Blog Parties

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Halloween Mantel

As I told you already, I skipped fall this year and went straight for Halloween. As we LOVE Halloween in our house.

Ok, I'll admit, I'm the only one that loves Halloween in my house. At least the decorating part. My hubby & grown boys love the candy part of Halloween. Me, I love everything about Halloween.

Today I'm showing my Halloween mantel. I'm not completely satisfied with it. I have plans for making a banner. But if it goes anything like my 4th of July banner (which by the way, I never completed), it probably won't get made in time for Halloween.

I do have a back up banner, but it is still in the Halloween boxes in the attic. Still too hot to venture up there to dig the boxes out.

But as you can see, not getting down my existing Halloween stuff hasn't stopped me from decorating. I just went to my favorite home decor store, Tai Pan Trading in Rancho Cucamonga. Click here to read all about my last trip there.

Not everything came from Tai Pan, but a lot of it.

I did make this book page wreath back in April from a thesaurus that I picked up at Dollar Tree. I still love it. It's the perfect color for fall, and Halloween.

The scary face actually came attached to the black organza ribbon that I tied this up with. It was wrapped around the package of creepy cloth that I purchased from Tai Pan Trading a few weeks back. It added just the right amount of spookiness to the wreath.

Here is the right side of the mantel. The Halloween sign & crows came from Tai Pan Trading. The easel the sign is sitting on came from Dollar Tree last year. The candle holder was a thrift store find last year too.

I love, love, love this sign. It fits in perfectly with my house. We have a ton of spiders. Thus, a ton of spider webs.


Aren't these crows fabulous? They came in 3 different poses.

So of course I had to buy all three.

I just picked up these battery operated candles at Sam's Club on Tuesday. Came in a set of 3 for $14.99. I really love real candles better, but I almost burnt my house down a few years back at Christmas using real candles on my mantel. Battery operated is much safer. Plus these candles actually smell like vanilla.

I already had a set from Costco, but these are cheaper & I like them better. And you can never have too many candles.

I added the spider trim around the candle. Just taped it on the back where you can't see it. Unless you go turning around my candle. But you wouldn't do that. Would you? The spider trim came from JoAnn Fabric & Craft store. It is actually iron on trim. But I wanted to use it on a candle, not on fabric. So that is why I taped it on. Me & tape have become quite good friends lately.

I never seem to be at home to take photos when the light is better. So some of these photos are from this morning before leaving for work. And some were taken in the late afternoon, early evening.

Here is the left side of the mantel. This candle holder is also a thrift store find.

This sign and crow are both from Tai Pan Trading as well. I picked up the sign in August when I was in Utah on vacation, at a Tai Pan store there.

I do feel sorry for those of you who aren't lucky enough to live in Utah or southern California. As those are the only places that have a Tai Pan Trading store. And they don't sell online.

Maybe we can convince them to go nationwide. It really is that fabulous of a store. If not, you may just have to take a vacation to Utah or southern California to visit one for yourself.

The mirror on my mantel is actually my hubby's. It's one of the reasons I married him. Just kidding. The picture frame leaning against the mirror was originally gold and came from the thrift store. I painted it Heirloom White and then watered down some burnt umber paint (cheap persons glaze), slathered it on & wiped it off to give it an antique look. I love how it turned out.

This witch sign is another Tai Pan purchase. They had a lot of black & white stuff. Exactly what I wanted for my Halloween decor this year. And I was lucky enough to have a 25% of entire Halloween purchase when I went over Labor Day weekend. Yipee! I just love saving money. But then, I guess everyone else does too. Have you ever met someone who doesn't like saving money? I didn't think so.

I'm thinking about adding some black creepy cloth below everything. But then that would require me removing everything & putting it back. Sounds like too much work if you ask me. So I'm leaning more at leaving it as is.

Or I could add some Spanish moss around everything. That way I wouldn't have to move anything. But then, that would make a mess everywhere. And that would require work to clean it up. So, I'm not sure about that either.

Then my third option I was thinking about was spray painting some fall leaf garlands black & adding that around everything. But then you might not see the crows very well.

What do you think? Which option would you go for? Or would you just leave it as is? Let me know your thoughts.

I'll be sure to let you know if I do change it up any, or if I get my Halloween banner finished.



Linking to:

Halloween Mantel Party @ The Stories of A to Z

Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table and Dreaming

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Weekend Wrap Up @ Tater Tots & Jello

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

Fall Mantel party @ Nesting Place (even though I am a day late in joining)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Thrifty Halloween

I have nothing exciting to share today. Just a little something I picked up at the thrift store on Saturday for 50 cents.

A little ceramic jack o lantern. Isn't it cute? He was the only thing that managed to find his way home with me this weekend.

I was originally going to paint it Heirloom white as my Halloween decor in my family room this year is black & white. But once I got him home & all cleaned up. I kind of like him orange.

Besides, he now goes with the other orange pumpkins in this cute little sign I picked up at Tai Pan Trading back in August for $3.00. Makes a nice little vignette on my side table.

I did work on numerous Halloween projects this weekend. But I got none of them completely done. I really need to just work on one project at a time. Hopefully I'll get something completely done to share with you tomorrow or the next day.

It is still too hot to climb up in the attic to get the rest of my Halloween decor down. It was 110 degrees yesterday. And today is suppose to be just as hot.

Now that it is fall, we are just now getting summer temps here in southern California. It's been a weird summer.




