Happy Halloween!

Are you ready for the big day? This is a surprise display on our formal dining room table that will greet my children when they come home from school. I found the vintage inspired noisemakers at Home Goods last July. They are stuck into glass vases of candy corn, which is a family favorite.

Most of the day I will be at my son's school giving an art lesson to his classmates, helping with the costume parade and the afternoon party. This was our photo from last year.

After school, we'll come home and stuff the small goody bags for our close friends that come to visit tonight. This year we are handing out a Martha Stewart inspired broomstick bag. Instead of the twig shown in the photo, I am going to use a large pretzel stick. I made the bags by placing a bag into the shredder and then quickly hitting the reverse button. (Please do not let your children do this.)

Last year we saved our toilet paper rolls and quickly filled them with a few toys and candy and rolled them up in orange tissue and then tied the ends closed with pipe cleaners curled around a pencil. J'adore!

My husband has been gone all week long on a business trip. I thought it might be fun to cover his favorite chair (shown in B H & G) as a surprise. We'll use our dachshund Rudi as the accent dog. :)

Mr. Decor is normally the chief pumpkin carver in our home. As he will arrive home from his trip just in time for trick or treating, we'll do something a bit different this year. A small fact about me is that I absolutely loathe scooping pumpkin "guts" out. I liked this idea and we still have tons of beads leftover from the pirate party we had last month...

My favorite form of recycled Halloween decor is to line the driveway with these cute tin can luminaries.

In our kitchen I will begin setting the table by first covering it with a large piece of burlap I bought at Joanne's. This is a wonderfully inexpensive cloth that comes in a wide range of colors. I like the neutral shade.

As the cloth is loosely woven I just fringed the ends by pulling out a few threads. For another look, I LOVE this burlap cloth featured in Country Home that has darling rick rack trim at the hem and uses recycled license plate pieces as tablecloth weights. Perfect for a breezy alfresco dinner.

Isn't this floral foam ball covered in marigolds a fantastic centerpiece?

My all time favorite fall centerpiece is using a carved out funkin, placing a mason jar full of water inside and adding some great Trader Joe's flowers.

The 2008 Decor to Adore adorable Halloween craft award goes to... Eddie Ross. He is a brilliant set designer and made these darling "doilies" by cutting out black construction paper (think paper snowflake) and covering them in glitter. I made four place mat sized spiderwebs.

As it is a busy night, I will be serving a quick and easy dinner of mummified hotdogs accompanied by boiling blood (homemade tomato soup).

We'll also have skull head pears. I like to place them flat on a plate and use black decorating gel for the features. (Less candy is a good thing on this night.)

Have a spooktacular evening!

Halloween Vignettes

Do you love to create little Halloween vignettes? Here are a few fun images to bring your creativity in from the pumpkin patch and into your home.

You can turn your home office into a truly fun place to work.




A close up of one of the shelves reveals someone who loves candy corn. Whoooooo adores the owl print?




Another shelf features a plaid pumpkin. You can make this from the fabric of an old wool coat. Recycling at its cutest.




Anything looks better when placed on a pedestal. Try taking your candlesticks out and find a tiny pumpkin to place on top creating a mini pedestal effect. A large jar of colored candy would work well on a kitchen island.




Lights, banners and blocks...oh my!




If you've recently switched over to a flat screen tv and still have an entertainment center, try placing it on a large wall and turning it into a mini library. The shelves can be filled with your favorite books and still more books can help fill the empty center. Add a few other goodies such as a lamp and a wee bit of boo.

Now is the time to group all your silver or mercury glass together. Particularly on overcast days it brings a bit of brightness into the home. Deep green and ivory pumpkins look particularly pretty against the shine.

Images

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Last week's quote

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead."

~Louisa May Alcott

Paris Underground

Last April, I wrote about a wonderful little shop, Paris to the Moon. It is an amazing little gem located in Costa Mesa, California. Right behind PTTM is another store owned by Darren Calkins called the Paris Underground. It specializes in the dark side of Paris and I knew it would be a perfect store to adore in October.

Don't you just love the moon lantern?

There are amazing little vignettes located throughout this tiny store.

One part macabre and one part whimsy.

In case you have a shortage...

The black and white section was my favorite. Who knew that glitter and skulls could work so well together?

I loved the antique statue of the nun, fleur de lys coin purses and black ostrich plumes.

On one wall they had wallpapered with an old map of Paris. The globe gift containers were perfect for a world traveler.

The religious icon area was lovely.

I soon will begin a new Friday post entitled: Friday Freebie. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I love to host giveaways. I also love the holiday season. So I thought, why not combine the two? Beginning November 7th until Christmas I will hold a Friday Freebie at least twice a month.

A Blissful Booth

Welcome to the Arranging Elegance booth! Do you like my apron? It was a gift from The Apron Queen.




This tray is the first thing to greet you on the right. Who doesn't love chocolate truffles? Later in the day I offered salt water taffy in pretty pastels due to the heat.




Here's a close up of a little house scrapbook I made. It shows several before and after pictures of projects I have done.




I use a white and cream palette for my table covers and display items. It makes everything just pop, but in a soothing way.

Did you notice the tall menu sign of services? It started out as an old cupboard door.




Add some wrapping paper, a bit of mod podge and several buttons. Voila! An original sign.

On the left hand side of the booth I had a children's area. They could sit and create a craft while their mother's shopped.

Here is a close up of a little box I bought as Marshall's and made a bit more kid friendly.




A little bit of everything~vintage linens, glass cloches, lavender sachets, vintage trays and of course jewelry.

I try to think a bit outside the box when displaying things. This bracelet holder actually is a planter. I just filled it with Spanish moss and decorative mushrooms and hung bracelets off the side.

Yummy vintage filigree trays and frames updated in cotton candy colors. They are now sold out. I need to get busy.

Guess what I had for lunch?

A few of you inquired about the Halloween/Harvest jewelry I created for the show. I have few pieces left and they are now 1/2 off in my Etsy store.

Happy Shopping and stay tuned for Friday Freebie!

A day of Bliss

The Nie Recovery Fundraiser was a tremendous success! Even though it was so HOT, there was a fantastic turnout. Here are some of the yummy offerings that caught my eye:

I love this vignette. The orange ribbon on the aqua birdcage with a flash of neon green is such a great color combination.





Aren't these bright pink letters fantastic? They just pop on this black and white damask material.



A great board covered in vintage fabrics. So easy to do. Hmmmm~ I might recreate this.

There was a traditional carnival and they cleverly hid their metal canopy posts with great striped fabric that was just plain fun. Pretty polka dot bows.

Olive Annie's booth was terrific. I had to behave myself.




I loved her burlap curtains with upholstery webbing tiebacks. Clever, cute and very inexpensive!



This loveseat was so adorable!

The Vintage Bliss booth had yummy offerings such as vintage wallpaper and dishes.

After seeing this booth you had to have the Halloween spirit!

These two lovelies were at the Habit Hair Salon booth.



They left me longing for long tresses. Tres chic ladies!



Next post I will show my booth. I had so much fun!