(You can click on the images to view them larger in a slide show.)
And the next shot is taken from the foyer looking into the dining room. You can almost make out the main table, the china cabinet, the sideboard on the right, the Witch Doctor's Chair and Boney Maroney at the Piano! This still cuts off my Gypsy Witch Fortune Teller 's Vanity and the Herb Garden Hall Tree in the entryway! But it gives a little better view of what all the gruesome guests see as they dare to venture inside RavenWood Apothecary.
The next shot is a closer view of the Witch Doctor's Dressing Chair, and behind it you can kind of see the other side of the Apothecary that is displayed on the sideboard. I like to think of the chair as the dressing area where the Witchy Doctor in residence has removed her professional attire after a long hard day of potion brewing and herbal remedy dispensing. She's laid down her witch doctor's bag, hat, broom, spell book, plague mask, witch boots and striped stockings across the chair, and is perhaps soaking her warty, gnarled old toes in a hot cauldron of steaming mandrake root water. 
The next image is a more close up view of the Dining Room China Cabinet. My house is usually decorated in a Gypsy/Bohemian/Moroccan style, but at Hallowe'en I switch out the items to showcase my eclectic collection of Hallowe'en Serving Ware, Plates and Mugs.....and my Vintage Gurley Candles. I tend to switch things up every year, so you'll notice that what's on top of the hutch was different in this photo from last year than it was in this year's shot.
The next room below is supposed to be a home office, but it's not big enough for my office, so I use one of the bedrooms instead. We call it the 'Library' or 'Den' because behind those white curtains are book shelves that are packed from top to bottom with children's books and Hallowe'en Books. There is also a futon in there to watch TV on, or pull out if we have extra house guests. This room is also usually very 'Gypsy/Bohemain' with lots of bright colors and patterns. But I switch it out to the Orange and Black for Hallowe'en.
The TV is in the big Armoire on the left side of the photo, and the grouping below is what sits on top of that cabinet. Those very large lacey metal pumpkins were this year's acquisition from Home Goods! I needed something large to fill the space and they were perfect for the job.
Right past the Witch's Dressing Chair is the opening to the Kitchen, Breakfast Nook and Family Room. In the breakfast nook I have an antique Hoosier cabinet that is usually filled with a Tiki Mug collection, but this year is the first year that I decided to switch the whole thing over to Halloween. I wanted to create the look and feel of an Olde Candy & Curiosities Shoppe, while continuing on with the apothecary theme. So I used more jars and an antique scale and then added in lots of vintage inspired items, and an assortment of candy that includes some retro brands. I figured I'd let the guests consume what they want of it come Hallowe'en night!
This is the small dining table in the breakfast nook dressed up for Hallowe'en with Owls and Autumn leaves.
The image below is a larger view of the area dressed up for Hallowe'en. And if you look really closely, you might even spy a Hallowe'en Tree!
Yep...I found me my very own Hallowe'en Tree while we were at an antique show 2 years ago. Some man there had a truck full of iron work sculptures, swings, garden benches and bare branched trees. I instantly feel in love with the trees and knew that one was somehow going to make it's way home with me. Well that sucker is HEAVY! And the hubby was cursing me under his breath as he had to carry that monstrosity a very LONG way back to the SUV! But I already had visions of Hallowe'en Trees dancing in my head.
I found the ceramic hanging Jack O' Lanterns at Old Time Pottery for a few bucks a piece and bought 8 of them to hang from my metal tree. Then I found some thick, good quality burlap leaves at the Dollar Store with wired stems and promptly wired them on the branches. I perched an Owl up top and hung a small resin Skeleton below. And on All Hallow's Eve, I light the Jacks up with tea lights. It looks very cool! The problem is, I'm 5'9 and the tree is taller than I am, and the branches stick out quite far around the perimeter. So I quickly discovered that I have nowhere to really store my tree the rest of the year....bummer!
