Ghosties, Ghoulies and Long-Legged Beasties

I finally finished getting some Halloween decorating done!

Normally, I'd have had lots done for weeks, but although I knew I was leaning toward a glitzy holiday instead of our usual creepy one, I just couldn't find the motivation. I was very strict and stuck with only shades of Black, White, Silver & Orange as my colors.

I was trying to be frugal this year, but sometimes something calls to me and I can't leave it behind. Case in point: our university Homecoming was the first week in October & I found this super cool candle stick at TJ Maxx:

It holds a pillar candle and was a bit of a splurge for me at $16, but it was way too cool to leave all alone in the store. I really didn't know how I was going to use it until last night, but I knew it was way too good to pass up. To compare: the glittered skull above came from Dollar Tree for a buck, the boa I had on hand and the candles always stand in that silver tray, I just change out the items around them to make a new seasonal arrangement. So that whole arrangement was $15 less expensive than my one candle stick!

I also fell in love with a silhouette of witches dancing at Gordman's, but so far I haven't figure out where to use it. I don't feel so obligated to use it however, since it was only $6 & because they had only two and both were flawed, she gave me a discount.

I tried my hand at glittering my own tiny skulls this year:

What a mess! But the results are cool. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it out on a Dollar Tree skull or two. We had glitter in our food for days, but as they say "this too shall pass".

I really liked the glittered ball fill from Hobby Lobby, but overall, was not impressed with their Halloween selections for 2010. I did feel inspired by a few things, but nothing enough to bring home with me. I used more of the fill on our coffee table:

I was inspired by Jessica of Craftily Ever After's beautiful lace wreath to make my own version from things I had around the house:

I made it from an old wreath, some orange fabric that I ripped into strips and an old pair of stockings. Some hot-glue, some Halloween ribbon and a vintage button held in place with pearl buttons and voila! It's not nearly as classy as Jessica's, but I can make a lace one another year.

I also put out my usual collection of ceramic jack-o-lanterns, but there's nothing very interesting about that.

even Cinderella had to wait for her pumpkin

I finally got around to faux mercury glassing the pumpkin. I have to say that, not only does it look beautiful, it's stupidly easy! I found another great blog that had even better directions for using the leaf: Get Your Martha On The instructions have great photos that are simple to follow.

I used copper leaf instead of silver, so it's a little different, but here's how mine turned out: (it's really tough to photograph, but in person it's beautiful)
A word to the wise: if you've never used leaf before, it's hard to explain just how thin it is and how important a room without air movement is. It floats even without a breeze. It's also super important to keep your hands clean of the size or the leaf will stick to you and not the project.

Would I do it again?
Yep. I think it really resembles the real thing and if I had something else in the house to leaf, I'd already be working on it.

In honor of October 31st

I give you a handful of headstone photos I took recently.
Over the years, I've made a few faux grave stones for our yard and I always find that the real thing is the best inspiration in terms of shape, font and weathering. I'm particularly fond of 19th Century stones, I always feel that somehow by taking a picture and a moment to read the headstone that the person it belongs to is not forgotten even if they no longer have family to tend the plot. I have more photos from this and another cemetery on my flickr

I'm in love with...

mercury glass.

I love the mercury glass pumpkins I keep seeing as I look for glam halloween decor. Like these:



Thing is, they are spendy & even if I did have the money to buy one, most places that had them are sold out. I've noticed that there are a bunch of blogs where people have used chrome paint to diy their own mercury glass, but frankly, it looks like glass sprayed with chrome paint. I also found Chez Fifi blog showing the steps of using silver leaf for a mercury glass-like look. This I love. I'm thinking of taking my clear glass pumpkin that came from target many years ago and using some copper leaf, making my own take on the mercury glass pumpkin. More like these:



My only concern is that I just painted one of my terracotta pumpkins a really deep rich copper and I don't want the two to look too similar.

hmmmm....