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 4
th 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 ZSunday Showcase @ Under the Table and DreamingFrugal Friday @ The Shabby NestSaturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk InteriorsWeekend Wrap Up @ Tater Tots & JelloShow and Tell Friday @ My Romantic HomeFall Mantel party @ Nesting Place (even though I am a day late in joining)