Apothe'scary' Tabletop!

 

When my boys were little, Halloween was a major decorating event!  With two of my three sons home this past weekend, the decorations were limited to the dining room table for a casual ghoulish dinner with their girlfriends.  The chandelier got a spidery makeover first -

Tearing an old lace tablecloth into shreds substituted for 'spiderwebs' since I didn't have any and with the price of gas these days, couldn't justify a trip to town!  I draped the strips over and under the chandelier's arms, leaving the 'shreds' hanging.

Little glittery spiders grabbed right onto the shreds without tape, wire or anything!

Soon it was arachnaphobia all over again!

  

Next I added a skull tablecloth I found at a thrift store - it wasn't long enough to fit the table so I just put it in the middle.  

 A rugged black runner crossed over the top running the length of the table and then two matching place mats anchored the table ends. Next, Apothecary jars were placed over the runner and as many glass cloches as I could find. 

Rummaging through the "Halloween" tote I got out of my attic I found all sorts of 'body parts' I could fill the apothecary jars with!

Witches fingers. . .

Eyeballs . . .

Teeth . . .

 and a bunch of skulls!

Glow-in-the-dark bugs filled this apothecary jar!

This small metal rat was missing an ear but who could tell under the little cloche when he was surrounded by eyeballs?!

This sticky red blood found at the dollar store really set the mood - I wrapped it around the large apothecary jar and I had my accent color!  Fun labels with ghoulish titles were leftover from last year but still had plenty of stick left so each jar got one!

My tall red glass candlesticks were a perfect blood red and the big-eyed black owl candles came from Marshall's.

I had a few more big and little glitter spiders so I placed them on top of a silver pedestal dish.  This black web 'cloche' is really a wire basket I turned upside down to 'capture' the spiders.

 

Lastly - I rolled some rubber eyeballs out for 'scatter' and let them lie where they stopped rolling.

 With the apothecary jars and cloches filled, it was time to move onto the place settings.

I love using my plain white dinner plates and then adding a fun salad plate on top to go with the theme.  These black and white plates were a birthday gift from a friend.  Plain white paper napkins were placed in black crow napkin rings and look plenty fancy!  The red handled silverware was found at a thrift store.  Red water glasses echoed the red dripping blood!

The menu was simple - chicken enchiladas, green and fruit salad, and chocolate cupcakes for dessert.  Orange and black sprinkles topped the cakes made fancy by web design cupcake wraps.  The wire pedestal cupcake stand was another thrift store find.

My one decorating splurge this year for Halloween was this "Happy Halloween" burlap banner I bought at Pottery Barn - I couldn't resist!  The orange 'flicker' lights were a great find at Big Lots and really enhanced the mood of this casual Friday Fright Feast! Here's wishing you and yours a Happy Halloween!

I've linked up to 
Catch a Glimpse Thursday
The Weekly Creative #6