Happy Halloween Everyone!

Every year I decorate the house for Halloween. It is my favorite holiday to decorate.

Partly because this house has a spooky aura to it anyway, and partly because all I have to do is accessorize and "poof" it's Halloween. I also can let the cobwebs go wild for a few weeks.

I collect antique Halloween items. It has gotten increasingly more popular over the last 20 years, and therefore, more expensive, and there are alot of reproductions out there. So these days I buy a few reproductions, and I have to be very picky with the "real" items that I do buy. I have found some really great places to buy authentic items still at reasonable prices. My best places to pick are at my best friend Linda's store, in little Gatchelville Pa, and the New Oxford show in new Oxford Pa.

I also found the repro-mecca at Tinsel Trading Company in New York City. OMG I LOVE that place. Tinsel was actually the reason I started this blog. The salesperson suggested I could share my decorating via this blog. And the spark was lit.

Enjoy, and Happy Halloween everyone!

Pre-Halloween party silliness. My mom and sister. At the front gate of the house.

The front window, in the library. Silver glitter skulls in an apothocary jar, a black crow on an old lantern, a sand filled papier mache sitting blackcat from a flea market, and lots of cobwebs.

Spooky gauze for curtains, and the stick-on window decals to look like blood spatter.

The dining room, carved pumpkins, for lighting and a punch bowl of witch's brew. One of my favorite antique's in the house is the carved wooden witch on the brrom weathervane. I found it for $200 at an antique store on Rte 1 heading towards Phila. You will see her often.

My carousel lion. From my husband as a wedding gift. He always asks me what my favoriteantique is, and I always reply, "my lion."

The front window in the library. New orange mercury glass pumpkin, new tin cut out cat, vintage advertising glass jar with vulture inside, some old childrens books in black and orange, and lots of cobwebs.

The other front window. Brown mercury glass pumpkin, paper lantern pumpkin, antique stock/horse feed country store box, and old show polish box. I also have many cake stands. They are great for displays and they give you height to layer.

Hanging fluffy glittered bats hangin from the chandelier just inside the front door.

The den. We had fortune telling for our Halloween party, and this is where it all happened. I love those Cinderella pumkins, so much character!

The fireplace in the den. With Ambrose's portrait that my mom did in his honor, and the Santa feet hanging out of the flue. I added a foot tag, like at the morgue, that read "Santa, RIP"