Halloween decor Archives - Northern California Style

It’s finally feeling like a real fall here! I love fall weekends and there’s a lot going on now. We are going to the take our boys to the first NASA open house ever this weekend. My husband got tickets long ago and they have been waiting for this. Some wonderful women including my friend Kim and many others will be running the Nike Marathon in San Francisco this weekend. Go Kimmy! So great they do that.

Mostly, I’m elated because we are actually getting WEATHER!!! I took this ground pic accidentally today and check it out.. Leaves!! (I love my zebra Tom’s too.)

Around these parts there has been no weather to speak of for a long, long while. Let me tell you it is possible to get sick of sandals and shorts. I want to wear some sweaters, scarves, and boots and not have the feeling I may be experiencing a hot flash or something!

Pumpkins have been put out…

I’ve got my witch hat ready..

We get out for a rare school night date. Jerry Seinfeld was in town and we didn’t want to miss it. We are diehard Seinfeld fans and he didn’t disappoint. We laughed for 2 hours straight! Hilarious observations on parenting and being married from Jerry.

On other cool things, I just have to share this beautiful book I got in the mail. It’s seriously the best eye candy and home inspiration I have seen in a while and it’s not Pinterest. That’s right, I don’t need my readers to enjoy it. 😉 Real paper here people!

The book is called The Well-Dressed Home. They recently had the author and designer, Annette Tatum as a guest tastemaker or whatever they call it on One King’s Lane, and that’s how I found the book. Don’t buy it there though. They aren’t shipping it until mid-November for some reason..They do have it hardcover on Amazon for around $14 though. You may want to visit Annette’s beautiful site. She’s based in Santa Monica and I love her taste.

This book helps you decide what your home style is. Thing is, I wanted to be them all..

Eco-Eclectic? Sounds like me….

Though I really loved Casual Romantic!

But wait, I’m kind of Resort too!!

Eclectic Modern?

Eclectic Bohemian!! (Well, I just want to look like that.)

All joking aside though, it takes the visuals that appeal to you and helps you hone your style into a home that is uniquely you. Just a pleasure to read and I possibly have multiple personalities… Or I’m just scattered, as I have been told. Still, a terrific home decor book.

You can find it now on Amazon here.

I though it looked kind of nice on my blue desk.

I also have some of my favorite pics on the desk. Love this old sweet one of my guys.

The boys are growing so fast and much is happening…This fall especially with the high schooler. Being a junior means learning to drive, college visits, planning for tests, hard classes and the darn Homecoming or Coro (short for coronation) as it’s called here. I had a friend post something on Facebook on how much stress it is for girls – the drama of dances, etc. She remarked the boys just have to ask and then worry about the Homecoming game score.

It isn’t like that at all in my home. In fact, quite the opposite. I don’t know if it’s like this where you live, but here boys are expected to not only ask the girl they want, but to do it in a very dramatic and public fashion. At our school, it has been things like writing it on their chests, delivering flowers to class while asking, or in the middle of a football game or during lunch time in front of everyone!

It’s more than most husband’s did to ask their wives’ hands in marriage and is frankly a stupid and intimidating ritual. It scares the heck out of many boys who have a hard enough time getting the nerve up to just ask. Imagine also being the girl. What if you want to say no? How embarassing and harder in such a public forum. Frankly, I wish our school would do away with it. After trying this once as a Freshman, my son has just decided to opt out of the whole process. I’m not even addressing all the the stress about what group you are going to go with, where to have a fancy dinner, and also what parents are offering their beautiful and photo-worthy home to do the group photos at? It’s enough to make a lot of kids run for cover. Isn’t it hard enough being a teen in today’s world? Is it crazy like this elsewhere? I’d just like to know!

In the middle schooler’s world, there was school spirit day this week.

Griffin and friend Abby are in the purple group this year. Three color groups compete for best spirit.

I believe he may be going with a slight purple tinge for a while.

There’s a lot of great Halloween decorating around here. I love it.

My friend Aimee had one of the cutest ideas. I love her bats….

These are made of felt and she stapled them to the house. Really cute.

Aimee is one of the kindest people and in her hand is a darling baby kitten.
She fosters feral kittens who need to be with people and not in a shelter, so they make good pets.

This sweet baby is Tigger and he is alone. His brother didn’t make it and Tigger himself had to have a toe taken off. He walks with a bowlegged walk, but is doing well thanks to her care. Two other friends I know also foster pets. It’s such a nice thing to do. Is he not precious?

Wishing you all a lovely fall weekend and some sweater weather!

Kim

Our cat Marlo, making the house look Halloween ready, though she’s being naughty sitting on the table.

This important news flash… Halloween is just around the corner! Really. Yeah, I should have done this post earlier. Are you properly decorated yet? And more importantly, have you seen the Great Pumpkin on t.v.??

Here’s some of the bits and bobs around my place that the children and I have thrown up in honor of the holiday. I actually have a lot of black accents in house, so sometimes just chucking in the orange is all I need to do. Luckily, orange is very chic right now.

Our entry hall. I added my witch hat, a broom and some snake and nature books.

The front door. The boys put so much web up, no one could get through. We had to modify a little…

As much as I love glass pumpkins, the real ones are so lovely, so I stock up on lots. I get a whole assortment, mostly from Trader Joes and wherever they’re cheap. Then I use them through Thanksgiving and do harvest themed decorating. It basically looks the same, except I rip down the webs and ghosts!

My living room mantel.

Our stoop.

One little tradition we have done since the boys were small, is construction paper window decorations. I think this came from my childhood. I remember everyone having pumpkins and ghosts taped to their windows….do you? The last rainy weekend we had, my husband got the kids started on it and we all made them together. It was a cozy afternoon. I think they look adorable from the windows. It’s a way of saying children live here and I love that!