Halloween has become my favorite holiday and the decorating of our front porch has become a traditional event. You can tell Halloween is coming because the yard gets overgrown and the dead plants start multiplying. I use dead foliage to fill in the background of this decor theme that I’ve named, “Abandoned House.”
Since it’s usually still warm in San Diego in October and the leaves don’t fall till January I really have to hoard leaves to fill up the floor. I have one stupid tree that drops leaves in Summer and Winter so those are the leaves I collect little by little. This all looks way better on Halloween when I light all the candles and the creepy chandelier (fake candles because October is fire season), but I think you can get the picture.
This is the owl that welcomes everybody in. What’s really fun, that I can’t show, is the mechanical eyes in the middle portion of the topiary bush that shakes and growls when people step into the porch. We listen for the sound of screaming children instead of a doorbell when that thing is turned on. Totally cracks me up.
I have four of these rings hanging on the porch. The metal rings came from a wine barrel that fell apart. I keep them up year round and decorate them seasonally. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a thing for crows, so we have about 15 of them throughout the porch.
I decorated two of the rings with crows and two with spiders. The spiders are wicked fun.
This screaming ivy topiary is one of my favorites because the face fits so perfectly. I always try to find the ugliest pumpkins and this year the winners were at Trader Joe’s. The little ones I grew on accident this year. The ones I bought last year ended up in our compost and reseeded when we used the compost in the garden. I grew 10 mini pumpkins without even trying, it was so fun. Some of them even have yellow, green and orange stripes.
The POISON sign I bought at Matilda’s Mouse this month. It’s a sign off a chemical truck. I bought it because it has 5 rotating signs that say things like RADIOACTIVE and FLAMMABLE on them. Super cool. I have to find a place to put it in the house for during the year. Maybe my daughter’s room.
I looked for a creepy doll at both thrift stores and swap meets and just couldn’t find what I was looking for. I scored this beauty at Matilda’s Mouse for $8! I absolutely love her. Her eyes still close when she lays down. She’s perfect.
I found this idea in a magazine last year. You blow up antique photos, cut their eyes out, mount them in frames and stick red twinkle lights in their eye holes. It’s so awesome. My favorite one is the girl at First Communion. Twisted.
These dolls I bought when we first moved in to this house. They have survived beautifully in spite of getting covered in ash during two major fire storms. I just brush off the debris and stick them back out there. They’re real troopers.
So there’s my 2012 Halloween Porch. I hope I gave you a couple new ideas to add to your own Halloween decor. Have a great Halloween! Or as the dog mummy says, Keep Calm and Scary On!
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