halloween-decor

Have you been affected by the hurricane? I hope you and your loved ones are safe and sound.

It’s a dreary, wet day and I think my family and I might curl up in front of some Stranger Things this afternoon instead of doing anything productive. Before we do that, here are some random bullets.

Tropical Weather < Fall Weather: The hurricane has furnished my part of the country with days of rain and humidity. While I’m a huge fan of (occasional) gloomy, rainy fall days, I am not enjoying the sticky damp. I’m assuming this is how it feels to live inside a rain forest, based purely on visiting Rain Forest exhibits at the zoo. No thank you. Humidity and I do not get along. I have not bothered to dry or style my hair in a week. I tame the mass of wavy frizz with water, then wrangle it into a ponytail or bun and hope for the best. I use Aveda Smooth Infusion cream on my hair every time I wash it, and it smells good, but who honestly knows if it helps keep the frizz down. I mean, I for one am not willing to face the humidity without it, but there might be a better option out there?

Fall Colors: Despite the faux-Florida weather we’ve been having, the leaves are beginning to change. I especially love the trees that are steadily green except for a patch or two of vibrant yellow or orange – like there are a few flamboyant trendsetters who cannot wait a second longer to don their autumn regalia. Because the weather has been so temperate, flowers continue to bloom. In fact, a few of my neighbors’ hydrangeas seem to be flourishing. I love seeing bright pink flowers against a backdrop of red and orange foliage. It’s weird but beautiful.

Spoons Update: Surely you have been waiting on tenterhooks for me to follow up on the spoons situation. Here it is: Filled with confidence from your comments, I approached my husband with the bold suggestion that we replace our flatware. He was all for it. (Aside from the spoons issue, he hates our knives.) So we started researching replacement sets and immediately hit two walls. First, we agreed that we would want to touch and hold any flatware before we buy it, and second, my goodness, flatware sets are PRICEY. Because we continue to have New House expenses, I am reluctant to drop $600 on a set of flatware we love. So what I did was buy a $10 set of six spoons from Target, on a whim. They are perfect. Now we have plenty of spoons, and a source of inexpensive spoons should any of them disappear. My husband likes them so much we added a set of Target knives to the mix as well.

Dwarf Spruces: Well, I guess I am really in Mundane Updates mode! If you’ll recall, the last time I talked to you about my dwarf spruces, one had died. My only recourse was to find a replacement, but all the replacement spruces were… what is a tactful way to say this… more robust than my surviving spruce. I found it surprisingly difficult to ascertain this at the garden center, and only discovered it once I returned home, spruce in tow. Fortunately, the good people at the garden center took pity on me and allowed me to exchange my new spruce for a smaller one. They are still unbalanced, size wise, but less so. So far, the new guy seems to be staying alive.

Ghost Update: As long as I’m updating you on things, I might as well give you the status of the ghost situation. I went back to the garden center where I’d seen the ghosts of my heart; they were both gone. Sigh. I had some found time one morning last week (I took my kid to the dentist, ran into a friend who was taking her kid to the same dentist, and said friend took both kids to school, freeing up a glorious half hour of driving time for me.), so I made a little tour of Michael’s, Target, and the dollar store to see what kinds of ghosts I could rustle up. The first thing I have to tell you is that all the stores are already selling Christmas décor, which I understand from a retail perspective but which is BONKERS to me from an it-is-not-yet-October perspective. The second thing I have to tell you is that the fall décor was limited, due to making room for Christmas stuff. Fortunately, Michael’s and Target had a decent selection of Halloween stuff, and I walked away from Michael’s with two ghosts. Target had quite a few ghosty options, and I came home with a stand-up ghost (or I could hang it somewhere; it has a little twine loop at the top), and with several pictures of outdoor ghost options for my husband to consider. Target also had some tiny orange battery operated twinkle lights that I can add to my dwarf spruces on the porch. As you can see, my found half-hour was well-spent and my purchases are quite satisfying.

