Balloons in my backyard and decorating for Halloween...it must be that time again.

I am still exhausted from the past weekend and its Friday (ready for another long weekend?).  On Sunday  after driving my neighbors to the airport at 6am and taking care of the zoo at my sister's house, I came home to frantic dogs...well, one frantic dog and one wondering what the heck was wrong with the other dog.  Apparently, our neighborhood is a hot air balloon landing site.

View across the street

View of low flying balloon

With the cool weather in the mornings the hot air balloons have been out in mass numbers and this weekend kicks off the 2012 International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

It was around this time, taking pics out side my house, that I thought "I should put out my Halloween decorations".

We hung a lighted web outside and put out ceramic pumpkins...

Web and spider closeup

What the web looked like from the living room

I also went to work decorating the inside.

Painted tequila skulls I found at Cost Plus 

I only added the skull and an extra bird...the rest is out all year round

I made the feather wreath, that was above the fireplace, using 4 cheap feathered boas from Hobby Lobby, a tube of foam plumbing insulation from Home Depot and a bird I picked up from Wal Mart.  The whole thing was less than $20.  I plan on buying a wreath form next year and rewrapping the boas around it.  At that point, I will hot glue them down.  

Wreath materials, ignore the glue gun and spider (I didn't end up using them)

I cut, stuffed and duct taped the tubing into a wreath shape.

Sake photo bombing my tutorial pic

I then spray painted the wreath form black, before wrapping the boas around it so the gray wouldn't show through.

 I then just tied them on, tucking the ends up under each other.

Saki photo bombed my wreath

 I tucked the bird in the center and tied a bow at the top to finish it off.  I think it looks pretty nifty.  

Next week, Halloween pillows out of tea towels and maybe, just maybe I will talk about cooking my first pot of beans (so simple, I don't know why I hadn't done it sooner).

Enjoy the foods of your labor.  :-)