Falling for Autumn



When we were at Tybee for Pirate’s Fest at the beginning of October, the temperatures were in the high ’80s. Hot and unbelievably muggy. But lately here in Atlanta, the weather finally turned from just plain wet and sloggy to fall-ish. It was so cold we had our first fire in the fireplace while watching Saturday college football recently. (Go Dawgs!) So I got the yen to decorate. Out came the Halloween bin. Or to be truthful, bins. Two of ’em. I don’t do a lot of interior decorating for Halloween, but I do like to acknowledge the changing of the seasons. And it was time to put away all my summer seashells anyway. I love reading blogs and magazines to see all the creativity others pour into their seasonal decorating, but while I have the crafty instincts, I am seriously craft-deficient. So my efforts are pretty uh, minimal. Also cheap. For the past few years I’ve picked up these fake crows–or ravens–at Tar-zhay and Dollar Tree, and some fake gourds and pumpkins picked up on sale at Michaels. I string ’em along the mantel in the living room, wire ’em to the dining room chandeliers, and prop ’em on top of lamps in the living room.

Living room mantel–still life with crows

Mantel–fake crows and fake gourds

I’ve got a fake owl too. I thought he looked pretty good on the console table behind the living room sofa. Beside him, I filled a big silverplate punchbowl with some real acorn and butternut squash, some real gourds, and a fake pumpkin. I saw a photo on the Cote de Texas blog of a similar arrangement, with deer antlers, and I thought, hey–I can do that. So I plopped in a pair of antlers brought home from the woods by our deer hunting son Andrew. And then, I was in Antiques and Beyond, a great antique mall on Cheshire Bridge Road here in Atlanta, and I saw a fall arrangement with some pheasant feathers, and I thought–hey, I can do that. Mr. Mary Kay is a bird hunter, and kindly saved me some feathers from a hunt a couple years ago. So I stuck in a few of them.

Punch bowl–with gourds, found antlers, pheasant feathers-plus Tar-zhay owl

For the mirror and chest in the living room, I strung up a feathered wreath I bought on sale–another Tar-zhay find, on top of the mirror. I stuck a crow on there. I had this little chalk bust I bought at a yard sale, or maybe Ballard’s Back Room. She got a little black construction paper carnival mask and a feathered boa courtesy of last year’s Halloween finery. I collect silver trophies, so I put some estate sale candles (a true old lady estate sale always has at least one box of candles stashed somewhere) in some of ’em, and put some eyeball candies in the porcelain hand dishes. And that’s my Halloween decor.

Living room chest with bust, silver trophies and fake crows

We’ve been watching Eddie Ross’s Halloween Block Party special on HGTV too, to see how the pros do it. Eddie I’m not, but we’ve got a little sumthin’ cooking up for the exterior Halloween decor, so stay tuned.

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