Tiki Voodoo Halloween Swamp Hut

This year for Halloween I decided to do something a bit different with the decor in the living room...a theme!  I thought this would be a great idea because it would save me the aguish of taking everything down from walls, shelves, and tables and having to find a place to stash them and then having to do an entire room of decorating.  I thought it might be clever and easy if I used the decor of the living room and push it toward some kind of Halloween theme.  Over the past several years I have been slowly working on decorating the living room with a Tiki Elvis Jungle room theme: panthers, peacocks, tropical plants, leopard print, Tiki doodads...just infuse a little voodoo along with a curse or two and you got a Halloween theme!

Like I said before, I thought this was an easier solution...but I was so wrong.  I don't own any Voodoo items so I wound up having to make and source a crap load of things.  However the end result turned out creepy enough that any witch doctor would be fine with shacking up in our 

Tiki Voodoo Halloween Swamp Hut!

If there was ever a shopping list for what to pick up at the Voodoo store the top item would be shrunken heads.  I made two of them to display on the main wall out of paper mache and fake hair from a toy headband from 1.25 tree.

The top shelf of the green rack.  Insert skulls, feathers, bones and creepy cloth (all from 1.25 tree) to typical Tiki doodads for effect.

Tiki Gods tending to their cauldrons.

On the bottom shelf insert snakes, moss, bones, creepy cloth and feathers.  For 2 months I saved and dried out chicken bones to add to the voodoo look.  The bones in the glass vase are real, the ones on the shelf are from 1.25 tree.

We printed out a few vintage Voodoo themed movie posters for a couple of shelves.

Soups on!

This is my favorite shelf.  The wooden African idol on the right is something that Mr. Husband bought years ago at a New Orleans voodoo shop.  I found the feather in the yard...the cat probably played a part in that.  But the craziest weird thing has to do with that set of thin carved statues on either side of the African Idol.  Those things are made out of real bones and topped with real hair and we found them at the thrift store for a buck each within the last month!

I made a couple of these cannibal skewered skull poles to flank the green rack.

Skulls and bones were plain stryofoam from 1.25 tree which I painted and jabbed with bamboo I cut from the yard.

And while you are out at the Voodoo One Stop Shop, the other top item to have on hand are Voodoo Dolls.  I made a couple of these cuties out of scrap old tee shirts and some wooden picks from 1.25 tree.

The Green rack in all it's voodoo shrine glory.

Next to the tv I did a DIY Ghoulish Garden kinda thing with some of our everyday decor.  I added a few mini skulls to the flowers and tacked on a few spiders with dental wax. 

Ohhhh!  I love this.  I mentioned to you guys last year that for Christmas I wanted one big item and this fireplace insert was it.  It has dual features being a heater or you can enjoy the look of the fire without the heat for ambience.  I have plans of finding a MCM cone fireplace to put it in but that's going to take some minutes.  In the mean time I just enjoy it as is.  I Voodooed it up skulls and moss...no heat though!

In another spot of the living room I did our regular Saturday night thing with a Morbid mortuary vibe:

The whole living room had a darker look to it.  I could not get a good photo but inside the display case I did a Bride of Frankenstein vignette and on top of the record cabinet was a Universal monsters display with some of our family Halloween photos, all kinda typical of past decorating.

So for the Voodoo stuff here is a break down of things I bought, had on hand, or crafted:

Bought:

Plastic skulls, bones, feathers, creepy cloth : 1.25 tree

Puffy moss: Joann

Green plastic moss garland: Hobby lobby

2 real voodoo carved bone idols: thrift store

Had on hand:

Spanish moss green and brown

plastic cauldrons

plastic snakes/spiders

plastic alligator

Hoo Doo game

 

Made:

Shrunken heads

Skull totem poles

Voodoo dolls

bone garlands

The thing about doing this theme is the time I thought I was saving by not packing up everything and having to find a place to stash it was taken over by crafting and still having to do a lot of decorating...and it only put off the inevitable.  I will still have to take everything down for Christmas.  No matter how clever I am there is no common holiday theme that can mesh Tiki and Christmas!

And the decorating is not all done yet folks!

In the dining room I put a good amount of our vintage and kitchy cute stuff so that post will be up next!

 

'Like Bats out of Hell' Lamp Finial

Ya'll have heard that saying right?  Example:  When the waiter told me they only had pepsi products I was out of there like a bat out of hell...meaning I swiftly beat cheeks to get out the door.

Only the more I think about the saying it doesn't add up.  I thought bats were kinda the pet version of a dog in hell so why would they want to "get the hell' out of there?

It's one for Unsolved Mysteries I guess. 

Back to on topic, I made this MCM inspired lamp finial to spook up a couple of table lamps in the living room.  It's just some long wooden toothpicks that already had the bats on them from 1.25 tree which I painted the sticks black.  I then jabbed them into a mini styrofoam ball that I painted black.  I drilled out a bit of the ball on the bottom so it would fit over the screw top of the lamp.  To temporarily secure it from tipping over I used some leftover dental wax.

