Halloween Decor 2013

This past weekend, I decided to stop talking about how I wanted to rearrange the furniture and I actually did it. Of course, when you start to move stuff around like that you tend to finally get around to actually giving it the good cleaning that you've been neglecting, oh, just all summer.  Since everything was looking all fresh and clean, I figured, hey, as long as I'm doing this, I may as well put out the fall decor too, right?

It was a project.

I really like how it is now.  The couch is kind of close to the tv, but since the biggest open area for play is now off to the side, it won't be blocked by little people when we're trying to watch something.  I moved my big plant into the living room from the kitchen and it really helps to break up that big wall.  The armchair being angled in the corner helps to create a conversation area and doesn't block the patio slider, causing it to feel closed off.

It makes me smile to see some of my favorite things on display.  It's no secret that fall, although brief, late and pretty weak around these parts, is my favorite season.

This little "arsenic" bottle may be one of my very favorite Halloween decorations. The skull is plastic and was three dollars at the Walmarts last year, and the old books were thrift store finds.

I found the larger primitive guy at TJ Maxx a few weeks ago.  The smaller one was .99 at Goodwill last year! The printable was free online and the frame was another Goodwill find for a few cents.  I leave that up all year, where I can see it, as a reminder.  I truly believe gratitude is a HUGE indicator of happiness.

We moved the piano from under the kitchen bar to the wall where the tv was previously.  Since I lost the 2x4 Expedit that we had been using as a sofa table in the move (it's in the kid's room now) I had to find a new home for the lamps.  I finally took the plastic off the shades and put bulbs in them.  It's only been a year since I painted them, and another year since I brought them home!

The pumpkin is fake and was found for a couple of bucks at Goodwill, the stand is vintage Fenton and was a gift from my friend Suzy as were the lace milk glass dishes, the sign was hand painted by me last year or the year before, the runner was found at Goodwill, and the large mirror was $20 from Goodwill too.

Having the lamps over there made it possible to get rid of the big lamp I had on the entry dresser.  It was pretty old and was having some issues.  Besides, it being gone makes it so much easier to decorate that flat surface now!

I love my front entry display.  It's all stuff that I had previously, including the candy.  I can't stand candy corn but think it's pretty in an apothecary jar so I just bag it up after Thanksgiving to reuse the following year. I actually do that with a lot of seasonal candy.

I think this bunch of candy corn is like four or five years old, so yeah... don't eat the display candy at my house without checking on it's age first!  ;)

The black and white striped "candies" are actually wooden dowels painted black and wrapped with white ribbon.  I made the tassels and the labels on the jars.  The glitter skulls are from Kirkland home (a few years ago) and the black amethyst glass dish holding them is vintage from eBay. Looks like there's another one just like it on there now too.

I set up this little vignette on the end of the kitchen bar.  I think it needs something more in the back corner though, after looking at this photo.  The best part of this display is that after Halloween, all I have to do is put away the witch hat, turn the carved pumpkin around so you can see the side that says "Give Thanks" and boom!  It's still seasonally appropriate.

Kick butt.

I had a pottery painting playdate of sorts with some of my friends a couple of weekends ago, and this plate was my project.  I copied one of the display samples, and other than apparently forgetting the second coat of green paint on the H (whoops!) I think it came out pretty good!  I painted each one of those letters by hand with an itty bitty paintbrush and it literally took hours.

OCD ftw, yo.

I put it on the table in the bay window/dining area of the kitchen.  I kept it pretty simple in there. I put the vintage globe on there because honestly, I had nowhere else to put it and I just love the colors. The fruit is fake, as is the pumpkin.  Both were found at Goodwill in years past.

I didn't put everything out.  I put out what fit and if something didn't have a space, I left it in the bins.  I was very conscious of not wanting to overfill the spaces this year.  Usually I use every inch of space, but I left some, like in the middle of the mantel over the tv and next to the lamps on the piano.  I did go out and buy a few pumpkin and apple scented candles to add to the fall feeling in our house, but really, I didn't add a whole lot to the decor this year.

It's interesting, because on Saturday night when I was all done I had this feeling of contentment inside me.  Not the usual, "I cleaned and my house looks good" contentment,  or the feeling of "I decorated and it looks nice!" contentment either.  It was like a lightness in my soul, I guess.  Like my soul was a dusty rug and someone had given it a good shaking and airing out.

You know how some people who live in darker or "gloomy" climates suffer from SAD?  I've been feeling like I get a reverse version of that, from too much freaking sun. Seriously, it's summer and too hot to go outside six months of the year!  I don't like to be hot at all, and my meds make me hotter.  I rarely wear a jacket or coat in the winter.  I live for cloudy and rainy days.

I Googled it and discovered that reverse SAD is actually a real thing, and I have all the symptoms with the exception of loss of appetite/weight loss.  I actually gained about 25 pounds in the past six months though, so that can't really be ignored because that's not normal either.

We don't really get cooler weather here until around Halloween, so I still have another month of awful heat to go.  It's especially hard to deal with now because of everyone on social media posting about how AWESOME Fall is OMG!!! and also because I have to do school drop off and pickup every day so I have to go outside in the middle of the day. Yuck.

Still, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now, and that, my friends, is a very good thing!