Fall is one of my favorite times of the year and this is one of my two favorite holidays. I don't decorate for Valentine's Day or really even Easter, but Halloween ... oh yeah.
I kicked off the festivities last weekend since it was almost October and a family trip to our favorite pumpkin patch really got me in the mood. Ooof, those are some heavy pumpkins.
Back to the supplies...
You'll also see some tall black branches. Those I had in my basement and was no longer using. While they were intended for a taller arrangement in a floor vase, I thought I could just cut them down to size and make a branch-style arrangement for the mantel instead.
Oh, yes, and some little mice silhouettes, most of which went on our large staircase but I saved a few for the mantel too. Thank you Martha Stewart.
First, I tied some ribbon around the tops of the buckets and added the little ornaments in front. Then I filled them with rocks to keep them from tipping over.
Then I placed the sticks inside and headed to the mantel. .
I draped some holy gauze across and added the banner. Then the buckets went in place, along with a green pumpkin and some larger mice. It's simple but perhaps that's why I like it.
Once I had that done, I decided to spruce up a sofa table I have in our formal living room. I scrounged up some left over black fabric, extra burlap (still from the darn scarecrow head my husband made last year ... 900 yards of burlap remaining) and added in some skulls and potion bottles. I also took an orange pumpkin like the green one I used in the other room and spray painted it gold. It looks much better and frankly, there's just no end to the things I want to spray paint.
before...
See? So much better. It also goes well with that sign I added in. I saw it at the store and just loved it. So I bought it. I personally recommend looking at alternate ways to use hanging items. This guy hung on a wall might not look great because it's a small sign and the scale will likely be off. But leaning it up against a wall works because the scale is right and it pulls everything together. Or at least I'd like to think so.
So that was last weekend. This week I made some pumpkin cupcakes with a salted caramel butter cream to share with my coworkers (yum yum!) and yesterday I made some treats to take to a birthday party.
Aren't these little guys cute?? These Pinterest-inspired creations are just your everyday rice krispie treats with a little orange food coloring, chocolate covered raisins (someone on Pinterest used Tootsie Rolls) for a stem and some green frosting for the vines. Super easy and a highly-recommend for class room treats!
And then there was today. Mercy, what a week!
Today I began preparations for an upcoming Halloween party we're hosting. I decided I wanted to do a martini bar offering two signature drinks: Ghost in the Graveyard Martini & Twice Bitten Martini. So my buffet has now been transformed and I have containers at the ready to offer some wicked spirits like vampire blood and rat poison. Oooh, delicious!
As you can see we have all sorts of ghoulish items and tasty ingredients prepared here. Well except for the decanter for vampire blood ... you have to get that stuff fresh.
For the martini menus (that host directions), I spray painted some extra frames I had (so they'd also be gold) and printed the ingredient lists on photo paper. I used scrap book supplies to label each one and fabric to cover the buffet. Oh, and love my new candelabra. Scored that baby at Goodwill for $5. Some days I'm just that lucky...
Well that's mostly it. Now I have to turn my attention to costume planning and what not. So many ghastly things to create, so little time ...
