It's looking a LOT like Halloween!!!

Not EVEN going to say anything about not posting until now except...WELCOME WELCOME and thank you for visiting. ^_^

We LOVE Halloween around the old Southern ooak tree and we wanted to share our BOOtiful decorations with YOU!! Enter if ya dare and take the Halloween tour...muahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Now being on a tight budget does not mean that you can't go out and buy some new decorations. I know....I know, things are sooo expensive these days but you can find items that won't cost you and arm and a leg and ones where you can even make them your own with a little imagination. Take our entry door welcoming you in...ok well...muhahahaha (evil laugh) perhaps not your normal welcome but it is a welcome, Halloween style!!  I made this arrangement from Dollar Tree finds. I could not believe that they had Christmas things out already but sure was glad they did. See the glitter green spider eggs ummm I mean balls on the welcome sign? Yeppers, those are Christmas balls but they added some really "pretty pretty, shiny shiny" to our unique sign, ri iight?? HEHE...if ya look closely you can see me taking the pic and I look headless....that's creepy!!

Once you enter the front door you are in what's called "Regi's B&B..hehe!! This little table sits to the left of the door and is where we put the candy we give out. Our little cauldron holds the candy for the good lil ghouls and boys ummm I mean girls and boys. The cauldron is one that I have had for a long time...a gift from my mom. The black roses, which I know are kinda hard to make out are a Dollar Tree find too. They are awesome as they have little spiders attached to them. The photo is...yes yes...another Dollar Tree find as well. It is one of the hologram photos where if you look at it standing in one place it looks like a kindly old gentleman but look at it standing in another and OOPS..no more kindly gentleman!!

Here's our little coven of witches....so BEARy cute!! I'm still working on making them all little felt witches hats. There are more of the coven scattered here and there. I think some are wanting to make up a new coven. Hopefully they won't start casting spells at one another and one of us get caught in the middle. :P

Always love decorating the fireplace and I wish there was more space to use but I can't be blocking the view of the hubbikin's football games and such. Well....I could but that wouldn't be very nice of me..hehe...and I do have to live with the man!! The black cloth and the crows are more Dollar Tree finds. The banner is one I found at http://www.scribd.com/doc/39132830/moselle-haunted-bunting and printed off on cardstock and then put together. It states "Happy Haunting". I think for next year I'm going to add more to it but it's good for now. (to many projects going on to start on another one at the moment) See the little glass vase on the left? It's holding a tiny bat boy. No worries....he can escape get out whenever he wants. I mean he is a bat boy...has wings..can fly.

Such a simple decoration and one you can make yourself. I found a vintage photo of a little boy, added some wings, a top hat and some little bats hanging from a limb, made a tab on the bottom of the cutout and used double sided tape and stuck him to the bottom of the vase. Hmmmmm, perhaps that's why he never leaves his jar. :P  I added some spanish moss and a black bow and "POOF"..cute decoration!!

On the right of the fireplace is this little witch, one that I made for my mom several, several years ago. It's hard to see in the photo but she is holding a black cat. The cat rubbing her legs is a simple paper cutout. Add a cute witchy porcelain pumpkin and a Halloween piece is made.

The phone table sits next to the fireplace and it always just "SCREAMS" decorate me..decorate me!! Get it....Halloween time.....SCREAMS? Yeah yeah..I know..ya get it..hehe  It's holding two of my witches. The one on the feather tree got stuck in her cauldron and with a little  help from her batty familiar she will hopefully get out.....hopefully!! Of course the little witch on the right is Tabitha, the newest lil witch in town. I thought the three lil ghosties I made for the Chazman a few years ago would look cute sitting next to her. They are patiently waiting for her to light the skellieabra. They be very afraid of the dark...EEKKK!!

I love using my pieces that I have made over the years in my decorating along with some of my paper art as well. It's really fun to make your own decorations....so many awesome sites to find free images to use. Go haunting ummm I mean hunting and you will find some too.

