It's Almost Time to Haunt the House...

Happy October! By now you should know that I'm crazy about holidays—some more than others. Christmas is still my favorite, but Halloween is not far behind. It's my youngest daughter's favorite holiday so as I do every year, I will decorate the house and she will host her (now) annual spooky movie party with her friends.

This year, the photo you see above is my inspiration. (Although, to tell you the truth it's really starting to creep me out.) When I decorate the sideboard in my living room each year, you'll notice that I have a black and white framed photo among my other goodies. This picture is actually a photo of an herb that has a list of questionable ingredients for a tasty potion scribbled underneath.

In addition to the living room, the dining room gets its own decorations. And depending who is sitting down to dinner will depend on what I do. This particular year, I carried some of the decorations over from the other room and lightened the mood a little. The girls were young enough that treat bags were certainly in order. I simply added some treats to paper lunch bags, rolled down the sides of the bags, and secured them with twine. Another year I used almost the same materials, but this time I created witch's brooms. (Fill the bags and tie them off about mid way. Insert a small stick twice the length of the bag into the treat side of the bag. Shred the ends into narrow strips and voila.) Find some additional inspiration here.

The centerpiece was a cinch. Check out this how-to with a list of materials.

Of course if you're lucky enough to have little ones (I'm already thinking about costume ideas for my granddaughter...), you'll need a beautiful, funny, and/or creepy costume to scare away the goblins. Here are a few of my favorites from years past. Click here to find out how I made three out of the four costumes in these pictures here.

And here's another. The magic of childhood should live on for as long as possible. If my girls were game, we went out every year. Here is a tutorial of how I made these costumes.

So what will I do this year? Well, I mentioned to my husband that I wanted to make a wreath from grapevine and rubber snakes for the door, but that idea got vetoed right away (he HATES snakes). I think I will create a gallery wall with the picture above as my inspiration. And this year the table will be decked out with lots of Jack-be-little pumpkins, but I'm thinking they'll get a makeover and those little cuties might turn out to be little monsters in disguise. Stay tuned as I work out the details.

Top image via goodhousekeeping.com