Hello there! Let’s kick off the final 100 days of the year with some fall fun. First up…. The Cool Bloggers Postcard Club is officially underway. This arrived from Birchie and Kyria. from their meetup in Buffalo!
Soooo fun. I need to start sending out some postcards of my own.
As we all know, Sunday was the first official day of fall. I wanted to kick my fall celebrating up a notch, but couldn’t think what to do. I already have all my fall decor out, including orange lights strung across my bookshelves; I light a fall candle every day, drink my tea from a fall mug each morning, and have made pumpkin pasta, oatmeal, waffles and pancakes. Hmm.
My sister agreed that it was hard to top all that, and suggested that I get 100 pumpkins and put them in my front yard. Ha ha, that’s a GREAT idea! My husband would just love that, especially when they all start to rot in the hot sun. Obviously she was joking, but I can’t get the idea out of my mind. I texted my sister yesterday:
Every time I drive up to my house, I imagine 100 pumpkins in my front yard. I can just picture how it would look, and what the neighbors would be saying. I wonder if our HSA has regulations against such a thing? Well, it’s s nice fantasy.
As much as I love pumpkin season, I’m starting to get excited about Halloween! I follow a strict decorating schedule: September 1st- fall decor comes out. October 1st- most of the fall decor is replaced by Halloween decs. November 1st- Halloween things are sadly put away, and fall decor comes back with the addition of some specific Thanksgiving items.
I LOVE looking at the Halloween decorations in the stores, but I also have a rule for that: I’m only allowed to CONSIDER buying something if it has a black cat on it. I definitely don’t need any more Halloween stuff, but I do have a black cat theme going on, so if I see something with a black cat, I’m allowed to- possibly- buy it.
However, Suzanne recently had a super fun post all about ghost decorations she’s considering. They’re so cute! Maybe I need some ghosts for my front yard? I think I do! (Maybe I need 100 of them- just kidding.)
Wednesday is my day off, and I’m planning a trip to Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. Hobby Lobby isn’t a store I shop at often, but I usually go at this time of year, because they REALLY know how to do fall and Christmas. Unfortunately they don’t carry any Halloween items, so I’ll head to Michaels for that. I’m looking forward to a fun “browsing spree”- I’ll probably buy a couple things, but will mostly just enjoy looking at everything.
Do you enjoy browsing in stores? – I love it! That was probably the thing I missed most during Covid.
Do you put up Halloween decorations?
Any specific plans for the last 100 days of the year?
24 Responses
I like your “strict” schedule, Jenny. It’s kinda what I follow too… Except I haven’t gotten around to putting fall stuff out yet… I have a big social event (a baby shower) I’ll have to decorate for on Saturday, so I’ll do fall dec on Sunday.
I really used to like it when stores had a kind of schedule too… Right now, most stores already have their CHRISTMAS dec out, and it’s really messing with me big time!
The stores have definitely gone berserk. Halloween stuff comes out in July (in some stores.) I’ve been seeing Christmas stuff everywhere. That’s okay- my house is on my “strict” schedule and I will not stray!
I love your enthusiasm and your dedication to all the autumn festivities. We’re on very different planets on this topic – I’m a minimalist and absolutely no seasonal decoration makes it into our apartment. In fact, very little decoration at all. We’re so minimalist, that sometimes people think we’re in the middle of moving and have packed everything. 😂
Having said that, I do love seeing your dedication – I wouldn’t be surprised if you would have 100 pumpkins in your front yard!!
Yes, we are definitely opposites in this regard! I wouldn’t mind being more of a minimalist in everyday life- but not around the holidays : )
Catrina, I think we could be roomies! I once had a friend come over and ask me where all of my pictures were. What pictures, I asked. She said that it looked like nobody “lived” in my house because it was so impersonal!
We usually put up Halloween decorations – my husband has an over-the-top mode that goes into overdrive, although it was more so in Calgary, where he’d compete with a neighbour for the best lawn display. But not this year! We won’t be here for Halloween because we will be in ITALY. I’m so excited.
I am using my many garden pumpkins somewhat decoratively but the thing is that I don’t want to re-attract the bears to my yard. It feels like pumpkins might be yummy for them, I don’t know. All the grapes have been harvested so they are mostly not around, and I don’t want to jinx that.
Well, I know dogs and cats like pumpkins, so bears might too. Maybe you need to use your garden pumpkins for the inside of your house. And- i remember your lavish Halloween displays (and your husband’s competition with the neighbor, ha ha.) Well- Italy sounds amazing for this year!
Wow, I am really falling behind on my pumpkin game. Not only do I not have any real pumpkins on display, I haven’t had a single pumpkin-flavoured item yet this season!
