What cute little ghosts. I bet you could use clear fishing line to hang them around too. I' have to try to find me some white bells I think all I have are silver or gold colored, but then of course, I could always spray paint them white couldn't I?

Thanks, all, for looking. Punk, DH did do a great job and even better he put the mantel lights on a remote control! We have a hidden outlet in the mantel and he plugged in a 3-way extension cord with a remote control. All I have to do is click and lights on, lights off! Jane, I hope I can still leave some of it up and replace the Halloween things with turkeys in November. I'm going to see if I can do something with lights for Thanksgiving, too. Lee and Syble, the cat is papier mache and I just got it a few months ago at a garage sale for $1. The lanterns are also rummage-sale finds. The one on the left has a "flicker" bulb in it. The one on the right is a candle lantern but I've asked DH to put a socket in it so I can put a flicker bulb in it too. So next year... Bonniee--thank you very much. Anything I do in this vein is due to what I've learned from the great ladies on this forum. I can hardly wait until DH makes my dining nook table so I can try some tablescapes! - Magpie

That was a real mess. I had never thought much about the leaves still being on the trees and how much worse that could make it! We had a terrible Halloween ice storm about 18 years ago. I remember hearing the trees cracking and the miles of power lines/poles that went down. We had another severe ice storm 2 years ago in February. They have started placing the power poles closer together, as the new wood in the poles isn't as good anymore, so thus the lack of strength. By placing the poles closer together it helps with the heavy load of ice. We have both regular power and REC (rural electric). Our home has the regular power company, but our farm locations have REC. The price for REC power is just crazy high - and getting higher due to the storms. We are lucky enough to have large generators (tractor PTO powered). I can run pretty much anything in my house - but I do have to watch to make sure I don't overload. We have to run 220 power in our barns and livestock feeding operations. That generator ran 24 hours a day, for 12 days in the storm two years ago. Shazam! That one was very costly!!! Thanks for the pictures - especially the before and after. That really puts it in perspective!

What a fun Halloween project! I’m sending this off to my sister to make wih her grands.