Sunday, October 30, 2011

A Very Haunted Harry Potter Birthday Party

It was a lot of work and we were scrambling at the end a bit but the party came together rather nicely and was a SUPER GOOD TIME. Probably the best 'Halloween Saturday' (as I like to call it) in quite a long time. I just can't help imagining what I could do with more time and money!


 Cauldron cakes, licorice wands, Bertie Bott's every flavored beans, and dips, chips, and other goodies.


 The Three Broomsticks
 Butterbeer!
 Group shot (thanks to Muggle camera woman Miranda)
 Fluffy
 Doby the house elf
 Time turner!

 Ron

 Hermione
 Dolores Umbridge
 Trelawney
 Harry Potter
 Professor McGonagall
 Trelawney (less unhinged)
The birthday kids. Hahahahahaa. I love this picture! I will write another post and go into some of the crafty details in a different post. But for now I wish you a good nights rest before All Hallows Eve.

Happy Haunting!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Nerding out

The day is being spent making up treat bags, starting costumes, and working on some pretty nerdy Harry Potter related crafts. In the meantime I leave you with something that made my little nerd heart sing.

Wes Anderson Meets Scream


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Flashback Halloween: The Ghost and the Devil

Not just a ghost. I emphasized the eyes and the mouth, added black and glow in the dark spiders, and made sure that the bottom edge was good and roughed up. Once my little sister got into the costume game I was no longer going to be the most adorable.

Monday, October 24, 2011

ONE WEEK UNTIL HALLOWEEN!!!!

Hey there gals and ghouls, the real countdown begins! One week from today is Halloween! Saturday I am helping with the nerd-fest known as the Harry Potter themed bday/Halloween party and as such I am going to be sharing Harry Potter posts all week.

Here is a little something to get you warmed up. Which house are you?

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Change of plans

Sometimes change is a good thing. My friends were planning on having a co-bday party/Halloween party and having it literary themed. Everyone was supposed to come as a favorite character from literature. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and directionless at the same time. Then an unexpected twist. Both of the co-hosts were considering going as Harry Potter characters and so they decided it would be even more fun to just have a giant Harry Potter themed party! Still bookish but it gave me the specificity that I needed to really make this party work. Now the ideas are flying on decorations, food, etc. AND my costume is now a no brainer. I am going to be Bellatrix Lestrange.



Done. 

Friday, October 21, 2011

More Halloween Shopping

Hit a couple of stores up yesterday. Fabric store was having a pattern sale!!!!!!

 I picked up these beauties for 99 cents each!!!!! If I had bought all these patterns at full price my bill would have come to $142.60! That is insane. Which is why I always stock up.
 Also picked up some Halloween school type items. I am making little gift bags for my friend's first grade class.
Then I hit up a thrift store and got all these beauties for $1! I have a weird fascination with old photo books. The others were just cool. The gray book underneath is probably going to be sacrificed for bday party decorations. My friends are having a literary themed bday party next week that I am helping with. Everyone is supposed to come dressed as their favorite literary character. Cool idea but it is harder than it seems right now I am between:

Dorian Gray
Sherlock Holmes
Jane Eyre
Crazy wife from Jane Eyre
Nancy Drew
or Mary from The Secret Garden

Also have a couple more 'kid books' ideas like going as a giant palm tree and being 'Chika chika Boom boom' or a giant red mitten with beanie babies spilling out of it and being 'The Mitten'.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Costume Thoughts: Men in Costume

As Halloween is fast approaching I wanted to say a little something about costumes...but as I started thinking about it I found out that I have quite a bit on my mind about costumes this year so we are going to break it down a bit.

First Up: Men in Costume

It is a fact of life that if I ever get married it will be to a man who loves Halloween. Heck there may be a Halloween themed wedding...but seriously a good costume on a guy can go a long way to winning a pretty witch's heart.

1. Handmade is always best. It shows that you care. It shows that you put time and effort into it. Re-using your comic-con costume is ok. Wearing the SAME handmade Halloween costume three years in a row with no alterations is not ok.

Handmade Megatron Costume
Nerd alert! And yet I want to know who is in that costume...
2. Pick something fun. You may have slaved over that scary-ass clown costume for weeks and added more fake blood than you know what to do with but no one is going to want to hang out with you. The best you are going to get is passerbys wanting a picture before they run away in terror.

