Happy Halloween everyone! I’m Kellye, and today I’m sharing Halloween at our house. Since Mike’s job really gears up during the fall months, we can’t do much traveling. So, I thought I would invite you into our home to see some of our Halloween decorations. Also in this post, I’m going to tell you about our house. Our spooky house, that is, but my tales aren’t very scary, just strange. Come on in and visit for a spell…
One of my favorite things to do is decorate for holidays, and I decorate for almost all of them. When we’re not on the road, writing blog posts, or planning trips, I also enjoy creating tablescapes and crafting.
The eyeballs came from Grandin Road last year. I bought the pumpkin salt and pepper shakers at Pier One years ago to use at Thanksgiving, but I would love to have these for Halloween.
This tablescape had to be simple and easily movable because our lives practically revolve around that table. The ceramic pumpkins and striped plates are from Hobby Lobby. The Halloween confetti trees were purchased from The Holiday Barn several years ago. I bought the harlequin print table runner and matching napkins last year.
Our house
We built our house in a brand-new subdivision in 1988 and have lived in it for 34 years. When we moved in our son was six and our daughter was two. I won’t tell you how old we were back then, but we were practically babies ourselves! Soon after we moved in strange things started happening…
This Halloween decoration started with a cloche planter that I retrieved from the back yard. Then I added a plastic skull. A couple of crows and some reindeer moss finish the look. The two white pumpkins came from the grocery store. I simply sat them on top of the candlesticks to complete the vignette.
Footsteps on the carpet
Not long after we moved into our house, we began hearing what we thought were footsteps. If you’ve ever had plush carpet, you know that you can actually hear when someone is walking on it. Anyway, this only happened late at night, and they weren’t heavy, thudding footsteps. The sound was more of a soft swish, but it woke us up. Naturally, we figured one of the kids was up, but after checking, they were always sound asleep in their beds. This went on for a few years, and we convinced ourselves that we were just imagining things. Until Mike went out of town and the dog started acting like he was seeing someone in our bedroom…
On the mantel we have spooky candles, bottles of poisons and potions, and creepy covered books. I made the book covers and the spooky candles using my computer and printer. Look for a link on how to make the candles farther down the page. I also made the bottles, and the how-to is at the end of the post. Stick-on bats fly out of the fireplace and other Halloween decor rounds out that part of our living room. Incidentally, we’ve never had a real bat fly out of our fireplace, but we have had a dove get trapped in there. Luckily, Mike was able to catch it and put it outside. I’m sure the poor thing was traumatized – the dove, not Mike.
Scary books along with a vase full of black roses and sparkly spiders sit on a tray with black tealights. I also made the books and the vase. See the tutorial on how to make them here.
The man in the doorway
One night while Mike was out of town on a business trip, I woke up in the middle of the night to find our then 11-year-old son standing next to my bed. When I asked him what he was doing, he very calmly said that he had seen a man standing in the doorway of his room. I told him that he was just dreaming and followed him to his room where I tucked him back into bed. After climbing back into my own bed, I never thought another thing about it. Well, let’s just say I didn’t think about it until the dog kept acting weird and we had a thunderstorm. Then I started putting two and two together…
“On the Street Where You Live”
When we have heavy thunderstorms and lightning strikes near our house, our intercom plays a very eerie, minor-key version of the song “On the Street Where You Live” from the movie “My Fair Lady”. No, I’m not crazy, and yes, we have an intercom. (We’re talking about a 1988 house, y’all!) Anyway, for a long time I was the only one who heard this weird music, and of course everyone, including our sweet little daughter, made fun of me. That is until our son’s baseball coach brought him home during a thunderstorm and they heard it too. We have no idea why this happens, but it still happens occasionally. Maybe if we ever get around to getting rid of the big brick fireplace, we will get rid of the intercom too. If that isn’t creepy enough, just wait, there’s more…
Get the tutorial for the spooky candles here.
The basement door
Our basement door is in our living room right next to the big brick fireplace. When the kids were younger, the basement was their playroom, and the door was always open. So, one night we were sitting around in the living room discussing where we were going to eat. (I never have cooked much, and that’s probably why two of our son’s first words were burger and king – no lie!) Anyway, all of a sudden, the basement door just closed by itself. Really! It was if someone had pushed it all the way closed to keep someone or something from entering or exiting the room. The door didn’t slam, and we all saw it happen. Miraculously nobody freaked out – probably because we were too hungry to worry about it. That never happened again, but we don’t leave the door open anymore either.
We have an entry hall because we’re not fancy enough to call it a foyer. A demilune table and mirror are the only things in the entry hall, but I like to dress them up for the different seasons and holidays. My favorite thing to decorate with is a tiered tray – I have a thing for them. This one has a gnarly Halloween tree with three crows perched in it, a few figurines, and some ceramic pumpkins. The Ouija board is a relic from my childhood (surely that makes it a bona fide antique), and the wooden figurines are Primitives by Kathy that I’ve collected over the last few years. A trick or treat sign, black candles in little star candle holders, and a bowl of candy fill the rest of the space.
Creepy things at our house today
We haven’t had any strange occurrences in our house for years, except for the occasional eerie song from the intercom. Whoever or whatever was trying to spook us is long gone. Now days the creepiest things around our house are the fence eating squirrels and the geckos that move in during the summer months. Recently I found a gecko living in my car – it was on the odometer, believe it or not – but he ran off (probably because I screamed) and I haven’t seen him again. Just hope he doesn’t run up my leg while I’m driving because I will have a wreck. There’s also a tailless one living under our refrigerator. I accidentally cut its tail off when I tried to catch it and he ran under the refrigerator. Haven’t seen him since either, but I hope the little guy is living his best tailless life under there.
How to make spooky potion bottles
Supplies:
- Clear glass bottle or jar with labels removed
- Medium grit sandpaper
- Metallic black acrylic paint
- Metallic silver acrylic paint – optional if you want to add highlights but water it down before using as a highlight color
- Medium artist’s paintbrush
- Label – make your own design or click here for free printable copies
- Glue – I like tape runners
- Natural jute twine or string
- Brown kraft paper or grocery sack
How to:
- Use the sandpaper to sand the glass in all directions to give it a beat up, vintage look. You will probably want to do this outside.
- Once you achieve your desired effect, take it inside and paint it lightly with the metallic black paint, evenly stroking from top to bottom. This makes the bottle look similar to mercury glass. You don’t want a completely black bottle. If the paint goes on too thickly, add a little water to thin it down. If desired, highlight using the metallic silver paint. Drying should take less than an hour.
- When the paint is dry, glue on your label. I tore and burned some of the edges of my labels to make them look old and peeling before I glued them to the bottles.
- For the top of the bottle, tear off a piece of the grocery sack or kraft paper and crumple it in your hands for several minutes until it starts to soften and feel like leather. Place it over the top of the bottle and secure it to the bottle by wrapping the twine around it several times until you get the look you want. Tie or glue the ends of the twine at the back of the bottle so it doesn’t unwind.
- I embellished some of my bottles by adding chains and Halloween charms, but those are optional, and the bottles look great without them.
That’s all I’ve got for today, but I hope you enjoyed hanging with me on this first venture outside of my road tripping comfort zone. I plan to do another decor post or two for Christmas. In the meantime, look for more travel posts because Mike and I have some great destinations to share with you. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Kellye
Feature photo courtesy of Pixabay.
As Amazon Affiliates, we may earn a small commission on items that are purchased through our website with no additional cost to our readers.
As always, we strive to be as accurate with our information as possible. If we made a mistake, it was unintentional. (Hey, we’re only human!) Our opinions are our own.
©2022