*I do realize that I was originally on the hunt for OUTDOOR ghosties, and these are all ghosts of the indoor variety. OH WELL.*

Fall Décor: While I feel pretty set, now, on Halloween décor, I do wish I had more in the way of generic fall decorations. (Apparently I have been making this same wish since at least 2016.) I would love to be able to have something to bridge the gap between Halloween and Thanksgiving. Not that I have any super specific ideas about what I’m looking for. Maybe some pumpkin throw pillows? Oooh, these autumn trees are so pretty! But… I have a pair of white light-up trees, on a recommendation from Swistle, and I like them; but now I’m wondering if I need two separate sets of light-up trees. Jenny’s post about 100 pumpkins has me convinced that I could probably make do with real pumpkins and squash as my sole decorations. I really wanted to find some white craft pumpkins that Carla and I could decorate a la the dipping technique we have used before. But I could not find what I was picturing ANYWHERE. (The pumpkins at Michael’s were cream, not white.) Even Amazon has low white-craft-pumpkin supply, and I am reluctant to buy anything from Temu. This grouping of seven pumpkins has promise… but do I really want to spend $18 on seven pumpkins? I like these pumpkins, too, but again… a bit pricey, no? I am still on the fence, pumpkin-wuse. Crate and Barrel does have quite a collection of white ceramic turkeys – which I resisted mightily a few weeks ago (say it with me, friends: I will not spend $60 on a white ceramic turkey.) – but perhaps I will have to revisit them.

Yes, I see the white pumpkins… but I don’t like these pumpkins as much as I love the turkeys. But would I prefer one giant turkey or a flock of tiny turkeys to use at each place setting? I am not buying a turkey.

What’s new with you this weekend? How do you keep your hair frizz-free? What kind of fall décor do you have in your house?

Last year I was so stressed from moving that I didn’t decorate AT ALL for Halloween. Which made me sad (and guilty) because I like Halloween and decorating for Halloween (and because I failed to make Carla’s first Halloween in the new house Fun and Homey). This year, I’m feeling very excited about decorating for Halloween and have already been scoping out décor for weeks.

My favorite Halloween decorations are ghosts. But not scary ghosts. I prefer happy, or at the very least apathetic, ghosts.

I came across these AMAZING ghosts, the ghosts of my heart, at a local garden center.

But my husband played the role of Frugal Spouse (we take turns) and persuaded me that $50 and $100 respectively for these ghosts was too much to spend. I perhaps disagree, but I am also ~~cheap~~ frugal so I did not buy the ghosts. I still think about them, though. Maybe they will go on sale and I can snap them up?

Ever since I declined to bring those beautiful ghosties home with me, I’ve been searching for the perfect reasonably-priced alternative, with very little success. I have two goals: Outdoor décor and indoor décor. I need much less indoor décor.

Want to join me on a little online ghost perusal????

I love the IDEA of these tree-wrap ghosts… and have some good place to hang them. But I’m not sure if I love the ghosts themselves? They appear to be singing, but sarcastically?

Maybe porch ghosts just cost a lot of money???

This is a cute sign for our porch, and much more reasonably priced, but I don’t LOVE it.

These light-up ghosts are nice and tall, and meant for outdoors, and I like how they could be bemoaning their deaths or simply yawning… hmmmm. I mean, I do prefer sleepy ghosts to scary ones. I’m on the fence here.

I suppose I could make my own porch ghost… but do I want to do that? And is a sheet really going to stand up to October weather patterns?

These little lights are cute. Maybe I could use them to ghost up my porch trees?

I love these sweet little yard stakes.

This choir of lawn ghosts is quite charming and is supposedly meant for the outdoors. I can’t tell what they’re made of though; will they melt the instant snow falls?

Oh my gosh I love this little guy.

I find these glow-in-the-dark ghosts quite adorable. And when they are all in a group, the scariest one just looks grumpy.

I like the idea of this stack of ghosts (which also glows) but I can’t tell what it REALLY looks like, and that makes me a little leery, you know? (The one review with photos still doesn’t adequately show the size.)

While we’re thinking about glow-in-the-dark, what about these cats with glowing eyes?!

We do have some trees that I could cajole into hosting some hanging ghosts.

Okay. Let’s move indoors for a moment.

One of my favorite things to put up each year are my wall bats; so it makes sense that I find these wall ghosts deeply appealing. Do they seem a little whiny though? Would they detract from the bats? How many walls full of stick-on creatures will my husband tolerate? (I hang the bats with wall-safe sticky putty.)

Oh my goodness – a ghosty companion for my bookshelves!

I am in love with these ghosty hand towels.

These ghosts are nice and friendly – and I’m partial to groupings of three – but are they too friendly?

I feel like these guys have a more holiday-appropriate attitude.

Ooooh I’m a fan of these wooden pumpkins. Sorry. Switched it up on you there didn’t I.

Do I need a ghosty cake stand? With a matching ghost bowl!

I most definitely want this trio of ghost figurines.

How about a pair of stained glass ghosties to hang in my windows?

This is adorable and I love the movement.

Ghosty candy dish!

Although I might like this ghost candy holder better?

I don’t really do a holiday themed pillow, but I might make an exception for these?!