Falling for Fall Colors

Among all the craptastic things Hurricane Matthew brought with him (fortunately not for us; we just had to survive five days without electricity), fall was the best. The days following the big storm have simply been beautiful: bright blue skies, lovely breezes, lower humidity, and - best of all - cool nights. Fall in Florida!

That's the time of the year I think my house loves best - its colors just belong into this season. Earthy fall colors to celebrate the Craftsman detail and lines on our house, warm and inviting. Picking those colors were a decision we did not regret one bit!

This past weekend I tackled a project which was delayed by Hurricane Matthew: painting the front door and touching up the paint job in those areas that were dedicated to our accent color (chocolate brown so we're looking at you crag stones and top rails).

After five years our front door is now a rich chocolate brown, and gosh, do I love it! It's one of those little projects you wish you'd tackled sooner. We loved the red, but it just didn't -reeeeally- go with the new color scheme (but life got so crazy it was one of those things that was easily pushed waaaaaay to the back burner).
An hour later, this is what the front looked like. It seriously reminds me of a chocolate bar, and it's just as delicious! Best husband ever doesn't quite get my excitement, but he does love it too.

And because we're slowly but surely approaching Halloween the front wreath got a little make-over too. Two sprigs of fake flowers from the dollar store, a pack of plastic eye balls, and some hot glue! Voila! Peekaboo, I We see you!

Halloween - A Recap In Pictures

Little Man and me were on our own this Halloween - usually I hold down the fort and hand out candy to ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties while the husband takes Little Man trick or treating. 

Unfortunately the husband teaches on Thursday nights and we couldn't wait for him to come home since it was a school night, so off we went together, Little Man dressed up as an evil Ninja Assassin Clown and me as evil Minion. 

No matter the holiday, our historical houses pull off any decoration really well. Whether creepy ghosts and rotting zombies, or sweet Christmas bows and twinkling lights - they all wear these adornments with aplomb, style and grace. 

The streets were filled with roaming children, laughing and chattering as they scurried from house to house, parents in tow!

So many houses were lovingly decorated!

 New and long-time neighbors really got into the spirit, and many porch lights stayed on that night!

It seems that Historic Springfield has grown into quite the Halloween destination.

 Instead of hayrides we tried a trunk or treat this year and it worked beautifully (although people are already planning bigger and better and improved for next year - gotta love the spirit).

As night fell, the decorations looked even better! I really loved this house with its spooky blue-lit winged angel on the porch!

So much candy!

Halloween Aftermath

 Will you look at that - Halloween came, and was over in a flash. Or at least that's what it feels like these days where - caught between work, household chores and baseball - time spent at home passes in a wink of an eye ...

I also realized I never posted a picture (or two) or what Halloween looks like at our little old house, so here we go, a day late and a dollar short!

Since I'm not particularly fond of all things gory and grew up not at all allowed to go from door to door asking people for candy (during my youth Halloween wasn't celebrated in Germany, and while we do have one celebration that allows for door to door solicitation of treats - St. Martin - it was in general something frowned upon in my family. Aaaaanyways ... it took me a couple of years to get the hang of "trick or treating' and it was made easy in my lovely neighborhood. More of that later :)

Decorations at the little old house concentrate on the fireplace mantel, the ubiquitous door wreath, and a smattering of ghosts, gravestones and black crows on the outside.

We feel mightily inspired (and ever so slightly intimidated) by one of our awesome neighbors who goes out and creates a themed decoration for her family's house every year and maybe, maybe next year we will have all our planning and decorating skills together and go all out. This year, we kept it simple.

And of course we dressed up the door wreath to go with the season. After Halloween, the 'Boo' comes off and we're ready to roll for Thanksgiving. Ha!

Over the top, I know. Hardcore decorating, right? These days I'm happy when I manage to keep my wits about and my family in clean clothes and fed. Oh, and the menagerie, must not forget the menagerie.