The season so far...

It really started with an apple orchard (cider, yum!) and a country pumpkin vendor...


Aren't these just glorious looking pumpkins? That's my baby there, center left.


We grabbed a trusty old rusty wagon to haul our pumpkin finds in. They had perfectly shaped little orange ones, and beautiful snow white ones...


Can you believe that's even a real pumpkin? It just looks too perfect on my stoop. That thing is going to make a wicked jack come Halloween.


The buffet table in progress so far. Note the apothecary jars. I need way more on this table. I'm thinking about making a creepy halloween tree for the middle out of old branches from the backyard...


Again, can you believe that white pumpkin is real? Mr. Crow can't. Look at his eye goin' all buggy.

My entryway table. Perhaps not surprisingly, it looks not far from this most days, minus the skull, cobwebs and lights. We just collect or create odd knick-knacks. I made the big metal book senior year in college. It's one of my favorite props.

So, a long way to go, but hey, it's not even October yet. I'll keep you updated as progress marches on...

PumpkinRot - Yard Spooktacular

Awhile back I covered the wonderful etsy store of Pumpkin Hollow, and I mentioned that among spooky sweet pumpkins they also had some fantastic zombies and ghouls. Well, I should have imaged that the person who makes those fearsome creatures would have a truly awe inspiring, terror-inducing lawn display.

PumpkinRot is the fantastic website of the creator of those ghouls, and he has oodles and oodles of photos from his Halloween displays over the years. I'm usually more of an elegant-scary kinda girl for halloween, (vs. say lots of rubber rats and plastic severed arms kinda halloween) but these fiber-wrapped, sculped zombies are just too amazingly wonderful. If I want to be scared out of my wits on Halloween, I want it to be THIS kinda scary...












I just adore the color work, and that decadent sense of decay all his characters have. Go visit Pumpkin Rot for more photos than you could ever hope for of awesome, creepy lawn displays my neighbors will never be cool enough to have.

Damn...

Dusty Walls and Ghostly Writings

There's something kinda spooky about chalk. Wipe clean your image and left behind is a ghostly image of drawings past. There's something wonderfully wicked about old dusty chalkboards. Dusty old anything reminds me of tattered sheets in the wind and creaky doors. Perfect for a little Halloween fun! Check out some of these wicked Halloween inspirations using chalkboard paint and some good old dusty chalk.


Poetic Home has some fantastic chalkboard ideas...


Old books and planters make great Halloween accessories! Not to mention that vintage typewriter... where can I get me one of those?


Apartment Therapy knows how to spook up some glam with chalkboard paint borders.


Make online has these fantastic chalkboard paint bottles. Write dusty messages or contents of potion bottles on them!


LittleBigHead made this super cute chalkboard pumpkin. Dress him up differently every day! I personally dig the mustachio look.


What about this charming chalkboard witch from Colonial Candle? I bet you could make your own with some chipboard and vintage photos.

Chalkboard paint is a great way to not only add a little darkness, but an ever changing surface! Paint a frame, paint and old statue... it all looks cool with chalkboard paint and a little imagination.

Soup in a ... Pumpkin?

There are a few things in fall I cherish above all others. Halloween, leaves, Halloween, cold air, pumpkins, halloween, apple cider, decorating for Halloween, and hot soup in a bread bowl. And Halloween. I might have mentioned that already. Hot soup in a bread bowl is just about as "fall-y" as you can get, but it wasn't quite as Halloweeny as you can get- until now. Check out this awesome recipe:


Yum yum! Soup in a pumpkin shaped bread bowl! Perfect for Halloween parties or just fall goodness. Don't worry, it's not weird pumpkin flavored bread or anything, which people always seem to think is a good idea until they have to taste it with split pea soup. Eww...

Get the how to over at The Idea Room.

Ghoulish Gothic Halloween

I just had to share this Halloween party mash up from Better Homes and Gardens. I love how it mixes up the usual black and orange, into a strangely eerie black and sickly neon greens. It's halloween all right, but a nice change if you're looking for something a little different or a little less pumpkin-y for your ghoulish feast.












Get more over on Better Homes and Gardens.

Deadly DIY - Faux Mercury Glass Pumpkins

Fall is really and truly here, and I celebrated today by doing one of my favorite fall activities: apple picking! We went out to an orchard and picked crisp fall apples, ate too much wild rice soup, drank too much apple cider (as if there is such a thing) and picked out some pumpkins.

We got a truly glorious pumpkin specimen from a local grower that would have cost us at least an arm, maybe a leg and a half, at our local grocery store. It made me appreciate how nice real pumpkins are and how crappy some of the local ones can be. Most of the time I go for fake punkins, just because they're shaped so much nicer. Still, faux orange plastic pumpkin doesn't exactly instill the chills of Halloween proper, does it? So here's a way to take your plastic pumpkins and make them shine... literally!



Get the full tute over on the DIY showoff (scroll down a bit), and give your pumpkins and elegant, spooky shine.

When Tim Burton does Fashion...

... the results are spectacular. Someone gave Tim Burton the full run of a fashion shoot, so lucky you gets to check out some Halloween Haute Couture from the pages of Harper's Bazaar. Deliciously wicked and wonderfully fashionable to boot. And OMG that skeleton. Never mind that these halloween costumes are a few grand a piece, the results are faabulous dahling...







See more over at Harper's Bazaar.

Vampire Martini

Looking for the perfect Halloween drink? Well if you're done with banishing fall chills with an apple cider martini, maybe you're all for adding some chills. How bout a ghoulishly good vampire kiss martini? First add the perfect garnish with HWTM's hard candy blood drip, and then mix as follows:

* 1 1/2 oz Finlandia Vodka
* 1 1/2 oz Korbel Champagne
* 3/4 oz Chambord

1. Pour vodka and half of the Chambord in a martini glass.
2. Top with Champagne.
3. Pour the remaining Chambord over the back of a spoon to make it float.

Can be enjoyed by Twilight and regular folks alike. Drink up :)

The Invitations...

Today is officially the first day of fall, and you know what that means... it's time to send out invitations! I've been working on mine a little bit each night. I designed the front and inside, printed it out on colored paper, and tore each out. I'm hand stamping the envelopes and sealing them with some fun Halloween metal stickers. They're not done of course, but what do you think?


If you want to make one of your own, just download this image and print it on some spooky colored paper. Enjoy!

Deadly DIY - Seance Party Table

I was recently informed of an oh so spooktacular site, How to Haunt Your House, whom, among many awesome Halloween goodies, has some really cool tutorials. Have a peek at their Seance Party Table tutorial, made out of a card table, some plywood, and a little ingenuity. It looks like you can get some really great professional effects! They also have a book out, which I'll be sure to add to my Halloween wishlist. I'm thinking I'm just going to start a library of Halloween decor books... anyone care to share their reading list?

A Nevermore Halloween...

Check out this cute "adults" party, an Edgar Allen Poe themed Halloween party! I love the bookish theme throughout, something about old books is just too perfect for Halloween. Combine it with Poe and a few ravens... magnifique!

Get more details and images over on Midwest Living.