Spooky Chandelier....and more!

With October just around the corner (what the heck happened to September???!!!), my Halloween decorations are slowly making their way down from the third floor attic.

I've never been a huge fan of this chandelier that's in our front entry hall, but it will stay here until I find something I like better. In the past I have hung fake 'cobwebs' from this chandelier, complete with black plastic spiders. This year, I tried something different.

 This 'Ghostly Greetings' sign I saw at Michael's about a month ago and I had to have it! It looks great hanging on the chandelier, along with Spanish Moss that I draped all over it. Spooky!

Spanish Moss is really messy, that's for sure. I had quite a bit of sweeping up to do! But it really looks great for spooky decor!

My new witch has moved over to the pumpkin chair.

 I took this picture with a flash so you could see better her pumpkin broom!

 This Skeleteon Maid tassel was a recent purchase.....

 As was the Skelteon Butler tassel...............

There also appears to be a skeleton running up my staircase!

And a little skull rests on a tasseled cushion, on top of a stack of antique books!

Thanks for stopping by!
Stay tuned for more Halloween decor to come!

Outdoor Wednesday: Holy Hill Craft Fair

Every year in September, there is a huge craft fair at Holy Hill Basilica and Shrine. This was, amazingly, my first year attending this wonderous event.
It was sort of cloudy and rainy at first, but then the sky cleared and the sun came out later.
Holy Hill is located in Hubertus,WI., which isn't very far from where I live. Situated on a giant hill, in the midst of 435 acres of woods, it's quite a spectacle.

Dozens of vendor tents are nestled amongst the trees. Holy Hill is also home to the Brothers of Mount Carmel, or the Carmelites. They, and the Friars, can be seen on the grounds in their brown robes and rosaries. I visited Holy Hill once when I was a young teen and bought my own rosary there; I still have it.

So many lovely crafts to be seen!

We got such a laugh over this vendor display.

The wooden "campfire" and the bears roasting little wooden marshmallows was too cute.

I only bought one thing; something for Erik's birthday that he can put in his 'man cave'.(His birthday is in November) My one sister, however, bought me this beautiful soft sculpture, hand-sewn witch.

She insisted on buying me something for my birthday, which is fast approaching in late October.

I loved her striped stockings and her black felt, lace-up 'boots'.

She wears a dress with a black bodice; trimmed with a silver lace collar and a polka-dotted ribbon at her waist. Her skirt has pretty rust red flowers on it.

And she has the perfect witchy face; with pointed chin and and red lips! I got such a kick out of her. Right now, she's sitting on the mantle, but I plan to move her to another spot when I get more of my Halloween decor out.

I also put together a pretty little fall centerpiece for the kitchen table.

There's a store near where I live called The Front Porch which sells lots of silk flowers and other materials for making arrangements, as well as home decor and also unique clothing and hand-made jewelry. They were having a sale over the weekend; all silk florals were 15% off. I bought two small faux pumpkins and some other miscellaneous fall florals for less than $20 and then came home and made this little arrangement in about 5 minutes. I arranged them on top of one my pedestal plates.

I tucked in a couple of silk sunflowers as well. I love how "real" the pumpkins look!

Thanks for stopping by!
I'll be linking up with  A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday!

Fall Comes to Le Beau Paon........

Alas! I must succumb to the arrival of autumn.....
I can't pretend it's summer anymore!

On the other hand......I love to decorate for fall.....and even more than that....

I love to decorate for Halloween. I do.Truly. I love, love, loooooove Halloween.

But, since I'm not quite insane enough to start bringing out my Halloween decor...yet....I have brought out a few fall decorations from the attic.

When my storage tubs of Halloween stuff comes down from the third floor attic (there's probably about 6 storage tubs and about 4 or 5 boxes....or possibly more...I've lost count!) I will be decorating this fireplace mantel in the front hall with scary Halloween-y things. For now, it's dressed in autumnal splendor.

