Well, I learned something new today.

Here’s my bit of wisdom for the day:

There are three ways to spell “zhuzh:”

It’s a tough one, but now you know. And now I know.

I mean, I use the word perhaps more often than the average person, but writing it down? Nope.I’ve always avoided having to put formal letters to it because, um, it’s more of a sound than a word, right?

I may not have known the proper way(s) to spell it, but I sure have a love for doing it. A little extra dec acc here, move it one or two inches to the right or to the left, switch this with that or that with this…and voila!

Our house is always getting zhuzhed in one way or another, and the fall season is no exception. We’ve already been through two iterations of autumn decor over the last month (the “here’s-what-I-pulled-up-from-the-basement” and the “let’s-add-in-all-the-things-from-this-year’s-Target-Dollar-Spot” ones), and it’s finally time for Halloween accessories, yay!

I’m a maximalist trying to recover (haha), so I did manage to part with a bin or two of Halloween decor that wasn’t quite making the grade anymore. (Round of applause? No? Oh, well.) So here’s a quick look at me trying to balance being an all-in person with not overdoing…it for once:

Entryway(I guess that’s what you’d call the odd space in our house that kinda’ leads from our foyer to our living room?): Add bats + pumpkin. Check.

Most of our Halloween decor ended up in our living room, which is where we spend 99% of our time. The goal? Add some orange, a few jack-o-lanterns, a bit of black, and call it done. Check.

Our living room and kitchen are open-plan, so I like to do some seasonal stuff in both places. Usually I do a big Halloween display for our giant island, but I’m showing restraint, people. So “minimal white fall” is where I landed.

And a friendly reminder, haha…

A little bulldawg + stone pumpkin for our open shelves…

I’m feeling stuck on decorating our dining roomfor the season, so right now it’s just…brown. Which is fall-ish, I guess? Check-ish.

The rule for outside? Whatever is out there has to easily translate from September through November, so Fall – Halloween -Fall. So this year, I just added a few things for Halloween to our existing fall decor, and I’ll just remove them on November 1st (and zhuzh — see what happens when I learn something new?? — the remaining stuff back into place).

Doing that “lots of pumpkins on your porch” thing but not wanting to spending $1,000,000 on decor that rots =

(Oh, and how can I forget this lil’ boo?)