Last Minute Halloween Decor Tips!

Check out my last minute tips from the Today Show!

Tablescape Tuesday: Halloween Tablescapes

You all know how much I love tablescaping! Here is the Halloween table that I set for my sister, Kari's, supper club dinner this week. We had so much fun setting the table together. We started with a black lace spider web lace tablecloth. It was the perfect back drop for the orange plates that she already had. Halloween bandanas from the craft store were used as napkins and we added little glittered insects to each place setting. She served her famous turkey chili which she renamed "brain soup" for the occasion. The centerpiece was made up of two black glitter candleabra and some Martha Stewart brand glittered skulls and bones. No flowers were needed here! Send me photos of your tablescapes....askkim@kimberlyschlegel.com.

What do the North Texas Food Bank and the Duchess of Cambridge have in common?

They both love Katherine Hooker!

I hope you can come by DUO, an amazing culinary shop that will knock your socks off, on Wednesday to meet Katherine and order one of her spectacular jackets or coats!

To learn more about Katherine Hooker and her designs, check out http://katherinehooker.com/

Wedding Wednesday: Marry This!

I love the super simple guides put together by the three girls at Marry This!  They are great style guides to help any bride plan the largest and most important party she has probably every put together!  At $30, they are a steal!  It is like having a stylist put together a mood board for you and tell you what and how much to order!  If you don't want to splurge on a wedding planner, consider ordering your Marry This Guide today!
They launch a new one every month so if you don't see the style you are looking for today, sign up to see the new theme launched every month.

Travel: Charleston

The weekend in Charleston was amazing!  I was there to present at the Taste of Charleston for Southern Living.  The weather was wonderful, the food was fantastic and the people were so delightful.  Here are a few of my favorite photos from the wonderful weekend:

 Boone Hall Plantation hosted the Taste of Charleston Event and our Southern Living Team.  

These are the old slave homes on the property of the plantation. 

Isn't this tree-lined lane way amazing?  The drive up to the old plantation home was so incredible!  The Oak Trees were planted in 1743 by the son of Major John Boone. 

I presented three holiday tabletops:  Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I am going to do posts on each of them so check back in for details.  This image is from my Saturday presentation.

Here we are back stage prepping for James Farmer's presentation on Fall Flowers.  Rebecca Reed, from Southern Living, was all smiles as they prepped!

This was taken moments before my Sunday presentation.  

Details of James Farmer's amazing florals which he named Austin, Houston and Dallas!

Here I am with James right before our presentations.  His smile is always on his face!  He is so charming and a delight to be around.  Pick up his new book:  A Time To Plant from Gibbs Smith Publishers. 

Although I didn't have time to eat there, HUSK was located just next to my hotel and I could see it's charming facade out my hotel window.  It is getting rave reviews and all of Charleston is buzzing about it!

There are so many fantastic antique stores on King Street and Niche was one of my favorites.

These are the stairs leading up to John Pope Antiques.  I found some real treasures here!  

These amazing porcelain vegetables and the Jane Hutchison for Gorham enamel flowers above are at Vieuxtemps, a gorgeous store at 180 King Street.  They have a beautiful china room in the back!  Don't miss it!

More of James Farmers flowers backstage.  Gorgeous!  

The Longhorn booth at Taste of Charleston - they were all so delicious! 

This was the presentation tent and we loved meeting all of the wonderful visitors.

This fantastic sweetgrass basket was left as a welcome gift for me in my room.  So wonderful!  You can't leave Charleston with out a sweetgrass souvenir!

We had a delicious dinner at McCradys!  I can't wait to go back and visit Charleston again.

Tablescape Tuesday: Haunted Mansion Halloween

I set a fun Haunted Victorian Mansion table for my demonstration at Taste of Charleston last weekend.  It was such a blast and I wanted to share some of my fun ideas with you!

You can see all of the holiday tables I set in this image but it also shows the layers of lace and crochet that were torn and ripped that we used for this table.  Halloween is a great opportunity to use an old lace tablecloth that might have a tear or a stain on it.

I used beat up pewter plates and added red fabric paint to an old napkin.  The napkin already had a small tear so I added more tears and wrapped it up with a piece of chain that I bought at the hardware store.

I made this mummy glass by wrapping it in medical tape.  You could do the same for kids by wrapping up a juice box and adding some googly eyes!

The gorgeous flatware is from World Market.  I would use it any time but it worked for this haunted mansion table because of the pretty black lace design.

Silver candle sticks were placed around the table with black and grey candles in them and spider web around them.   I also covered a dollar store black crow on a bed of moss under a cloche for a creepy touch.  The pumpkins in the background were cut off flat at the top and we placed two trays of moon pies on them.  It is a great trick for adding height to a buffet table.

The place card was made by the Left Handed Calligrapher with white ink on black paper.  I burned the edges and nailed it to a small white pumpkin.

Book Signing for James Farmer

Come out to meet my friend and fellow Southern Living Contributor, James Farmer, at his book signing tomorrow.  He is wonderful and his book is so beautiful!

Fantastic Pumpkin with out the mess!

If you are like me you are dreading cleaning up the pumpkin carving mess that will certainly happen when the jack-0-lantern carving begins. I knew that there must be an easy way to avoid cutting into our pumpkins all together this year so I have explored a few options. Take your pick and please send me photos of your pumpkin art!

-Kids will love the Mr. Potato Head Pumpkin Kits! They are soooooo cute! The kit comes with everything you will need to make pumpkin pirate, princess, ninja, witch or clown. They retail for anywhere from $9 to $12 which is a bargain in my opinion because there is no clean up! You simply stick they eyes, nose, mouth, ears and meet into a small pumpkin and, voila, a mess-less jack-o-lantern!

-If you love a traditional Jack-o-lantern but don't want to carve then pull out the black duct tape and cut away! Using sharp sewing scissors, cut the duct tape into the shapes you need: two triangles for the eyes, another for the nose and a crescent shape for the mouth. It is easy and simple!

-Turning a pumpkin on it's side is perfect for those of you who like to color outside the lines. Grab some permanent markers or paints and turn your pumpkin over so that the stem is facing you. Using the stem as the nose, paint eyes and a mouth on your pumpkin. You could top it off with a set of mop strings on top as hair.

-Remember the plastic spider rings that we all used to wear as kids? They make perfect pumpkin decor now! Make small one inch slices into the pumpkin and insert the rings into them so that it looks like the spiders are crawling around it. Top it off with some fake spider webs and you have a creepy crawly pumpkin!

-Stencils are a great way to go if you don't have a creative bone in your mummy....uh, body! Try using a template that you can purchase at the craft store or on line.  You can also use a doily!  I couldn't find a source for this image but it is so cute!
-Check out Southern Living for more ideas!