diy jack-o-lantern candle

Zombie candle returns from the dead: Upcycle a thrifted candle or less-than-perfect closet find.

Remake a damaged piece into Halloween decoration! This candle got a leeetle too warm in storage.

Warped candle, meet runcible spoon — handy stand-in until sculpting tools are located.

In progress…

Set up a work area. Protect surfaces from wax shavings that will ensue. Mark up a design on the damage face and start carving. Use a picture as a guide or your imagination.

Zombie pumpkin ready for table decoration!

The Three L’s of My Fall Mantel

Mantels can be as simple or as complicated as you want. They can follow a color story, theme or like mine, be a hodgepodge of collected items from over the years. I really only have one rule for my mantel: Everything MUST fit in one storage container.* It’s a mantel. Not a Christmas tree, but more on that some other time.
*Fall-specific decor, but feel free to pull other items from around the house. 

Yes, we all love elaborate mantels on Pinterest, but then you have to store all that sh*t, and let’s be honest; unless this is your first year, you have enough sh*t in your [insert storage space of choice]. Even if I buy something new, as I did this year, it means something must go if it all doesn’t fit. But I will say, I have a black belt in how to organize a store container. 

Otherwise, it’s game on. The rest is up to you, go for what feels good or have a plan. As a Virgo, I like lists and planning, so for me, I look for three simple things when putting together any decorated space: levels, layers, and light.

Levels 

This is a pretty basic one, but as a graphic designer in my professional life, I like to think about what you’re looking at from left to right and I don’t want it to be the same across the line. So I build things up to varying heights to give some visual interest. And no, that does not mean it has to be symmetrical. Unless that’s your preference and then, hey, good for you. For me, I spent a sh*t ton of time on this and I want you to look at it for a minute or two. It’s about the details. 

Layers 

While mantels are usually fairly shallow, you can fit way more on them than you think! Using things like wood crates, books or candle holders can be used for stacking and creating depth. Also don’t be afraid to let things hang off the edge or droop over if you need to. Maybe you put a pine cone at the bottom of a candlestick or a small pumpkin on top of a vase. Anyway you like it, use this tip for fitting more on your mantel. 

Light 

Yes, candles. But also think about where your natural light or light from your fixtures hits your mantel. Mixing metallics, glass, and other shiny things can also help give your mantel depth but reflect light into the smaller, darker spaces of your mantel. 

Color is another way to help direct light. When you think about colors, think about coordination and contrast. Lights next to darks, shiny next to flat. 

Just for fun, here is my list of random objects that I keep around and have sourced from all over. Thrift stores have a ton of great items, as do garage sales and yes, even Target and Big Lots. But I don’t think I’d go outfitting my mantel from a big box store. The trick for me is mixing it all together like you planned it. 

Ingredient list:

• Candlesticks

• Old books

• Garlands of any sort, paper, fake foliage or felt.

• Dried items

• Ceramics

• Wood

• Crates or containers

• Candles

• Candle holders

• Photos

• Pine cones

• And of course, Pumpkins, but not just real ones. Raffia ones, ceramic, glass, etc. After all, It’s decorative gourd season.

an autumnal meditation

This is the second Fall season of a pandemic that radically changed our lives in varying ways. Last year was rough. Not going to lie. We dug deep and found ways to move forward, to hold what was important more closely— but in new ways. We scrambled a bit trying to figure out how to newly create our treasured traditions and celebrations amongst strange, new constraints. We are not just talking sourdough bread baking, or plastic film hugging walls, but zoom rooms and screen meals and outside picnic parties with china. This year we have more time and wisdom on our sides. We can plan ahead, take the best that last year taught us — let’s go with more intentional, conscious decisions about what matters, who matters most, and how to put that, and them, altogether first, amen.

Meditation: What kind of Fall do YOU want? Drop down the Beauty lenses, activate the “everything is up for change” vision. Look around with those fresh eyes. "Have to”s for celebrations are out the window and a new way of doing sprawls before you. Time honored traditions are wearing new shoes, dancing to new tunes… Avoid the stores and maskless hordes and make your own fall decor! How about a Thanksgiving picnic? Who doesn’t love a turkey sandwich with cranberry relish? Oh, and hand pies… Leaf it to us, we’ll lead the way!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll drop some posts with how-tos for make-dos and make withs what you’ve got that last from the first of Fall through Thanksgiving…In the meantime, wrap yourself in everything Autumn, gather up some pods, and corn, and other naturey bits and bobs to bring inside to honor all you’ve weathered this year. Be gourd to yourself, punkin’, and each other.

It’s Fall, y’all!

September. Have we missed you! Babe, when you roll up on the calendar, you usher in the best months of the year. You bust in trailing leaves, crowned in fruits and grains, trays of goodies balanced against your bouncy bosom, handing out muffins, shouting "Fall, ya’ll!” You are here. Meteorologically speaking, and soon, astrologically as well. We’ve been holding in all of our gourd-related puns for so long we are about to burst. We want to dust the world in cinnamon and nutmeg — to orange up the decor and live our best pumpkin-spiced life! And, 90 degrees or no, we whip out our warmest, coziest throws and wish for it to last and last. But before we dive headfirst into a dog-poo-free leaf pile wearing our favorite sweater while sipping a spill-proof hot apple cider— a word, please.

The Big Boxes That Be are already pushing the great red and green consumer festivus on us, packing the shelves with jingle and jangle. We are here to throw that switch and turn the Christmas train right around. Let’s put the Ho ho holiday back in its box, right back up on the shelf in the closet of assorted celebratory gear, figuratively and mentally. Pause. Take THIS moment in. This glorious, pivotal, equinotic season. This stretch when time   turns   on its axis. The changes happening are a season all on their own. In this pause, make room— create some sacred space to celebrate the mercurial moments therein. Celebrate you. Celebrate yours. The Christmas train will be along to sweep us all up soon enough. For today, and for at least a few weeks hereafter, stop and take this all in. Celebrate the richness, the layers of senseplay abundantly available…the colors, the flavors, those sounds… the atavistic ingathering eyeing incoming winter, felt in the bones. Exit Persephone. Welcome pumpkinpalooza, yes, but also the transitions, the contemplative variations, of precious, fleeting Autumn.

We plan to share some fall-lovin ideas here to help you fill your days and homes. To note the moment. Stay tuned for simple, budget-friendly crafts, makes and alternative activities— with not a Box in sight. So, go ahead— start saving treasure leaves and gathering some sheaves from around your world. If you’re #blessed to live in an area where colors change, take advantage and enjoy those living canvasses.