Fall and Halloween Decorating

I love to decorate for the seasons.  I change curtains, I switch up floral displays, change the tablecloth, just little things, to get my home into the spirit of the season.  For Fall I change my linen curtains to a rusty copper color which reminds me of orange leaves.  I add autumn leaf garlands on my table and anywhere I think need a splash of color.  Of course outside is where the real fun is, every year I try to add something new to the collection of yard decor.  I love the grave breaker characters normally would have all over my lawn if I could, but the lawn service guy doesn't appreciate having to be extra careful around my decoration so I try to keep them confine to manageable area near the front porch.  After Halloween, I will remove the scary stuff and replace them with scarecrows while keeping the fall foliage and pumpkins to continue into the Thanksgiving Holidays.

To Carve or Not to Carve

It's almost time for us to purchase our pumpkins for Halloween decorations and every year we struggle to decide whether we will paint or carve our pumpkins. The kids enjoy the fun of cleaning out the pumpkins guts as we call it and enjoy the roasted seeds, but I hate the mess and find that pumpkins are more susceptible to the elements and rot faster. I prefer painting my pumpkins, they last much longer and if I don't like it, I can basecoat the whole thing and repaint.

Here are some pretty painted pumpkins from Good Housekeeping



Here are gorgeous carved pumpkins also from Good Housekeeping
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/holiday-ideas/halloween-decorating-ideas-1007


What do you prefer? Carving or Painting?