Fall Splendor

It's Fall! The weather has been quite fall-like here....it's been getting quite chilly, with crisp, sunny days, blue skies and leaves turning pretty colors. A few leaves found their way into the birdbath in my yard.

The birds that nested in my birdhouse are gone for the summer, but the birdhouse still looks pretty amongst the colorful leaves of the maple tree in my back yard. My father made this cedar birdhouse for me a few years back. I love to look out my kitchen window and see it every day.

After summer is over, I move my summer annuals indoors to over-winter until next season, and normally I leave my planters empty. This year, I decided to put in some fall flowers in my planters. I planted purple kale, burgundy colored mums, ornamental pepper and added a couple small pumpkin gourds as well.

They really brighten up the front porch for a couple more months before winter sets in.


Just this last weekend it was rainy and quite warm, with temps in the mid-60s, so I used the opportunity to put up some of my Halloween outdoor decorations. I had already put up the cornstalks in September, and had pumpkins out, along with my fall planters. To "spookify"  it all, I added "dead vines", a Halloween wreath, and a scary skeleton angel. I love how everything looks so much better against the backdrop of the new landscaping!

Here's some more views....

My Halloween wreath got a fresh coat of black spray paint last season and it's still looking pretty good!
This was a really easy wreath to make. I bought some red silk roses on clearance, spray painted them black, cut the blooms off the stems and hot-glued them to a wooden wreath form. I tied on some Halloween ribbon and viola!

Since this hangs outside, sometimes the black wears off after a couple of years and the red starts showing through. I just add a fresh coat every couple of years to make it look as "dead black" as possible.
 The "dead vines" that I have wound around the porch railings are just silk fall leaf garlands also spray painted black. I normally will buy one on clearance at the end of the season, spray paint it, and put it away with the rest for the next year, so I keep adding to my "collection" of dead vines.

I have about three quarters of my Halloween decorations up inside the house, so I will share them very soon!
Until then.................Happy Haunting!!!!

-St. Adalbert's and Holy Trinity Cemetery, Milwaukee, WI. Photo by Katie P. 2012