Ghostly Greetings!

The leaves are turning to vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows. Daytime temperatures are crisp and enjoyable, while nighttime ones make you want to crawl deep under the covers.

When a chill enters our homes, nothing compares to a tasty hot chocolate, a good book, and a fire. Particularly after spending time outdoors during the summer months. We are getting ready to cocoon again.

Fall is the time to change your summer clothes and your summer decor, and get your garden ready for winter. Bring out those throws. Haul out the socks and boots. Scarfs and toques are beginning to show up in entry halls and mudrooms.

Let’s take a look at some wonderful fall decorations we have curated for you to get you, or keep you, in a fall decorating mood.

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To create an inviting look at your front door or porch, a collection of pumpkins, gourds, foliage, and branches is all it takes.

As you can see from the above images, you really don’t need to stick to an orange colour palette. The white gourds and white mums in zinc buckets together with the dried corn branches make a beautiful display that coordinates so well with the house’s dark brown front door and grey-taupe window frames.

TIP - The secret to an appealing grouping at your front door, is to display all the elements tightly together, with visual interest bringing the eye up. In other words, a vertical display, as opposed to a sprinkle of pumpkins located apart from one another.

Interior decorations take on a distinctly warm, harvest look! Have a peek at the mantle and table arrangements below.

The above images are testimony that fall does not need to be infused with the colour orange. The fireplace in the top row is elegant with a rose-coloured feeling. The one in the lower row has a rustic, cottage feel to it. Both work really well and are beautifully decorated. Even the blue and white tones of the table setting, combined with a natural brown underplate, are a feast for the eye. That said, orange is still so inviting and warm you just want to hug it.

Halloween

Let the fun begin!

Trick-or-treating with the kids when the winds swirl around us, whipping up the fallen leaves!

Creaking tree branches and candles burning in carved-out pumpkins welcome your little and older ones.

Bags full of candy to schlep home…

With Canadian Thanksgiving already behind us, we are looking forward to a ghostly Halloween. With still time to begin decorating or adding to your already creepy and ghostly decor, here are a few lovely ideas!

Giant spiders creeping up your walls or larger-than-life bats swinging from the ceiling. Imagine what that house will look like in the dark, with the lanterns and door lights throwing weird shadows onto the display. It will sure scare some little ones! Or a skeleton or witch to come home to. What other wonders could be inside…?

Halloween literally means “the night before All Saints’ Day”. Rooted in a mix of Celtic traditions and Christianity it is no longer the day marking the transition from summer and harvests to winter and harsh conditions when human losses were not uncommon. The Celts believed that during this time the boundaries between the world of the living and the dead became blurred, and the ghosts of the dead would return to earth. They called it Samhain.

Enter the Catholic church a few centuries later with its traditions of honouring its saints and departed souls at this time of the year, and Halloween was born. While November 1st is still recognized as a holy day by Christianity, Halloween as we know it, has lost its religious and spiritual meaning. And, although we still wear costumes and light bonfires, they are no longer meant to ward off ghosts and spirits, but rather to party with and have a good time.

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And, should you be secretly wondering where the trick-or-treat tradition came from, we can happily tell you that it is an American tradition that started with people dressing up in costumes and going from home to home to beg for food and money. This later evolved into the trick-or-treat custom as we know it.

But, before you go a-haunting, go a-hunting first for these beauties at Amazon.