But luckily, my bedroom has a very eclectic Moroccan Gypsy Witch Fortune Teller vibe to it anyway, so I just stick the tree in my bedroom and leave it up all year long. It's great to hang purses and clothes on because it's so heavy duty. My Mom says my bedroom is starting to look a little scary with the phrenology head, and assortment of palmistry hands and owls and antique witch boots and venetian witch masks. But to me it is just filled with the things I love, and I don't consider them to be scary....eccentric and eclectic perhaps!
We still have one of those old style Big Screen HD TV's. You know the ones that are basically an obsolete and ugly piece of furniture now?! They predate the invention of the flat screen. Well ours still works perfectly well and has a great picture. And although the hubby desperately wants to replace it with a new sleek thin version....I refuse to part with it until it takes its dying breath, because as you can see in the image below....it holds my collection of vintage-inspired Repro Hallowe'en figures. I collected these over the years, primarily from a variety of Home Goods stores and they're really not very expensive at all. But I love them....and I group them all together under a "Spooky Hollow" sign...and that's the name of their little figurine community there atop my TV. Therefore, I refuse to allow the 'grumpy old troll' to destroy their little vintage neighborhood display area in the name of a sleeker, modern, way better flat screen TV that we don't really even watch anyway. ( Except at Hallowe'en time for our annual viewing of Sleepy Hollow and The Hallowe'en Tree!) And since the Halloween block dilemma from above will also forever remain a factor....I can never get rid of the entertainment center now either! Good thing I like antiques since both of these things will eventually become one! :o)
Well that concludes my Home Haunters Not So Scary Hallowe'en Tour of the Casa de Wendy and RavenWood Apothecary! I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the Hallowe'en decorations. I know I always love to view how others decorate so that I can get inspired to do something new and creative. All Hallow's Eve is just days away now, and I've enjoyed spending this month communing with my fellow Hallowe'en Heads! Just a few more posts to go and we'll be through with the countdown for another year! Sadly, it all goes by way too fast for me! Hope you all have lots of fun things planned!
All Images © 2010-2011 Wendy A. (All Rights Reserved)
Okay...the last two posts are more autumn related than Halloween per se....but I only promised to post in the general realm of those two subjects. And since I've been away for a week, it's the best I can do.
So we eagerly open the box up with no regard to life and limb, should it have been some sort of explosive or snake infested booby trap. My son was hoping for gold and jewels of course....(well really, weren't we all?!) But at first we didn't understand what we were looking at. There were small spiral notebooks inside of plastic zip lock bags, pens and pencils, business cards and an assortment of small strange trinkets. We were wondering who put this stuff in this box, and why they had it hidden in the nooks and crannies of the boulders on the side of a mountain in Smuggler's Notch, Vermont. 
So being the 'Curious Georges' that we be.....we opened the bags, removed the notebooks and looked inside. There were notes from all different people, one after the other. The oldest notes we found dated back to 2002 and the most current note had been inscribed on the very day we found it. So we started to read a few. And the first one I read made me very sad. It was written by a man and his wife who had gone hiking in Smuggs to commemorate the death of their daughter. They too had found this same box and added their message. We flipped through the books and saw a wide variety of passages from individuals, hiking groups, couples and families just like us. There would be days when no one had found the box, and days when apparently more than one person had found it.
If you don't already know this about me....I apparently live in a parallel universe where I learn of things several months, to years AFTER, the rest of the world has already 'been there' and 'done that'! So of course we still had no idea what exactly we had found or why....but it seemed like a really cool thing to find nonetheless....whatever IT was. So we put it back nice and neat just where we found it. My son begged us to go back there a couple of days later so he could explore some more. So we did go back after the Great Pumpkin Boat Regatta on Sunday. And sure enough, one or two others had also found the box since we had. 
