Halloween Decorating 2014

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! My favorite holiday and my favorite season has finally arrived. If you've followed me all summer, you already know that I plan all year for this time of year. I spent most of my summer, cooking fun and festive Halloween inspired food and designing decorations for my home. This year my decorating focus was skeletons. I have lots of parts and pieces of skeletons and I wanted to incorporate them in fun, unexpected ways, like a Skull Topiary, Gravedigger centerpiece (pictured above) along with my Skeleton Wreath and a super fun,  Remains of the Day Chalkboard. I also decorated my sideboard with a spooky Haunted Hamlet made with old Christmas Houses and a Halloween inspired work of art, I affectionately named, Witch's Broom. And finally, I can't let the season go by without making another wreath, this one made with tons of creepy crawly spiders! Eek!
Take a look around and enjoy. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Skull Topiary 

I actually bought these skeleton arms on sale for $5.00, which may not sound like such a deal. It was a deal because the arms came with legs and a head as well. The original decoration was meant for the front yard. The arms, legs and head came with spikes so you could stick them into the ground so that the skeleton appears to be coming out from the ground.  I used the arms and head in this creation and I used the legs in my Gravedigger Centerpiece below. I had an old floral container which I spray painted flat black. I had some creepy cloth from last year, but I always buy more each year. You can never get enough Creepy Cloth. 
First, I stuck the arms into floral foam in the container and since these arms were rigid at the elbows and pivoted at the wrists, I used a small amount of creepy cloth to bind the wrists together allowing the hands to fall open and then glued the head in the hands. I added the three accent roses and then I added two other smaller foam skulls, that were attached to different sized bamboo skewers, to vary their height. I built from there adding black roses and some purple glitter berries and finishing it off with silver plastic ferns. Turned out pretty cool huh?

Gravediggers Centerpiece

This little gal was a sketch in my blog notebook all summer. I have a few notebooks where I jot down recipe ideas and decorating ideas, but I had her in mind all summer and I am so happy she came to life from a scribble. 

I love this decoration because it has so much detail. You really need to look to see all that's going on with her. Her disjointed limbs and scattered bones lie together at the base of a tombstone overgrown with fall foliage and wild pumpkins. The spider on her grave looms over her shrouded head and another at her feet as a raven stands perched on a wrought iron fencing that lies behind it all. The vignette is complete with my Skeleton Wreath from a few years back and some rustic ceramic pumpkins. I'm ready to greet the season!

  Remains of the Day Chalkboard

I made this fun chalkboard with a left over piece of wood, plastic bones, chalkboard paint, and some construction adhesive.  It's was super easy to put together and looks great in my dining room. For Halloween I'll post my menu of: Amputated Appetizer, Mummified Meatloaf, Roasted Fingers and Toes, and  'Beet'ing Hearts Salad with Blood Red Vinaigrette. "Bone" Appetit!

Here's a picture of it at night. So pretty with the glittery mercury glass pumpkin, candlestick and tea lights!

Spider Wreath

Here's another simple decoration to put together. I made this wreath by gluing a bunch of different sized spiders onto a spray painted grapevine wreath and then wrapped it all in black spider webs. Easy and looks great!

Witches' Broom

This is my Halloween themed artwork named Witches' Broom that was inspired by the idea of using dictionary pages as a canvas. The pages are not just a neat backdrop, they are actually what makes this drawing Halloween themed. I chose words and pictures from the dictionary that captured the essence of the season, such as vampire, werewolf, tarantula, ghosts, etc. I think it turned out really cool and it looks great hanging in my dining room. If you want to see how it came together check out my blog link here.

Haunted Hamlet

This was so much fun to make and again, really simple to do.  The hardest part was finding all the right sized Christmas houses, especially in the middle of summer. I scoured every thrift shop for a few weeks before I was able to pull it all together. I even added a house after I wrote and posted the blog when a friend found and gave me another house to add to my village. Check out the Haunted Hamlet blog to see how I made it.

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Other Halloween Decorating and Entertaining Ideas: Halloween Decorating 2013
Fall Decorating 2013

Halloween-inspired recipes:
Spiderweb Eggs, Fangtini, Amputated Appetizer, Pickled Shrunken Heads, Ghoulish Goat Cheese Torte, , Black Bean Hummus, Candy Corn Sugar Cookies, Candy Corn Peppermint Patties and Black Velvet Creme Cakes!