Okay, so I blogged yesterday about how I made the invitations for our annual staycation this year.  Today I thought I’d share a bit about getting the house ready for the gang when they got here.  We all know ambiance creates and sets the mood for the environment and I always like to create a look that’s cozy and inviting for staycation.  I have to be honest with you though – this year I was just too busy with work and life to come up with anything as creative as I’ve done in the past so I just decide to play up the “fall theme” for this time of year and use that as my theme for all my staycation décor.

Of course curb appeal is always….well….more appealing when it’s done up right and I wanted the fam to feel the warmth from the time they pulled up to the house.  So I decided to play up the fall/family theme on the front porch to greet them.

And, so since I already had a ton of fall décor it made it easy for me to do. (Some years I don’t get to this until closer to Thanksgiving, but this year I made it a point to have it done in time for staycation.)

Just a little warm welcome….

And, of course once inside I wanted the warmth to continue so I sprinkled Halloween and fall goodies all over the house.

Since I was playing up the fall theme I had this little sign on the entry Table to greet them when they arrived.  And, before you roll your eyes and say to yourself “How corny can you get!”, don’t worry – I can get plenty corny and I am the first to admit it.  And, I realize this sign is a little home-spun hokey looking, but I did it anyway so I could stress the theme again.  “Fall-in'” For Family Time. What can I say – I’m a mom and a Mimi – it’s how I roll.  Work with me here.

I went with sort of a playful, whimsical look for my dining room table keeping everything cream, black and gold.

And, added my new witch (that I blogged about on Halloween from Tuesday Morning) to my side table and replaced my candles with some fun pumpkins and Halloween characters.

And, of course I had to have a fun tablescape for our munchies.  (I’ll be blogging about creating fun tablescapes in the near future).  Basically for this one I stacked some small bales of hay on one end of the table, draped wide burlap ribbon over it and on the tabletop.  Then just added some fall leaf garland, some Halloween picks and used my fall leaf plates as serving pieces.  I tucked in some battery operated tea candles for a little more warmth and ambiance.  With three grandkids reaching for munchies real candles just weren’t an option.

I picked up these cute little cardboard signs from Hobby Lobby and used them to label the different munchies.  Not that anyone couldn’t clearly see what the munches were, mind you, but it just helped the table have a little more “cuteness”, if you know what I mean.

I played up the kitchen with plenty of fall flowers, garland and fruit.

The island is where I set up the ice cream and topping bar.  I used the same craft paper I used for the invitations to make little cards and placed some labels on the front.

These come in sheets pre-labeled, but you can also buy them in plain black and write your own words on them.  It just so happens that all of these worked perfectly for what I needed.

I purchased this little sign at the Dollar Tree (for yes – a whopping dollar) and hung it in my kitchen.

On each guest bedroom door I added a fun welcome sign.  Again, I got these from the Dollar Tree for a dollar apiece.  Aren’t they cute?

I wasn’t mean to my kids…..I put this one on my own door.  Just so you know.

In each adult room I placed a fun, colorful spider on their bed, because, well – why not?  It’s Halloween month and I was doing a “fall” theme after all.  On the night stands I placed a goodie bag filled with water, chocolate candy, popcorn and flavored herbal tea for everyone.

These spiders were also from the Dollar Tree.  Fun, huh.

In the grandkids bunk room I placed each of their goodie bags on the lower bunk bed along with another fun spider (that’s not shown in this picture) and a fun Halloween storybook.  As you can imagine it didn’t take them long to rip into their gift bags,  And they immediately sat on the floor and wanted me to read them the story.  So cute.  Love my grandmunchkins!

(Disclosure here – I’m missing one guest room in this blog.  For some reason I don’t have any good pictures of it, but it also had a colorful spider and a goodie bag.)

I had a lot of fun setting everything up and I think they had fun taking it all in when they arrived.

Next I’ll share a little bit about the weekend itinerary and how it all turned out.

Happy Decorating!