Halloween Party Ideas

 

Here are some pics from our party last year.....First are some monster cake balls. I just made some simple cake balls (bake cake, crumble, mix with icing, roll into balls), them iced them with bright colored icing. My favorites were the neon green ones! I used candy eyes I dound in the baking department and put the in little mini cupcake liners.

 

This platter has a mixture of bones and mummy pretzels. For the bones, I put a mini marshmallow on each end of a pretzel stick and dipped them in melted white chocolate. For the pretzel mummies, I drizzled melted white chocolate onto pretzels and added candy eyes before the chocolate cooled. The witch hand is something I found at Cracker Barrel on clearance one year!

 

 Closeup of our table--I drug out all my pumpkins, Orange & black Halloween serving dishes, etc. The skeleton head is one of my favorites, I use it to serve dip! I decorated with those black & orange wrapped peanut butter taffy candies. I put them in small ice cream dishes.

 

 

 This shelf held all our "fear factor" specimens. Everyone got to check everything out ahead of time and think about what they wanted to try.

 

These pics are making me excited about this year's party! Only a couple of weeks away, on October 19!!

 

 

Hocus Pocus!

Okay, I TRIED to blog everyday but failed on my second day! I started the blog but couldn't get my pics to upload, so I'm making up for it today. Last night we watched Cabin in the Woods and I made a pumpkin pie. The pie was yummy, the movie was just okay...

 

For our first night of celebrating Halloween, we watched one of my favorite movies, Hocus Pocus! I would love to recreate the costumes and go as one of the Sanderson Sisters one year, but I never plan ahead far enough. Besides, my nephew told me I need to quit dressing up like a witch every year, so I retired my hat for the last few years. Last year I was Bride of Frankenstein, the year before I was a scarecrow. I'm thinking this year I'll be a cat since I'm trying to scale back a little. My husband is playing music the night of our party, so I can't try to force him to dress up!! Last year he went as Napoleon Dynamite. We had an old mask with glasses and he had a "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt I found on clearance several years ago. I was already there when he came in and nobody knew who he was, including me, and I knew who he was dressing up like!

 

Every year we play "fear factor" at our party. Basically we just come up with food and name it gross stuff and make people eat it. We get everyone in a circle and draw a number for each person to see what they have to eat. Last year we changed it up and let each person choose what to eat and I think that was more fun because they all got to go check everything out. Even though I always tell them it's real food, some are really grossed out. My poor brother-in-law thought he'd be brave and play one year. His food was baby food (peas) and he looked pretty shocked when he tasted it. (Actually, I think he almost gagged!) To make it even worse, my sister had it on video and kept replaying it.... Another thing I did differently last year was make everything look like "specimens". I saw it on a blog somewhere, but can't remember where. I probably found it on pinterest! I took a few photos of our "specimens". I wish I'd taken pics of them all. I just saved up some old jars and painted the lids. On the computer I used an old typewriter font to make labels.  If you want to try this, just walk around your grocery store and use your imagination. Below are some of the things I made last year & what I really used. Some things didn't look like anything, but looked creepy, so I made them a "specimen of unknown origin" or something that sounds like it could come from a lab!

 

 

 

Teeth, unknown origin

 

I used water chestnuts and cut them into a vague tooth shape. I didn't get too detailed, just a rectangle and I left them in the juice from the can.

 

 

 

 

Stomach

These are artichoke hearts. I left them in the jar they came in, just painted the lid. I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a label on the jar.

 

 

 

Earthworms

I found a recipe online for earthworms using jello and some other stuff poured into a straw and chilled. I added some water and neon green food coloring to make them slimy and yucky. I wanted to fill the jar, but it was WAY too much work just for that little bit!

 

 

 

 

Eggs, origin unknown

pickled onions, also just removed the label & painted the lid, then added the label (plus they are pretty good to eat after the party!)

 

from Lake Expedition

In other words, I didn't know what this looked like. It's big pieces of onion slices boiled until transparent. I packed them pretty tightly and added the juice

 



unknown parasite, no. 4

I boiled some water and dropped eggs in strands into the boiling water to get this look. I added some chicken broth, I think, to get that cloudy look. I wanted it to look like it came from a lake  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sample from Roswell, NM

My favorite specimen!

I dropped beaten egg whites in tiny strands into boiling water, then put it into some clear water with neon green food coloring. Neon green food coloring was my friend last year!!

 

There are other things I didn't get pics of, or things we have done in the past. Here are a few ideas:

 

Gross colored baby food-- can be any kind of "fluids". We used peas as "zombie fluids"

Boiled cabbage can be anything unidentified, unspecified, etc. Add food coloring for different effects.

Bat's blood -- Karo syrup, red food color and grenadine, if you have it. It looks more realistic if it's thick & dark.

Dried fruit, like cranberries or blueberries can be some kind of bug or beetle

Lychee fruit -- I haven't been able to find any, but have seen people use them as eyeballs. If you can't find them, I have used a melon baller to make canned pears into balls, poke a hole in the middle and add a blueberry in the center. Drizzle a little of the "bat's blood" over them in a jar.

