Hallowe'en At Le Beau Paon Victorien

As usual, I am way behind all the other bloggers, who are all showing all their Christmas decor and Christmas projects!

I finally just managed to get all my Hallowe'en decorations taken down and put away last week!

Although I promised to show pictures of my decor, I wasn't able to get to it. I find it difficult with my new job to have time for my blog as I used to.

But, just so I don't disappoint, here are a few photos....better late than never!

 Front Hall Mantel

 Front Hall Table

                                                     Euphraxia

                                           Ellendea

My Hallowe'en collages, made last year.

Front Hall Piano

 Parlour

 Kitchen

 Dining Room

Dining Room

Living Room Mantel

 Living Room

Front Hall

 Dining Room

 Parlour

 Outside at night:

Thanks for stopping by!

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

Craft Fair Acquisitions

For the last three years, I have attended a huge local craft fair in September at Holy Hill with my mom and my two sisters.

 Holy Hill's actual name is the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians at Holy Hill.
The Church sits atop a great hill, thus it's name, which sits in the middle of 435 acres of grounds. It is also home to the Brothers of Mount Carmel, or officially, the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. The Friars, who wear the robes of their Order, can be seen on the grounds and are the essential staff of Holy Hill. Their Order originally came from Bavaria in 1906, at the invitation of the Archbishop.

Every September there is a huge craft fair on the grounds. It is a beautiful place to visit and a pleasant place for a fall outdoor craft fair beneath the shady pines with the huge church on the hill as a backdrop.

Above: a picture of the Basilica, shrine and monastery buildings.

I was excited to find the vendor booth with the handcrafted witch dolls again, and had to buy another one for myself.

This is the new one. She wears a brown dress and has a burn-out velvet cloak. I have named her "Ellendea".

They are so beautifully made and at only $45, it seems almost like a steal, since it seems like there must be hours and hours of work involved. The woman who makes them says that she changed the design this year and made the nose longer. I also noticed that she made the dresses longer and more voluminous.

Ellendea will join her "sister", Euphraxia, who was purchased two years ago:

I also bought a few small things (a knitted hat, a painted Christmas ornament, home made soap) and these small folk art prints:

They are encased in plastic sleeves, so the colors are a little muted.

The artist who does these had a large vendor booth with all of the original, large-size paintings in the booth, plus lots of smaller prints. The original works were beautiful, with beautifully painted frames, but were a little out of my price range. The small 8x10 size prints were more in my budget.

This one is very colorful, but with the plastic over it, it's not quite so vivid. I got a kick out of the witch's skirt. I thought this would look cute framed and put out with my Halloween decorations.

The other two have a more nautical tone: I thought these two had a fun 19th century look to them.This one has lots of mermaids in it.

I love all the teeny little sailors in the rigging on this ship. I planned to frame these and put them in Erik's "Victorian gentleman's study", perhaps in a grouping with some maps and other folk art-type decor, including a scrimshaw tooth that used to belong to my father.

Thanks for stopping by!