This is Halloween, This is Halloween... on a budget

I adore Halloween or really, I adore any holiday that gives  me an excuse to decorate. Halloween has always been one of my favorites. For a couple of years I ran a "haunted" train station which, while incredibly fun, was an exhausting task for one person and a small group of mostly cooperative volunteers to organize. No matter my frustrations with the station, decorating a haunted house gave me the ability to fully flex my "halloween muscle" if you will. These days I still dream big when it comes to Halloween, graveyards, fog, mummies.....which is a problem considering my pocketbook isn't exactly big enough to back these grand ideas.

So this year, I kept things simple. A few pumpkins, a package or two of creepy cloth, some spider web and some crepe paper and that's it, a creepy front door and a spooky mantle.

Our two measly pumpkins. 

My "cat" on the left and my boyfriend's traditional jack-o-lantern on the right. 

As you can see, neither of us are master carvers but they both look nice when lit up.

The front door. 

Note the spider web and creepy cloth.

My improvised wreath: at the last minute I decided I needed a wreath so I made one out of what I had.

Constructed from black crepe streamers, orange ribbon, a piece of tissue paper and tree debris, topped off with a reproduction vintage die cut witch.

Mother nature also assisted my decorating, she provided the spiders.

Today I'm also planning on making a few spooky luminaries to light the sidewalk on Sunday. I'll be sure to snap a few photographs of everything lit  up, I'm excited to see it myself!

.......

Inside the house I've made a spooky "tree" for the mantle out of clipped branches of the Harry Lauder tree which I then stretched spider web over. I placed the concoction on, what else, creepy cloth and added a few gourds and skeletons. 

For future Halloweens, however, this is what I dream:

I love this and have for years. Incredibly creepy.

I constructed a graveyard myself but my mother really enjoys setting it up. Perhaps I'll have to make another. Between Mr. Grim up there and the graveyard, I'm the HOA's worst nightmare!

Well, you get the idea.

Pretty much anything from the Grand in Road catalog or Martha Stewart Halloween.

It's my goal to be that lady on the block with the scary house and the good candy, the one children look forward to trick or treating at each year. 

Let's just say it's a work in progress.