A Southern Accent

It's no secret around here that I am a lover of Halloween. I say it every year, but both my sister and I are nuts about Halloween and honestly, I think it's because we used to have the best time with our church family with Halloween carnivals and haunted houses in the church basement (that's before everything turned into the "fall festival"). We would go for hay rides, run around in the church cemetery and our pastor was even in on all of the fun. Can you believe that? Anyway, October kicks off each year with my annual Halloween mantel, which I worked on this weekend. This year I decided to go with a green, black and white theme, inspired by Mrs. Limestone's feature in BHG Treats & Tricks magazine . And I thought I loved Halloween, this lovely lady puts me to shame! I really really wanted to run out to Michael's and see what new fun things I could find, but I decided to work with what I had in my box of Halloween decor (yes, I have one, just like C...

The annual Halloween mantel is officially up! This year, I used some of the same elements from past years, but also ventured out to the Dollar Store to pick up some new items for next to nothing! I finished it off with a homemade printable in a Gothic frame I bought at TJ Maxx from the clearance section. I pulled some books from the shelf in the family room, and found the large vase that's sitting on top of the books under the house. I haven't used it in a while and it was this ugly puke green color, so I grabbed some black spray paint and made it "Halloweeny." Items I picked up from the Dollar Store: mini skulls to fill the vases, black mesh fabric, moss and mini pumpkins. I found the black owl candle at World Market, and the bird was from Michael's. I made the owl art from some images I found online. I think birds just add an extra creepy factor to Halloween - especially owls! Those eyes just give me the willies! To print your own, just click here. ...

I decided last night I could wait no longer. The Halloween box had to come down and we needed to sprinkle a little spooky dust around the house. I focused on the mantel, taking the existing, eclectic arrangement of knickknacks currently there, keeping some of it, and adding some fun items from around the house and my special Halloween box to kick-off the season around here. Here's a picture of the before, so you can see what I kept to create my spooky mantel scene: I kept the bronze bird up in front, the silhouette of Mike as a little boy, the black letter blocks (turned on their sides), the cream ceramic piece, the owl and the candle in the back. I added in some of my goodies from my Halloween box, some old books from the bookshelf, a little chest from the bedroom and some candles from the hall and came up with this! I'm a big believer in shopping the house, and most of the Halloween items I have came from HomeGoods and The Dollar Store, so the w...