Booooooooooooo!

Yippee!! I love Halloween and it's only a few days away! I decorated in September this year. I couldn't help it, I was excited. I love the house to look spooky and my house sort of has a kinship with All Hallows Eve.

It would be kind to say that the house was in severe disrepair when we purchased it 12 years ago. It was dark, damaged, vacant and hidden among overgrowth. It was known as the neighborhood "haunted house" and rumored to have a witch living there ( I have yet to meet her though...maybe this year!).

Ironically and appropriately, the real estate closing took place on Halloween. In good form, I bought some candy and put on the front porch light that had been off for so many years. The house was empty and I have to say frightening, even to it's new occupants. I could see how nervous the kids were as they made their way up to the door on the crooked steps, between the thick shrubs, to get some candy and their first peek inside the haunted house! One little boy looked at me with grave concern and asked timidly "Do you live here?".

Today, the shrubs are gone and the house is loved and lived in, but that doesn't stop me from trying every year to recapture some of that Halloween magic hidden in the walls here. I hope everyone has a haunted Halloween! Dress up...it won't kill you...or will it!? Wha ha ha ha!!!

Below: Bats flock to the light of my chandelier, my everyday door knocker looks creepy around Halloween, spooky candle holder and my favorite Halloween lights.

Are you afraid of the dark? Daytime offers no escape from the fright!

The warm glow of fire light offers no releif.

Menacing Trick or Treat garland.

Making word/saying garlands is easy! Print out the saying in the desired font and enlarge to the size you want on a copier. Cut out the lettering and lightly tack them with a glue stick backwards onto a mid-weight cardboard (black in this case). Cut out with an X-acto knife and remove the pasted template, flip the letters over (the side that didn't have the template pasted to it will now be the front). Punch two small holes on the top of each letter and string them onto ribbon.