Normally I [impatiently] wait for October 1 before I give myself permission to hang Halloween decorations. This year I thought, Well so what if I want to put them up on September 20? Is there some rule that says I can’t? I think not! So I went ahead and put everything up over the weekend because it made me happy; however, I waited until the Autumnal Equinox to post photos of my new mantel decor.
I’ve been wanting to redo our mantel for some time but I haven’t had any inspiration. Looking around Home Goods and Pier 1 did nothing but frustrate me because I don’t have $300.00 to spend on this project.
Then I picked up a Better Homes and Gardens Halloween magazine. I was thinking it might have some good tips for regular humans but it mostly seemed to have good tips for rich housewives and bored stay-at-home moms; however, I was able to glean enough inspiration from it and decided to sally forth once again the next time I was back in civilization (i.e., the Front Range).
I found some block letters at TJ Maxx for $5.99 each. Let’s face it: I could have bought some and painted them myself, but I probably wouldn’t have completed the project. The best thing about the letters is that we can reuse them once Halloween is over. They are a permanent staple of the mantel now!
My happy new letters
Our next stop was Michael’s where I found most of my other stuff: two leaf garlands ($7.99 each but they were on sale on top of that); two silver bottles (Spider Cider!); two peacock feather fronds; two sparkly branches; one bird; two decorative masks; and an owl candle holder. I blacked out from shopping that day, but the amount I spent on this decor was less than $75.00 (and that’s a high estimate).
Now it was time to assemble my creation. I waited until Erik went golfing so I could have uninterrupted fun. Like any good mantel-decorator, I started at the middle and worked my way out. I added height at the sides with my Spider Cider bottles, each containing a sparkly branch (purple and teal, of course), a peacock feather frond (again, purple and teal, of course) and a bird. You may have noticed I only purchased one bird; I have a large collection of fake feathered friends adorning one of our living room walls, so it was no trouble at all to find its closely matching mate!
The masks are probably my favorite part in all of this. They’re also completely wearable. I was impressed with Michael’s selection of masks. They had some nice leather ones but I wasn’t willing to spend $20.00+ on these. Maybe next year.
The leaf garlands did way more to pull all of this together than I had imagined. Plus, it doubles as great fall decor before I satisfy my Christmas itch!
I had a couple of tombstone pieces I’d gotten at Dollar Tree last year, along with stackable boxes and wind-up toys, and a lovely accordion fold ghost medallion. I like the balance between classy and campy. Trust me, it says a lot about my personality!
The whole thing
The Need to Be Clever 
Super cute!