  With the days getting shorter and the temperature dropping, it just makes sense to start spooking the house up as I mourn the dying of Summer.

Over the last several years, my Halloween decorating has been inspired by two people:  Martha Stewart and Andrea Ferrell.   Both ladies enjoy Halloween decorating that leans towards the “natural macabre.”  Today I highlight Martha, I hope soon to highlight the lesser-known but equally fab Andrea Ferrell.

I’m so excited to try this bleeding candles trick!  Take some white candles, stick them in a bucket of sand, light a red candle, and let the wax drip down the white candles.  Genius.

What’s spookier than silhouettes of feared pests – like bats, rats, and spiders?  And check out the runny black border around the top of the walls – now that’s creepy.

I use tons of the spider-webs-in-a-bag stuff, but this year I bought some cheesecloth like this.  It’s easier than stretching the other to look realistic – you just drape it, maybe rip it a little, and add a few dried leaves like Martha does here.

You gotta think of how you can make the most normal of things a little spooky, like floral decor.  Pick flowers and fillers in black, brown, red, and drab green.  Add in some dark dried pieces and dark berries.  Then arrange it all in old, unpolished silver urns.

Another great effect from a paper silhouette – this time as a curtain!

I love this naturally macabre grouping of vintage silhouettes, a phrenology head, and dried cotscomb under cloches.  Looks like dried brains – how fun is that?!

Simply lovely to spray paint pumpkins in silver or gold.  Orange doesn’t go with my color palette, anyway!

Martha likes the glittered skulls, especially when piled beneath glass.  Believe me, I’m pulling out my cake stands and cloches for highlighting my Halloween decor this year!

What’s easier than grabbing a few dead branches from the yard to create a little Halloween tree?  This one is spray-painted black but natural is good, too.

Black crepe streamers make spooky curtains in your haunted house.

Who thinks like this?  I love it!  So now we’re dying Halloween eggs a mottled brown and using them in this “rotten eggs and worms” vignette.  The worms are old fishing lures.

I love using what you already have and creeping it up.  Like this pewter collection.  It’s all about the context – just add this bat silhouette streamer and some autumn florals.

More spooky silhouettes, this time mounted above votive candles to cast some really scary shadows.

Gather dark fruit and dark-colored candles for a Halloween centerpiece.  Then add some roaches.  Nice.

And don’t forget the spiders!  Some are stickers, others are plastic toys.  It looks like these votives are sitting in some bloody liquid.

Wouldn’t you love to have a dinner in this dining room on a dark, stormy night?

So, are you ready for the spookiest Halloween yet?

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