This lil bear holds a special place in our decoration for Halloween and for Christmas. For Christmas he of course turns into Santa Bear and for Halloween is he normally dressed as a ghost but this year...well...he is VERY special indeed. The outfit he is wearing is the first costume I made for the Chazman when he was 4. That was the first year we were able to convince him to go Trick or Treating. He loved answering the door with me but he did not want to be out and about with all those characters..HAHA!! Fixing up bear this year made me cry...happy tears though. Thinking back to his first time and realizing just how big my lil guy is getting.

WOWZERS...that's one freakin BIG spider. Ohhh...wait, it's not real so she won't hurt you. She's just hanging out to see what time it is. HEHE

That big old gal has just spun her webs everywhere!! This one kinda freaked ME out last night when I got up and went to the bathroom. I forgot it was there. ^_^ (that's the bathroom door by the wreath on the wall)

Here's a pretty idea for decorating. Take a inexpensive frame, add a print of a vintage Halloween card, add some Dollar Tree tinsel, a bow and you have a purrrrfect decoration.

Now this is a decoration that I should probably keep up year round. Why, you ask? Because this is the door leading into the Chazman's room or the Chazman's cave as he likes to call it.

You have now enter the Chazman zone!!! OMGOSH....we have another HUGE spider hanging around and she's looking to see what time it is too. HEHE  The spider, webbing, black crow, glass vase and shelf poster are all Dollar Tree finds. Perfectly spooktacular, eh?

I attached the shelf poster to the Chazman's real wooden shelf. He LOVES it and wants us during the year to find old bottles to make creepy specimen bottles to sit on the shelf for next year. Yes yes, my weird genes were passed down to him. The glass vase the crow is sitting on is holding a brain. Noooo...not a real one, it's one of those squishy ones to exercise your hands with but it looks good in the vase. The motorcycle in the background is one his Daddy made him and if ya look closely you can see it has a little skeleton rider on it.
Like I said....he has my weird gene!!! He says we are weird with a side of AWEsome. Luv that kiddo!!!

I added some of the black drapings (yes..from the Dollar Tree) and spider webs to his windows along with a black crow. His parrot is wearing a dragon mask that the Chazman actually found at a yard sale. He calls it the Parragon!!

These photos are of the kitchen. I told ya'll I love decorating...hehe!! I like adding labels to our candy containers and other various containers too. Again, you can find so many great and FREE to use ideas if ya just go searching. Some of the labels I found and printed were from  http://celesterockwood-jones.typepad.com/files/halloweentreatlabels_crj.pdf . Please check with anything you use to make sure it's alright by the designer. Most will let you use it for free for personal use. I let the Chazman help decide which labels we would use and what goodies would go in them. Here's what we used: for the "Bat Guano" we used Hershey's chocolate pieces. For the "Night Crawlers" we used gummy worms. For the "Dragon Eyes" we used the chocolate balls covered with eye foil. You really can't see the jar in the right back but I just printed off a aged tag and put the words "Dried Zombie Skin" and filled it with dried banana chips. (that was a Chazman idea) The little witch label on the left back is filled with candy corn. Ya have to have candy corn..it's a Halloween goodie for sure.  The green sign is from.....drum roll.........the Dollar Tree. HEY...I should get paid by Dollar Tree for all the advertising of items they sell!!!

I also have a clear plastic container that will be filled with "Transylvania Dirt". That's brownies in real life!! So as you can guess, if I'm gonna keep it filled, I'm going to be making a good bit of brownies this month.

Hope you enjoyed your tour and I hope that it has inspired you in creating some of your decorations. I would love to see some if ya do. Leave a comment with a link and we will all come and visit.

Until next time............Hugs,
Regi

Oh yes....I wanted to let any of you that have a Publix close by that this is the cute grocery bag they have this month. It's only .99 and is made very well. Perfect for those October groceries and for a little one to use for Trick or Treating!!!