Saturday 9 November 2019

Our First Attempt at Halloween Decor & Holiday Smiles...

Disclaimer: I haven't been paid to promote any shops or products, just sharing some smiles and our first actual attempt at Halloween decor x

Hi Honeys,
I'm sorry I've been missing all week, it hasn't been the best few weeks health wise (as all fellow spoonies will understand, the cold and damp are playing havoc with my arthritis) if you're being tormented by the elements too dear ones, please be kind to yourself and rest when you can. Sending you gentle hugs πŸ’–

I'm also trying to recover from Blogtober 😊  I did it honeys, 31 posts in 31 days, it was exhausting but it was also just the most fun 😊 I've done blog challenges before, there was the fabulous Blogtember in 2014 (my first year of blogging) in 2015 and in 2016 and of course the wonderful Picture Perfect Project.

The Picture Perfect Project was designed to help Bloggers work on their photography skills and so I spent the whole of 2016 recording the changes in our beloved Garden.πŸ’–  With the exception of the Picture Perfect Project, the other challenges, the Blogtembers, all had daily prompts to follow, which suggested a topic for each day.

I originally thought that the lack of any writing prompts for Blogtober might make it more difficult but after the first few days I didn't give it much thought and just wrote and wrote 😊 If you joined me for any of those Blogtober posts dear ones, thank you so much for keeping me company and I hope you had as much fun as I did all month.πŸ’–

Speaking of fun, this year's Halloween was the best in ages!  It was so, so much fun and so many of our neighbours joined in, some even decorating their front gardens and windows.  For our part, instead of just making up lots of treat bags for visiting trick or treaters, as we do every year, we decided to decorate our little entryway too...

Our first attempt at Halloween decor and holiday smiles :)

Why not grab a cuppa honeys and meet me back here in a few minutes, there are lots of photos in this post, it's really chilly today and a lovely cuppa sounds fab, and maybe a cookie or two as well πŸͺ😊
Welcome back dear ones πŸ’— Do you have your cuppa?  Me too ☕

You might remember our little entryway/mudroom from a past post, it's very small and is just inside our front door (well duh Rosie! lol) and separated from the rest of the house by an inner glass door which leads into the lower hallway of our home.

We organised it using one of the Trones units from Ikea, the one (shown below) under the mirror (and on the wall between the front door and the inner glass door.)  This single Trones unit is where I keep my walking sticks/canes (they're foldable) as well as a pair of secateurs and garden gloves (for trimming my much loved roses in the front garden when I can.)

There are an additional two trones units, sitting one above the other, behind the front door, one each for Hubby & I for our shoes.  The only part of this little entryway, which I keep saying isn't big enough to be called a hall so it's more of a ha 😊, that was decorated was the area around the single Trones unit on the main wall near the door.
   
Halloween fun and catching up: Halloween decor has been such fun this year that I can't wait till next year :)

First I started off with a few little decor pieces.  The little ceramic, pumpkin tea light holder we had from last year and this was joined by a glass, light up skull and the cutest ceramic cat in a hat tea light holder this year from Poundland.  I added two "classic movie monsters" bobble heads and two battery powered tall black candles.

I liked the idea of flickering candlelight in the tiny hall (could anything be more Halloweeny?) but not leaving candles burning out there.  I'm so grateful for those tiny, battery powered tealights. They flicker just like the real thing but are far safer.

I then added a black, Halloween themed table cloth with spiders, cobwebs and two large skulls as a pattern, to the front of the Trones unit...
 
Halloween fun and catching up: Halloween decor has been such fun this year that I can't wait till next year :)

On the floor, beneath the Trones unit, I added a few decor pieces too, such as the Halloween tray and wooden decor boards.

To the front of the Trones unit I added a string of battery powered ghost lights, these were placed over the table cloth...
 
Halloween fun and catching up: Halloween decor has been such fun this year that I can't wait till next year :)

When everything was all lit up it was so pretty honeys... maybe pretty isn't the right word... I was trying for spooky after all 😊

Halloween fun and catching up: Halloween decor has been such fun this year that I can't wait till next year :)

As you can see we added a few more items to the floor under the Trones unit too...

Halloween fun and catching up: Halloween decor has been such fun this year that I can't wait till next year :)

There was (from left to right in the photo above):

A large, plastic spider web basket, which I filled with treat bags ready to hand to visiting trick or treaters.  I just kept re-filling this basket all evening, when necessary, from a large bag full of pre-made treat bags which we had sitting on the ottoman behind the front door...