Red peaches -- one year I was cooking some for preserves and they really looked like some internal organ, so I stuck some in the freezer for our party!

Don't forget to check the candy section--they have all kinds of creepy candy around Halloween

And don't forget to have something not TOO yucky that the little ones will eat if there will be kids there.

Use your imagination--I would love to hear what you come up with!!

Countdown to Halloween...

Since I'm SO excited about fall and HALLOWEEN, I'm planning to blog of ideas, decorating projects, recipes, etc. for Fall or Halloween. Hope this gives you some ideas! I've been doing a Halloween party at my Mom's every year for a long time. But these pictures are of our first Halloween party at our house. It was in our basement and all the kids (and some grown ups) dressed up. I don't remember a whole lot about it, but I do remember my little brother was too scared of all the costumes, so he had to stay upstairs and I remember bobbing for apples. This was around 1979....looks like we drew some pictures on construction paper to decorate the walls.

Here's an easy fall recipe that I made last year. I just melted Kraft caramels to dip some granny smith apples in with a bamboo skewer as a handle. You could get creative with the handle--I've seen them done with sticks and that was really cute. You could add nuts, drizzle chocolate over them, add sprinkles, or what about some of those candy eyes? I like my caramel apples pretty plain though, it's one of my favorite fall treats and I just can't let myself pay $3 or $4 at the fair for one apple!!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Wow...I feel like the worst blogger ever! I get sidetracked and forget to log in a blog!! We have been working SO HARD on my studio over the summer and I'm proud to say we are almost finished!! I still have a lot of stuff to put in place, but the major parts are about done. We have just a few sheets of tin to go up on the roof this weekend, gotta paint the floor of the front porch and touch up the ceiling in the kitchen and the big things are DONE! I laid out my flower beds in front, which was fun. I doubt I'll get much landscaping done this winter, but I will worry about that this spring.

 

I have some Snowman bells in the Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Crafts this year! Pick up a copy, or you can order the already made bells (I have a few left) at www.thecatspyjamas.com or get the pattern at www.thecatspyjamaspatterns.com.

 

I finished some fun witch dolls recently. (They are in the pic to the left) One has already found her home in England, but the others are waiting for a home. Click HERE to see them. I also have a pattern for them called "The Gathering". Go to www.thecatspyjamaspatterns.com and you'llsee the patternfeatured inthe top right corner of the site.

 

I have big plans for the next few months...I'll try to post some of our fall/Halloween things we do during October. And, of course, I'll be having our Halloween party. I have to cut back this year since I'm concentrating on my studio, but I still have to have one! I claimed I wasn't going to, but couldn't stand it and decided the other day to go ahead with it.

 

Tomorrow is the first day of fall, so HAPPY FALL...my favorite time of year!!! 

 

Patriotic Polly

Check out my newest doll in Create & Decorate magazine -- Patriotic Polly! You can find her in the July/August issue of Create & Decorate or if you can't find the magazine, order it from my site at The Cat's Pyjamas Patterns.

All kitties seem to be doing well around here. We have a new one that has been hanging around. I caught him one day to get him neutered, but he got away and he's a little suspicious of me. (Imagine that!!) But he is starting to trust me again. I've been petting him and he let me pick him up, kind of, yesterday. I'm hoping by the first of next week, I'll be able to get him to the vet. The old white kitty from down the road has been coming to see me. To start with it was about once a week. The day before yesterday, she was here in the morning, then at lunchtime, then still here in the evening. She seemed to be starving and I thought it was strange because I know her owners feed her. I tried to get her to follow me back to her house but she wasn't interested. Later her owner stopped by and said some dogs had her cornered in the garage, so I guess she came here to get away from them. :( So sad because she's pretty old. We just let her stay here whenever she wants and she eventually went home that afternoon. At least she knows where she can run & hide if she needs to.....we're hoping not to have any new kitties show up for a while. There was another but he took off before I could catch him. Who knows, he may be back sometime!

Christmas Paintings

I found these photos from a few years ago...my nephew asked for a "Nightmare Before Christmas" painting, so I did this for him. My younger nephew wanted a painting too. I wasn't too excited to paint the Spiderman he asked me for. It took longer and was a lot harder. I don't know about the first one, but I know Tyler still has his Spiderman painting hanging in his room!

I know you're probably read this before, but I think it is the funniest thing!


DOG DIARY

8:00am - Dog food! My favorite thing!

9:30am - A car ride! My favorite thing!

9:40am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!

10:30am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!

12:00pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!

1:00pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!

3:00pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!

5:00pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!

7:00pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!

8:00pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!

11:00pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!



CAT DIARY

Day 983 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am. Bastards!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means, and how to use it to
my advantage.

This morning? I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow-- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The
dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be
more than willing to return. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective
custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now...