A very late Haunted Halloween Humpday

Well October came and went. Farewell to my favorite month. It was magical as always.

Everything caught up with me last week and I seemed to run out of hours in my days. I had Halloween events at the shelter were I volunteer, various promotions to tend to around town and a doggie parade that was rained out then rescheduled.

Miss Isis Delilah Roo went as a Fairy Bat to the Pit Bull Awareness Costume Parade this weekend and had a great time with the other pups.

On Halloween we had a perfect rainy day that cleared up just in time for trick or treating. All our decorations got wet but everything stayed up.

Our mornings and nights are cooler now and there's actually snow in the mountains about an hour away from us. But would you believe we're still getting up into the 80's during the day? At least the trees finally changed colors and it's very pretty here in my city right now.

I hope you had a lovely Halloween. Thank you for stopping by and a hundred thanks to Marfi for hosting this wonderfully spooky event every year.

Enjoy the rest of the season and have a lovely Thanksgiving.

Haunted Humpday

Apparently Thursdays have become my personal Haunted Humpday. I can't believe how fast this month has gone. This year even more so with the extra activities going on at the animal shelter where I volunteer.

Are you all decorated and ready for Halloween?

I'm much better this year than I was last year. I started putting stuff out on the 1st of October and just kept adding things here and there. Most of it is outside in my front yard.

The other day I put up black silhouettes in my front window. Ignore the pieces of tape on the 'fence'. I decided to make arches this year and I really like how they look from the outside.

There is a large arched window on top of this that I have yet to decorate but here is a pic of how I did it last year.

And this is a picture of how the front looked at night (last year).

This year my son made more tombstones and panels of black fencing to go around the 'graveyard'. We're waiting until after this weekend's rain to put it up but I'm really excited to see how it turns out.

I know it's hard to see but I wanted to share this cool jack-o-lantern we added this year. It's a nice big size (and on sale) so we decided to put him up on a tall ladder and dress the ladder up with branches for arms. He's going by the front door to scare the little trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

Lastly, I wanted to share a blog post I found recently. I didn't do much decorating indoors so I love looking at what others have done. I even have the same spellbook which gives me an idea.

I think this mantle is adorable. I love the matching paper on the pumpkin and background. You can see the rest on her blog HERE.

OK. I'm off to craft a quick costume for my pup. We're walking in the Pit Bull Awareness Day Parade this weekend and I finally decided what to put her in. Stay tuned for pics next week!

Happy Haunted Humpday Thursday!

Please visit Marfi at Incipient Wings for more.

Haunted Humpday

It's another Haunted Humpday! Today's post is only slightly late and rather brief. I've been feeling under the weather all day so I spent most of it curled up on the sofa with my pup. But I'm finally feeling a little better now so I decided to squeeze in a last minute post.

I was out in my front yard early this morning before I realized how unwell I felt. We had a little bit of rain so I went out to take a few pictures of my slightly damp decorations.

This is one of the few plants that I've been able to keep alive. I can never remember what it's real name is but my son and I call it our wizard plant so I named it Mrs Weasely.

Spooky spider by the front door.

I have a few little black birds perched on the gate. The skulls in the back are the plastic ones from the Dollar Tree. My son didn't like how shiny the original color was so he covered them all with Gesso primer to repaint them but decided that the Gesso gave them a more authentic look.

One of our resident skeletons.

One of my favorite things to do this time of the year is drive around my city looking for houses with great decorations. This little cottage is one of my favorites. I check every few days to see if they've put up the giant spider. Last year they had it up on the roof.

The front yard is usually clear all year long.They add the rickety fence and 'stone' posts just for Halloween. I love when people are this creative but I also wonder where they put it all the rest of the year!

Hope you're having a wicked October. It's going way too fast so enjoy every minute.

Thank you, Marfi, for hosting. Please stop by Incipient Wings for more spookyness.

Late Haunted Humpday

I'm a day late for my HH post. It's been a little hectic around here but....it's October! And it's finally starting to feel more like Autumn here, at least in the morning and late at night. I'll just ignore that the next 2 or 3 days it's suppose to be up in the 90s again. Yuck.

I love the early mornings when I can surf the web for Halloween inspiration.

I thought this pumpkin cake was too adorable. I love the simple design and the layers look yummy. You can find it HERE.

Grandin Road's website has lots of great ideas from their annual spooky decor contest. Here are a few of the entries I thought were clever and cool.

Apparently this years big theme seems to be skeleton everything. I've seen dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, even horses. This skelly family in the park is cute and clever.

There are tons more HERE.

I'm not a fan of gory Halloween stuff. I like eerie, spooky, haunting and also whimsical and elegant. I used to love Marthas Stewart's old Halloween episodes. It always got me into the spirit and inspired me to start decorating. Luckily most of her old stuff is on her website and on YouTube.

Even if I didn't love all her ideas there was always something familiar and comforting about watching her Fall and Halloween episodes. I guess I've just watched them for so long that it's become a tradition for me.
Do you ever get nightmares?

Art by Minosch

I haven't had a really intense one in a while until 3 nights ago. I woke up (or thought I was awake) in the middle of the night and sensed someone standing to the left of my bed. I turned and opened my eyes and was startled to see a shadowy figure standing near the bed. There were faint scroll markings covering it, not tribal but almost like a damask pattern. Leave it me to dream in damask.

Suddenly the figure started moving towards me and I realized it was about to smother me. So I screamed. A very loud scream that woke everyone else up. Everyone except for my cat, Luna, and dog, Isis, who sleep with me but didn't seem to notice that I was in mortal danger.

My heart was pounding. I couldn't tell if I had been dreaming or if it was real. I felt the hair on my back standing up and got that weird prickling at the base of my spine that I only get when I have nightmares. It was frightening and fascinating at the same time. Luckily I was still sleepy and within a few minutes I fell back asleep.

They say our dreams hold hidden messages for us. I'm still trying to figure out what that one meant. Of course it could also be my excitement over Halloween and somehow my brain decided to give me a fun little welcome to the season. Thanks Brain!

I hope you're enjoying all the spooky magic.

Don't forget to stop by Incipient Wings for lots more.