Creepy Curb Appeal

We gave the house some creepy curb appeal this week. The big night is a little over a week away and we're getting into the spirit of Halloween!

We freakified the front lawn (which I'll show you in my next post), and spooked up the main entrance of our house.

There is something a little bit chilling about black birds this time of the year.

I don't think I've ever recovered from watching The Birds, and sometimes I still startle myself when I see these ravens sitting in their nest of twigs (an idea I got from a decorating magazine a few years ago).

We don't spend much money on our Halloween decorations - most of them are homemade and reused from year to year.

Are you lookin' at me?

Once I toss the dead annuals from the urn, I gather some sticks, secure them in the soil, and then layer smaller twigs on top.  I perch a pair dollar store ravens on the sturdier sticks, and it's as easy as that.

The nest is a cheap and easy Halloween idea. It takes about 5 minutes to put together, costs under $5.00, and it gets a bunch of compliments!

I love it when Mr. StyleBurb gets into a spray painting frame of mind! He suggested giving our tired-looking gold Christmas wreaths....

... the Halloween treatment.

The wreaths look perfectly eery now that they're painted black.

Pumpkins and corn stalks finish off this part of our Halloween house.  I can't wait to show you who has been creeping around the front lawn!

Autumn In A Jar

This is another fall display I really should have photographed earlier...

 ... because those adorable little white pumpkins don't enjoy being trapped in their glass prison.  (I have cleverly positioned the pumpkins so that you can't see the brownish spots.)

This is the first time I've put these mini white pumpkins in my apothecary jar.

Live and learn.

It was very easy to put together this fall display.  I used leftover Christmas nuts (I can't believe I kept them!) for the base...

... added in pine cones, the little white pumpkins, and fake fall foliage.

The great thing about faux plants and leaves is that they don't start rotting just when you want to take some attractive pictures.

The apothecary jar sits on this table in my front hall and I have fun changing it for the seasons.

Since Halloween is right around the corner I don't mind changing the display a bit early.  I have some bones and rats that I can use as filler.

Fake bones and fake rats, that is.


 

Neutral Fall Mantel

I planned to show off my neutral fall mantel about two weeks ago....

.... but sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men often get put on the back burner because life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Or something like that!

Usually I'm all about color when it comes to decorating for autumn. I had given the family room a mini makeover in the spring by adding lots of white accessories, so this year I felt I needed to keep the mantel neutral and natural.

I began by filling an old brass and glass vase with some branches cut from the crab apple tree in my front yard. I bought the vase 20 years ago from Bombay Company.  Thank goodness I rarely throw out anything that's home decor related. I knew I'd need it one day.

Hmmm...  I think I may have heard that exact phrase used on Hoarders once or twice.

I copied Pottery Barn's styling trick of turning hardcover books around so that you can see the pages and topped the stack of books with a few small brass pumpkins.

I kept the existing hurricane lanterns and flanked each end of the mantel with a faux/fake white pumpkin...

... and filled in the blank spots with some of those cinnamon scented pine cones.

Once October rolls around I like the house to have a full and layered look. Layers in the fall are like a piece of pumpkin pie....

.... good on its own, but even better with whipped cream!
 

How Do You Like Them Apples!

I really enjoy the fall season, but its arrival always seems to sneak up and bite me in the behind. One day it's a balmy summer afternoon and the next it's downright chilly and there's frost on the pumpkins....

... not that I've got a pumpkin patch. Or even a pumpkin at this point.

I've been a bit slow to get my fall decorating groove on - just haven't felt the motivation.  But yesterday's visit to the apple orchard was just the thing I needed to get my head around the fact that fall officially begins in just a few days.

We're lucky to have a number of apple orchards within a 15 minute drive, and yesterday was perfect apple picking weather.

McIntosh were on the left, Delicious were on the right.

The trees were full of apples, and we barely had to reach for them.

... a little bit closer...

... got it!

McIntosh apple 'before'

McIntosh apple 'after'

Can you believe that there are 7,500 different apple varieties world-wide.

We came home with dozens and dozens of apples and a few other goodies.

The candy apple got eaten; the pumpkin pie and caramel apple pie are gone now too. The caramel apple pie was so good!

For a little while the apples will have a decorative role in the house.  I knew this bowl would be perfect for apples in the fall!

I guess I'll be making apple muffins, apple crisp, apple pies, apple oatmeal, apple butter, apple pancakes etc. over the next few weeks!

How do you like your apples - straight up, baked in a pie, diced into muffins or covered with red candy coating?

As of yesterday, my new favorite way to eat apples is baked in a pie with caramel filling!