In the Mood for Halloween: My Fave Festive Fall Decor, Drinks, Nail Art and More!

 I just love holidays, decorating for them and making the home look festive. Much to my husband's chagrin, I'm that person who on October 1st already has the decorations out. It's not his fault, he grew up in France where they don't celebrate Halloween.  So while he is always asking Why?....I answer why not? At least our son enjoys them as much as I do so now it's two against one 😝 

  

Halloween Charcuterie Board by How We Live

Find a festive fabric and drape across your table and then add a skeleton hand and scatter plastic spiders throughout your charcuterie board. Make sure to use seasonal ingredients like figs, carrots, apples, beets to get a lot of fall color on your board.

Prosciutto and cold cuts skull

I saw this prosciutto draped skull at a halloween party I went to last year. So clever and so easy!

 Picture courtesy of Everyone Creations

Black Widow Cocktail is an easy punch made out of blackberries and vodka. I love a festive drink but don't love anything that involves food coloring or something that's going to stain my teeth. Love that this is festive while still employing natural not artificial flavors.

 

Take a plastic glove and fill it up with water and then freeze it. Cut off the bag et voilà, a frozen dismembered hand to keep your punch cool!

Black Velvet Cupcakes by Sugar and Charm

I'm making these Black Velvet cupcakes for a Halloween party I'm going to. I have a ton of googly eyes and think this is such a cute and tasty way to use them up. This recipe does use black food coloring which I"m on the fence about. I think they would still be cute with chocolate or white cream cheese frosting.

FOR THE KIDDOS:

Love this healthy Halloween snack idea. Halving bananas and adding mini chocolate chip eyes and clementines peeled with celery stems.

As much as I try to be healthy, I'm often (mostly) out voted by my son who like all other kids loves sugary drinks and candy. If you go that route, this is a pretty cute way to do it. Love the use of the skeleton to showcase the sweets.

Layered Candy Corn Punch by Easy Peazy Mealz

Now admittedly candy corn candy is gross, but it looks cool and is a Halloween standard. My son loves it so I think he would enjoy this take on a candy corn punch. Begin with layering the drink with the heaviest sugar content on the bottom, and layer up from there to the lightest sugar content. For example, orange soda, then yellow Gatorade and then lastly, a flavored sparkling water. Be careful when pouring them so that they don't mix. An easy way to do that is by adding lots of crushed ice in the beginning and pouring in the drink layers from the side to keep the ice from getting saturated with color.

 Wanna go a more natural route? Try experimenting with blood orange Italian soda and lemonade or orangina. Even if you do go the traditional soda route, I doubt it's the worst thing that the kids are going to eat, it's Halloween after all and sometimes you just gotta live a little!

 

NO CARVE PUMPKINS!

Love, love, love a no carve pumpkin idea and this couldn't be easier with wrapping string around the pumpkin and adding a spider. I will even venture to say that these involve ingredients that just about every household already has so no need to purchase new stuff for just one project.  After halloween you can remove the string and repurpose the pumpkins for Thanksgiving decor. 

While I like the no carve idea, my son prefers carving so we end up doing it anyways. One trick my mom taught me is to put the carved pumpkin overnight in the fridge and remove it  just for when it's in use and then back in the fridge. It helps to slow down the decomposition. I'd say you can get close to a week out of it this way. Another tip I came across is to douse the carved pumpkin in a 1 tsp bleach to 1 gallon water mix and let dry upside down. Spritz with 2 tbsp vinegar, 1 tsp lemon juice, and 1 quart water solution to keep it going.

This is a chic take on the melted crayon technique. You can paint the pumpkin first or choose a white pumpkin and then drip paint on the top and let it fan it's way down over the sides. Could even go goth and scary and do a dripping blood one. The possibilities are endless!

This is a painted no carve pumpkin I made. I stamped on a leaf pattern and then free painted it in. Looks cute but took forever. I must admit I enjoyed doing it though. So if you are like me and love painting mindlessly while listening to music or watching tv, this craft is for you!

 

SIMPLE DIY HALLOWEEN NAIL ART

This seasonally appropriate mani  looks chic and festive with the matte polish and is an easy diy nail art. Paint your nails a crimson red and then using a makeup wedge sponge paint on a darker red and then black at the tip and dab over red polish from halfway down. Then seal with clear matte top coat. You can do this in any dark color combo - or if you're a Halloween purist you could do a yellow, orange and white candy corn inspired take on the ombre gradient manicure.

DIY Halloween Nail Art

I really enjoy a clean minimal take on nail art. This way it's cute and festive without being too over the top. I am a 43 year old woman after all and don't want to look like some crazy Halloween lady... Just someone who enjoys a holiday with good taste!

For this easy diy nail art, paint nails black, leaving index finger with just base coat. Then use either tip of white brush to paint googly eye bottoms and ghost or use Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in White  and then draw the black eyes on top of them with Sally Hansen Nail Art pen in Black. I find the nail art pen is easier to control than using a brush.

EASY HALLOWEEN MAKEUP

I'm not always into figuring out a costume but I do love makeup and so will often go that route. I like that this is pretty while still festive. Just make a dramatic smoky eye, extreme fake eyelashes and then draw out the spider web using a creamy or gel eyeliner or finely sharpened black eyeliner. 

Here's a literal yet minimal interpretation of classic Halloween colors. Do a cat eye winged liner on the top and then using powder underneath draw in a bright orange under eye. Using an eyeliner, don't forget to use it on your water line to make your eyes really stand out!

 

How about you? Are you a halloween mani wearing maximalist or a I'll keep my decor to my home kind of person? Let me know in the comments below!