A Little More Halloween Action

Now, I couldn't very well leave my Halloween wreath {from THIS post} hanging on the door and not get out the rest of my decorations, right?

And, as such, I can't just leave well enough alone, right? I have to go all "crazy woman" and buy more decorations. Because, let's face it, this is the first fall that I've had a front porch of my very own. Aaaaand so I went a little over-the-top.

I gave Hannah 33 seconds to fall asleep this afternoon for her nap and when she dilly dallied, I took that as a sign from above and loaded her into the car seat for our shopping adventure. Don't worry, though-- I made sure to bring some extra yummy snacks to act as bribery in case she realized her nap was postponed in the middle of a checkout line {that's always when meltdowns happen for us, it seems}.

I had an inkling as to where to find some straw bales and corn stalks in my general neighborhood, and I was right {for once}. They even accepted our American Express card. Thank the lucky stars. The only hitch in my giddy-up came when I tried to load the 2 dried corn stalks into my car. They didn't want to fit. . . at all. Anywhere. Hannah had some serious concerns when I kept shoving them closer and closer to her in her car seat, but she eventually decided they weren't going to attack her. A couple bent stalks later, I was able to shut the door.

Now for the big boy: the straw bale.

I eyed those monsters stacked clear to the barn roof and then glanced nervously at my trunk. It was gonna be close. Not to mention I might pop my baby out lifting one of them. . . and that's something I generally try to avoid. But, alas, there were no manly muscles to be found and so I got to work. Luckily, they weren't as heavy as I was expecting and it fit like a glove in my trunk.

After getting Nanny in bed once we got home {let's just say I used every yummy snack in my purse to keep "Haggatha" at bay}, I set to work transforming our front porch.

Keep in mind that I plan on adding some cute little carved pumpkins. . . just as soon as I convince my husband that a trip to a pumpkin patch followed by an evening of making an unholy mess in the kitchen is "fun". But in the meantime, I give you: the porch.



After taking these pictures, I added some classy fake pumpkins on the stairs but it was too dark to take more pictures. . . so please hold your applause for my fancy photo shop skills. 



A word of caution to this tale, my friends.

Your car will look like this when you're done and you will spend many agonizing minutes vacuuming it out all while blessing the soul that created the shop vac.





Be ye warned.

. . .

Oh, and just in case you all need further proof that I married a complete and total stud, the first words out of my husband's mouth when he got home from work was, "The front porch sure looks cute!"

I totally wouldn't have blamed him if, instead, he face-palmed it and asked how much I spent this time and if my credit card has caught fire yet. 

He even helped this poor wifey fix her wayward corn stalk. Cause you see, being the creative genius that I am, I decided that fishing line was going to hold Mr. Corn Stalk to the porch railing in the howling wind just dandy. Well, it didn't. So I batted my eyelashes at Chuck and provided him with some much-more-manly wire and he saved the day. I surely would have chopped off my finger with the side-cutters, if I even found them in the first place.

. . . .

So, if you need a moral of this story, it would probably be to have a little fun with your porch. Halloween comes but once a year and I can still remember the fun front porches from my childhood trick-or-treating days. . . so go on; create some memories for the kiddos in your neighborhood. :)
Oh, and bring manly muscles {and a truck} with you to pick out your bales/stalks. And don't use fishing line to tie your stalk to the railing. . . cause it will break.

The end.

P.S. I just thought I'd let you know that every fly in the vicinity thinks I'm the coolest kid on the block for hanging an entire wreath of candy outside for their enjoyment. So far they haven't conspired to carry it off, though. I'll keep you posted.