I love this old wooden chair. Some creative and enterprising person painted it black, then painted a pumpkin on the seat. My mother-in-law found this somewhere and gave it to me last year. I leave it here next to the fireplace year round. I intend to make a cushion for it at some point, to cover the pumpkin when it's not fall anymore.

Somehow a Halloween decoration found it's way down from the attic, I see! Interestingly, our cats always got sort of wiggy around this little fake Halloween kitty.

This fall centerpiece usually goes on the dining room table. My mom bought me this as a housewarming present when we bought our house 4 years ago. We had closed on the house on Sept. 29 and moved in that weekend, so it was a fitting and welcome bit of fall decor for our 'new' house.

I recently bought this cream colored table runner with this pretty embroided flower on it at Home Goods.

The fireplace mantel in the living room gets a few faux mini-pumpkins in white, orange and green.

I recently bought the mini-pumpkins at Michael's.

A cheery faux sunflower bouquet...... with Ginger Cat. ( in case you're wondering, Ginger Cat is a small stuffed cat made of worsted wool with an embroidered face. She always hangs out on the mantel, along with Comfort Cat, a grey worsted wool cat. I bought both of them from an Etsy shop that I love; Marjji)

I also put out my fall floral display, along with two 'funkins', on the fireplace hearth.

Thanks for stopping by!

White Wednesday: Cute Little Frames

I love this little vignette in my bathroom. The old advertisement for Jersey Cream Toilet Soap I recently re-framed (is that a word?). You can click HERE to see that project. Next to it I just put up two little plastic frames that I painted with white spray paint over the weekend. I got these two frames for $1.00.( And yes, there is a big crack in the glass on the framed ad, I need to get a new pane of glass. It fell off the shelf a few weeks ago!)

This is what they looked like before. They were painted gold with some black "stain" to make them look fancy. I took the backs off so I could paint them. I used one coat of white spray paint and liked how the under color showed through slightly and made the white look almost like a very, very light blue.

Each of the frames had a little picture in it. This one had a picture of two women harvesting hay. Sort of a strange subject matter for a little frame like this. I had a small picture of Lillian Russell hanging around doing nothing in particular, so I put her in this frame. I love this photo with her in a big hat and fancy dress. It is the dress and hat she wore when she appeared in her title role in the 1904 musical, Lady Teazle.
Lillian Russell (1861-1922) was a famous American actress and singer during the late 19th century and early 20th century. She was known for her beauty and style, as well as her voice and stage presence.

The other frame had a picture of Marie Antoinette in it, which I left in the frame.
So pretty!

Thanks for stopping by!
I'll be linking up to Faded Charm for White Wednesday.

Cat Shenanigans

About a month ago Erik and I adopted a new kitty from the Humane Animal Welfare Society.
She is a 1 yr old tortoiseshell and we named her Olive. Click HERE to read the first post about Olive.

In the few weeks she has been with us, we can't imagine how we managed without her. She is an absolute delight! She bonded to us right away and is very friendly and sweet. She loves to cuddle and snuggle and has adapted to her new home with us beautifully. Being only a year old, she's still very playful. It's quite a change from what we are used to! It's been years since we had anything but senior cats in this house.

She loves to play on the bed......or just about anywhere! She has toys all over the house.

The scratching post is also a favorite. Our other cat, E.B. is not declawed, so the scratching post in a must. She likes to play with the toy on the top.

Besides playing with the scratching post, Olive has four fuzzy jingly balls that she plays with almost all the time. She also likes climbing, running, pouncing and just generally looking cute.

 Lavender is her 'signature color', so of course she has a collar in that color!

.She loves looking out windows too.

She'll lay on a window sill looking out for an hour at a time.....which is a long time for her to sit still!

Here's another favorite thing she likes to do.................

Stand on my keyboard in front of my computer............

Or actually lay on my keyboard....while I'm trying to blog! When she wants attention, she knows how to get it!