Elisabeth, you have plenty more time! According to my strict schedule (I didn’t mention this part) Christmas things don’t come out till after Thanksgiving. And American Thanksgiving is pretty late this year. You’ve got a couple more months!
Sprouts (and Trader Joe’s) always have the best selection of fall foods! I have to hold myself back from buying all of it, but fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, a lot of it isn’t vegan, but there are definitely still plenty of treats to be had.
I don’t have a lot of fall or Halloween decor, but I do have a few of those sugar skull succulent planters from Trader Joe’s and I actually just bought this cute Thanksgiving pillow for $5 at Target! I like that you have a theme to your Halloween decor, and hopefully you can find more black cat stuff to add!
I know- I can never decide if it’s fortunate or unfortunate that most of the fall stuff at Trader Joe’s is not vegan. Overall it’s probably a good thing.
Jenny, as I mentioned above, I am in the Catrina camp for this one! I love your decorations though; I just had no desire to put up and take down things in my home. My parents are huge Christmas fans, and have homemade decorations (painted wood cutouts, ornaments, you name it) and I always enjoy going home for that reason.
I do celebrate fall with lots of apple and pumpkin treats though, so I am not a full on Scrooge!
Okay, I’m glad you’re not a fall scrooge! I’ll agree with you that it’s a lot of work putting everything up and taking it down. Especially for Christmas- I HATE putting all the Christmas stuff away- it’s a lot of work to make the house look sad and drab again.
We DO put up Halloween decorations. I’ll probably put them up this weekend (it’s close enough to October in my mind) and we’ll take them down the first weekend in November. We have black candles for all the street-facing windows, a giant spider and web light for the picture window, and purple and orange rope lights for the pillars on our front porch. We also have a few indoor things (a Halloween nightlight and a spiderweb hang-y thing). It’s ON starting this weekend. Eventually we’ll get some mini-gourds and put them on the front steps.
I do not enjoy browsing in stores because that means I have to leave my house. I think we all know where I stand on that.
I like the sound of your decorations! Very spooky and festive. And yes- I guess it’s hard to browse in stores if you don’t like to go out. I don’t think you’re missing out on a whole lot though.
It was so fun to send the postcards!
I don’t go shopping very often, but when I do I’m much more into gawking at the shelves than actually buying anything. It’s fun!
Hubs is our seasonal decorator and our Halloween collection has grown in the past few years. He and the kids made some tombstones for the yard and he’s got a nice collection of bones.
Last year my 100 day plan was to start doing pushups and a year later I’m still at it! I don’t have a specific Last 100 Days of 2024 plan. But I’ll start daydreaming about it and maybe an idea will come to me.
Ooh, I like the sounds of those Halloween decs! And, that’s a great example of a 100 day plan that had great results. I need to come up with something like that.
I love browsing in stores, ESPECIALLY Michael’s. We also have Joann Fabric here (and Hobby Lobby but I have never shopped there!) and I love wandering around all the aisles, thinking about all the POSSIBILITY and ogling the decorations and wondering if I’m too old to develop an interest in sewing.
We have a local supermarket that has fun decor in their flower shop section and I fell in LOVE with some of their decorative pumpkins today. They were much too expensive, but I did look at them longingly.
I love browsing stores that I would be interested to buy, clothing stores not anymore. I like to browse stationary stores, cooking equipment, serving bowls, etc.
Please share all your pumpkin recipes! I love them all.
I love pumpkins and gnomes and so they are scattered around my house..
And at Traders Joes… I bought everything pumpkin. Not kidding.
Next 100 days… staying healthy to be able to run/race.
There is a house by Taco’s daycare that might come close to having 100 pumpkins and they are all carved!! It is incredible. I like to drive by and just stop and admire the display. They also put out a ton of decorations for Christmas. It’s so fun! But we have no decorations sadly. I have some purple spider lights for our fireplace mantel that I will put up at the beginning of October.
I’m doing a Hobby Lobby shopping adventure this weekend! I was driving home yesterday and saw a 40% off fall decor advertisement at Hobby Lobby, which is just what I needed to see! HA. I love their sales.
100 pumpkins could be fun! Maybe not real pumpkins, though, because yes, Florida weather is not conducive to real pumpkins. SIGHHHH.
I do love your very strict decoration schedule! I usually just leave the fall/Halloween decorations out from Sept-mid Novemberish. And then I go straight into Christmas!
We do put up Halloween decorations (now if I only could remember where I put the cardboard bats for my big window). I am with you on store browsing – it’s so fun. I wish I was less on a schedule doing it. These days I always have to be somewhere, sigh.
I don’t put up Halloween decorations and I usually only get one big pumpkin for the front porch but I have seen houses with the display similar to Sprouts – so fun! 🙂
I do love browsing stores but only if there are no crowds.