A Tiny Witch Hat

I really like doing little projects.  Things that other people may not think to do.  This is the reason I miss having lots and lots of craft stores around.  My favorite craft store was always Rag Shop.  They were in New Jersey.  And they closed sometime in the last 5 years.  So they don't even exist.  But they had all the craftiness and all the fabric.  And they always had sales and coupons.  Michael's was usually a close second, but they were just missing all the fabric.  I guess Rag Shop was a mini Hobby Lobby.  Hobby Lobby is just massive.  Almost like you can get lost and forget what you actually went in there for.  But for my latest little craft.

Remember the witch hat that I bought during shopping adventure Part IV?  Well I decided to have some fun with it.  Well here it is in it's brown paper bag look.

I decided it should be black.  I know, a black witch hat is a little cliche.  I thought about a really dark purple, but I knew if I started mixing paint that this problem was going to become a lot more complex.  So I went with basic black craft paint.  I decided to paint the entire inside.  I mean why not, I had the paint out already.

I waited a couple minutes and then painted the outside of the hat as well.  I used a gloss paint.  It was just the one I grabbed.  I have a big plastic shoe box type container full of my paint.  I probably need to buy some more black.  Since I seem to only have odd ball ones, like ceramic or outdoor or gloss.

I thought that putting an orange ribbon around it would look really cute.  So after it was painted and dry I cut a piece of ribbon and put it around the hat.  Unfortunately, it didn't quite look right.  So on to plan B.

I'm going for that gothic Halloween glamour, so why not add some more bling?  I already had out my Jewel glue from the googley eye project so I put a bead of glue around and started to stick on some stones.  I really prefer to use tweezers for rhinestone application.  I also usually dip the rhinestone in glue instead of the bead.  But I also don't usually put them all in a row in one spot. 

Here is the finished rhinestones after the glue dried.  It really does dry clear.  I was thinking about leaving it like this, but I thought it needed just a little bit more. 

I grabbed a piece of black tulle that I had leftover from who knows what.  I snipped off a corner about 10 inches in and then folded it a couple times.  I just used some regular staples to hold it together.

I put a little Jewel glue on the tulle and just stuck it on.  It didn't want to stick that well, so I opened my stapler and just put an extra staple in it.

It still needed something else.  So I grabbed one of the sparkly spiders and put some glue on him and stuck him to the hat. 

There is a simple little craft that went from boring to glam.  Well as glam as sparkly spiders can be. 

Filling Up the Shelves

I have not been posting for the last week.  I have been traveling and I am just getting caught up with everything I haven't been doing.  I also found out before I left that I ran out of room for photos.  So I'm rather undecided how I'm going to handle a blog without pictures, but I know I will find some place to put them.  But for now, here are some posts I lined up before I left.

I have built in floating shelves in my living room.  I really did build them myself.  I got all the instructions online in a collaboration between Young House Love and Ana White and you can read that here if you wanted to build your own.  But the point of that is, I needed to fill up my shelves for Halloween. 

So here is the shelf wall in my living room.  They are white on an off white wall.  The wall was not always off white, but this year it is.  The black thing at the bottom is a plant stand.  I don't plan on using it for its intended purpose.  But there is a table in front of hte wall with all my Halloween stuff piled on it.  And the weird cord thing on the right hand side, that's an extension cord.  It's for plugging in the Christmas lights on the ceiling.  I have this big beam across the vaulted ceiling.  So about a year and a half ago I put up Christmas lights and they come in really handy for parties.  It creates a little more mood lighting.  And you really don't see them the rest of the time.  I do need to work on hiding the cord though.

Last year the walls were black.  So I wanted the shelves to stay white for contrast.  But the clean lines don't really work for Halloween so much.  I grabbed one of my creepy cloths that usually goes on my windows and decided that I liked the look.

So I took out 3 of the new creepy cloths that I had bought at Dollar General a couple weeks ago.  I thought I could use half of one at first, but it really wasn't long enough.  So I cut all 3 of them in half and it gave it a bit of a layered look.

All of the stuff that I planned to put on the shelves are pretty much all on that table underneath them.  I started with the top right shelf.  It's the highest and the first one we hung up.  So it's not exactly the strongest.  So I like to keep the least breakable and the lightest things on it in general.  So I basically started playing around with some different combinations of things after that.

