Over the top Halloween Chandelier

This year's Halloween tablescape is NOT over the top... but the chandelier is!!!
I mean can you say over the top doesn't begin to describe this thing!

Oh yes...

AMAZING and pretty cool huh! 

So how did I do this?  Welllllll it involved climbing a 75 foot tree and a hacksaw. 

My husband tells me if I bring in any more 'dead things' he's going to protest.  Yet there he was up in our maple tree cutting me dead branches.  I told him that I'd climb the tree and cut them down, possibly this is why he joyfully agreed to climb a 75 foot tree to get some dead things??? IDK.. If you follow or have read past posts you know I'm a huge klutz.. SO if I'd have climbed the tree I would have fallen or broken something - (do you see my evil genius at work here?).

But he climbed the tree and got me several dead branches then brought them all inside and helped me decide which 2 we would use for the chandelier décor.  He then proceed to even decorate by standing on the wobble table while I directed him like the evil dictator I am!  He did all the webbing and hung the crows, spiders and the owl.  He just placed them where I told him, what a great guy! 

Once he climbed off the rickety table he looked at it and agreed that I was right... spectacular and down-right cool!  BUT BIG.. I mean I've got small rooms but 20 foot ceilings and this thing is big. 

Since my chandelier is so out of this world I went simple on the table.

Just 2 lanterns and a beer growler filled with some Halloween foliage.  I don't even have placemats. 

I think that dressing a table is like putting make-up on your face - either highlight the eyes or the lips but not both.  So the chandelier is my eyes and the table is my lipstick... simple yet Halloweenie. 

I host a Halloween dinner party, partly because it is my birthday... (Happy Birthday to me!) and partly because I like having dinner parties.  I guess hidden somewhere inside my DNA is a 1940's housewife. 

I dressed the table 2 ways to show you.  Now you could add a placemat for effect - a black one would be soo great!

First up a bit of a more fancy place setting. 

I've got some wine glasses with purple, not black (yep they are purple) bottoms...  A simple plate and themed salad plate.

I opened a paper napkin and placed it on the plate for more Halloween effect AND the napkins match my tablecloth.. how did my INSTAGRAM friend @2bluikiddos know?  (must follow her on INSTAGRAM!)

Here is another idea for a table place setting.

The coffee cups make it more casual. 

Thanks for stopping by!  I truly appreciate it!  What do you think of my table or better yet what do you think of my chandelier!!!????????? 

Can you believe I got that skeleton garland at the Target dollar spot for $3.00 and they are METAL people, METAL!  So cute!

So let me give you some sourcing.  I'll try to do that going forward - thanks for the feedback!

Okay here we go.

Chandelier:

Chandelier - Home Depot - they don't carry it any longer, sorry. 

Dead tree limbs - my maple in the back yard

Crows hanging from the dead tree limbs - dollar store

Owl hanging from the tree limbs - Michaels a few years back

Spider webs - dollar store

Spiders - dollar store

Tablescape:

Tablecloth - Target a few years ago

Dishes: 

White large plate - Bed, Bath and Beyond, Thompson Pottery

Small black and white bird plate (casual setting) - Mary Carol (Mary Carol Garrity - Nell Hills)

White cup - Bed, Bath and Beyond - Thompson Pottery (I got it with the plates as a set)

Purple glass - The Pioneer Woman (Renee Drummond) Wal-Mart - seriously like $2.50 a glass and they are HEAVY! 

Small black and white written plate - set of 4 (2 of each saying) - Home Goods last year

Stemmed water glass - Stein Mart

Stemmed purple base wine glass - sorry antique handed down from my Great Aunt

Silverware - Sorry I don't remember that pattern but I know they are Oneida 18/10 silverware and I got them at Macy's

Paper Halloween Napkins - TJ Maxx

Lanterns - Kirkland's last year (they still sell them)

Dark colored beer growler - Bristol Brewing Company here in Colorado Springs... Laughing Lab anyone? 

Halloween 'flowers' in the growler - Michael's last year. 

You know, you CAN do this in your own dining room - yes you can!  I'd love to see everyone's dining or other rooms decorated for Halloween.  Please drop me a note I do answer and read everything.. I even apply the feedback you give me!  Thanks and keep it coming. 

Next week I will share the INSTAGRAM Halloween swap 16, what I got and how I decorated with it. 

Halloween is almost here!! I CAN'T WAIT

Again, thank you so, SO much for reading.

Victoria

You can follow me on INSTAGRAM - @Vicdenni

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And no Facebook I won't boost my post for $100.00 even though I adore Sheryl Sandberg. 

Halloween Mantle 2016

I love Halloween.. I mean really love it.  Next to Christmas it is my most decorative holiday... is that a thing?

I have lights outside and a lot of décor up outside even before the big day.  I don't put my graveyard up until Halloween Day because here in Colorado the wind would take my gravestones and heck, it could snow... yes really SNOW! 

But I am getting ahead of myself. 

