Somehow we’re already halfway through October 2020 and we’re a little saddened by the lack of holiday spirit this year. In Pandemic Spring we bought some cheap vintage Easter decor and put it all over the outside of the house and folks loved it (walking by and actually thanking us), so we’ve tried to keep the spirit going all year- especially through these last 7 months of Pandemic stressful times. During July we put up 4th of July decor outside paired with a couple new “political” flags that we stapled to the outside of our house (we don’t know how saying that Black Lives Matter Too is political, but whatever). People again stopped by to thank us for making an effort also commending us on our 2 new big perennial gardens that we built in Pandemic Spring (out of plants we bought from yards on the roadside) and our doubled-in-size food garden.
We don’t really decorate for others (rather to cheer ourselves up as therapy), but folks are very into the decorations this year more than any of the other 4 years we’ve lived here. I guess the vintage decor collection has grown over the years of going to estate sales locally, but also folks have been just really beaten down this year with a LITERAL worldwide Pandemic (causing for SOME REASON rifts in family, anti-science rhetoric, not being allowed to travel, being forced to work from home 24/7, etc), Racism, horrible governing (or no governing in certain large cases), and this awful election looming (we voted in person a week ago- don’t test us). Right now we think it’s super important to lift spirits and folks have been apparently very lifted by the simple act of the exterior of our house celebrating holidays, so here we go again-! We always decorate October for Halloween, November for Thanksgiving/ fall vibes, and December for Christmas (and we will probably also decorate January for winter)-! This year’s decor really blew up! Jenny was gifted some more vintage Halloween decor from her immediate family last month on her birthday (omg best gifts ever!), so we’re more festive than ever this year-! Without further adieu, enjoy these crazy October/ Halloween scenes of our yard-!!
This year we went as far as getting a 140 pound pumpkin for $15 (the one you see our elderly Kevin the cat sitting on) and a ton of colorful pumpkins (like we always do- but this year more than normal), but this year we have been eating our decorative squash and pumpkins per the suggestion from a friend-! In another blog post we’ll introduce you to some local farm foods that are delicious (many of these squash and pumpkins included), but for now we’ll stick to celebrating the Holiday Spirit via our decorated house-!!
(Jason likes to hand draw a face for our front door. It’s a tradition at this point…)
**Vintage blow molds ftw.
A neighbor couple 2 doors down (also from California like Jason) has decorated their home like the Haunted Mansion in Los Angeles-! We’re happy to not be the ONLY ones with holiday spirit.
Mask up or face potential Pandemic death. (But seriously- sound medical advice isn’t that difficult or political).
**Some spicy, spoopy plants to join our indoor jungle.
Our tabletop of mostly vintage thrifted finds-!
We got this dish at an estate sale this year and though we don’t know what it was meant to mean, we think it’s perfect for Halloween!
Some more local vintage finds-!
A vintage moving spooky vampire, massive vampire teeth candy bowl, and Trick or Treat pumpkins passed down to us from Jenny’s mom.
We hope you enjoyed checking out out our Pandemic Halloween decor and that it brought you some holiday spirit this difficult year-! We LOVE Halloween and sometime in November will share with you the annual Halloween family costumes (as we still haven’t thought them up yet)-! We aren’t sure if Trick-or-Treat is happening during the Pandemic, but if it does, we’ll be making a shoot/ tube to transport treats to kids, we’ll be masked up on the porch and make sure kids stay back on the walkway 6 feet away, AND will be handing them toy bags with a mechanical robot arm thing… lol. We have to be creative to keep everyone safe-! We’re also thinking about maybe putting up a gate at the end of our walkway so people are forced to take turns getting candy/ forced to distance (lol at this point in Indiana/ the USA we don’t trust ANYONE to be responsible to make these community-conscious decisions on their own or to take anyone else’s health in to consideration, so we’ll be making these executive decisions on our own for OUR Property/ house to keep folks safe).
In less than a few days we’ll be photographing Chicagoans Elise & Matt’s big WEDDING day just across the border from us in Niles, Michigan at The Morris Estate-! The Pandemic rules in Michigan just changed in the past week (Oct 8th or 9th) to now allow more than 10 folks in indoor Michigan wedding ceremonies (anywhere from churches to other venues), but the exact number is dependent on the size (square feet) of the room/ venue. Luckily Matt & Elise have always planned for their wedding reception to be outdoors there at The Morris Estate, so other than them not having Open Dancing (rather yard games instead), it seems that things will be safe outside for the majority of the day (though we will still be fully masked in our N95 masks all day obviously to keep everyone safe)-! In a week & a half we’ll also be capturing more Couple & Family Autumn Portrait Sessions for our couples in the beautiful fall colors here in the Midwest (and obviously after that during the last Saturday of October on Halloween day (the 31st) we’ll be dressing up as usual with our pets)-!
We hope that you’ve all stayed healthy during these stressful times and that in the past 7 months you & your loved ones have stayed safe from Covid-19. We’ve had one of our 2019 couples lose a family member to Covid HERE in South Bend earlier this year and always put the health and safety of our clients at the forefront of our business. We want to go out on a limb and thank our clients for being so conscientious during this scary Pandemic year by taking as many precautions as possible to keep your loved ones SAFE and alive-! Some wedding vendors at the end of the day don’t care about your or your loved ones’ health, but we definitely DO, so we’re glad that most of our couples & clients have also made these healthy & loving decisions pertaining to this Pandemic (especially during Spring & Summer with reschedulings)-! 2021 is going to be a well-deserved celebration for many of our couples we hope (pending virus times getting less intense) and we cannot wait to celebrate those of you who chose to prioritize the health of your loved ones (responsibly knowing that patience is a virtue & your loved ones living to see another year is more important). THANK YOU for keeping us up-to-date on your decisions or even involving us in the decision making process-! Rescheduling weddings TWICE for many so far this year (with now 3 dates that you’ve banked on as being your wedding date) is no emotionally or financially easy thing for anyone involved, so we’re really proud of how everyone has handled things. We’re so proud of ALL of you in 2020 for dealing with all of this with grace during highly stressful times (as if weddings and professional portraiture weren’t already stressful, right?). THANK YOU for everything and we hope that you’ve had at least one or some good takeaways from this very intense year so far. We’ll catch you NEXT WEEK with Elise & Matt’s Wedding Teasers from the Morris Estate-!!