Halloween Mantle o' Doom

14 days 'til Halloween!


The moment you've all been waiting for has arrived. The big reveal of my Halloween mantle o' doom! Growing up we always stuck "o' doom" after mundane things in order to make them sound more sinister and exciting. "Pork chops o' doom" sounds a lot more intriguing than having plain old pork chops for dinner, doesn't it? No? Guess it's just me.

I may not actually have a mantle ('o doom or otherwise) but I wasn't about to let that stop me from putting together my very own Halloween pseudo mantle just like all of the other fabulous ones I've seen cropping up on blogs these past few weeks. I cleared off space on a tall dresser in my sewing room that I thought would be perfect to house and highlight some of our creepiest decor. I should preface this by saying that in our home we love Halloween and all things spooky enough that we keep our Halloween decorations out all year long. Where others might have sweet snapshots of the family or replications of Monet's finest work we've got skulls, vampires, and creepy crawlies. That's why I was so eager to get this right because I know we'll keep this up even after Halloween has come and gone.


I've already highlighted some of the items you'll see here in my posts about the alien invasion silhouette plate, the cheap and easy cloche, the spooky framed pictures, and the tree branch vase. Most of the other items are from our permanent collection. In fact, I had to clear a bunch of Halloween decorations off of the dresser to make room for the new ones. I think we might be at the point now where we need to start packing some away in storage and rotating them in and out periodically. I guess we suffer from Halloween overload in our house!


Other items on the mantle o' doom that you may find noteworthy:

• The tall Dracula candlestick holder you see lurking in the back on the left side was found at Home Goods a few years ago.


• The skull and crossbones cloche was a lucky find at a post-Halloween Target sale.


• The googly-eyed puppets propped up in the Target candlestick holder (useless for holding candles but still pretty at 50% off) were a gift from someone I don't like very much (husband's ex) but they're so cool that I don't want to ditch them because of their inauspicious origin. Even if I do have to put up with the constant reminder.


• The skull picture stand with the Dracula sticker was from Target last year, I believe. Do you see a Target trend here?


• The sleek black rat is actually a candle I found highly discounted after Halloween at Old Navy. I think it wound up being around $2. Old Navy seems to start their Halloween markdowns before Halloween so if anything's left after they get aggressive and go for 75% off or better.


• The tiny grey hooded figurine holding his heart in his hands was one a series of figurines we bought at Five Below. We've got a whole row of his brothers and sisters in front of our TV.

When arranging everything I had to be mindful of the fact that two of our cats use this dresser as a perch from which they can survey their kingdom. I had to make sure to leave enough space for that and couldn't put up any sort of runner or slippery cloth that could cause them trouble. Ideally the items would be spaced out more evenly and I'd use that darkened cheesecloth I found at the Dollar Store for added texture, but it is not to be. Yes, we spoil our cats in our house. But even spoiled cats are less trouble than actual children so I figure it's a fair trade off.

Here's lookin' at you, kid