Spooky Halloween Porch

 Yikes, today is Halloween, and its my last chance to show you my spooky porch decor ...

One big change is that I painted my front door black!  Eventually all the trim on our house will be black.  I love the contrast!  I told a friend that its obvious that I love Halloween, because I plan to live in an orange and black house full time!!

Since the look of the rest of the porch is so simple, and so not fru fru, I tried to think of a door decoration that would be unpretentious, but fun.

With that in mind I made this simple wreath out of dollar store skeletons ... I used a hanger wire to hold them in the round form, and wired the skeletons wrists to ankles, then around the hanger wire.

When I was forming it, I felt a little cruel, and had to remind myself they are plastic ... and after all they just kept smiling! ;-)

The pumpkins in the birdcage is a hold over from years past, though I did paint the rusty bird cage black for a starker contrast.

I am still loving my stacked painted bench/stools ... and the new black gingham chair pads.  I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!  

Lovely Witches at the Witches' Tea Party

The week of Halloween has arrived, and what better way to welcome it than with a witches' tea party!!  These are four of the fourteen wonderful witches who came to share the fun!

 The tables are set ...

The chicken and cream cheese rolls have on their best smiles ...

Upside down witch cupcakes are all ready (compliments of my friend LaVern) for the dessert course ... and my friend Carolyn brought some fun witches' finger bread sticks, which I didn't get a picture of before they were utterly consumed!

The Halloween lights are on and shining brightly ...

 So let the witching hour begin!  Left to right are Ann, Ginny, Andrea, LaVern, Cristie, Adrienne, Margaret, Shirley, Carolyn and Patti!  

After the tea it was crafty time.  Our craft was sort of like our girlhood occupations of dressing our Barbies from Mom's scrap basket ... but in this case it was actually ....

skeletons, who had been 'chilled to the bone', so we set out to dress them, if not warmly, at least festively ... here are three of the finished darlings.

Patti's was the one in the middle.

More festive spooks .... the one on the left was made by my granddaughter Eva ... (without help)

Margaret shows off her handy work.

Eva and Margaret's skeleton friends posed again, to keep the third skeleton company.

 Three more models posing, only these models are not of the 'skin and bones' variety, just the bones.

... and then its time for those parting shots.

Loved the colorful costume that Terri wore ... in fact I loved it so much she won the award for the best witch costume.  I also Loved my friend Ginny's 'Doctor Trelawney'. 

Here are my two cute daughter, Ashley and Darby, along with Eva, showing off their bewitching nails ...

 ... and here is Adrienne, who helped everyone add some spooky glam to their hands, as my favorite Jamberry consultant.

I didn't get a picture of anyone's 'jams', so I thought I would share this picture of mine from a couple of weeks ago!  Can you tell I love Jamberry?!    If you want to have fun too, you can check out her  web page. 

 Margaret won the best shoes award ...

... and here I am with my favorite little witch .... Eva loves to dress up as much as I do ... and she loves crafting too, so how could I not include her at my favorite party of the year!!

... and just because I know Shirley might actually read this blog post I thought I would share the adorable pennant she brought for me!!  I LOVE it!  There were more goodies too, but the very best part of a witches party is always gathering with like minded ladies who love to have fun!!

Happy Halloween to all, and to all a spooky goodnight!

Pennant Garland Makeover.

 

I have this white tone banner between my dining room and parlor. 

It is covered with medallions that accent old family black and white photos. 

This year I decided to place witchy vintage photos on too of the family pictures to celebrate the season. 

Now it's fun and spooky? So seasonally appropriate!! 

... and if you are interested, here is the link to the original family banner garland.

10 Autumn and Halloween Decorated Houses

 Just thought I would take a minute and share some of the Autumn and Halloween decor I've been 'collecting' on my walks the last month.

Loved the stacked pumpkins!

Ghosts in windows are always fun!

 Pumpkins make for easy decor ... I need to plant more next year!

I've enjoyed seeing doors wrapped this year!

I thought this porch was cute, and loved how she incorporated her blue chair! Perfect!

Here's a nice traditional treatment ...

Monsters in the window this time!

 More pumpkin and gourd fun ... this cart was full of flowers this summer, what a fun and quick changeover.

 But this is hands down my favorite decor of the year ...  The archway made of doors is charming all by itself, but here it is with Halloween decor.

This house is always charming, and the front door has orange trim and posts, so maybe the people who live here are huge fans of Halloween like I am.

 I hope you are enjoying the Halloween decor in your neighborhood too!

Hoytsville Vintage Market

 So what does a girl do when one of her favorite vintage markets, this one which is actually named 'Vintage Market', happens to fall on set up day for a vintage market at which you are selling? 

Fortunately for me, I have two huge vans ... how funny is that?  We bought a new one to replace the one with 300,000 miles because we worried about taking the old one on a 2,000 mile round trip.  Yep, old blue is still plugging along. That was three years ago.

So old blue got loaded for 3 Dotters, where I arranged for an afternoon set up time.  Then my friend Ann and I took off in the white van for the almost 2 hours drive to Hoytsville for the Vintage Market there.

Here is some of the vintage goodness we experienced while there.

My friend Ann took this chair home with us ... the second time in a month I have shopped a vintage market, only to have my compatriot buy a modern chair at an amazing price ...

 The little brown chest to the far right went home with me, such a cutie and such a good price.

 ... as did this lovely antique English dresser ... The top of the dresser needs some work, so you will likely see it made-over in the near future!

This near empty homemade goodies display takes me back to my childhood.

My next door neighbor growing up was Martha Ann Donaldson.  This woman beats out Martha Stewart by a country mile .... I remember her baked goods, like the red velvet cake, the German chocolate cake ... and homemade bread that was so high and light it tasted like store bought.

Martha Ann, grew up in Hoytsville, and has since retire there to the wonderful of historic home that converted me to antiques when I was 8,  Two of her daughters also live there ...  Jane, her youngest child is as famous for her baked goods in Hoytsville, as her mother was in Bountiful when I was growing up.  Yummy! The sale had been opened for an hour when I took this picture, I was told it was piled high at the beginning of the sale .... not at all surprising to me.

... and here I am with Debbie and Kathy.  Debbie is Jane's oldest sister, and grew up next door to me in Bountiful.  Kathy is my husband's 'something degree' cousin, who I met at my first Vintage Market in Hoytsville three years ago!!  So fun to know people who love what you love, don't you think?

Well, Hoytsville is a long ways away, but I will try to make it to both of their yearly markets if I can make it happen.  Maybe I will see you there?