Happy Halloween

(both images above are from a 1800s antique primer)

click for crow source


click for source for all the following antique images

ooh, scary

a distant relative of ol' Drac?

spirit fog?

the hatters, mad?

just back from the scary attic

spooked

lonely hollow music played

Happy Halloween!

carving

(the fun at our house)

Let the Jack-o-lantern

carving begin!!

How's Halloween going?

(1940's Vintage Halloween image to use for art)

How is Halloween going at your place? Around here it is not going exactly as I had hoped. I am slow to get out all the decor that I wanted to unpack and put around the house and outside too.

Maybe I should have let my son N. put out the pretend graveyard in the front yard at the beginning of Sept and not worry the neighbors would say "Wow are they crazy people?!" At least it would have been up, right? At this rate we may be just putting it all up at Thanksgiving time and the neighbors will be saying "Wow are they crazy people?!"

I have, however, made some progress with unpacking a few chosen items and sorting through some more other Halloween stuff. I have fallen out of love with quite a few Halloween decor things that I just went through the motions with, year after year, unpacking and packing back up again with not much excitement. I decided it was time to donate/pass them on to someone else who will love them more.

I am getting to a point in my life where I am looking at a lot of the "stuff" around me through those kinds of eyes. Do you have things you keep and you don't really know why when you stop and really think about it? Time to take action to correct that situation.

While we are on the subject of sorting... I have also decided that (most) of the cook books and loose recipe clippings around here are best in someone else's space. I do not use them. I am a throw it all together from your imagination kind of cook. I use recipes more for (my VERY occasional) baking and not so much for cooking. I do enjoy old cook/bake books for the illustrations more than the recipes themselves. The old paperback pamphlet kind are especially nice pre 1960's. The colors are just different.

Hope you get all your decorating done. Hope it looks great at your place. I will still try. Back to sorting, for now...

( vintage ephemera-- who thought up this pumpkin/donut idea??)

free label

A label I invented-

would be fun to use one

to decorate an old recycled bottle

for your very own Halloween apothecary.

Halloween is coming, roses are fading

Surprised that this post isn't filled with little pumpkins with silly expressions carved into them and cute little witches? That's because I am getting ready (hopefully soon) to unpack the Halloween storage tub any minute (when I find a free minute).

In the meantime, I thought I would snap a few pics of how my bathroom has looked for the end of summer. Thrifty antique roses postcards and tins. The postcards are fun as some have writing on the back. The tins remind me of being at my grandma's house. Did/does your grandma have tins?

Grandma kept lots of things in tins. One for buttons, one for zippers, harvested from clothing that had been retired. Did you ever have a grandma or great grandma who harvested zippers or lace or buttons off things? Do grandmas still do that today? Maybe not so much as those depression era grandmas. I have been known, now and again, to buy a 25 cent shirt at a rummage sale just to harvest some great buttons that would sell on their own new for $10-$20!

My favorite use of tins at Grandma's house was when she would layer homemade cookies in between layers of waxed paper. Mmmmmm! Except the ones with red and bright green dried fruit in them like what goes in fruitcake. Those cookies, not so good. I guess even Grandma couldn't hit it out of the park every time!

Don't you love finding freebies like rose paintings and sweet cherub prints, that all seem to get along together well-- even though they were not found together when acquired?

Fun how that works, huh? So this is how my bathroom has been greeting its visitors of late. But now it is time for a more whimsical seasonal change. The kids are looking forward to the Halloween novelties decor slightly more than they anticipated the roses theme.

PS- I am dragging out the traditional Halloween stuff for the kids' benefit. I have a few black and white and very glittery things that I made and some gifts I was given a few years ago that will be my favorites again this year. Think crows! A little "Martha look" and Alfred Hitchcock mixed together.

A look back...

I know it is late to show these photos, but I wanted to give an insight to our Halloween house before moving on to Thanksgiving. So here we go...

N. decided to carve his Jack-o-lantern at the last minute on Halloween day. He drew the design on paper then I transferred his idea on to the pumpkin with a marker and he carved it.

My kitty is looking on as a supervisor.

You know what's weird? I love the smell of pumpkin guts filling the air in the house. Silly.

This is the shelf in the hall.
We always love unpacking the insane asylum sign to hang up each year!
I painted the wall many years ago.

I always include old books in my decor. I have gathered old orange and black books, of course, for this. My twisty candle stick holder is a favorite item that I thrifted long ago. It is very heavy and has a great patina!!


I think we bought the skull at the dollar store at some point in the past and the bottle was thrifted. It is a real vintage medicine bottle from a Toledo pharmacy. I love the old label. I have never dared open the cap!!



This was the middle of the table with wooden scarecrow, glass pumpkin shaped jar filled with Indian corn and silk leaves, a thrifted porcelain Autumn house that can have a night light inserted into the back, a Mary E. Autumn book from a friend, a yummy smelling candle, some yummy candy, and a framed picture of me at my first birthday on a horse with my Dad as his brother stands nearby, (this is my Uncle I now help, he is 84 and has had Parkinson's for 17 years) . The picture has nothing to do with Halloween or Autumn, as my birthday is in Springtime. I just like the photo.

