It’s HALLOWEEN!! My favorite holiday. I’m one of those annoying neighbors who puts up the decoration in September. I try to change it up each year, using the same items in different ways. The only new things outside this year are the fresh pumpkins, flowers, and terracotta pots for the crows.

I still love my skeleton howling dogs, snagged at 75% off at Big Lots a couple years ago. The human skeleton was a dumpster find.I really like the way my planters turned out this year. It’s a combination of mums, ornamental kale and cabbage, ornamental peppers, black pansies and the only surviving plants from the Summer plantings, Creeping Jenny and purple petunias. I added a little dried Spanish moss to cover the edges. This will transition nicely into thanksgiving as well.

This fun scene was my husband’s idea, the crows feasting on the skeleton. The dog skeleton looking at the dead guy was a gift from a Burning Man camp-mate this year.

The Crows! I’ve had these plastic crow decoys for well over a decade. I admittedly stole this idea from the amazingly talented owner of 5 Green Boxes in Denver, CO. I went to a yard sale she had at her gorgeous home about 16-17 years ago where she had these crows in pots on her fence. I’ve finally made it happen, though I’m sure not as well as she did 🙂 The terracotta pots are from Home Depot, I painted them to match the fence.

A couple more crows flank the entry gate. The sign on the gate is another old dumpster find.

I kept it more simple around the door this year, a bit more elegant. All my fancy pumpkins and the mums came from Trader Joe’s, the big orange one from Costco. I made the Victorian-looking banner years ago, here’s a link to the DIY. One of these days I need to create a nice way to cover up those electrical boxes…

That’s it for Part 1! We’ll move inside for Part 2 and 3. Follow this Blog and see it all!

Thanks for looking 🙂