Decorating Season Is In Full Swing!

For years, I've called October 1 the start of Decorating Season! It's three, full months of reason to really go for the decor!! To that end, Fall is in full throttle in The House!! My first creative inspiration in the past few weeks came from the fact that I, personally, love Fall foliage in the form of mums! I grow 'em, I buy 'em, I anxiously watch to see them come back ... it's just such a fabulous extension of pretty in the gardens once the summer blooms are gone! So, this house needed some foliage adornment, too!

To create it, I dug into my stash of "not yet sure why I'm keeping this" stuff and pulled out bottle caps. A few months ago, I did envision using them as some kind of planter, so, when the Fall goods hit the shelves in Hobby Lobby, I picked up the spool of -- Is it rope? Is it twine? Even the label doesn't say! -- to cover the caps:

First, I used Quick Grip glue to create large planters:

I thought I would try to cut out the bottom of the top cap, but that idea went to the wayside when I realized how very hard the material is to cut. Wanting to spare myself of slicing injury, I decided and realized that I didn't have to have deep planters. They just needed to look deep. Covering the seam of each would do it, so I saved myself a step in the process!

Next, I whipped out the hot glue and got to sticking:

Keeping just ahead of the rope-twine stuff, I glued-glued-glued round-and-round-and-round and voila!

I also made two candy baskets from single caps. I lined them with a fabric scrap then hot glued the twine around and around:

Fancy!

Here are all of the thus-far Fall efforts in action! On the patio, we see the two mum planters I've made to this point. Also, Hal got kicked off the bench by four-legged Eleanor who continues to beg for popcorn. So, he's making the best of it not only by keeping the big pot of candy near but also by bogarting the new basket of Halloween-specific treats:

He's all, "Joke's on you. I have almost all of the candy! Nee-ner, nee-ner."

Over on the other end of The House, Grandma Laura swapped her single roll of LifeSavers for a basket of chocolaty goodness.

She may or may not have any left for the trick-or-treaters,
but she most assuredly will not share with the
begging pooch.

Here's what's happening along The House edges! I found some artificial Fall flowers at the Dollar Store and just started pulling them apart and sticking them places:

The secret to speedy success was not wanting them tall. Therefore, all of the short flowers are simply ones I cut all the way to their bases:

In doing so, I can just place them on the mulch and move on! Taller foliage got the pin-wrapped-in-floral-tape treatment on the stem to stick into the mulch. But, most of it is just sitting there making for some fast but lovely decor! Buh-BAM!

Oh, let's not forget the very front:

The mums, by the way, are Fall themed trees designed for model train exhibits. I just pulled them apart and shaped (sometimes by hot gluing parts together) how I wanted. Those, too, are just sitting on the mulch.

And, here's the very front:

Of course, The House cannot go without holiday lights! You see the tinge of purple in the picture above. That's the strand of bat lights running under the ceiling of the porch. I'm also loving these little pumpkin lights along the front rail:

And, what's a Halloween theme without a few ghosts?!

There are, most definitely, more decorations to come! And, what's Halloween without a few trick-or-treaters?? Stay tuned ...