So here is the finished product after all my switches and indecision.  I was even smart enough to move the stuff off the table, but didn't really think about trying to move the extension cord.

 This shelf has a spider tea light holder, the orange spider tea light holder from Pier 1, 3 little lanterns that have orange glass and skulls with spiderwebs carved into them, a picture frame with a graveyard picture, a foam pumpkin, and a skull tiki statue.

The very top shelf has a lantern, a Boo wood cutout (it is covered in orange glitter), two foam pumpkins, and a mini skeleton.

The bottom shelf has a candy corn dish from Dollar General (since it's crazed I can't use it to serve food), a little stuffed ghost I've had for years, a little Gargoyle with black sparkly wings, a metal caged pumpkin candle holder, a mosaic pumpkin tea light holder, a black W, and a famed picture of the gates to the Haunted Mansion at Disney World.

I turned the lights out so that I could get all the candles in their glory as well.   I cheat, well I guess not cheat, but I choose to use LED light tea lights.  I buy a ton for Halloween in orange in black, and a ton after Halloween since it's cheaper to replace them then replace the batteries.  But I really haven't had that many stop working.  I just keep adding things.  I choose the LED lights to avoid the risk of fire.  Especially up on shelves with what I'm sure is pretty flammable fabric.

I'm sure there will be a few switcheroos on the shelves, but I think they're staying pretty close to this.

Halloween 2011 Dessert Menu

I have a huge sweet tooth.  I don't just like sugar.  I like the ridiculously rich desserts.  The ones most people don't want more than a bite or two of.  I love cheesecakes and ganaches and mousses and brownies and frostings.  My favorite dessert ever is from a restaurant in New Jersey called Old Man Rafferty's.  They have 3 locations throughout the state, but most notably one in New Brunswick where I went to college.  I'm glad I didn't find them earlier than I did, or I might have gained twice as much weight in college as I did.  They are known for their desserts, you can actually just go in and get dessert.  And the cakes if you want to call them that are huge.  They have a big display cabinet with everything right there to see all the time.  If you would like to torture yourself the dessert menu can be seen here.  My all time favorite is the Vesuvius cake.  It's a brownie topped with caramel, then cheesecake, then mousse, then ganache.  And every plate is topped with more sauce and real whipped cream.  So you see what I mean when I have a sweet tooth.  Dessert at any party is more important to me than whatever food I may be serving.  Last year I went waaaaaay overboard when it came to desserts.  Here's the dessert table.

We will start left to right I guess to keep it simple.  First we have a large collection of apothecary jars. I got the 3 jars on the left online from Sears last year.  They were about $30 for all 3. The tall skinny one in the back has skeleton fingers.  They are from the candy mold that can be seen in my shopping adventure here.  I bought them at Joann last year and Michael's this year.  They are reusable, I am a just a mess and decided buying a new $2 mold was easier than doing dishes.  You just put pretzel rods in the mold and pour the melted chocolate over it.  They fit really well in that tall skinny jar.  The jar in the center has Candy Corn M&Ms.  They were evidently only available at Walmart last year, but I've already seen them at Target and Walmart this year.  They are reallllly sweet.  They are white chocolate with a candy coating.  I probably won't be buying them again.  The glass pumpkin is full of regular candy corn.  I will only buy Brach's.  I just think it tastes better.  I got the pumpkin at Walmart 2 years ago for about $5.  The bottom jar has Reese's pieces in it.  I got the jar at Kroger 2 year ago.  The last item was definitely the biggest hit at the party last year.  It's a recipe I tried from the Brown Eyed Baker.  It's Leftover Halloween Candy Bark.  It's white chocolate drizzled over dark chocolate bark with Reese's Pieces, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Heath Bar, and Butterfingers.  I believe the recipe calls for some nuts too, but I left them out.  It was pretty amazing.  And I had none left at the end of the night because what wasn't eaten was taken home by other guests.  It's also pretty easy, there's some prep work cutting everything up, but it's melt chocolate, spread out, sprinkle candy, and drizzle white chocolate.

