Sprinklin’ the oogly all under my bed..

Now that my children are old enough to make their own costumes I can focus on decorating our house (or at least one room of it).  It’s time I retired the plastic skeletons and stuffed witch I’ve been using for decades and adopted a new look for Halloween (which signals the start of the holiday season for me).

Should I focus on inside-only decorations? Or go for the yard display instead?  I know I don’t want to go ‘all out’ because come November 1st I’ll have to take everything down and pack it up (plus find a place to store it for another year).  That means inside-only but what theme should I adopt? Cutesy? Gory?  Classy fright?  After searching West Elm, Pier 1, Target, Hobby Lobby, Joann, Williams & Sonoma, Restoration Hardware, Anthropologie, Nordstrom’s and Neiman Marcus for inspiration I’ve come up with a black/creme/silver mantle idea that will look pretty freakin’ cool if I pull it off.

To do so, I could buy everything and finish the mantle in a day but where’s the fun in that? Instead, I’m budgeting $40 for supplies and will attempt to make the twig wreath, pumpkins, signage, books and apothecary jars (although I’ll definitely buy the birds – there’s a limit to my crafting abilities).  Follow me over the upcoming weeks and see how I’m progressing – hopefully I’ll be able to show you how closely I came to creating my original idea (and sticking to my budget) before October 31st!