Butterflies and skellies for a Halloween tablescape

Good morning sweet friends and readers!

I hope everyone has been having a wonderful fall so far – I know that it is many people’s favorite season.  This year, fall has sadly been marred by the heart-breaking devastation caused by hurricane Helene in the southeast US.  Living inland here in Calgary, we don’t really have any experience with hurricanes but the pictures from the news about Helene were both horrific and incomprehensible.  And now there is hurricane Milton on the way, threatening yet more devastation in Florida.  My thoughts and prayers are with the many who suffered losses from Helene and for those who will be impacted by Milton.

We are moving towards Halloween and today I am joining 16 other very talented stylists in a Halloween blog hop hosted by the lovely Rita from Panoply.  Thank you Rita!  And doesn’t she make the most amazing graphics?  Just look at those pumpkins on the salad plate below!  The links to the other stylists’ tables can be found at the end of this post.  Be sure to check them out for some fabulous Halloween inspiration!

 

For this Halloween blog hop, I had envisioned a dark tablescape in my mind and I brought up some pieces from the basement in the hopes that they might spark some inspiration.  A lot of my tabletop stuff is still in storage, so I was starting with what I had on hand.  I wasn’t sure that this table runner was going to satisfy my dark tablescape vision, but the ivory background was a good match with the dishes and I wanted to see if I could make it work.

 

I thought I would use the skulls in the centerpiece along with some black hydrangeas from my stash.  But my black hydrangeas were no where to be found.  Most likely still in the storage.  Hmmm.  Purchase new ones (way easier) or spend some time going to storage and rooting around in boxes and bags?  I decided to check out Michael’s first, and while almost everything Halloween was on sale, their black hydrangeas were not.  And at $12.99 per stem and a need for at least six of them for the table… well, there was no way I was paying that price.  On a whim, we popped into HomeSense after and there to greet me in the flower aisle were some purple and black butterfly stems.  Potentially great solution and perhaps even better than black hydrangeas for my dark table.  The added bonus was that I still had some money left on a gift card from my retirement party; I think I ended up paying $2.48 for them out of pocket.  I brought them home, made the centerpiece, set the table, and waited for it to get dark outside.

Nice and spooky with a little bit of a dark vibe.

Expectedly spooky you might even say.

 

But then a funny thing happened.  When I came down to the kitchen the next morning, the sun was streaming in the windows, and oh my gosh, the juxtaposition of the black and white and the skellies and purple butterflies with the sunlight on the table was just so jarring.  In an almost eerie kind of way.  Or maybe it’s just me…  In any event, I ended up re-photographing the table in varying degrees of sunlight.

 

 

 

 

 

Table details:

The plate stack started with Mrs. Skellie and her pup on a background of I don’t know what – script?

 

You can read some of the writing in places, mostly the months of the year.  The rest not so much.  I see the word Anno just above her hat so maybe it’s Latin or something.

 

The salad plate sits on another skellie plate – ‘Til death do us part and beyond is what I’m calling it.  The dinner plate can certainly be set by itself, but in this case, the black border made a nice frame for the salads.  Plus, my guests have two skellie plates to enjoy during dinner.🦴🦴

 

A close-up of the loving couple.

 

 

Favorite Halloween black and white flatware sits on botanical print napkins.  Depending on how you fold the napkins, each one can look a little different.

 

Skellie wine glasses completed the place settings.

 

 

The centerpiece was pretty easy to put together.  I simply laid four of the branches down, butterflies towards the ends, and added some black candle holders with white candles.  The most fun feature of the butterfly branches is that the butterfly wings have skulls on them.  Of course I had to place a couple of skulls at the ends of the arrangement.

 

 

Such a delightful smile.

 

 

Our one cat, Georgie Girl, was fascinated with the butterflies.  I think I lifted her off the table about half a dozen times before shutting her in the bedroom so I could finish photographing the table.  I even caught Potpurri lying on the butterflies one morning.  She is the cat who never does anything wrong.  Or, at least the cat who has never before been caught doing anything wrong…

Table resources:

Table runner (used here and here), skellie plates, skellie wine glasses (used here), and flatware (used here and here) all several years ago: HomeSense

Butterfly branches:  New this year from HomeSense

Napkins (used here) several years ago:  Williams Sonoma

Skulls, charger plates, and candles: Dollar store and Dollar Tree

Candle holders: Amazon

 

With candles lit.

Happy Halloween everyone!  Please check out the other stylists’ tables at the links below.  You will not be disappointed!

Home is Where the Boat Is – Pink, Eek and Ghostly Sweets

 

 

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