Fast forward to us coming home from vacation, and I remember the address and plug it into the computer. And lo and behold....GeoCaching is basically a real life treasure hunt game that began with the use of GPS devices in 2000, and is now found on every continent in the world. There are currently 1,547,128 million caches hidden throughout the world and over 5 million 'Cachers'! And chances are....there is one within a mile of your location RIGHT NOW, just waiting to be found! Really? Who knew? Well apparently 5 million other people knew....that's who! But not us....nope....we just stumbled upon this 'geocache' by sheer accident. We didn't use any GPS devices or iPhones....only the curiosity of a child exploring the side a mountain.
So now....we are officially going to start doing some 'GeoCaching' as a family. Turns out you sign up for a free account and plug in your zip code or location....and a large list of GeoCaches all around you pop up. Then you use a GPS or a GeoCache App enabled iPhone and head out for the hunt. Some even have secret codes to break and things to collect in order to find the caches. My kids are ALL ABOUT doing stuff like that. And honestly....I am the first one to participate in Easter Egg hunting (I'm not ashamed to admit it), so this looks like fun to me. It's something to do if your bored and want to get outside. And what better time to do it than in the Fall! :o)
Corn Maze
Giant Pumpkin Boat Regatta
Boo Hiss on him right?! But don't shed any tears for me just yet....because the hubby did grant my second, (and only other birthday wish)...which was Tickets to New England in October! Hooray! I get to go commune with my old friend 'Fall' once more! Having missed out last year, I am really jonesing to go back. So I guess I will forgive the Hubster for denying me the CUTEST lil' Pet Owl in an Autumn Hat that ever flew on the face of the earth. Who knows, maybe if I'm lucky...I can catch one in the wilds of Vermont, buy him a little orange hat to wear, and bring him back to Florida with me. You never know! And if that fails to transpire...well at least I get to go back to New England and photograph scenes like the one below! (I took this in Lebanon New Hampshire, in 2009, and the color was outstanding!) So I'll be spending the next 2 months dreaming dreams of Fall! Care to join me?! :o)
Owl © clusterflock.org
Since I didn't make it up to New England this Fall....I decided to keep it alive in my memory by sharing with you all photos of the wonderful towns and vistas that I have encountered in my travels. Woodstock, VT is in my top 5, as I mentioned in earlier posts. But with all of its charm, (and it has tons to spare)...Woodstock is pretty well known and easily accessible to many. You learn this the first time you try to make your way there in the Fall and find a slight traffic jam through town.
But there is another town in Vermont that could well be my favorite of all.... And that town is Peacham. Where Woodstock is found easily on the map, you will need more than a map and a good sense of direction to find your way to Peacham. I read about this town on one of my Photography sites, years ago while planning our very first trip to New England. It was touted as being the 'most photographed village' in all of New England. And if not the most photographed, then certainly the most photogenic! Every time we go to New England, we go to Peacham, and every time we go to Peacham, we get lost! Maps will only help you so much, but when you get out into the pristine Vermont countryside on narrow, winding little 2-lane roads...you better pay close attention to every street sign. For one moment your on track according to the map, and the next thing you know you are 25 miles out of the way, on a completely different road, heading in the wrong direction, saying "this doesn't look right does it"? 
But it's really hard to pay attention to mundane details like maps and street signs when you are feasting your eyes on the glorious Vermont landscape in the Autumn, like the scene above which was shot en route to Peacham. However, with time and determination and stopping to ask the locals, (who honestly, sometimes seem a little put out with 'outsiders') you will eventually wind up in Sleepy Hollow. What? I meant 'Peacham' right? Well yes and no. The first time I laid eyes on this small little village, colored like crayons with trees of red, yellow, green, brown and orange...well I fell in love. THIS is what my minds eye sees as 'Sleepy Hollow'...the one from the cartoon brought to life. With the gray clouds overhead, enveloping me in their cold blankets, and the lonely caw of crows watching from bare branches in the autumn trees....to the red, white and black shuttered barns behind every stately old homestead....this was my Sleepy Hollow, my Hallowe'en Town of Olde. Now I've been to the real Sleepy Hollow / Tarrytown as well, but Peacham seems more like my ideal of how it would have looked long ago when Irving wrote the tale.
