The seasons are changing again and with them, seasonal decor is also changing!
When I first learned that I would be not only moving across the country but living alone, I put together Pinterest boards as I looked for furniture and planned out how to decorate the manse. You’ve all seen my Starry Night-themed craft room in worship and evening prayer live streams. The guest room is mostly green and grey, my bedroom is mostly purple and red, and the living room was black and white until I brought my big blue chair up from the basement to set up a filming corner for Bible studies. All of that was reasonably “normal.” But then I realized that, since I’d be living by myself, and there wouldn’t be any roommates to veto my weird ideas, and I’m an adult, gosh darn it, and I can make my own decisions…I could have a completely Star Trek-themed bathroom if I wanted to!
And so I found the appropriate shower curtain and bath mat, picked out towels in the colors of Starfleet uniforms, hung up a Star Trek calendar and a Star Trek wall clock, plugged in a USS Enterprise nightlight, framed small prints of Kirk and Spock and a poster of the Deep Space 9 station, and placed a small starship next to the cotton balls. I have since acquired Kirk and Uhura rubber duckies, too. I am fortunate to have humans in my life who enable some of my weirder hobbies.
But then last fall, I was preparing to bring my Halloween decorations out from the craft room closet and I thought, you know what? I’m an adult. I can make my own decisions. I can deck out my bathroom with ravens and skulls and black cats if I want to! It turns out that my specific aesthetic in tasteful goth home decor is a bit more expensive than I can really justify on bathroom decorations, so I DIYed new picture frames for black and white prints, found black hand towels, and painted a set of arched windows that I covered in 3D lace and just barely fit into a cheap frame. My most exciting find was a black resin raven, holding in its beak the cord to a small lightbulb.
In this household, “spooky season” begins in September (okay, sometimes August). Theoretically, it lasts until Advent, but in actual practice, Halloween decorations have lingered through December until I look up from Christmas planning for long enough to notice that I still have bats on my walls (oops). One year, I accidentally left a skeleton hanging until December 26, but in my defense, it’s not like I use my dining room all that often.