 
I had seen some really cute witch hat ideas for food last year.  The one I thought looked the most like witches' hats were ones with chocolate ice cream cones.  I could not actually find them, so I had to buy regular ice cream sugar cones.  I used a can of store bought icing and put it in a plastic sandwich bag, snipped a corner off, and used it like a piping bag.  I "glued" the cone to a store bought sugar cookie and added a Reese's piece as like a buckle on the band of the hat.  I had filled the cones up with more Reese's pieces before "gluing" it down.  It was supposed to be a surprise, like the Mr. Cone Head Sundae at Friendly's.  They looked cute, but no one really wants to just eat an ice cream cone by itself.  So I still had quite a few at the end of the night.

I got this cupcake stand from my mom for Easter last year and it took me all the way until Halloween to finally get to use it.  So I had to make cupcakes.  I usually "cheat" and use box mix for cupcakes.  I make chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing that I dyed orange.  I use the Wilton gel food colors to get the brightest color.  I used Reese's Peanut Butter cups to make bats.  Their bodies were the small sized cups (not the new minis) and the wings were one big cup cut in half.  I added two orange icing dots for eyes.  They were kind of a mess and the bats kept falling off the cupcakes.  So I bought the spider picks for my cupcakes to keep it simpler.  

 

In front of the cupcakes it one of the easiest things to make, but it came out pretty awesome, and looked good too.  It's Candy Corn Fudge.  I'm not really sure where I found the recipe, but it was a bag of white chocolate chips and a can of vanilla icing.  The white chocolate chips are melted and mixed with the icing.  But I did it in 3 batches so I could make one batch yellow, one batch orange, and leave the last one white.  I lined an 8x8 pan with aluminum foil, so it was easier to get out of the pan.  The mix between the icing and the chocolate comes out kind of like play-dough, so you have to work it into the pan.  I scored it into 1 by 1 inch squares and placed a piece of candy corn inside each one.  I put it in the fridge until it was set and then cut it into the scored squares and put it back in the fridge until it was served.  This was one of the other things that people really liked. 

I made candy apple cake pops...but they were a disaster.  The idea sounded really cool, a cake pop dipped in chocolate and then dipped in caramel, and then dipped in nuts.  There was no apple in it what-so-ever.  It started off bad when I forgot to put the eggs in the cake mix.  It actually didn't taste that bad, just extra sweet.  Then I mixed it in with icing and it was sugar overload.  It was a huge mess. 

I also made chocolate covered spiders.  I made them the year before last too.  I don't think I'll be making them again this year, they got a little soggy.  They are chow mein noodles dropped in melted chocolate and formed into clumps to look like spiders.  Then I used red mini M&Ms for eyes.  They were in the fridge for too long and the noodles just got soggy.

All the way in the back is a plate of pumpkin fudge.  I found the recipe here.  It was good, but it was awfully sweet.  So much you only wanted one piece.  And the recipe makes a 13x9 pan.  So that's a lot of fudge.  It was also ridiculously hard to make.  You needed a candy thermometer and there was a lot of hot waiting over the stove.  It was rather sad, because it was so much work, and most of it got thrown away in the end because no one wanted nearly that much. 

Last is cheesecake.  Always a hit.  I made my usual cheesecake recipe, which is from Hershey's and is super simple and easy.  You can find it here.  It's the cheesecake 5 ways, in the most normal plain way.  The only thing I do differently is add an extra teaspoon of vanilla.  To make it special for Halloween I drizzled chocolate in the shape of a spiderweb and then placed one of the chocolate covered spiders on top.  

Planning Breakfast

Several posts ago, I made my Dead and Breakfast sign.  That's the theme for my party this year.  I expanded it to everywhere.  Decor and meals.  So instead of my murder mystery dinner, I'm planning a murder mystery breakfast...for dinner.  I have an entire pin board on Pinterest that is dedicated to recipes for Halloween.  I finally started to narrow down all these ideas to those just for breakfast.  And then to those that I really wanted to actually make.  Now, I have no idea how these recipes are going to turn out.  I'm not really sure when or if I'm going to be able to try any of these either.  So I have transcribed my scribble in my notebook into something more legible.

First up are flesh wrapped mini brains.  Yeah, what?  Well I saw a recipe for egg breakfast in muffin tins.  So you put a strip of bacon around the outside and fill the middle with eggs and cheese.  If you use egg whites and add some hot sauce, the eggs are a fleshy brainy color.  So bacon = flesh and eggs = mini brains.  Here is the recipe.

