Happy November 1st, everyone!  🙂  I hope you all had a fun and spooky Halloween.  Ours was great and although we are bummed to see another one go, we are so looking forward to the beginning of the ‘Holiday’ season.  I’ve seen some Christmas-y commercials and no, I don’t think it’s too early!  I’m loving it!  😉

But before we jump into full-on Fall mode, I thought I would take some time today to share the rest of our Halloween decor.  This was an epic year for it, and it seemed like every time my mom-in-law went to Target, she came back with something else that was awesome.  🙂  Here’s my Halloween House Tour…

These ‘Hocus Pocus’ pillows are from the Target Dollar Spot.  I bought a pair as well so I’m looking forward to using them next year!

 I love this pretty potion display.  🙂  The printables can be found here.  My mom-in-law just has a ton of these vessels laying around and she put them to good use!  And the werewolf fur…well, let’s just say that our pup sheds A LOT.  😉

 This is the spooky centerpiece in the dining room.  The skulls and tombstone are from Target, of course.  They were killing it with Halloween decor this year!  Moss…a hot decorating commodity in this house.  Can’t have enough of that stuff!

This is our awesome Halloween village, collected over the past few years.  My husband is in charge of putting this up every year.  🙂

 Crows and black drippy candles adorn this pretty family photo display of wedding pictures.

 Isn’t this great!?  A pumpkin reading a book.  😉  There is a fun pumpkin festival that goes on in our town during October and they sell these arms and legs.

 And then just some ‘around the house’ details… pumpkins on the kitchen island…

Skulls and a candle…

 Skulls underneath a cloche…

 Our version of a Halloween staircase…  😉

And, of course, a Halloween pie for good measure.

Hopefully you are gearing up for a fun, festive weekend celebrating this spooky holiday.  🙂  I always have loved Halloween for some non-traditional reasons…  My mom always makes the same simple meal ‘sopa’ soup and hot dogs, and we pass out candy to the many kiddos.  Then my dad and I watch whatever cheesy horror movies are on TV after eight o’clock.  There’s also the element of freshness that arrives the following morning, November 1st, when the promise of Thanksgiving and Christmas is dwindling in the air.  So Halloween is sort of the kick-off to a couple of months of so much cozy family time.

I have so much to show you still, and I am running out of time!  On Monday I hope to continue the Halloween tour and just post all the rest…  😉

But today’s post is about my favorite room and the mantel that I love.

Implementing the decor that is usually on this mantel, my mom-in-law just added a few more details to make this spot extra festive.

 We’ve got pumpkins on candle sticks and all.the.feathers.  There’s no shortage of feathers in this house.  😉

This little cage is completely multi-purpose and makes a great perch for a crow.  I have seen this cage used a variety of ways and during different seasons.  Shop your house for items that will work in your vignettes before you go to a store!  That’s one of the biggest rules to decorating on a budget.

 Pretty little details, even in a spooky scene.

Good morning and welcome to the Monday before Halloween.  🙂  Do you have your candy ready for the trick-or-treaters?  Have you made any fun and spooky sweets yet?  I’m hoping I’ll have time to make a little something later this week or over the weekend.

I’m continuing my Halloween tour today and we’re heading into the room off the foyer to see a fun little display that reminds me of my favorite magical place…Hogwarts.  🙂  Grey and I took a trip to Harry Potter World over the summer and this vignette really makes me think of the walk through Hogwarts that is long and meandering that you take before you go on the big Quidditch ride.

The tray is actually a stone Lazy Susan, so this display can be turned on a whim.  I love the candle sticks — they remind me so much of Slytherin house.  The tombstone is from the Target Dollar Spot and is a heavy concrete material, which was an exciting find — no styrofoam here!  The labels are printables and can be found here.

Inside of the huge glass jar is just a bunch of black tulle and a skeleton hand.  🙂  Dark-covered vintage books and a feather complete the display.  Feathers are to Halloween as sand is to summer when it comes to decorating tools around here — you just can never have enough!

We’re a little more than a week away from Halloween and I am behind in sharing all of our fun decor!  🙂  There’s so much to see, and so far I have only posted about the entry.  Today we’re taking a peek at the other side of the foyer, since I shared a few weeks ago (agh!) about the other half, right when entering from the front door.

I’m excited to say that for the past month and a half, this has been the funny view for visitors…

 I love that it’s pretty, because obviously the decor and finishes are beautiful, BUT it’s just the right amount of spooky.  🙂  Beautiful and festive…that’s my favorite combination.

This is our skeleton collection, and I’m pretty proud of it.  Mister Bones, his dog, and maybe the skull of his late wife?  Who knows!  These guys are not the expensive ones from Frontgate… I think they’re from Target.  But all of the limbs move, his mouth opens and shuts, and the best part is that he is posable.  At least  I think that’s the best part — it makes for some good laughs!

 I think this little pillow is so cute.  It used to live outside and is a little faded, but the muted color works nicely with the more neutral tones in this room.

A fun table vignette anchors this spooky display.  Curly willow is an instant Halloween element!  Use what you have.

 This is how our skeleton looks these days.  This is my husband’s doing…he’s got the best kind of sense of humor.  😉  No eyes, no need for glasses, and no reason for a winter hat, but at least Mister Bones is ready for the next season (although, don’t tell him, but he will be packed away in a box by then!).

Halloween really is a time for simple, festive treats.  I’m not about the overly-gross variety — for me it’s all about the cute!  😉  Use Fall flavors, seasonal candies (hello candy corn!), and spooky shapes for your Halloween treat-making.  Here is a little bit of spooky inspiration.  Have a great day!

Monster Cocktail Stirrers

Candy Corn Pretzel Hugs

Candy Corn Butterfingers

White Chocolate Ghost Cookies

Ear Wax 😉 — This is about as gross as I will get!

Witchy Dirt Cups

Hi, everyone!  Happy First Week of October!  🙂  I’ve been so excited for the month to start because Halloween decorations have been up in the house since the beginning of September, but I thought I would wait to share so that the mood was a little more festive.  Now that we’ve reached October, the time has come, and I have so many fun vignettes to show you!

The foyer is pretty large, so I’m breaking it up into two posts.  The outside of the house has a few little Halloween touches that I love, too.

 That spider is big and he’s furry!  Sometimes he spooks me when I go outside at night.  😉

This is just a store-bought sign with a bit of zhushing.  It was up on the door last year, and has been decked out with black tulle and ribbon.  It’s a fun little Halloween welcome for guests, and the UPS delivery guy.

 The foyer is long and on the narrow side, so the decorations live on the perimeter.  I LOVE this idea that my mom-in-law came up with.  The silver tray is one that we use all over the house for both holiday and year-round decorating, and its been elevated on an iron stand that complements the iron doors so well.

 You can see here that it’s got some height!  Compared to the other decor in this corner, it’s really nice in size.  The gourds are huge!

The pumpkins and gourds are all from Trader Joe’s.  They have been rubbed with a bleach solution since we read online that that helps un-carved pumpkins from rotting quickly.  The antlers were a fun Sweet Salvage find, and I wrote about our experience there a couple of weeks ago!  Adding in a few sprigs of leaves and some berries gives the whole vignette a nice, filled-out look.

 These moss planters are here year-round (there’s another one on the other side of the bench), but I like that little velvety spider.  He’s startled me a couple of times, too!  Can you tell yet that I am sort of afraid of spiders?

 Here’s the full view looking toward the front door.  🙂  It’s just such a happy room, with so much natural light and so pretty.  The other side of the room is really fun, and I can’t wait to show you!