.

I absolutely adore Halloween, I am one of those people who starts preparing for it in August, buy all the decorations available, dresses up their dog and throws crazy theme parties with costume contests. Halloween is my thing.

This year, however, Halloween is a no go. As Melbourne still in stage four lockdown, we’re not aloud to have people over. I confess I’m a bit lost and I quite don’t know what to do with myself these days. Any given year, I would be running around, racing against the clock to have everything ready for the big day.

We usually have a theme party, last year was our 10th wedding anniversary (yes, I got married on Halloween) so we had a masquerade ball. The year before, we had a freak show circus with all the characters made from pool noodles and paper mache. Two years ago, a serial killer den with body parts, blood splatters and rusty weapons everywhere. Arachnophobia, witches coven, zombie apocalypse, crazy asylum, we’ve done more themes than American Horror Story.

.

So here I am in 2020, themeless, partiless, but never Halloweenless. I decorated this little corner as a traditional pumpkin-y orange scheme with decorations I collected over the years and beloved gifts from friends and family who always “thought of you” whenever they see Halloween stuff.

Bellow I’ve selected a few items* that are similar to my little display to get you inspired to celebrate Halloween as well. My favorites are the Canterbury book with a collection of classic horror tales from Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker to H.P. Lovecraft; the Lenore doll from cartoonist Roman Dirge and the gnome-pumpkin doll, a gift from my friends all the way from the US of A. He had weird looking eyes, so I sewn buttons a lá Coraline on it for a more creepy vibe.

To complete the orange theme I was going for, I added a few bits and bobs I found around the house, like cheap-y plastic halloween pumpkins filled with battery operated candles, a Rubik’s cube with the orange side facing out, a bottle of Absolut Vodka Mandarin flavour, some coffee mugs, some pens and pencils that match the color scheme and finally a filled a pretty jar with orange M&M’s.