The next item on the savory side, hash brains.  They would be shredded potatoes in a mound, shaped like a normal sized brain and it's served on a plate of ketchup...aka blood.  So this is another creepy item.  Here's a link to that.

The last savory item are mini mummies.  I made these last year with mini hot dogs and breadsticks...the tube kind that you bake.  This year I plan to use breakfast sausage instead.  And some kind of bread in a tube product.  Just bake in the oven.  Like typical pigs in a blanket.

Now on to the sweet.  I went on sweet overboard!

Pumpkin cinnamon rolls with map cream cheese frosting.  I think I'm crazy to try this recipe from scratch.  So this one just may have to be a test recipe.  If you would like to test it yourself, you can find it here.  Let me know how it turns out too.

Pumpkin spice donuts.  They are baked, not fried in a mini donut pan (which of course I need to buy, but a mini muffin pan can be used too.)  If you would like to try this one here's the recipe.

Baked Apple Cider Donut Holes.  They are actually supposed to be made in a mini muffin pan.  These just look amazingly covered in sugar...to see for yourself, click here.

Ghost Pancakes.  Just regular pancakes.  But shape them like ghosts when making them.  And use chocolate chips for eyes and a mouth.  I don't actually have a recipe link, but here's a picture link.

Pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon syrup.  I think I've actually scratched this one from my list, because instead I have found a pumpkin pie French toast recipe.  So this one is still on the fence.  But you can go here to see the French toast recipe.  And if you're still stuck on the pancakes, that recipe is here.

I will probably still serve up some bacon and sausage just plain.  Don't worry I've hired myself some help in the kitchen.  And by hired I think it will most likely cost me a bottle of alcohol.  But it definitely helps take off the stress.  One of my good friends hates to do parties, but doesn't mind helping out in the kitchen.  So its win-win for me.

And to drink?  Well mimosas of course.  They're orange.  And they're breakfast.  I figured I can also brew coffee.  I actually have a coffee maker, even though I don't drink it.  Even just the smell of coffee is kind of awesome in breakfast world.  But guests can also make it Irish coffee.  

Halloween 2011 Snack Menu

Last year I planned a big party.  An invite lots of people party.  So I had to have easy snacks for that kind of party.  I bought so much food.  And most of it ended up going into work with me on Monday.  Well I wanted a creepy theme.  Not just ordinary food.  Creepy food.  So I came up with a creepy menu. 

We will start with the first item on the menu.  Flesh Wrapped Frankenstein Fingers.  I hope that it sounds creepy.  But what was it?  Jalapeno poppers.  Texas style.  Every person who lives in Texas serves Jalapeno poppers at pretty much every party they have.  And everyone seems to have their own take on them.  I have combined a few recipes from others that I liked.  I wash, de-seed, and cut all the jalapenos in half length wise.  I make a mixture of cream cheese (I always use the 1/3 less fat stuff, I don't even notice a difference anymore), shredded cheddar, garlic, cumin, and ground pepper.  I fill up each jalapeno half with the cream cheese mixture.  Then I wrap each jalapeno with either a slice or half a slice of bacon.  Some people like using the thinnest, cheapest bacon and using a whole slice, I find if you get thicker or center cut bacon (it's lower fat) and then cut the slices i half long ways they work better.  I always put foil down on my cookie sheet before I bake them, they drip with grease from the bacon, and spray with non-stick spray.  I don't put in any toothpicks or anything, the bacon will stick to the cream cheese and when you put it down on the cookie sheet it will keep the ends down.  I bake them usually at 400 degrees for 20 minutes to half an hour.  You can use a lower temperature in the oven but they need to cook longer.  They are really done whenever the bacon is cooked to your desire.  They are on the silver platter in about the middle of the picture below.

Next, Dried Bat Wings with Witch's Brew.  I actually went crazy to find a cauldron just to serve my Witch's Brew in.  The Dried Bat Wings were blue corn tortilla chips.  Well that was my plan.  But then I found out that they actually made Halloween tortilla chips and I had to buy them.  Actually I wasn't a huge fan of them in the end.  They were very salty.  But I had to buy them...four bags of them...we ate one.  I gave away 2 and brought the 4th to hot sauce day at work.  The Witch's Brew was green.  It was guacamole.  I make my own from scratch.  It's avocados, tomatoes, jalapenos, green onions, garlic, cilantro and lime juice.  I make it from scratch and always use all fresh ingredients and all in my little baby food processor.  There isn't really a ratio...it's to taste, but I like more tomatoes than most people.  There's a picture towards the bottom.  The witch's brew is in the cauldron and you can see the black and orange tortillas in the big black bowl.

