After what has felt like an endless summer of intense rain and humidity here on the east coast, fall's cool, crisp days are more welcome than ever. And while I'm not quite ready to drape our home in the traditional orange and black of Halloween (give me another week for that), several seasonal touches of autumn have begun to make their appearance in our home.

Given all of our rain this summer, our gardens are looking remarkably lush this year. As a result, my pre-Halloween decorating approach has been to bring the outdoors in, and to celebrate the change in seasons with cuttings from my garden and small pumpkins purchased from a local farm stand. 

When hatching my decor plan I took a few minutes to walk around my garden to snip florals and leaves that I thought would make an interesting statement. This included a few stalks of pink sedum and branches of deep purple weigela.

I also nabbed a couple stems and leaves as well as a couple dried blooms from our giant hydrangeas, which grew like crazy this year (but failed to produce more than a handful of blooms). I rounded out my picking with a few pieces of fern leaves, dried Black-eyed Susans, and a little ivy. 

Using the garden cuttings, I created a small arrangement that hangs on the side porch, next to the door we use as our primary entrance to our home.

I picked up this metal container in a shop last summer during a visit to Morrison, Colorado just outside of Denver, and I love how I can change out the contents based on the season.

I carried this same natural approach Inside our house. our fireplace mantel also received some attention. 

Making just a few slight modifications transformed the look from summer to fall in just a few minutes. In our home I much prefer this look to an over-the-top display that covers the entire mantel. It's easier to assemble, we tend not to tire of it over time, and it doesn't cause a big mess when it's time to clean up.

I'm looking forward to creating a full-blown Halloween look later this month, but will be appreciating a softer approach to celebrating autumn these next few weeks. It's such a simple way to augment our decor with a little touch of autumn, and a great way to begin appreciating the change in season. Who knows, maybe next year we'll be using more of our own natural elements? I'm thinking planting a small pumpkin patch of our own is in order!

If you too are thinking ahead to Halloween, check out our Halloween Page for more details on past projects, party favors, and costume ideas for my favorite holiday.

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Last year Wendy and I decided on a three part costume based on our favorite characters from the USA Network show Mr. Robot. You can skip down to the costume description How To if that's what you're primarily here for.

Maybe it's because we have such fond memories of dressing up as kids, perhaps it's because we love the decor and the fall weather, or maybe it's because Wendy and I met on Halloween night way back when we were teenagers (I was way too old to be trick-or-treating with friends, though I was, and she was handing out candy at her house). Whatever the reason, Wendy are both like kids in a candy store when October grows near.

Every year since we bought our home in 2003, we've acknowledged this deep seeded love of Halloween by throwing an all adults costume party in our home. Everyone dons their best costume (like our friends who attended as DIY bloggers, Wendy & Alex and their dog, Lulu).

Every year we think long and hard about the costume we'll adopt to top the previous year. Whether we were dressing as Piper and Pornstache from Orange Is The New Black back in 2013...

Or the Queen leading the Scot in a dog collar for a highbrow meets lowbrow political commentary on the Scottish Independence referendum...

It's our goal to be at least somewhat topical when we're choosing our getup.

Last Halloween Wendy and I decided to take our love of the slightly obscure but wonderfully done hit television show, Mr. Robot, to the next level by dressing up as not two but three characters from the show.

When considering the characters we wanted to adopt as our one night alter ego, we had to assess both the accuracy and the execution value. Rather than go the automatic route of male character and female character, we instead opted for the less expected male lead/male lead outfits. Let me tell you, Wendy pulled it off so well that a friend wondered who the "creepy short guy offering him drinks" was at our party. Yeah, that was my wife, bro.

Let's go over how we pulled it off, shall we? We'll go over all of our techniques and sources in the event you want to give any of these characters a go for this year's Halloween.

First we'll look at the easy one. Elliot Alderson

Elliot was a somewhat natural choice for me given his short dark hair, olive complexion, and general stature. It was also a somewhat to very easy costume to build given that his most identifying characteristic is his black hoodie.

First off, I started collecting the necessary wardrobe items. I was able to order pretty much everything I needed from Amazon.