Linking to:

Tabletop Tuesdays @ A Stroll Thru Life

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays @ Coastal Charm

Today's Thrifty Treasures @ Southern Hospitality

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Frugal Halloween Decor

I started my Halloween decorating. And I am so excited.

I just love Halloween. However, I don't love climbing up into the hot attic to retrieve my old Halloween stuff. And I don't love spending money on new stuff.

Well, I do love spending money on new stuff. It's just I don't have any money to spend this year. So what's a lazy, poor girl like me to do?

Time to think frugally. So I started with decorating a shelf in my family room. I already had most of the items on hand. And it didn't require me going into the attic.

I did pick up this orange faux pumpkin at Dollar Tree. A dollar is pretty frugal, wouldn't you say? I decided that I wanted to do a black & white Halloween in my family room this year. So orange just wasn't going to do. So I spray painted the pumpkin Heirloom White.

But it was a little plain.

So I decided to cover it with some black spider web lace that I had. I had purchased 5 yards of this lace at Tai Pan Trading last month for cheap. It was like $2.00 a yard (with my 25% off). I cut a square of lace 20 inches x 20 inches. I then clipped a small slit so the stem of the pumpkin could poke through. I then wrapped the pumpkin with the lace & taped it at the bottom

You heard me right, I just taped it at the bottom. I was planning on hot gluing it, but I was too lazy to track down my glue gun, so I taped it instead, just to see what it would look like. And it worked. At least for now.

I already had the wood pedestal to place the pumpkin on. I had picked it up at the thrift store last year. All I had to do was paint it black. I also bought the crow at Dollar Tree. I just love how the lace covered pumpkin turned out.

Next I decided these bottles needed some spookiness added to them.

These 3 bottles have been sitting on this shelf for a few months now.

I found these cool labels on flickr. I saved the ones I liked to my computer & then printed them out, cut them out & taped to the bottles. Tape has been my best friend with these projects.

This bottle is Twisted Twigs. I placed a bunch of twigs from my weeping willow tree in this bottle.

I really liked this witch hazel label as it reminds me of my Grandma. She always had us put witch hazel on mosquito bites whenever we were visiting her & got bit.

This one is for graveyard dust. I was going to put some ashes of some sort in here. Just haven't gotten around to doing it.


One last look at my frugal Halloween shelf. I spent less than $3.00 decorating this shelf. I'm pretty happy on how it has turned out. But knowing me, I'm sure I'll tweak it between now & Halloween.

Hopefully I will have more Halloween decor to share with you next week. I may even venture up into the attic & get down my old Halloween crap. But then, I might not as it is suppose to be in triple digits this weekend.



Linking to:

Tabletop Tuesdays @ A Stroll Thru Life

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays @ Coastal Charm

Making Monday Marvelous @ C.R.A.F.T.

Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Weekend Wrap up Party at Tatertots and Jello

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

Halloween & Fall projects @ Living It At Home

Friday, September 17, 2010

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me. Encore.

Shiver me timbers!!! It's been far too long since this pirate gal last put together a tablescape. And Donna over at Funky Junk is having a special catagory for tablescapes this week for her Saturday Nite Special blog party.

If you haven't visited her blog, you are definitely a Scallawag. So come aboard and visit my Pirate tablescape, just in time to get you in the mood for Halloween. And don't worry, I won't make you walk the plank. Unless you didn't bring treats!!!





My favorite thing is the treasure chest.

The pirate plates are plastic & came from Dollar Tree last year. I love that store!!!

I placed them on my white charger plates that came from Amazon (again last year). I love these charger plates. They go with almost all my plates.


The silverware came from Marshall's some time back. I don't remember who the maker is. They were on clearance. So I love them. The white napkins were a clearance item from Walmart. The silver napkin rings I got at Goodwill while on vacation last summer.

The plastic skull candy cups came from the 99 cent only store. I'm using them to hold battery operated tea light candles.

The goblets are from Walmart. I wrapped a skull bracelet from the 99 cent only store around the stem. I got 4 bracelets for 99 cents. And sorry, they were a purchase from last year as well. Everything in this tablescape is from last year.

A close up of the skull bracelet. I'm into skulls this year.

A photo with just candle light.

Here is the treasure chest. I love how this turned out. I found the metal chest at a local thrift store for $2.00. I didn't have to do anything to it. It was painted cream on the outside & gold on the inside. I added some creepy cloth as lining. Added a silver pedestal with a skull candle holder, a small silver tray and all my costume jewelry. Well, almost all of it. If a pirate breaks into my house this week, they will have it easy on finding my loot.

Doesn't this remind you of the Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland?

A mini skeleton keeps guard over the treasure.

I can't remember where this skull candle holder came from. I have a battery operated tea light candle in him as well. I placed him on the silver pedestal.




I've had the silver candlesticks for years. The crystal bobeches came from Bombay company on clearance. I miss that store. They had the best clearance stuff.

More skeletons keep guard on the table.

Another view of the table.

Did I tell you that I love how this treasure chest turned out?

I need to win the lottery so I can buy real jewels. But it's hard to win when you don't play.

Dead man's chest!!!




Do you recognize this pirate?


Sorry, but no rum will be served at this party. Just pepsi!!!

I've got to run now. Captain Jack Sparrow is at my door. Are you jealous? I thought so.

But before I go, I'll just leave you with this. Enjoy!!!
And for those of you who are regulars to my blog. Yes, I cheated. This is actually my Halloween tablescape from last year. But I just love this tablescape & I had to share it again. I hope you don't mind.

Besides, Chari over at Happy to Design has a blog party called Sunday Favorites. We are suppose to repost something from the past. So there!