So Halloween.  To quote 'The Sound of Music', "Let's start at the very beginning, a very fine place to start.. when you read you begin with A, B, C when you decorate for Halloween you begin with Man-tle"...  LOL isn't that how the song goes?!  (so how many of you sung that as you read?  Be honest..)

I have done mantles in the past with logs and sticks and all other kinds of things.  Here is the evolution of my Halloween mantles. 
2015
2014
2013

Seems I've done a lot of sticks on the mantles in the past.  Can anyone say obsession?

This year I was going to do black and white.  I was all about the black and white on my mantle.  If you read my last post you'll see I even pinned a lot of black and white inspiration.  Well reality check I actually don't have a lot of black and white things for Halloween.  I've got a lot of pumpkins, Jack-O-Lanterns and Orange and black. 

I don't know about you but I don't have a hundred or so dollars to go out and get all new black and white décor even for my 2nd favorite holiday.  So I need to work with what I have.  So while I'm lovin' the black and white I need to be realistic...

SO
This years mantle went a bit more relaxed, simple.

 The trick with any flat surface that you want to decorate is to layer, layer, layer and vary the height to keep the eye moving.  Here I overlapped the 2 upper 'pictures' and put 2 down lower.  I then varied the height of my Jack-O-Lanterns. So far I like it though it still needs a bit of something... possibly a garland of some sort woven through?  (I'll take suggestions!)
Maybe I'm just use to seeing all the dead branches... IDK. 

I usually get inspiration at 2am so we'll see if I sleep on it for a few days what comes to me.  Does anyone else get that kind of midnight inspiration or is it just me? 

If you looked at prior years you'll see I went through what I lovingly refer to as a 'dead branch' phase.  I don't know if I'm out of it yet because Halloween just screams "Use dead branches Woman!!!"  at least to me.  So I think I'll bring in the dead stuff in the dinning room.. I'm thinking of hanging them from the chandelier and putting spider webs on them and hanging crows off them... I can hear my husband now, "Oh great more dead things."  Though he'll go out and cut them down for me...LOL but more on that next week!

Back to the mantle...

A mantle can dictate the theme of a room, just like a front door.  My theme is Jack-O-Lanterns. 

Here is my coffee table - I got the silver Jack-O-Lantern at Home Goods last year.  I put a plastic chain and a bag of bones I got at Home Depot last year around him.

 And on my fireplace hearth is this cute little guy I got at Gordman's a few years ago.  He is metal... AND as a special bonus you can put tea lights in his head and in his Jack-O-Lantern he is carrying. 
LOVE!

When you come in my front door I've got my last year's Christmas present, this adorable entry table... (from Kirkland's and they still stock it!).  On it I put several light up Jack-O-Lantern's that I've collected over the years...

And this guy...

Can you say... "LOVE"  He is from my childhood and I've had him since the 1970's.  I always remember that this was practically the only decoration we had up on Halloween.  I grew up pretty rural in Maryland and we didn't get Trick-Or-Treaters down our dark dirt road but my Mom always had this guy.  LOVE...

Okay, on to the couch, cause I skipped that.  We have a small house but cute and I love it.  So our small living room has a love seat in it... to get furniture I had to compromise.. so we have leather but tan and fluffy... I got this cute pillow last year at Kirkland's

Let's take a step outside shall we....

As I said earlier, I decorate outside for Halloween.. a lot.  Next to Christmas it is my most decorative holiday.  So I've got lights on the house and our front tree.  I also decorate the front porch.

The 'Boo' sign I made last year...BOO Sign

The 'haunted tree' is from Target years (I mean 10+ years) ago.  The eyes light up.

The Witch and ghost 'totem' I made myself probably 15 years ago when I was really into making things out of wood but I still love it! (NOTE - don't be fooled I am still into making things out of scrap wood). 

The skull wreath is a PB knock off..

You can see how I made that here
I really made it for a fraction of the original cost and hey I like mine better!

I hung some dollar store glow-in-the-dark skeletons from our front tree along with some ghost wind chimes I got at Gordman's years ago.

Then I put a spider in one of my bushes for 'effect.'  And yes I still have flowers blooming here in October in Colorado.. That purple flower there is a Dahlia. 

I hung some tattered sheeting and a skeleton up in front of what is my kitchen window.

This is what it will be outside until Halloween Day when I will put out the fog machine and the graveyard and the graveyard fencing ad a few other things including my Jack-O-Lantern totems that I made last year..

Totems

Do you go all out for Halloween?  I'd love to see your décor!  Please share!  If you have any questions or have suggestions PLEASE reach out!  I respond same day.   

Thanks so much for stopping by and seeing what I've got for Halloween so far and looking back on Halloween craft and décor of the past. 

In the next few week's I'll share my dinning room and my décor I received for my Instagram #HalloweenHappenings2016 swap!  My new friend, @2bluikiddo's sent me some great items that I've used in my décor.. see the bright orange Jack-O-Lantern on my mantle for starters!  She is such a great new forever friend.  Her Instagram is awesome.. you should follow her! 

Follow me on Instagram @Vicdenni

I appreciate you reading along! 

Victoria

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See you next week!