Farmhouse Halloween

I decorated my dining room for Halloween.  The room has an allover farmhouse feel so that, with a subtle Halloween twist is how I decorated it.

It has a black and white color scheme with the green apple color for an accent.  I got the green apple color from these napkins.  I love the mod pattern.
 

 The book page leaves are so versatile.  I can find a lot of uses for them as a placecard, on a stark tree branch, or on a wreath.

 

 An old rake makes a great hanger for my wreath.

The centerpiece is just a milk glass pedestal bowl full of green apples.  Making things simple and easy this year but, I still have a fantasy table yet to come....you know how I like Halloween! 

Sherry

I will join:

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Cottage Style Link Party  at Lavender Garden Cottage

Sunday's Best Party  at My 1929 Charmer

Mod Mix Monday  at Mod Vintage Life

Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper

Sunny Simple Sundays  at Sunny Simple Life

Share Your Cup Thursday  at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

My Monday Muse at Carter's Cottage

Fall Around the House at The Inspired Room

Magic on the Mantel

Witchy flew home and put her broom, lantern, and hat on the mantel. 

The cat is always jumping up on the mantel to see what Witchy brought home.

Witchy has been working on that one spell.  She still can't get it right.

By Halloween she will have mastered the spell and all will be....

...magic.

Home Sweet Home #35

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!

The creepy crawlies have come undone.  If you have arachnophobia this table may bother you a little.  I am re-posting this from last Halloween.  Some one may find some inspiration for last year's decor and again, I do this decorating with a very limited budget so maybe that will help you out too.

Both of my witch hats had spider webs on them so I put them on the table too.  The branches were spray painted black and right out of my yard.  Click to view how I created them here.

 I showed how to create the temporary web on this glass here.

I kept finding uses for the webs I found at the Dollar General Store.  I placed the web across the dinner plate but under the salad plate and the salad plate would bounce when you touched it like it was caught in a web.  The strings on the web were elastic.  

I showed how I created the spider silhouette in the lantern here.  This was actually used this fall (2011) in All Free Holiday Crafts eBook.  Click here to view.

 

The creepy crawlies have come undone,

Three more weeks left of Halloween fun.

Thanks for joining me at Home Sweet Home!

Now, I would like to feature some wonderful post from last week's Home Sweet Home.

First, Lisa of The Enchanted Oven created this fabulous spiderweb cake.  Her oven is indeed enchanted!  Click on the link to go view her creations.

Gina, of Random Thoughts remodeled her bath and got a great cottage look.  Click on the link to view.

Pamela, at From My Front Porch to Yours  made over this armoire and painted her room for a great new look.  Click the link to view.

White Whimsy had a Halloween mantel with great style.  Click on the link to view.

And last, Elizabeth at Pinecones and Acorns had a lovely kitchen remodel.  Click the link to view. 
Thank you to all who join me at Home Sweet Home!

Guidelines for Home Sweet Home Party:

Attention: To link up with inlinkz you must have a permalink back to this party in your post or they will not allow you to link. 

My button is on my sidebar for the party, if you want to use it.   If you are new here I hope you will become a follower.  No Etsy link ups or direct advertising, please.  Please visit some of the other blogs and get some great inspiration.  Thanks.:)

Now let's see your beautiful homes!

Lantern Love

I love my lanterns!  I only have three but, I use them over and over in decorating.  So, for Christmas I decided to put some looks together with them.

This is a black and white color scheme with mercury glass ornaments all topped off with a tartan bow.  I love how striking red plaid is with black.

This beautiful lantern; provided to me by CSN Stores for a review which you can see here,
is a beauty all styled up for Christmas.

It is a double lantern so it will hold two pillar candles.  I have placed several pine cones, a pine branch, and fake snow in this arrangement.

This is my white lantern.  I have placed sheet moss, moss rocks, pine cones, twigs, a pillar, and some fake snow in this lantern.

The rustic moss and pine cones look magical with fake snow on them.  

 I will be joining:
Metamorphosis Monday at Between naps on the Porch.
Amaze Me Monday  at Dittle Dattle
And, Joni at Red Couch Recipes for her It's a Wonderful Life Party.
Go and visit these ladies for great inspiration!

Sherry

Foreign Influences

Now before you get the wrong idea and think this is a sensational post.  I will be the first to tell you it is about gardening. (Photo intensive post.) The one thing that fascinates me completely about blogging is that I can sit down cozy here at my computer and scan dozen of images daily of decor and gardening from around the world.  I am an extremely visual person so it is the perfect format.  (Magazines don't want to hear that.)   I often stumble upon blogs from other countries that just stop me in my tracks.  I am so taken with how they are doing something so very different from what I see here in our magazines and retail stores.  So often the materials used for these stunning arrangements are from right out of the yard.  So what can I not love about this, they are doing something different (and you know how I like something completely different) and it is usually inexpensive!  The first blog that literally took my breath away was Blomsterverkstad.  This is the blog of Minna Mercke Schmidt she is a Swedish flower
photographer and stylist.  She has been published, her book is "Blomstrande ide'er.  I will leave you with the visual images of her work.  You don't even have to have a translate button on her blog.

All images above from   http://blomsterverkstad.blogspot.com/

Isn't her work amazing?

Okay, I found these images and I have a bad habit of saving the photo and forgetting where I saw it if it is a commercial website.  I believe this website was French and it sold herbs, of all things.  Great table ideas.

 The entire reason for this post was that, again, I stumbled across another foreign blog that I thought had some beautiful natural centerpieces.  I thought okay, Christmas is coming most of these materials we have in our yards and I thought you might get some inspiration for your decorating.  This site is called "The Forest Fairy," I believe this is a German site.

  These images are from http://die-waldfee.blogspot.com/

So now I am really inspired I want to go create something different from anything I have ever created.  Here is my translation of the lantern above.  

I will work on it.  I took many pictures of this and I am still not sure it looks as natural as the lantern above from The Forest Fairy.  I love using natural materials and I love something completely different.  The before on this would be moss, moss rocks (HobbyLobby), cinnamon sticks, anise (grocery), twigs, pinecones, pine boughs (neighborhood yards).  If you are concerned about the natural materials with the candle you can use the battery operated flameless pillars.  

I will link to these great blogs.  Go and visit them.
Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative
Tabletop Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life
Centerpiece Wednesdays at The Style Sisters

Before and After Party at Savvy Southern Style

Make It yours Day  at My Backyard Eden

I will join Joni at Red Couch Recipes for the Thanksgiving Challenge.  I will put at the end of every post till Thanksgiving what I am thankful for.  I am thankful for the world of blogging.  Creativity abounds and it is a wonderful thing!:)