Part 2 of my Black & White Fall/Halloween decor plus a new Holiday Give Away!

So dear blogging friends and readers as promised in my last post here is part 2 of the Black & White Fall/Halloween decor this year. 

Let's best start downstairs in my parlor with the mantle. I put an old wooden window frame inside the mantle with a white plank behind so that I have a good contrasting background for my black cardboard birds. 

Then I added a great thing my neighbor found and I call it the iron cemetery or castle gate which is now holding the witches broom and 2 paper skelleton guards.

On top of the mantle I added an old camera that I put on top of 2 stacked old books and then put an old clockface in a vintage wire flower frog on top of the camera and around it I grouped several vintage alarmclocks showing midnight - the witching hour. Then I worked in pairs again and put two black IKEA lanterns on 2 glass pedestals on either side and then two white chenille pumpkins in 2 glass bowls and so on shown further down this post. I love the black glittered Boo sign I recently found on etsy and the ancestors garland which my blogging friend Tina created and also he reflection of my black bird garland in the white mirror.

 

A close up of the vintage camera:

 

  

Another very big black crow/raven is just about to fly away from a real pastel green pumpkin sitting on the here so called Dschungel grass in another glass pedestal:

 

  It stands on my white dining table in front of the mirror which is decorated with many more decorative pumpkins, especially my beloved creme white baby boos:

 

 They are placed in bowls or on plates on a grey table runner in the middle of the table so that there is still enough space to sit and eat, or if necessary I can easily put them elsewhere to have the middle space free again for bowls of food.

 

The decor is often changing around here while the season is progressing. For example did I exchange the black chalkboard that was saying Happy Fall for this great wrapping paper saying Happy Halloween when I received a fabulous Halloween parcel from my dear blogging friend Julia from Albania. Wanna see what she sent me? Well of course I just have to share it! First of all the sweet heart that she is she sent me 3 old bed springs, knowing how much I wanted these and never found them around here so far. Further 3 tiny wasp nests that I also wanted so badly too and seeing the great creator of beautiful things that Julia is she included some great handmade items like the Undertaker coffin pillow you might have seen on her blog already and the most beautiful paper tags:

 

 And she also created one of her wonderful fabric pumpkins for me that I admired so much over on her blog a few weeks ago. As always the details of Julia's work are amazing, it has a perfect shape and just look at the stem and sweet mini tags she added to it! I'm madly in love with it!

 

I also totally love the round chip box she has embellished from the inside and outside and sent the tiny wasp nests in. It even has a "31" inside the lid (not shown in the pics because the outside of the lid is so fabtastic). Oh and btw the most creepy thing ( a true Halloween moment!) happened when I opened the chip box with the wasp nests, a little black Albanian spider ran out of it, hiding quickly inside of the wrapping paper which also had black spiders on it "EEK"! Since I didn't expect a real spider in the box of course I was startled and even a bit horrified, but just for a moment lol, then I took the paper outside the open parlor door into the garden and released the tiny spider there. When I told my daughter about this incident she said: "Oh the poor thing will have a language problem now" Which made me laughing out loud - thinking oh yes German is a difficult language that's for sure and so might be Albanian which I don't now yet. Anyway Julia couldn't have made this Halloween moment any better, even if she would have planned it. I assume the tiny spider just lived inside one of the wasp nests little wholes and so came to an unexpected travel from Albania to Germany :)

 Of course after I told Julia about this little incident she said that it probably is a specimen of the rare Arachnia Albania which are getting 35 cm huge. Argh now how mean was that? I should have been warned not to open the chip box seeing that there already is a picture of a spider on top of the lid!

 Well after I got Julia's parcel I was inspired to use the small space between my mantle and the old armoire for a Halloweenish Apothecary installement:

I  incorporated the 3 beautiful tags as well as the coffin pillow and the chip box with the wasp nests of course! Thank you so much dear Juls for all the inspiring black & white Halloween goodies you made for me and of course for the black masks, b&w straws, wasp nests and bed springs too! I love it all very much!!! If you happen to not know Julia yet ( but I think if you read my last post you must now her by now) then hop over and visit her at her blog Vintage with laces for more fabulous inspiration! I'm eagerly waiting right now for her next blog post about her own black and white Halloween creations & decorations because everything she already told me about sounds just to spooky cool!

 

 The Halloween book in the back of the shelf, the round paper tags, the soldered pendant and the witchified cabinet cards are some of my creations from Halloweens past which I still like and had to use again.

Directly vis à vis the Apothecary shelf stands this spooky shelf consisting out of old crates on top of an old rusty trunk.

 I filled a terrarium with a white ceramic skull and bone hand lying in a moss bed -  He died in 1892 as you can see he he. At night I put a flickering tea light inside of the skull which made it look very creepy! I hope to get some good shots of it soon or Halloween eve at the latest.

I also printed out some magic book covers on brown paper and put the so magified books under the witch lantern:

And here is another shot of my dining table like it is looking right now with the pumkins on top of the bed springs and some branches out of the garden painted white to have a place for the black birds to land on.

And a wider shot of the top of the mantle all dressed in black and white now and of course I'd love to hear how you come to like it?

 On top of my couch table I have another (not spooky just fallish) pumpkin vignette which I think looked especially nice bathing in the warm October sun light:

 As well as this white 3 tiered chandelier in the corner beside the big window does which I filled amongst other things with 4 fabric "no sew" pumpkins that I made out of white muslin gaze and twine filled with cotton wool:

 

Oh and last week I forgot to show you this black and white Halloween cone I  made and hung in one of my studio windows upstairs:

and also my little black Boo house with a tiny glittered cat and white owl on top of the roof:

And last but not least Riley the Boxwood Cottage tabby finally sleeping in his basket in my studio which he always used to reject before, usually prefering all kind of boxes.

Now my dear friends and readers if you will be so kind to tell me in the comment section under this or my last post, which picture with b & w Halloween creations or decor of this post or my last post from 10 days ago you like best and why, you can win a glass glittered Christmas treat that I made along with a hand made soldered Christmas pendant, so that you have something new to decorate for the Holiday season. Since I totally forgot my 8 year bloggiversary last month I think it's high time for a new blog give away and perhaps I'll chose even more than one winner, depending on the number of comments. I'll announce the winner(s) in my next post which will probably be at the end of this month or the beginning of November.

Until then I hope you'll all have some fabulous days counting up to  

H A L L O W E E N

xoxo~ Carola

I'll be sharing this post with:

The Be Inspired Friday party over at Debra's Common Ground blog
Feathered Nest Friday over at Coutney's French Country Cottage blog 
Shabbilicious Friday over at Kerryanne's Shabby Art Boutique blog
Broomsticks on a Bayou blogparty over at Anna's Frosted Petunias blog

What's it Wednesday over at Paula's and Pattie's Ivy at the Elephants
Blissful Whites Wednesday over at Becky's Timewashed blog

Knick of Time Tuesday over at Angie's Knick of Time blog