My other half and I just moved into a wonderful old house. (Bear in mind that I'm a long time Addams fan.) Two stories plus a basement, wonderful cracked old paint, plastered walls, (not plaster board), hardwood floors, a claw foot tub, even a musty old wood smell.

I LOVE it! I'd buy it, if it had a decent yard and some big trees. But no, the yard is a puny thing, shrunken over the years by widening roads. (Oh well. I'll keep looking for a keeper, and live here til' I find it!)

So, how does a gothic Witch, in a new place, prepare for Samhain, (which is right around the corner),   (Nevermind decorating the place to my tastes)?

Here's what I'm doing, and have done, with the place so far.

101 Ways To Make A Home Creepier, Part #1:

1) Leave the old paint alone! We're repainting the interior walls grey, black, and off-white, but the exterior is going to keep that weathered, crackly look!

2) Leave the spiders alone! (With the exception of brown recluses, of course. They're poisonous.) The old, dirty cobwebs are gone, but any spiderweb with a living, resident spider stays right where it's at. The basement is an arachnophobe's nightmare, and I love it!

3) A genuine "Witche's broom", almost six feet long, is hung over the dining room entryway. It's handmade by my other half, from driftwood and broom straw.

4) A big (16") autumn ,(re: covered with autumn leaves and nut shells), wreath is hung on the interior side of the front door, with a pentacle made from twigs in its' center.

5) For couch covers I'm using the pentacle throws that Azure Green sells.

6)There are 4 green men on the walls, in different rooms. Also on the walls: One large 'Dryad' Tree Pentacle plaque, one framed flyer from the Real Witches' Ball 1996 (at which we met) with Levi's Baphomet, one "Witches Parking Only, All Violators Will Be Toads" ceramic sign, our original business sign for festivals (with ravens and a pentacle), many iron candle sconces, and possibly the only iron hanging lamp in town (technically it hangs from the ceiling) with seven rubber bats hanging beneath it from fishing line (like a mobile).

7) On the book case in the dining room I've put too many nifty books to list, on Witchcraft, Paganism, magic(k), astrology, herbs, tarot, spellcraft, etc, etc.

8) On top of the afforementioned bookcase I've added a really big gargoyle, a foam rubber brain, a plastic raven, a plastic skull, and a black-cat-light.

(The brain, by the way, was originally purchased for an ex-boyfriends mother. She believed that I was a devil worshiper and that I just didn't know, because Satan had confused me. So I bought her the brain as a Yule (Christmas) gift. The plan was to wrap it in a pretty box with a card on top stating that "I wanted to get you something that you didn't already have".   But, that relationship ended before the holiday arrived, and the brain is alot of fun to have around.)

9) In a vase on a pedestal in the living room corner there are shimmery black-deep purple-and-dark green flowers, with a spray of hemlock. :P

10) Suffice to say that the glass curio cabinet has some genuine curios in it.

11) The rumors are true. In college I did a 'how to' paper on collecting road kill for skulls. Some of my favorites are on a shelf in the middle of the living room wall that a person first sees when they come in the front door. (That was my other halve's idea. I wouldn't have made them the first thing a person sees, personally.)

12) We purchased a big (2 feet by 3 feet) triple Goddess flag to sell several years ago. It never sold. Now it's on the wall to the left of the afforementioned skulls.

13) The singing jackalope I inherited from my father is over the hall entryway. I painted some box tape with white paint, cut little circles from it, and put it over the jackalope's eyes. Now he has a sort of "Evil Dead" look. (Anybody remember the trophys on the cabin wall?

There's more, but thirteen is a nice number for the first entry on this subject. Besides, I have alot of housework to do today. I have plans for the attic!

Spooky Impending-Autumn Blessings!