Halloween Decor 2013, 31 Days of LOVE

It should come as no shock to you by now that my family loves holidays.

In fact, by our friends we are dubbed "The Griswalds" (for many other reasons as well)

Halloween is no exception.

{You can see lasts years decor here, here, and here}

So this year, we decided to predominately decorate for halloween on our porch. 

I obviously couldn't be bothered to sweep or dust for these pictures, I'm no perfectionist!

We went for over-the-top cluttered, not too scary and a bit whimscial. 

In other words, we just used what we had and threw it on our bakers rack and called it a day.

It was fun, nonetheless. 

And I think it turned out pretty darn cute, if I don't say so myself.

Here's an overview of our patio/porch:

Can you spy The Duchess, above?

We handmade our wreath using things deco-mesh from Hobby Lobby and the decorations were from the Dollar Tree. 

Someday I'll post a tutorial on how to make them, I promise.

On our baker's rack:

Most of our decorations were reused from last year and most came from Goodwill (some DIY'd by me and spray painted black, air vent painted pumpkins), the Dollar Tree (Gravestones, skulls, rats), clearance from last year (sparkly owl and shoe) and yard sales (hanging owls, witch).

The big ceramic pumpkins are handmade and came from Kroger.

The mum was from Costco, and is huge for only $14.

Small ones at Kroger were the same price!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the tour!

"It's all just a bunch of Hocus Pocus!"

A Fabulous Halloween Pinterest Party

So I know for the past month, I've been sharing little snapshots of our house decorated for Halloween!

Every month, my mom throws a pinterest party with a different theme each time.

This month was, of course, Halloween!

Everyone was to come dressed up

and to bring a pinterest-inspired food/drink.

It was a fabulous evening!

Before the party, my family took a group photo!

It's a little blurry, 

but I love it.

Here is our dining room all decked out!

There were so many yummy foods!

Here is my sister-in-law showing off the amazing set up.

:)

I love our little yard-sale owls hanging from the chandelier.

These windows are opposite of the big hutch in our dining room!

I love the owls in the window, too!

Of course our mantel had to be festive.

We went all out!

another view in the living room!

Quoting some Poe 

 And I'm sure you've seen This shot already!

A wreath above the couch

 The "kids" area!

Complete with pin the nose on the pumpkin and coloring!

A shot of the kitchen area.

If you look on the bottom right, you'll see are votes for the best costume!

The Front door!

Right is the dining room and left is the "library"

Here is the bookcase in the library.

I love the gothic feel!

and that is the basic house tour!

now, onto the actual party:

First I will show you the costumes

I was a flapper, but more on that for WIWW

my mom was 50 shades of grey

and my youngest brother was cousin eddie from Christmas vacation (BEST movie ever!)

My sister-in-law was a sailor

and my older brother was a morph santa. This was hilarious!

my beautiful mother

 Our wonderful guests!

deep in conversations!

Jess (beautiful lady on the left) was "Identity Theft" 

she basically had "Hello my name is ____" stickers all over her.

It was so clever!

She won the contest, by the way!

cute little alex! 

He won the Pin the nose contest!

(He forgot to get a costume)

and crazy Ian, a family friend was an old man.

He had a cane and everything!!

All in all, It was a wonderful party!

I'm so excited for our next one:

5th Annual Christmas Cookie Exchange.

It is going to be great!

For past post relating to this party click:

Here

Here

Here

Here

Here

I can't believe 31 days is almost over!

Halloween House Tour Part 2!

Wow! I can't believe it's Monday! I feel like the weekend just flew by. It was a busy, but relaxing weekend for me, and I am so sad it's over. 

but...

I am very excited to share the next part of my house's halloween decor!

Today, we are going to see our entertainment center. It is opposite our fireplace, and contains mainly our TV. 

Here is an overview of the entertainment center!

Most of the decorations were found from around the house, or from the dollar store. Which means, we spent less than $5 for the entire space!

That is crazy

Let's start with the center shelf!
I got my ideas for the center shelf from this pin:

                                                Source: bedifferentactnormal.com via Amber on Pinterest

I loved the idea of making a witches apothecary, and I had the perfect bottles to do the job!

We had the bottles leftover from my brother's rehearsal dinner, and using this same method, I spray-painted them black to make them fit in with Halloween. Then we just printed out the labels using the Printable from this site. I didn't use sitckers, like the site suggests, but I still love how they turned out! 

Then, We added the creepy victorian-style pictures from the Dollar store. They change faces depending on which angle you look at.

Then, using the inspiration from the pin, 

we added some vintage lace (from the Rehearsal dinner) , and gothic, black roses from the dollar store.

Here is a second shot from a different angle. 

You cant really see in this picture, but we hung black spray-painted (supposed to be christmas) angels/cherubs to make it extra creepy.

Next is the left-side shelves:

Like I said, everything here is originally for another purpose, but we re-did them to fit with halloween!

The candle sticks were from the rehearsal dinner (spray-painted black). 

The mask was from an old costume, and the goblets are from this post.

and now, the right side!

For some continuity, I added the matching candlesticks up top, and wrapped some spider web around both. 

Then, using this same Printable from this site, and painting more vases and knicknacks, I added more "poison" bottles to the second shelf. 

Since our entertainment center is all black, I needed something to make the decorations pop. I found some old sheet music and taped it to the back. It did just the trick! I used this idea on every shelf to create unity. 

On the last shelf, I added this peacock feather wreath from goodwill, and added a skull with some baker's twine. Then I added the bat found at a garage sale for $1. 

and that's it! Here is the overall view again:

I'm so happy with how it turned out! 

and for less than $5, I think it looks amazing.

Let me know what you think! I'd love some feedback!