1. Black Hoodie
2. Black Undershirt
3. Black Skinny Jeans
4. Black Converse
5. Black Tactical Backpack

Elliot is a complex and dark character. Computer hacker while attempting to remain altruistic in his destructive ways. He's also a schizophrenic drug addict, and the costume has to relay this in some way.

For my costume I grew my hair for about a month, then had Wendy give me a bit of an undercut in the style of Elliot. I definitely should have cut it up higher and had more of an arch to it, as well as another 12 weeks of length on top, but it wasn't bad overall.

In order to make me look a little strung out we added some really dark circles around my eyes with some makeup as well as a little blush on my eyelids. The goal was to make me look as tired as we could, like I'd been up all night hacking into banks...or playing Pokemon Go or something.

The whole outfit was about as simple as it gets. Throw on the clothes, put on the backpack, and walk around the party with wide eyes trying to look intense.

Next up, Elliot's father, Mr. Robot

Wendy decided to make an attempt at pulling off Christian Slater's character, Mr. Robot, which we worried would be a stretch for a blonde female. But Mr. Robot's outfit is layered in such a way that pretty much anyone can pull it off.

The complete list of items necessary is somewhat extensive, but with a hat, glasses and jacket, your shape, size and sex really doesn't matter much since the costume covers much of it.

1. Brown Work Jacket
2. Mr. Robot Patch
3. Cotton Twill Cap
4. Gray Cable Knit Scarf
5. Plaid Wool Scarf
6. Tortoise Glasses
7. Fingerless Gloves
8. Plaid Shirt
9. Blue Jeans
10. Work Boots

The most important part of the costume is the Mr. Robot patch. We picked one up and just ironed it right onto the work jacket we bought.

In order for Wendy to get the right look that Christian Slater's character has, she'd need a solid 5 o'clock shadow. Given that she's female and happens to not have facial hair for her own 5 o'clock shadow, she decided to go the makeup route to make it a reality.

Using an inexpensive bath poof (you can pick one up from the cosmetic section of Target, Walgreens, etc.) and a tube of brown liquid eyeliner, she stippled stubble onto her face, making herself into a pretty convincing woman with facial hair. Eye liner is the way to go since it gives you a more authentic look of stubble, versus a cream costume makeup or eyeshadow, which just leaves you with a dirty face effect. 

With that she tucked her hair into the hat, put on the rest of the outfit, and transformed into Mr. Robot.

When "Elliot" and "Mr. Robot" were face to face, like in the show, out costumes seemed to work out pretty well.

So well, in fact, that the above photo was tweeted to Christian Slater last year...AND HE EVEN RETWEETED IT! How uniquely 21st century is celebrity validation on a costume of their likeness?

Totally awesome!

And finally the F-Society leader

Since a masked costume isn't good for a social Halloween party where you are the host, I mostly put this costume together to wear out on Halloween night. This way I could walk around town in a masked getup in true Halloween style.

Last year I had to do some real digging to find the mask, since Mr. Robot was a somewhat obscure show and things weren't being sold. I actually ended up ordering a few different masks hoping one would work well.

The one on the left is a hand sculpted original from an etsy artist, signed and numbered. The one on the right a mass produced mask from a 3D printed model. The one on the left was the better of the two, but a little large.

This year it's far easier as there are licensed products that will allow you to easily complete the costume.

To pull off the whole thing you'll need...

1. Black Top Hat
2. Fsociety Mask
3. Black Tuxedo Jacket
4. White Tuxedo Vest & Bow Tie
5. White Gloves
6. Chef's Striped Pants
7. Black Cane
8. Black Converse

This costume was great for Halloween night itself (yes, we're such Halloween nuts we each had different costumes for our party night as well as Halloween night), and received so many compliments from people walking on the street. A lot of people that didn't know the show said "It's the Monopoly Man, but he's evil!" But quite a few said, "Hey, it's the Mr. Robot guy!" Either way, it was working.

If you're ordering the different pieces keep in mind that the mask will require you to wear a larger size hat than you typically wear. I wear a 7-1/4" hat but ended up with an 8" top hat to fit the mask.

The costume itself is pretty straightforward. Put on the tux, throw on the shoes, pull down the mask, and head out on the town.

