Happy Halloween!

Happy {belated} Halloween!

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the changing colors of leaves, the cooler weather and all the pumpkins! In the past I have decorated for the autumn season, but never individually for Halloween and Thanksgiving, but this year I felt inspired to change it up.

It started with this wreath.

I made a white coffee filter wreath back in August and originally thought I would do something summery with it, but I couldn't think of anything I liked well enough to do... until I found this idea on pinterest. It was a Halloween wreath from shellyhickox.blogspot.com:

I used this photo as my inspiration and made it my own by adding more spiders, omitting the glitter (I hate glitter), and adding a welcome sign instead of the "boo" sign. I tinted the edges of it with black permanent marker and wrapped it with fake cobwebs. It was very easy to make as well as inexpensive!

I decided to keep with the black and white theme for my decorations too. My house is very neutral, with lots of grays, whites and creams, so the black and white decor fits right in! (Plus I thought it'd be fun to do something different since I plan to keep the typical oranges and browns for Thanksgiving.) I was on a budget with a baby on the way, so I used some items I already had and made some new things with the help of the dollar store.

I pretty much keep to the piano and my kitchen table when doing holiday decorating... I can't stand too much clutter! 

I was most excited about using my bell jar to hold skeleton bones! The bones that Pottery Barn had in their catalog this year inspired me for that, but those were too big & much too expensive. Instead I bought a hanging skeleton using a coupon at Jo-Ann Fabric and disassembled it to fit all the pieces into the jar. That, along with the black and white pumpkins that I got from Michaels for 30% off, were the most expensive items. Everything else was from the dollar store!

I saw this cute idea from Midwest Living to make a haunted house backdrop with candles lighting it up from behind so I made my own using black poster board and cardboard. They had spiderweb votives illuminating the front, so I made my own using votives from the dollar store that came 3 in a pack and drawing my own web using a permanent marker! The creepy rats are also from the dollar store and they did their job - my 4 year old was terrified of them!

I wrapped the mirror with cobwebs and spiders, so easy and so spooky!

The flying bats are made out of black foam and I used the Martha Stewart template for those. I also made some extras to hang from the chandelier in the kitchen nook. 

I loved the above idea from Martha Stewart, but thought it would be too much work to find and paint a branch... so instead I hung them in clusters.

Despite my late posting, I had everything decorated in September since I had a baby on the way and my nesting mode was in full swing! My 4 year old son wanted to be Thor for Halloween so in July I started making the costumes for the rest of us... (disclaimer: I am not a seamstress, but I try, and for Halloween especially I don't stress over the costumes being perfect.) 

On September 28th we welcomed our baby girl into our family! 

So from the FOUR of us, 

Happy Halloween!

Thor, Lady Sif, Jane Foster & Loki