Haunting Halloween Easy Decorating Ideas

Leaves in hues of red, orange and yellow...witches, vampires, ghosts, bats, skeletons, pumpkins, and scarecrows are the signs that Fall and Halloween are upon us. We grew up in Towanda, PA, nestled in the heart of the Endless Mountains, where the colors of Fall abound! It was such a beautiful time of year, even though we knew that the whiteness of snow would soon follow. Although the colorful leaves and white snow paint a pretty picture, there is a lot of work to cleaning up those gifts from Mother Nature. We were young and naive and for a 50 cents would rake the leaves or shovel the snow.

Fall Festivals and Halloween celebrations are also a big part of the beautiful Fall season. Back then, we made our own costumes and could safely go around the whole town gathering candy and homemade goodies. Everyone made decorations for their homes and the stores even had window painting contests. The Halloween parade was a huge deal with floats made by every school and community organization, bands from high schools throughout the county, and kids, adults, and animals marching for prizes. Oh, the good old days!

Things are very different nowadays, with store bought costumes, trick or treating only in the safety of your neighborhood, and very few towns having a parade. Thankfully, people still decorate with pumpkins, black cats, bats, corn stalks, monsters, witches, spiders and ghosts. Some people even put up their Christmas decorations before the snow and cold weather arrive and the towns start to take on a magical glow from all the lights and decorations.

Though no longer homemade, one nice thing about the decorations people use today is that they can be recycled from year to year and left up longer than the decorations of yesteryear. Regal Art and Gift has designed some fun and colorful characters and decor that are durable enough for the outdoors, but elegant enough to grace the inside of your home and even be a centerpiece for a table.

Welcome your guests and trick or treaters, with a welcome sign that can be hung on a sign post, a fence, a wall, or a door. Keep several with one for each season of year, then you will have a beautiful display that is easy to update with each holiday or season. Spook up your foyer or front of your house, with some colorful and cute pieces of 3-D wall art.

Decorative garden stakes come in many sizes and shapes and can be "planted" in your garden or yard or can be displayed on your porch or in your home, in a special stand. The jiggle stakes and jiggle wings stakes, and they do jiggle, can be grouped together in your yard or stuck in a planter to peek out amongst the leaves. If you have a big pumpkin that you'd like to spiff up, then stick some of the jiggle stakes into the top of the pumpkin, for a cute outdoor decoration on your porch or front yard.

With three sizes of pumpkin lanterns you can make a beautiful display that will last forever. There is room for battery operated candles to make your pumpkins light up and delight young and old, while not being a fire hazard. Add a sculpted 3-D metal black cat to your pumpkins for Halloween, then pack up the cat and leave the pumpkins out for Fall and into Thanksgiving.

No matter how you celebrate or how you decorate, Halloween is just one of those fun holidays that gets us ready for the whirlwind of the continuous celebrations between the end of October into the New Year.

Shop for all of these haunting (but cute) decorations
in our Shop at Clares store.

Tailgating - A Sport Within A Sport

We are talking about the parking lot parties at sporting events and not referring to an annoying and dangerous driving habit! No longer reserved for pre-game celebrations, these food fests continue during and after the games, with some people never setting foot in the stadium. And why not, sometimes the tailgating parties are better than the games, especially if your team is losing? Foods can range from burgers and soda to caviar and champagne - it doesn't matter what you serve, but always take a little more than you think you need, as you will surely meet some friends to share your fare. Plus you will be eating all day, especially if there are delays or overtime involved in your sport.

Coolers come in all sizes, shapes, and materials. We like the coolers on wheels and love them even more when they include complete table service, but we adore the Vulcan Portable Tailgating Grill Set by Picnic Time with a cooler, a grill, and BBQ utensils all packed on one wheeled cart. As far as BBQ utensils, for tailgating purposes, you will need tongs, a fork, and a turner. Having these tools in a handy carry case is especially nice for safety and ease of transportation.

Although commercials would lead one to believe that sports fans only drink beer, this is definitely not the case (pun intended). Beer, wine, cocktails, soda, and coffee all need to be considered as refreshments and all need to be portable. For the beer, wine coolers, and sodas Picnic Time has a Neoprene Insulated Six Pack Tote that will allow you to move around the parking lot and take your drinks with you. The wine and liquor bottles are more difficult to travel with, but anything from a single bottle tote to a six bottle carrier on wheels will make that job easier. Picnic Time has designed the Manhattan Leatherette Case that has the martini glasses and bar accessories packed neatly inside. Thankfully, MIU France designed elegant and practical stainless steel wine and martini glasses that won't break should you get too excited and knock them over. For the coffee lover, the best thing is Picnic Time's Shoulder Tote Java Express Set for 2, which is especially nice if you don't like drinking out of Styrofoam. Besides keeping your coffee hot it can be used for those non-party times... called work.

Chairs should be portable, comfortable, and functional - Picnic Time makes the ultimate sports chair that meets all of these requirements. With attached side tables and a pocket organizer for storage and these chairs are sturdy enough to hold a 300 pound sports fan. Should you need extra room to set out food, a portable folding picnic table does the trick and you can use the seats for serving or for sitting.

Along with seating, you will need a couple of blankets with a waterproof backing to use for warmth, as a cushion, as a tablecloth and as a cover in case of rain or snow. For those ticket holders sitting on bench style seats take along a padded stadium seat or a folded blanket for your bottomly comfort.

Use the links below to view our favorite Tailgating Products:

Wine & Spirit Totes
Coffee & Tea Thermos
BBQ Grills & Utensils
Coolers & Totes
Sports Chairs
Picnic Tables
Waterproof Blankets
Portable Cocktail Sets