If you're going anywhere in costume and happen to pass a bank, it always makes for a good photo op.

Keep in mind, it is rather difficult to have a drink when your costume involves a full face mask. Might be worthwhile to pack a straw as well.

Overall we loved last year's costume. We're kicking around ideas for this year's party but will be keeping it to ourselves until we're all set. But if you follow us on Instagram I'm sure you'll see what we choose once we're all ready to go.

What are your plans for Halloween this year? Do you have your costumes picked out or are you still having a hard time figuring it out?

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Our historic streets are not only steeped in the history of several centuries gone by, but are also dripping with spooky stories and ghostly tales. What's even better is just how much the homes and neighbors of Old Town really, and I mean really, embrace the season with spine-tingling halloween displays. 

This week, in an effort to either entice you to visit Old Town this Halloween, to give you a few tips on how to best enjoy Halloween in our neighborhood if you'll be in Alexandria, or to inspire you to create your own spooky decor, I want to share a little of what makes Old Town so spectacular when it comes to my favorite holiday. 

Ghost Stories/Tours

Ask anyone who has lives in Old Town if they know of any ghost stories and you'll likely be treated to a few tales that might skin crawling. Throughout the years on our blog we've shared a few hair raising experiences in our home and our neighbors. In addition to these tales we've heard countless others involving everything from ghostly spinning wheels that make eerie noises well after they've been removed from the house, to spirits upset that their left artifacts have been removed from their secret hiding places and begin causing havoc.

Old Town is absolutely full of spooky tales that make Halloween week a little more fun. If you want to take a ghost tour in Old Town there are two options to choose from. The first, Alexandria Colonial Tours, offers a Ghost and Graveyard walking tour. On this tour you'll hear several legends of haunt led by a guide in colonial dress with a single candle lantern. The tour, no matter the route, ends in one of Old Town's church graveyards. 

The second is Alexandria's Footsteps to the Past. Again, a strolling tour of Old Town explores some of the most historical haunts from the old port town. A particular focus of the tour involves the bizarre medical practices and superstitions of the 18th century and their impact on our history.

Both tour companies depart from the Ramsay House visitors center on the corner of King and Fairfax.

Spooky Decor

If it's festive Halloween displays you're after, we certainly have no shortage. When it comes to enjoying ghostly decor, a simple self guided walking tour will be just what the spirits ordered. Our favorite route starts at Prince and South St. Asaph headed east. It's about 1.5 miles and takes you through some of the most historic and most frighteningly decorated parts of Old Town.

The walking path outlined in the embedded map (which also shows a few interesting sights and the cemeteries in Old Town) heads down Prince, where you're sure to see a few great bits of decor adorning the beautiful historic homes.

Walking along Lee Street you're in the heart of what will be Trick-or-Treat central come October 31st. But well before that day the neighbors along this stretch start to outfit their house with spider webs, skeletons, and other spooky paraphernalia. 

We love walking up and down this street during October simply because it takes on such a unique look during the month.

Even the Lee Street Rats get in on the festive action.

On the way back from the walking route's furthest extent takes you back on Fairfax Street, another of Old Town's very historic routes. Pay special attention in the 600 South block for some pretty spectacular decor.

There are little touches everywhere to get you in the spirit. Even Lulu was able to find a "friend" on one of our recent walks.

The route ends by walking up Wolfe Street and back towards King on South St. Asaph street where you'll see some of the homes in Old Town that truly elicit thoughts of haunted Victorian mansions.

No matter what day it is, this walking route will show you some of the most spectacular homes of Old Town, but during Halloween week, everything is kicked up a notch and is sure to give you a few goosebumps for the night.

Walking the Graves

If your idea of fun on Halloween involves getting a little closer to those six feet under, Old Town Alexandria has several small and large historic cemeteries that are perfect for a stroll. Though we like to walk among the head stones year round (it is such a quiet place after all), the crisp fall air, beautifully colored leaves, and elaborate markers and headstones dating back to the 1700s make our cemeteries just a little more impactful this time of the year. 

If you're interested in seeing some of the more famous graves in nearby churchyards, you can walk through the Christ Church or Old Presbyterian Meeting House graveyards.   

