I’m happy to be sharing this sponsored post with you today about making a fun Halloween candle scape!

The people at Scented Candle Shop sent me some fun candles to mess around with to make a Halloween display. My favorite is probably the candy corn-scented votives, but we’ll get to that in a moment!

With just some simple candles, you can make your own spooky candle arrangement without relying on what the industrial Halloween complex thinks is festive. I got some tapers in black, white and red, a few white pillars, some floating red candles, and some scented votives. The votives were Halloween-themed, in “Candy Corn” and “Witches’ Brew” flavors.

I started by putting some black burlap/gauze stuff across the mantel. I found this stuff at Party City.

I attached it with some Quake Hold-type putty. I wanted mine to look uneven and raggedy.

Next, I put up some spider webs, also from Party City, but during Halloween season you can practically find these anywhere.

Nice! Now we’ve got the canvas on which to put the candle display. I gathered a few things in addition to the candles:

• a galvanized bucket, which I painted with brown paint and then wiped off to give it a dirty look, and then dripped red candle wax on for a bloody effect.
• 3 small glass cups with water and food coloring inside. Two of them had red food coloring for a blood effect, and one had black food coloring. Spooky.
• a small black saucer
• some plastic spiders
• a small vase with an opening large enough for a candle
• sand
• a small, flat, black tray

In the galvanized bucket I added sand so that I could stand the tapers up in awkward angles. I put several tapers in, letting them lean like they had fallen and were in disrepair.

You can see my bloody, dirty galvanized bucket there, too. Now, since the candles are leaning, there’s one candle that could conceivably drip wax onto the mantle. To solve that problem, I added a small black saucer underneath the wick. In the saucer I placed several plastic spiders, spilling out onto the mantle.

So you get this effect, and safety, too:

The centerpiece was the black tray with several candles on it. First, I lined the tray with more spider webbing. Then, I took two white pillars and dripped melted red wax onto them, so they seem to be bleeding (search “bloody candles” and you will find tons of tutorials online). One caveat: make sure you use solid red candles for the best pigmentation. In between these two tapers I put several small votives, the ones with Halloween smells like Candy Corn and Witches’ Brew. Another note, here: Candy Corn smells nice and sweet. Witches’ Brew is very spicy, so if you have anyone who is sensitive to smells in your household, I’d skip that one and go with something unscented.

In order to make sure that your tapers don’t fall over, secure them with more Quake Hold putty. You might also want to add, as I did, a small piece of wax paper underneath these candles, so the hot wax drips onto the paper and not onto the spider webs.

In the cups with colored water I placed the red floating candles. And to finish it all off, I added a black taper in a bud vase.

The whole display looked like this:

And when it was lit?

Hope you enjoyed! Happy Halloween to all!

As my boys get older, we’ve been considering redoing their bathroom. They currently shower regularly in our master bath, and you will see why:

See that cool, funky, yet kind of totally nonfunctional tub? It’s a square tub, which was kind of lovely when they were little and were bathing; the extra large ledges provided play space and it was easy to bathe them.

But you’ll notice that there’s no shower curtain. Or doors. Nothing to enclose the tub for a shower. And no easy way to accomplish this feat.

The other problem with this tub is that it’s peeling. Badly. See?

When we moved in 8 years ago, we had that tub refinished since it was peeling at that time, too. Holy hell, I’ve never smelled anything that pungent or powerful before or since. Even after three days of open windows, fans, and wishful thinking, that smell was nearly unbearable. So I’m not sure that we want to go through that again.

However, I do kind of like this tub, its uniqueness, and it fits perfectly in there. Now I’m discovering that it’s a period thing, that, depending on the source, anywhere from the 1930s to the postwar period saw a flourishing business in these “Cinderella tubs.”

How can you get rid of a Cinderella tub? Even if you do have boys?

Do you all have any ideas? We could probably solve the shower curtain issue, if only with a rather labor-intensive solution. But the deglazing. Should we suck it up and hope that the second reglazing will last until they leave the house? I’m stumped.

But in the meantime, I’m putting together an inspiration board for things I’d like to change up in there. If we’re doing something with the bathtub, might as well fix it up so it better suits what will eventually be teenage boys, right?

1. Washroom Typography, Etsy: I find this sentiment both hilarious and useful. I’d maybe want it without the “love, Mom.”
2. The Bowie Wall Sconce, BarnLight Electric. I just discovered this company and I am in love.
3. Marimekko Rasymatto Towels, Finn Style. Marimekko, ’nuff said.
4. Peyton Shower Curtain, PBTeen. Love this pattern.
5. V & B Central Line Double Vanity Unit, Villeroy & Boch. Two sinks would be awesome if we have the space. And I like how it attaches to the wall and leaves space beneath, so that right now we can put stools there since the 6 year old still needs one to reach, and later we could use it to store extra toilet paper or whatever.
6. Alphabet Hook, Anthropologie. Hooks seem so much more appropriate than towel bars. Space saving, they each get their own, they don’t have to fold a towel.
7. Cirrus Grey Bath Rug, CB2. This rug looks so plush and squishy.
8. License Plate Surfboard Custom Art, Etsy. I absolutely love this piece.

So, what do you think? Any suggestions? And what to do with that crazy Cinderella tub. (I almost called it a Princess tub.)