Scary!
Those lovely ladies are not going to be sticking around for long. 'Burger King' in the background is kind of clever though.

3. When in doubt go overboard. Nobody liked the Steve Jobs zombies at this year's ZPC. Why? First it was a bit 'too soon' and second it took NO EFFORT. A turtleneck and some fake blood does not a costume make. Boo. If you are worried that no one else is going to be as 'in costume' as you are going to be you either are going to the wrong parties or have lame friends or both. Change accordingly to fit with your super sweet costume.

Best Halloween costumes ever!
Extra points for group costumes

Bonus: Really looking to win some hearts? Go obscure. Do movie characters. Do quirky characters no one is expecting. If you are going for a well known/common costume you best make sure you do it BETTER than anyone else. Here are just a few characters/costumes that if some guy was wearing I would probably fall in love with them.

 Michael Fassbender in XMen First Class. Actually if you can convey Michael Fassbender anything to me you win.

Looking for a super easy costume that I would accept and LOVE? Look to the movie Drive
White satin jacket (with gold scorpion on the back=extra points), driving gloves, aviators, toothpick. Done.

 Anyone from Boardwalk Empire. Think 3 piece suits. Include great details like a red carnation in the lapel, slick hair, etc. Extra points? Go as Harrow from the show. Love.

Scissors for Hands
Edward Scissorhands. Once again...LOVE. This gets extra points for have 'The Inventor' as a sidekick (read wingman).

I could go on. Bottom line: Have fun with your costume!

Happy Haunting!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Currently Obsessed With: Daryl from The Walking Dead

Normally I would just say that I was obsessed with 'The Walking Dead'- the zombie-rific tv show from AMC. But after catching the Season 2 premiere on Sunday I think my current obsession is much more Daryl based. Yes my crush on Andrew Lincoln was renewed, yes I love all the zombie-ness and the discussions that arise from it but I was really digging Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon. He is the resident bad boy with a heart of gold and I think that is why I love him. His brother on the show was kinda awful but so far Daryl is the man there when you need him (and least expect him) and he seems to have the best skill set for living in the zombie filled world.

Sure the days of absolute drop-dead-gorgeousness may be gone (See Boondock Saints) but his crossbow skills and his arms alone make me sort of drool a little. If he keeps kicking ass and saving lives like he did Season 2 Episode 1 he is sure to remain my own personal fan favorite.

Also I just want to mention that I really miss having AMC as they are in full swing now for the scary Halloween time movies. Sigh.

Happy Zombie Hunting!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Flashback Halloween: Black Cat

Holy crap was I adorable! I still remember this costume fondly. My mom made me a tail out of old black panty hose. She also gussied up a cat mask with some sequins and added fake fingernails to my gloves for 'claws'. From there on it was just as much black layering as was needed for that particular Halloween night.

In other news: I missed a few days on the Countdown to Halloween due to a camping trip that sort of snuck up on me so I had no time to write a few future posts. This week is all about catching up and moving! Yep I am finally moving out of my house. After quitting my full time job that was destroying my soul I had to move back home. Since then I have been telling myself that when I move again it will be for good. Well I have no way of knowing that for sure but I decided quite suddenly this weekend that I was ready to move on. I have definitely been dragging my feet on the topic with the greatest  argument against moving being "but all my stuff is already here" which is no way to live life. So although my life may not be exactly moving forward as much as I would like at least it is moving. Now to balance moving into a new place while still getting ready for my favorite Holiday.....I AM STILL IN NEED OF A COSTUME AND IT IS FREAKING ME OUT.

Ok. Stay calm, and Happy Haunting.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Dollar Store Halloween: Hedges

One of my main crafty rules in life is 'use what you've got'. For awhile now I was thinking about adding some skulls to this large hedge that borders the sidewalk. I like subtlety in my Halloweeny outdoor decor. Don't get me wrong I love a good yard display but as am not quite there yet I am enjoying adding spooky touches to my yard throughout the month making it spookier as we go.

So today is Part Two of our Dollar Store Halloween outdoor decor series: Hedges


 Remember these little guys from the Halloween Shopping of a couple weeks ago? Well now we are going to get some use out of them.
 First off they were looking a little 'perfect' for my taste so I mixed up some red, black, and green paint with some water and basically started to 'baste' the skulls in this color mix. Since they are plastic they wont take the color exceedingly well but I was going for a weathered uneven look so every few minutes I would just add another watery layer of paint and let it dry. I did mine outside so they dried pretty quickly.
 This next part is the most difficult and if kids are interested in this project this will be the part where parental supervision is a MUST. Seriously. Now you may find a better way to do this but what I did was create two small holes on the back of my skulls using a nail and a hammer. Then I made the holes bigger with a couple of screwdrivers. Since these are dollar store skulls the plastic is not very thick and once you get the hang of it this step actually goes pretty quick. Just be careful since other types of plastic could be more durable/slippery increasing risk of injury. After all the holes were made I used black pipe cleaners and threaded them through the holes. This took a bit of patience but once I figured out a good size to make the holes and curving the pipe cleaners a bit it worked quite nicely. I then twisted the pipe cleaner just like a huge twist tie and they are then ready to twist tie to my hedges!

Feel free to use something else other than pipe cleaners- I just happened to have some of these on hand but you could for sure use craft wire, actual twist ties, even string. Get creative and 'use what you've got'. After you have all your twist tie like items attached nestle them into hedges, bushes, small trees or anywhere else they would be creepy. I liked the idea of making them almost hidden so you wouldn't see them right away but these would also look cool on a chain link or picket fence.

Here is the hedge- I have actually already hidden the seven skulls within the leaves. Even I can't really tell where they are!
 I put this one near my 'garden of the undead' as sort of a transition skull.

 The rest I hid among the leaves.


 I made sure this one was trick-or-treat-er height. Since they are already hard to spot I don't expect to freak too many kids out but I think it would be a little spooky if they  caught one out of the corner of their eye!
Variations:
-add more skulls throughout the month and have a sign saying 'lost trick-or-treat-ers'
-with some patience you could probably get creative with some lights and add them in the skulls. A couple small holes in the eye sockets and you would have a very creepy Halloween display. Creepy during the day- terrifying at night.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Dollar Store Halloween: In the Garden

I wanted to show you a couple of insanely easy outdoor Halloween decorations that you can do with Dollar Store items. Advantages to using Dollar Store items cheap, easy, and non-heartbreaking when some jerk takes/destroys it. (Ever since my young pumpkin smashing I am sure that all my decorations will be taken or destroyed). Also my dollar store items saved me some time. I could have maybe made some paper mache skulls (the original plan) but I am just running out of time! So here goes.

Part One: The Garden

The garden is a perfect place for the Undead to lurk. Most of the flowers/veggies are already gone for the season and most people don't mind if you dig a little bit in a garden. Yards people get really cranky, but gardens are pretty safe.
 Here are the starters I used: Severed hands and feet. (The skulls we will be using tomorrow!)
 This is so easy kids should be encouraged to help! Simply dig and plant! The trick is to make sure you get your limbs in the ground deep enough that they wont pop out but out enough that you can see them. I brushed leaves all around mine too to cover up the disturbed soil.

 This one I put the foot and hand to look as though someone where buried there.

Super easy- yes- but also pretty fun. Put out as few or as many as you like and at the end of the season a quick spray with the hose and they are ready for next year. (For use with the same craft or a different idea.


Variations:

-wrap hands/feet in scraps of fabric for a mummified look.
-add brown/red paint for a bloodier/muddier look
-add tombstones to your garden or the hands to your yard front graveyard.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Flashback Halloween: Little Witch

Time for another Halloween Flashback! This picture is from the same year as the first one but this is me in all my costume glory. Yep, you are seeing right folks. That is a batman t-shirt masquerading as a witch costume. I am not sure why they didn't at least turn it inside out, but this should give you a little insight into my deep love for Batman. Completing the look is a cape, black witch hat (I still have that hat), a witch glow stick thingy (safety first), and my McDonalds witch bucket (that I also still have.) This was my first year trick or treating at this house and I would grow to know the neighborhood well by who gave the best candy.

I am still in brain-freeze mode when it comes to this year's costume. Do you know what you are going to be yet? Any good ideas floating out there?

Happy Haunting!

Zombie Time

Finally! The crawl has come and gone and a fairly good time was had by all. Our group was fun but sort of too large. I ran into some dear old friends and just other old friends who for reasons we don't need to go into will probably not be my friends after that night! Sigh. Drama. And zombies. Sometimes those things just go hand in hand. But on to the crawl!









Good times. I think last year was a little more fun but it is still an experience!

Now that is taken care of I need to figure out a Halloween costume!

Happy Haunting...