 

Halloween tee shirt pillows

I have had a big stack of old t-shirts that were not wearable anymore but the image could still be put to good use in some kind of craftable way.

Here are 3 shirts that I turned into throw pillows. 

I edged them all out with some black pom pom trim.

Here they are all together hanging out with PB's Sock Skellie.

(Sock Skellie's 2012 first appearance)

 

Boo It Yourself! Vintage inspired Beistle Scarecrow Craft

 

Here is a Halloween kinda reproduction decor piece I made this year.  

It's made from some scrap book paper, washi tape, rick rack, and a few vintage buttons.

The appendages are crepe paper streamers and paper shred.

This is the vintage scarecrow that I based mine after.  The original would have had crepe paper streamer arms, not yarn.  This scarecrow was from ebay and was listed for 150 bucks!

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I printed out the face and then just did my own thing for his body.

A few years ago I made another similar reproduction type decor piece: Boo it Yourself! Vintage Inspired Paper CraftCat

New Halloween stuff 2022: Retro Style metal signs

 

So here is the last of the new stuff for this Halloween season.  These adorable vintage inspired (Biestle rip offs) metal yard stakes are from Walsmart ($6.24 each).

Sorry for the crappy photos.  The sun resides just inches from the exterior of the window.

Halloween 2022 New Stuffs : Bottle Brush Trees and cutesy picks!

Another New Halloween find for this year are these bottle brush trees from Dollar Quarter Tree!  I bought a whole forest!

It's been awhile since I have found new items that I love as much as I do these little trees!

Another super cute item that Dollar Quarter Tree had were these long wood picks:

Black Bats

Grey Skulls

 

New Halloween 2022: Hanging Ghouls

So here is something totally different for me...actually NEW stuff, like from a regular store, that has been mass produced and in the current year.

I bought these two hanging ghouls from Dollar General this year because they had that vintage classic Halloween vibe to their blow mold faces:

Now, of course the majority of their bodies are made out of cheap fabric crap but I think they could have potential for some crafting.

Another newbie is this mini witch ghoul that came from 1.25 tree:

I thought her head had a great vintage look, the rest of it is junk.

 

Can you Hoo-Doo? New Halloween 2022

About a year ago my favorite antique mall retired and everything was on sale.  I came across this neat game for 1 buck.  The box was sealed up with several ropes, chains, and pad locks so I wasn't able to peek inside at the contents.  Upon shaking the box I could hear lots of little plastic bits rattling around.  I was excited!  I figured it was like the Cootie game only you were making that cute egg headed Hoo Doo stick dude!

Imagine my disappointment when I got it home, chainsawed off it's restraints and saw this.....

We have like a hundred on this same type of game already....

At least the box is neat.

 

New Halloween 2022: Cupcake bits

Ok, so these items are fresh 2022 finds for sure.  Mr. Husband bought these plastic picks off of ebay.

 

New Halloween stuff 2022: JOL surprise and scarecrow

 

Yeah, again... I think I bought this at an estate sale maybe within this past year?

His lid opens up to reveal a green eyed kitty:

and another mind boggler.  

A bendy scarecrow:

Halloween 2022 New Stuff: Dennison seals

So another item that I don't recall where it came from, but I think I bought these at an estate sale a couple of years back.

Here is a scan for your crafting and viewing pleasure:

 

Halloween 2022 New Stuff : Grab Bag

Here is a cache of vintage Halloween items that I do not know where they came from.  I don't mean I don't know where they were purchased...I mean I literally found them inside my Halloween storage bins and don't know from whence they came. 

 

They are a bit 'new' for me so I know I would have not purchased them.

My best bet is they were given to us by friends, probably back in 2020?

 

Halloween 2022 new stuff : Yarn Pumpkin man

 

Like always here at MHIcTY, I like to kick off spooky season showing any new Halloween items that I have picked up over the year.  This year is going to be a bit different because I have not been hitting up thrift stores or estates sales much for the past year(s).  I actually haven't done a lot of Halloween decorating since 2020 so imagine my surprise when I started riffling through things this year and coming across stuff that I don't know where it came from.  This adorable vintage yarn witch I do recall buying off ebay for 5 bucks possibly in 2019 post Halloween season.

Apple Fall Display

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For the month of September I did up a Fall Apple themed display shelf.

Here are a few images:

 

Come on Fall!

 

I don't gage seasons by the dates, I gage by the temperatures.  And unfortunately for the south it's nasty hot humid "summer" nearly all year round here.  I yearn for a real Fall like in these glorious images.

The best I can do is recreate Fall inside my house. I've got my favorite Autumn ambiance videos of crackling bonfires and crickets playing,  a mug of apple cider, a cinnamon candle burning and the AC cracked down to 60.  I may even cover the floor with bags of faux autumn leaves to roll around in. 

 I am planning a ton of posts for the upcoming spooky season but you know what they say about best laid plans and not counting your chickens before they are hatched or believing in the fortune telling skills of the toothless carny down at the state fair.