So Far

With the budget of time and money that I have, I can't always make fast progress at setting up decorations. The entire month is usually spent setting up and creating new decor. I have managed to get some stuff up.

My bottles have gone up. It seems every year I get one or two new interesting bottles or jars to add to my apothecary. The labels are mostly free downloads from the net but a few are homemade, usually inspired off a few favorite sites. Contents vary widely from the Shrunken Man's skeleton to "radioactive" liquids that glow in UV light.

My foam pumpkins have come out. I like the idea of having some classic jack o' lantern designs year after year. Saves a little money although I would prefer to buy and carve new ones every year. Eventually I'll repaint these to look more realistic which is good because the original paint is wearing off.

We have an archway that divides our living room from the dining area. A year or two ago I put a nail at the top and hung a big furry spider from Michael's up there. Everyone seems to like it because it always seems to get a lot of comments. I'm still working on a better way to create a spider web to go with it.

My wife and I have mini Halloween toy collections going. I have multiple Halloween PEZ dispensers and she has several Halloween Barbies and a Groovy Girl that have come out.

The decor is also in the kitchen. We have a variety of coffee mugs that we have switched out for spookier ones. Nothing like spooky right from the start of the day.

There is still a great deal left to come out and go up. My Blucky skeleton is still (mostly) in storage. I want to resculpt the head and perhaps the body this year (more inspiration from Dave Lowe). My wife's pillows need to come out (more on these later). Most of the paper decorations still to be put up. I have plans (inspired from R) to make

Spent my budget of the month at Target. I bought another foam pumpkin, a skull (I don't know why I didn't have one already but this one does look half decent for the cost), a single black silk rose, another mug and a Coraline DVD that had gone on sale for almost half off. I have been wanting to buy some more colored lights to add to the mood but couldn't justify the extra cost. I got more with the money I had.