Christ Church is the family church of George Washington and houses a collection of very impressive headstones dating to the 18th and early 19th centuries. 

The Old Presbyterian Meeting House graveyard is the final resting place for many of Alexandria's early prominent citizens, including John Carlyle. You'll also find the headstone of James Craik, personal physician to George Washington and the person who may have inadvertently have been responsible for Washington's death due to the practice of blood letting.

The Old Presbyterian Meeting House also has the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier. This is the only United States Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that's officially recognized outside of Arlington National Cemetery.

If you have time for a bit longer of a walk head over to the Alexandria Cemetery in the south west quadrant of town (see map above for large green area). This cemetery is massive and houses the burial grounds for Alexandria's local churches, many dating to the 18th and early 19th centuries. The grounds are full of beautiful headstones. 

In addition to the massive number of important Alexandrians who call this cemetery their final resting place, there's one particular grave that has an very well known, unknown inhabitant. She's the subject of the local story of the Female Stranger. This tale involves mystery and intrigue of an ill woman with no name. She was brought to Gadsby's Tavern by her unknown male suitor in September 1816, but died soon after her arrival. Her partner quickly left town without his deceased, and her identity remains a mystery to this day. 

Some have speculated that she is the illegitimate daughter of Aaron Burr, but the true identity may never be known.

Halloween Night & Trick-or-Treat!

Before we reach the main event of the 31st, Jackson 20 is hosting the perennial favorite Doggy Howl-O-Ween costume contest. Thursday, October 29th, owners and pets come to the Jackson 20/Hotel Monaco courtyard on King Street to enjoy a little dress up fun. It's an absolute sight to behold.

Since Halloween is on a Saturday this year, it's essentially an all day event. During the daytime hours, from 11:00-6:00, the Boutique District shops along King Street will be handing out candy to costume clad children as part of their "Trick-or-Treat with the Boo-tiques" event. In addition, the Carlyle House in the 100 North block of Fairfax Street will be celebrating an 18th century All Hallows' Eve from 5:00-7:00.

Once the sun begins to set it's time for the main event. What was once the area's best kept secret has exploded into an all out costume-fest, and it all takes place on South Lee Street.

Alexandria closes a roughly seven block stretch to traffic and all of the area's little ghosts and goblins roam the decorated homes in search of a little candy. There's talk that this may be the last year of this large of an event, so if you're in the area, it's definitely a must-see. We've seen it slowly grow from the early days to what it has become today, and it's quite impressive.

Once the night of treat gathering is over there's a good chance you'll be looking for a fun night cap. This year the Fish Market will be throwing a major Halloween bash, Nightmare on King Street. There will be a DJ with dancing and costume prizes, and it's all free. Festivities start at 10:00pm.

As you can see, in Old Town there's way more than what goes bump in the night on Halloween. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if more ghouls don't come out to our neighborhood to celebrate rather than scare. We hope our list is enough to encourage you to partake in the week's fun.

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Though we typically hold our party the weekend before Halloween, with the holiday falling on a Friday night (along with Alex's now crushed hopes and dreams of the Nationals making it into the World Series, which in theory would have tied up a few of the other weekend dates), we decided to hold out until the last day of the month to throw our annual bash. 

We're a few days behind in sharing the details, but this year's party was a spooktacularly good time. I guess when you combine friends, food, drinks, and some great costumes, it's really hard to go wrong. 

After last year's Orange is the New Black inspired costumes of ours, lots of people were curious what we would dress up as this year. I'm a fan of couples costumes, as they really add a lot of options for creativity in costumes, so that's the route we went again this year. We kicked around a lot of different thoughts on the subject and tried to figure out something that would be relevant and fun without breaking the bank. Alex had the idea to dress up as a Scotsman representing Scottish independence, but tethered to the Queen of England. He enjoys every opportunity to wear his kilt, and I liked that the idea was timely and relatively easy to pull off and gave me an opportunity to embrace my inner queen. He ordered a "Scotland Aye" tee shirt to round out his ensemble, and I combined costume jewelry and sensible shoes with a new wig and monochromatic ill fitting dress and jacket I picked up for just $25 at our local bargain shopping outlet. Here's a look at the full effect.

While Lulu was dressed as a little bat, we really should've gone the extra lengths and had her dress as a little corgi. Overall we got a pretty decent reaction from our party guests, and Alex got the question of "So, your kilt...are you full Scottish? (wink wink, nudge nudge)" more than once.

Our guests were incredibly creative this year. One of my favorite costumes included our friends with the movie theater-inspired group costume with the awesomely homemade popcorn costume, lovingly made by this little guy's grandma.

As well as our friends who came to the party already buzzed. (Terrible joke, my apologies.) Seriously though, any man who's confident enough to rock tight pants and antennae to pull off a costume earns a gold star in my book.

I also have to give props to this dashing duo. Not only did they stay in character throughout the night, they even posed in the mandated "prom photo" stance. If I had a dollar for every bad high school photo of me in this pose...well, I digress.

While I promised Alex to go a little more casual for this year's spread, the spirits got ahold of me and I couldn't resist going that extra mile. We had a full table of savory items, complete with Halloween-inspired names like "Goblin Guts" (artichoke crostini) or "Dragon Lard" (assorted fine cheese)...

And I brought back some old favorites like the ever-popular Boo-rbon slushes as our specialty cocktail, and couldn't help but jump on the pretzel bread craze with these tasty chicken salad sandwiches.

I also created a separate buffet for sweet treats like donuts, cream puffs, cookies and candy, supervised by our resident Rat.

Here's a look at the spread in its entirety. 

We also stocked our bar in the kitchen with red, white, and sparkling wine, beer, and the slushes I've already mentioned.

While throwing this party is an exhausting endeavor, it's a ton of fun and is an annual tradition that we cherish each year. After all, why spend all the time it takes to pull out ten storage containers worth of decorations if you don't have anyone who will enjoy your efforts? 

Did you dress up this year or maybe you had a favorite trick-or-treater that came to your door? I'd love to hear about all the creative costume ideas that made an appearance this year. And, of course, I hope you had a Happy Halloween!

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I've long been smitten with paper lanterns, as they're a cheap, whimsical, and impactful way to liven up a party. Earlier this year when I saw a set go on clearance from Victorian Trading Company, I knew I had to snatch them up. 

Using orange ribbon from a local craft store and 3M easy release tape, I hung these vintage-inspired black cat globes in the doorway between our living and dining rooms. The dining room is where we set up our buffet, and the look should create a dramatic entrance to the party and to the food serving area.

All in all, it took less than ten minutes to assemble and hang this new decor. While it looks like these particular lantern are now sold out, a similar look could be created using plain paper lantern in alternating orange and black, and a little craft paint if you're feeling ambitious. They're really inexpensive (like this 10-pack for just over $1 per lantern), and the key to maximum impact is to use them in groupings. More is more! They'd be fun hung above a buffet table, from a tree, or from a porch ceiling. You can even buy LED light kits so the globes are illuminated for additional ambiance.

My other new addition this year is a black glitter garland which I've hung below our dining room mantle. With its simple "spooky" message, I though it was a fun addition and I really like the fact that it doesn't take up a lot of storage space. The sad truth is that we have nearly ten large plastic storage containers in our attic for our Halloween decor, and I'm trying to maintain my hoard rather than grow it.

Here's a look at some of the other Halloween decorations we already had on hand, and make their way into our annual decorating efforts. Like our metal bell spiders descending from their webs encasing our dining room chandelier.

I don't know what it is but there's just something about the paper mache witches and other creatures that I find delightfully creepy. 

I feel like they really add a certain amount of Victorian charm to our home for Halloween.

Our annual costume party will be on Halloween night this year. Alex and I have settled on a good couples costume for this year, but we're still a long way from feeling truly prepared for this year's party. With just two days to go, we'd better get our acts together. I think last year's Orange is the New Black or 2011's Alfred Hitchcock inspired "The Birds" costumes will be hard to top. If you want to see some of our older costumes, including such classics as Alex going as a Shriner, here's a look back at a costume recap. If you're still looking for inspiration for Halloween 2014, we hope we can provide a good idea or two. 

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