Welcome to My Home...

For those of you that have seen Francis Coppola's 1992 film rendition of Bram Stoker's Dracula, can't you just hear the voice of Gary Oldman, as Dracula, saying..."Welcome to my Home". I love that movie. The music, the cinematography, the acting, the special effects, the make-up, the costumes and the locations.

As a matter of fact, this was the movie Phillip and I saw the night he finally came home from L.A. after being gone for 3 months, freelancing. This was the night A.J. was conceived...Ooops! You didn't need to know that, right? Oh, well...anyone can do the math....November 1992. July 1993. He was due in August, but we induced 2 weeks early, before Phillip had to leave again to freelance for Disney. Oh, the life we lived back then.

So back to Welcome to my Home. Phillip and I were in Portland for the last couple of days on business, but I got the chance to visit a few stores looking at the Halloween decor items. What I found, was that most things were either over-the-top gore-y - even for my taste, or too corn-y. I did buy some little ornaments for my naked, patiently-waiting-for-me-to-get-off-my-laurels-to-decorate-it tree.



I didn't find much that suited my style, but I did find some really cute pumpkin bells that I tied onto the branches with some black waxed linen thread. I also bought a couple packs of little resin critters - a witch head, vintage-looking pumpkins, black cat, skeleton head. Now, all I need is a few spiders and some ghosts.

When I got home, I decided to put up a few "homemade" and not-so-homemade pieces I have "collected". I still need to get into the black and orange Halloween totes and get to the other stuff I have. But, for now, the mantle - ours is L-shaped - is beginning to look a little festive.



This little couple, I bought in October last year on First Friday in downtown Grants Pass. We were celebrating Phillip's Birthday with our friends, Jeff and Kris. They were in a store on "G" Street in a display of Day of the Dead decor. They are knitted finger puppets. They are in love! Sweet!



Here we have a fun birdcage. I found it several years ago at a yardsale. It was rusty when I bought it. I like to think it's vintage, but the reality of it is, it was probably a shop-class project. Who knows? I like to use it in displays around the house with various seasonal accents. The crow. Well, I just found him last week at the Dollar Tree. I was looking for one to accent a pair of "witches" boots that I want to make, but since I haven't made them yet, I thought he'd look good next to the cage.



I found this resin sign today at Michael's in Springfield on our drive back from Portland. Simple Halloween bones.



Ok, even I admit this one is a little creepy, but it's October!!! I found this old mannequin hand in a box of junk at the Salvation Army. I think my heart skipped a beat when I discovered it. Tons of decorating potential. The doll head was just the ticket to creepy don't ya think?

So, there it is so far. I want to find some cheesecloth to rip up and distress to put under the whole lot of goodies, decorate the panes of my mantle window, and find an old, blinky-eyed, 3-4" in diameter, balding doll head to put in an open, metal framed box I have....Seen any in your parts of the country - let me know!!!! Happy Haunting...I mean Hunting!