Save the Ghosts! by Guest Blogger Jack Furber

My Mom's right. I don't like change at all. When she moves stuff around the house, I always put it back. When she throws stuff away, I get it back out (don't ask.) All this talk about changing the candles on the kitchen table makes me feel sick.

I'm an 11 year old dude. Things are changing all the time in my life. New teachers. New clothes. I strongly dislike new clothes. (My Mom doesn't like me to say "hate.") What isn't changing? If my Mom is going to change something, she knows my room's off limits, but I still worry anyway that one day I'm going to come home from school and find my room has been turned into a sewing room or something girl-y like that.

I'm happy to read in my Mom's blog that Mr. and Mrs. Bones are not on the chopping block. But is it too much to ask to expect that every Halloween, the same old ghost candles come out, and I get to see them on the kitchen table every day?

Save the Ghosts! Don't let the man bring you down!

T minus Six Weeks to Halloween. Time to Decorate!

Because I'm in the mail order business, I tend to start shopping and planning early for holidays. Halloween is still six weeks away, but feels like it's right around the corner to me.

My kids are big into decorating for each holiday, and so the boxes are about to come out with our Halloween mugs, our big hairy spiders, and Mr. and Mrs. Bones, the plastic skeletons that hang out on our front porch throughout the month of October. Each year we add a few new things to round out our decorating statement, but they have to work with spiders and the Bones family -- they're non-negotiable.

I've decided the focus this year will be to replace the centerpiece I always have on my kitchen table. For several years it's been black slate tiles with ghost candles on them. I think it's time to enhance the level of sophistication, as the ghosts are looking pretty sad after five long years of spending 11 months of the year in a box in the garage. I've decided to do a pumpkin centerpiece that will be a mixture of real pumpkins and pumpkin candles on vintage breadboards. My kids love pumpkins.
When I started shopping, I was surprised how many good pumpkin candles there were in the market.
I found these at Pottery Barn:












I found these at Williams-Sonoma:












and I found these at Crate and Barrel:












When I mix these pumpkin candles up with some real pumpkins and gourds from the Farmer's Market, I think this centerpiece will be worthy of the kind of status Mr. and Mrs. Bones hold in my house. My son Jack, who does not like change at all, says I cannot retire the ghosts. However, I think when Jack sees my fabulous ode to pumpkins, he will change his mind. I'll let you know how it goes in a later post.