Something wicked this way comes...

 Tomorrow is Halloween and I am so excited for it this year.  Wes, while adorable last year, was too young to grasp what was going on and he just didn't get it.  This year I think will be much better, experience wise, and I am really looking forward to tomorrow evening.

 Finally having our own house, I was super excited to decorate.  I didn't go super crazy this year but I did a little bit, here and there.  I started on our front porch, with a little tableau that is more fall themed than Halloween so that I can leave it through Thanksgiving as well.  I've had the scarecrow since we lived with my sisters so I just had to take it out of the garage but the sign and the hay are new this year.  (Note: I know my door says 'Welcome' and the sign also says 'Welcome' but I am hoping to peel the door sign off soon and do something different.)

 Heading upstairs, I have these really cute Martha Stewart witches, made of black glitter paper, going up the banister.  One of my sisters had her bridal shower last year and it was a Halloween theme so I saved a bunch of the decorations to re-use and these little witches were part of that stash.

 These little skulls and bats are also part of my re-used decorations and I thought the stop of the stairwell was a perfect place to put them out and still keep them Wesley-safe.  What I didn't think through, however, is that every time I open the front door and there is any wind they will fall down.  Luckily we don't use our front door that often so this isn't too big a problem.

 Here is my 'mantle' which is really my unbalanced shelf in the room.  By unbalanced I don't mean emotionally but aesthically.  I want to have another shelf mounted on the other side of the room but the sofa is right beneath it and Casey thinks that Wes will hang from it.  Because it's what he would do.  I don't think Wes will think of that but we haven't yet put up the other shelf.  I'm working on it.  It will be up soon...mark my words.

 Wes spent the afternoon with my parents two weeks ago and he went grocery shopping with them.  He came home with this little pumpkin which fits the shelf-scale perfectly.  The owl is part of my everyday shelf items, the red skull is a hand-carved piece I bought down in Mexico and the black skulls are part of the party stash.  The black skull-candle and the silver skulls are part of my Halloween decor from seasons past.

 I made the chalkboard last weekend and I didn't know what to put on it.  I am going to frame it out soon and but I wanted to use it now so up it went.  I thought the zombie sign would fit for the season but it is easily and quickly changed.  

 

  I didn't have a cute Halloween bowl to put our candy in but I did have an empty milk jug.  So I put about five minutes effort into this and got a cute little candy jug to hand out our candy.  It was super easy to make, if you are interested in making your own here are the directions.

1. Empty and wash a gallon-size milk jug.
2. Cut off the top of the jug, starting at the top by the spout and then, since I knew I wanted to do a Frankenstein jug, so I left a little height up front.  How low or high is up to you and what you have planned.
3. When you cut the plastic, it's a little sharp and I didn't want anyone to scratch themselves getting candy out so I took a lighter and softened the edges.  This smoothed out any jagged cuts I made as well as evened out my lines.
4. This is where I got creative.  I painted the outside green first and then painted the hair section.  Drawing the details was easy, just a thin brush and a steady hand.  I honestly just did everything really without a plan.  I had an idea of how I wanted it to look and went for it.

 The last little bit of my pre-Halloween run-up was the annual portrait.  Taking a planned photo of Wes has gotten a lot harder than it was last year.  I sat him down and just had to keep the dogs away and that was it. Now, I have to keep him in the area I want as well as keep him looking toward me.  I tried to be smart about this and, without giving all of my tricks away, here is the 2012 Halloween pictures: