Halloween Eve

Halloween night! My first Halloween living on my own and I couldn't be more excited for some trick or treaters. I did my best to draw a little attention to my hidden apartment. Hopefully the outcome is favorable.

I dressed up a tad for work. I was Little Red Riding Hood.
For evening I took a crack at some day of the dead face painting.
Not too bad for some party city face paint and a sponge applicator.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!!

Pumpkin Patch Perfection

Hello Everyone!

I threw a pumpkin carving party this year for Halloween! It was so much fun. I love creating festive touches during the holidays and I thought hosting a carving party would be a great way to decorate my apartment and spend some time with my friends. I enlisted the help of one of my favorite uncles, Joe! He is the mastermind/ executioner behind my party planning.

There were so many little details that made the entire evening a complete success. Planning a party while juggling a full time job is not the easiest of tasks. I wouldn't have been able to pull everything together without Uncle Joe. So a gigantic THANK YOU is necessary.

We started with the entryway. The lighting was distorted with aluminum foil and the spider egg sacks (gross!!) were made from Epson Salt filled balloons in stalkings (with a glow stick to illuminate the spiders). They were wrapped in spider webbing and hung with tiny nails from the ceiling. Spider webbing was draped from the walls with lots of spiders! [It still freaks me out]. We added in a little something special... the large spider in front of the door is harnessed to a string that pulls open when the door is opened so my guests were greeted with a scampering spider up the door. (pictures below!)

Walking into the living room you're not quite sure where to look first. Along the crown molding is a boarder of black and orange crepe paper, bats, and balloons. Along the walls is a black crepe paper fence with a watchful crow and more bats! Those were fun to cut out- I was inspired by these bats on Paper Crave.

In the windows you'll see 'traveling ghosts' inspired by Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. We used white balloons, drew scary faces, and put glow sticks inside before blowing them up. We hung plastic drop plastic with painters tape and sprayed green glow in the dark paint to be picked up by the black light bulbs.

Over the television hung the ghastly ghost to ensure fright and fun were taking place during the party. In front of the ghost was a table covered in painters drop plastic to keep pumpkin guts from getting everywhere! (We put plastic on the floor too, which made for easy clean up). I created basic center pieces from tall vases filled with glow bracelets for the guests and vampire fangs. Pumpkin carving kits, templates, and goodie bags filled with candy held places for each of my guests.

The food table was quite a spread! Name tags for each of the dishes with fun names informed guests what they were eating. We had Cranium Cheese in the shape of a brain, Witch Digits with almond finger nails, Moldy Mustard, Weiner Worms, Hobgoblin Eggs, Cemetery Crudite, and Devils' Eggs with red food coloring veins to name a few. I also applied some stickers to cover the real bottle labels with more fun Halloween inspired names.

The last surprise for my guests was in the bathroom. A white cloth was hung over the shower curtain with bloody handprints and slashes through the material. The mirror had bloody handprints and splatters, and a message in blood (red paint) explaining the need for carnage.  Red lights and a knife on the counter completed the horror movie scene.

Here are some pictures of the party. I had so much fun putting everything together (with lots and lots of help!) and seeing the looks on my friends faces during the evening.

Food Spread

Batty Behavior

Watchful Crow

Ghost Faces

Pinterest Creation. Click here to learn how

Allison and the Spider Cider (or Captain Morgan)

Lovely ladies

Ghastly Ghost overlooking the carving table

Jack-o-lanterns!

Spider egg sacks. I forgot to take pictures at night but just as creepy in the day.

My Snow White Pumpkin

Thank you to everyone who helped and everyone who attended. 

Falling for Fall

Hello everyone!

I hope you're having a wonderful week! I was talking with my mama on the phone during our weekly chats and we found ourselves discussing Fall. We decided it was our favorite season. Something about crunchy leaves makes me happy. Cozy homes and comfy clothes hold a special place in my heart. 

FINALLY the temperatures will be dropping below 90* for the next few days so I can attempt to bring out my boots and oversized sweaters (thank goodness for chilly offices  during the work day). 

I have been giving some serious thought to Halloween costumes. I am not afraid or ashamed to say I am a Halloween costume repeater. The parties always seems to sneak up on me! I had acquired quite the collection but after seasons of loans and trades the costume pile is looking sparse this year so I've begun the hunt for a brand new costume. At this moment I've settled on a Gypsy :: Influenced strongly from watching Aladdin on TV last weekend :) ::

Here are some pictures from the last few Halloweens:
(I was a cat, a plumber, and Audrey Hepburn - quite the eclectic mix)

Chrissy, Kristal, and Jenna (2011)

Stop Light Shots @ Cami's Haunted House Birthday Party

Chrissy, Jenna, Tess, Michael, Jeanne (2011)

Playing our roles before heading out to separate Halloween parties

Curtis and Jenna (2011)

Chrissy, Jenna, Megan, and Allison (2010)

Pre-party pictures 

My Spider carved jack-o-lantern (2011)

Jenna, Allison, Chrissy (2010)

Halloween Party in LA

Enjoy!