The bear was my Mom's. Teddy Bears are not personally my "thing", but my Mom really loved them so I have kept some of her bears. The large majority of them went to live with my brothers.

I painted the top of this thrifted dresser to look like copper with a patina of green.

This is also in the hall. I love these ratty old books!!! Another skull from the dollar store and another silly fun sign. The eyeball is a bouncy ball and A. put it in the skull. Funny! The kids keep changing the position of the "eye" when they walk through the hall, so you never know which direction he will be looking!

The hairy spider is fur and the Mummy and Dracula are really candles.

Don't you love the old books?

What do you decorate with that is thrifted or your favorite to unpack each year?

Halloween at my house

This is my kitchen window sill.

I used vintage Halloween cards ( my mom's collection saved from the 1940's)and some old wooden black cats that have been around for years and years

as the theme this time, along with little giftie/decor items that seem to accumulate from holiday to holiday.

Outside our house, the Maple trees are all golden yellow. They looked pretty until it rained and blew all day and then the yard and driveway and cars and roof looked like this....


blanketed in wet colored leaves!

Happy 31st

This is Jewel, our pet bird. He recently lost his wife of almost 10 years. He is much more demanding of our attention now. You can't blame him for being lonely. Sometimes I think he thinks he's a person- he has always enjoyed being just one of the family. Jewel loves his time out of his cage. He also decided he loves to help carve pumpkins and feel the squishiness under his feet!!

Happy Halloween from our house (and from Jewel) to you!! Don't eat too much candy.

Speaking of candy...I did go to that candy store I showed you and I will blog about it soon!!

Another thing to tell you about is this Cathedral with the skull way up top -see it?!- I was always told it keeps the evil spirits out, as it is carved way above the huge heavy carved doors. I don't know if it is the true meaning. I have lots to share with you about this place!! Stay tuned.

old books

I like old books and decorating with them is fun to do for any time of year. Take a tour with me of just one area of my Halloween decorating that includes old books.

Can you believe someone intended to throw away this great old dictionary?! I rescued it!
It looks like an ancient spell book or something when teamed with a skull and some creepy crawly critters beside a twisted candle stick.


You surely can't go wrong with a stack of black and orange old books as a platform
if a smaller skull and other goodies are perched on them!

If you ever are lucky enough to come across some old black books with orange titles on the spine- they make perfect props for any Halloween vignette. The more tattered , the better!!!

Next time you stumble across some old books, maybe you will look at them with fresh eyes as you consider the possibilities in everyday and holiday decorating. After all, it doesn't matter if the story inside is a good one or not and many times they are the right price=FREE.

black and white

Who says you can't use milk glass at Halloween time?

I use it all year round.

This is my window sill in the kitchen.

I used all my ribbed design milk glass items here.

All black accessories dance among the shiny glass.

Things like sparkly witches and sparkly crows,

lots of spiders, mice and rats and cats too, !!

When the sun sets and the goblins come out

the effect is a different one.The black night outside the window

makes a perfect backdrop.
Halloween decor does not have to ALL be just orange and pumpkins!

Halloween

Please play nice and do not sell as is.

Halloween at our house...

...began Wednesday when I opened my eyes (barely) after a LONG day in Washington D.C. the previous day. I will write about this later; but I will tell you now that I didn't have to dress-up to be a walking Zombie for Halloween after leaving the house at about 4:30a.m Tuesday to fly out of Toledo and returning home at a little before midnight Tuesday. *sheesh*

This is our graveyard. 

My A. designs a costume each year as a fashion sketch/drawing and then I must live up to her standard and expectations at the sewing machine!! I will post her drawing that I followed this year... as soon as I find it...it seems she has tucked it away somewhere. She had green draping from the back/tip of the hat, too.

A's friend M. is her best friend since babyhood !!!!(that's him- the Grim Reaper)

A funny story...Last Sunday M. [wearing his costume] came riding down on his bike to our yard, where we were all doing Fall yard work. He visited a while and when he left to go home A. observed as he left the driveway, "Well, at least he's a safety minded Grim Reaper who doesn't want to be dead. He looked both ways before pulling out into the street!!"

That's N. being Zorro.

A not so funny story...Last Sunday N. went for a bike ride wearing his costume. He only went on the street as far as being in front of our next door neighbor's house when he yelled back to us [all doing yard work], "Help! I'm stuck! Help! My cape is stuck!" His cape was wound into his bike chain and he was pulled off his bike. Not a good thing. He was ok, but we told him Zorro never rides a bike for that reason!!

A's kitty, checking for zombies, ghosts,

(and maybe field mice) in the graveyard.

This is not my house, but one in another town that I drive by often and I thought their yard display was really clever. I adore the candelabra on the table.