I fully expected to hear the galloping of hoofs, followed by the sight of the Headless Horseman with his jack o' lantern head all orange and blazing. This must be where I lived....sometime in my past, another lifetime maybe, or perhaps in a memory or my wishful imagination. I stared longingly at the homes all shut up tight against the cold, as the woodsy smell of smoke drifted out of their chimneys. I wondered who was inside, how they ever found this place, this little slice of Heavenly Autumn on earth. I wondered if they ever stepped outside their doors and breathed in the cold air, looked around at the splendor of leaves and color and pumpkins on the door stoops and thought to themselves how awe inspiring it all is, how blessed they are to live there? I wondered how many gorgeous photos I could get if only I could just stay here awhile. But before I set about to taking photographs with my camera, I first stood still and silent and looked around slowly, taking photographs of this splendid place in my mind, my memory bank. I tell myself that when I am old, perhaps even when I am dying....and a reel of my life is playing back in my mind....I will see this place, this Autumn Place where leaves dance and I feel as close to nature and to life and to death as I ever hope to.Ho! for the leaves that eddy down,
Crumpled yellow and withered brown,
Hither and yonder and up the street
And trampled under the passing feet;
Swirling, billowing, drifting by,
With a whisper soft and a rustling sigh,
Starting aloft to windy ways,
Telling the coming of bonfire days.
~ © Grace Strickler Dawson, Bonfire Days
While in Vermont in the Autumn time...we always go to my favorite town of Woodstock. You'll remember Woodstock as it was mentioned in an earlier post this month about my favorite photo I've ever taken. It was taken there. I have many images from Woodstock, but today I wanted to show you the most quaint and lovely Bed & Breakfast there, called the Ardmore Inn B&B. 
When the hubby and I were young and sans children, we always stayed at the most quaint B&B's when we traveled. That made the trips all the more enjoyable and entertaining. But once the chitlins arrived on the scene....well many B&B's just aren't too keen on children, so we don't get to stay in them as often as we'd like anymore.
Last year when we were there in town, the Inn was all decked out for Autumn with cornstalks, hay, mums and pumpkins. The colored leaves were laying all over the yard and the entryway was just so inviting, don't you think? It looked so lovely, and I wanted to check in there and stay for the rest of the month. This is how I'd decorate my home if I lived where the beautiful colored leaves would line my walkways like confetti. {sigh}
Of course Ardmore is just one of many lovely places to dwell in Woodstock, Vermont. And I had another lucky shot in this town last year too, while standing outside shooting images of the B&B's. I saw this great old Classic Pick Up coming in my direction. I've always wanted one of these trucks as it would be the ultimate photo prop....although I would like mine to be Red or Yellow....but the Orange was fab too, and just perfect for an Autumn shot outside the Charleston House B & B.
Maybe you will be lucky enough to visit a B&B this autumn and enjoy the bounty of the season on display in such a homey and inviting way!
All Photography © 2009 Wendy A. (All Rights Reserved)
I took this photo last October in Vermont while driving around the back roads, soaking in all the magnificent glory that is Autumn in New England. When I saw this empty hammock strung between two brilliantly colored trees....I was momentarily breathless. Then when I found this quote, I thought it to be the perfect accompaniment to this image. This scene, this photo I took....well it epitomizes all that I feel about my favorite season of Autumn. THIS is my zen spot, the place I visualize myself in when I imagine what my life after death might be like if I had it my way. Perpetual Autumn! 
Image © 2006-2009 Wendy A.
![](<img src="http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i149/fotobabe1111/My%20Photos/Me%20Witch%20Halloween/Magickal-Moon-Animated-GIF.gif">)
