Creeptasitc Halloween Mantle

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I think it's because Halloween is the start of the fall, and fall is the start of the real holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here in Houston, we don't get a real fall. Our fall is more of a "it's not crazy hot" type of weather. It's still warm and enjoyable. It's just not miserable hot. That's why October is one of my favorite times of the year. Another reason I like Halloween is because of the traditions. I guess I like the idea of always doing the same types of things every year. Lola and I always like dressing up for Halloween and handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. BTW, Lola mommy is very excited about Lola's costume this year and cannot wait to show it off. I like to bake a special Halloween treat for my co-workers every year. And lastly, one of my favorite traditions is to decorate my mantle for Halloween. I start thinking of what my theme will be months in advance (I know), and I build on that based on the deals that I find once the stores start carrying Halloween decorations.

Last year, I used some fake spiderweb and sparkle spiders, so I thought I'd bring those back this year along with my "Queen of Halloween" sign from 2 years ago, and my every day candle sticks. Three new additions this year are my sparkle skulls, some moss, and an owl vase that I got while I was in Savannah.

This big vase is my owl friend that I got on sale in Savannah. I need help naming him...

While I was in New Orleans this summer, celebrating my friend Pam's bachelorette party, I tried to snag some swamp moss, which I wrote about here. I won't rehash the story, but it basically ends with me having to throw all the moss away because there was a spider living in the bundle I snagged from the swamp. After hearing this story at work, my co-worker brought me some bug-free moss from his back yard. When I got home with it several months ago, I emptied out the bag on my garage floor to ensure there were no bugs, and then I stored it in my garage until I needed it this weekend. Although I will add that I did pick it apart again this morning to make double sure there were no bugs living in there. After I ensured the tree moss was insect free, I brought it inside to use. I laid it out across the candle pillar tops and let it just hang down in a creepy flowy way. Then I took some of the left over spider web, stretched it around the candle sticks, and used a couple pieces of clear tape to affix it to the candle stick where it needed help sticking.

Tree moss, spider web combo

Then I added the sparkle spiders by sticking their legs in the moss and the spider webs. And lastly, I placed the sparkle skulls that I picked up at Walmart for $2 each (total of $6) on top of each candle pillar.

Sparkles make things that are normally scary not-so-scary... Except for roaches, divas do NOT do roaches.

So that's about it... it took a total of probably 30 minutes to do. And now one last look:

I love my creepy decorati0ns this year! And thanks to Roger for bringing me the tree moss... see I told you I would use it!!
So, tell me, what kind of plans do you have this year? Does anyone have traditions for Halloween every year?

Have a Happy Halloween!
Engineeringirl