Halloween fun and catching up: Hubby & I have the best time every year making up treat bags for visiting trick or treaters.

Hubby and I have made up treat bags every year for so many years honeys and every year we buy sweets, toys, balloons and other little smiles and then we spend a fun evening making up these little treat bags. I so look forward to Halloween every year and I love those couple of hours we spend making up little treat bags for tiny visitors.

Halloween fun and catching up: Hubby & I have the best time every year making up treat bags for visiting trick or treaters.

Back to the decor in the hall below the Trones unit then honeys 😊

Halloween fun and catching up: Halloween decor has been such fun this year that I can't wait till next year :)

Next to the spider web basket full of treat bags there was a box (we had two of these) full of little bottles of Halloween bubbles.  All of our tiny visitors seemed to really like these, I hope I can find them again next year 😊

Next to the Halloween bubbles was a little bell jar.  It too is battery powered and has a flickering "candle" inside which lights up a silhouette of a haunted house complete with a very cute ghost.

Next is an adorable paper lantern with a built in battery powered light inside, in the shape of a pumpkin πŸŽƒ  Yes, I know he's supposed to be all sinister and wot not but he made me smile when I spotted him Home Bargains so he had to some home with me 😊

Our first attempt at Halloween decor and holiday smiles included this little battery powered paper lantern :)

Finally, on the floor and in front of the glass door leading into the hallway is a spooky rug...

Halloween fun and catching up: A fun, spooky rug, placed at the door, was a final touch to our Halloween decor.

I think we found this in Home Bargains too and it was such a hit I've rolled it up and put it away with the other decor items for next year.😊

Back up onto the walls then honeys.  On the wall, nearest the front door and by the side of the mirror, was a canvas print that literally comes to life when it senses movement nearby.  The print shows three trick or treaters visiting a very spooky house and being met at the door by a witch with a lantern...

Halloween fun and catching up: Halloween decor can be fun, this canvas has light (and sound) effects whenever anyone got too close!

When the motion detector on the canvas activates there is a blast of loud music, the witches voice and the house lights up...

Halloween fun and catching up: Halloween decor can be fun, this canvas has light (and sound) effects whenever anyone got too close!

It's pretty cool honeys, we bought it last year from Asda I think.  The motion detector can be switched off so that it either stays silent or only activates when a certain corner of the canvas is pressed.

The other side of the mirror, near the glass door, had a large wire spider web with a green spider on it, this lit up giving out a very eerie green glow...

Halloween fun and catching up: Halloween decor can be fun, this spider sits on his own web and glows eerily...

Between the spider web and the mirror there was also a large felt decoration that spelled out the word boo using eyes, as you can see (part of) in the photo below...

Halloween fun and catching up: Halloween decor has been such fun this year that I can't wait till next year :)

I've looked through all of my photos and I don't seem to have one of the boo decoration on it own. It is cute though so it's now in the large basket we've used to pack away all of the Halloween decor items for next year.  I'm so glad that celebrating Halloween is starting to become more popular on this side of "the pond."  It's one of my favourite holidays and our American cousins have been showing how it's done for years now so I'm glad we're beginning to join in the fun.

There were so many wonderful costumes this year too honeys and among my favourite tiny visitors was the most adorable little Ghostbuster, accompanied by her Dad.  She was around 3-4 years old I think and was wearing a Ghostbuster jumpsuit, complete with backpack and proton gun.

On seeing the ghosts on the front of my tee-shirt when I opened the front door she got quite excited and said "you have ghosts! Can I shoot them?"  I said that since the ghosts on my tee-shirt were smiling, maybe they were friendly ghosts?  She seemed disappointed so I told her that I wasn't so sure about the string of light up ghosts, "..especially that wee guy on the end there...." I said pointing to one of the little plastic ghosts.

My tiny visitor seemed really pleased to have found a not-so-friendly, spooky target and "shot" the ghost in question with her proton gun, she then said if he bothered me again I was to tell her Daddy and she'd come back and make him go away for me 😊  Bless her! That wee lamb so made me smile 😊 I gave her two treat bags and extra bubbles and off she went happily with her Daddy in search of more ghosts to save the world from 😊

Halloween has been such fun this year and I really can't wait till next year.  We're going to decorate the front garden next year too I think.  Next though is Christmas and it's going to be so busy at work over the next few weeks.  Speaking of work, I have to dash dear ones, till next time, stay warm, smile lots and hug even more, hugs always x
 
Huggles Always, Rosie xx

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