Then we have mini mummies with pureed puss.  That is mini hot dogs wrapped in refrigerator tube breadsticks baked in the oven.  Usually pigs in a blanket are made with the crescent rolls, but to make them more mummy like I used the breadsticks.  I just baked them according to the package.  The pureed puss?  An assortment of mustards.  Ken's Lite Honey Mustard, dijon mustard, and special jalapeno honey mustard from Durham's in Comanche, Texas.  They are mostly known for their pecans, but their jalapeno honey mustard was a hit as well.  The mustards are in the orange and black condiment dishes and the mummies were on the witch hat, but I don't believe they made the photos.

Stuffed Rib Bones with Type O Neg.  The Stuffed Rib Bones were homemade stromboli.  I got the french bread type of refrigerated rolls and rolled it out flat, by hand, nothing fancy and then layered pepperoni, provolone, and mozzarella cheese and folded it in thirds.  I baked it in the oven according to the directions on the package tube.  It was pretty easy to make, but the bread tastes so much better homemade.  The Type O Neg was just jarred pasta sauce.  I'm not even sure what kind I used.  It was just store bought.  In the photo below, the rib bones didn't make it out of the oven in time for the photo, but the type o neg was served in the skull.

Last on the list, Severed Vertebrae served with Brain Matter.  Now the Brain Matter is a very special recipe that came to us from a co-op from Missouri.  He will always be remembered for it, well not as brain matter, but for his Chicken Artichoke Dip.  It's chicken, artichokes, Parmesan cheese, Swiss cheese, mayo, sour cream, hot sauce, and pepper.  We have altered the recipe to try to make it a little lighter, like fat free mayo and sour cream.  The severed vertebrae were crostinis.  Just some French break sliced thin and toasted with olive oil.  I didn't actually make this dish, it was brought to the party, but it was discussed before the party started, so it fit in with the theme.  The brain matter is on the top shelf of the serving rack.  It's a baked dip, so it was in a Pyrex dish.  The crostini are in front of the two tier rack.

I hope this gave you some ideas for your Halloween menu.  And I know I'm seriously craving some flesh wrapped Frankenstein fingers right now.  I may just have to go shopping for jalapenos tomorrow.

Googley Eye Picture Frame

I have been trying to come up with ideas for prizes for both my costume contest and for my murder mystery winner.  I bought a picture frame last year that I never ended up giving out as a prize.  I then proceeded to step on it after the party and broke it.  So I guess I won't be giving it away this year either.  But I did find an idea for something super cute and still picture frame related.  I found this really cute pin on Pinterest for a googley eyed picture frame.  There's already a very nice explanation there for how to make one.  Here's my take.

Supplies:

- Picture frame

- Googley eyes in various sizes

- Lime green craft paint and brush

- Jewel glue (I like this best for any kind of embellishment, it is really for rhinestones on fabric and is washable)

Well here's the picture frame that I got for $3.50 from Dollar General.  I liked the nice thick frame, but it still has an edge.  This will keep the eyes on the frame, at least in my mind.

Let's also remember the googley eyes, also from Dollar General.

The first thing I did was open the package of googley eyes and spill them out inside the frame.  Then I started arranging them on the frame itself.  I thought it a little strange that there were 75 eyes.  Usually creatures have 2 eyes.  I mean spiders have 8 eyes technically.  But most googley eyed creatures, they have 2.  So I guess I have 37 and a half creatures per package.

Well, it certainly looks like I'm going to need more eyes.  This was only one package, but still, two wasn't helping things.  I really wanted some more varied sizes as well.  Since I wasn't going back to the store I decided to go on to the next step and start painting.

I wasn't necessarily going to paint the frame, but I didn't really like how the black looked.  The googles in the eyes didn't stand out enough.  So I decided I did like the lime green color.  I happen to have it already too.  So I ended up painting 3 coats of paint to get the coverage I really wanted.  It didn't need to be perfect since we're gluing eyes on top.

I bought some more googley eyes in some different sizes.  I started with the biggest ones first and spread them out a little.  I used my favorite jewel glue to glue them down.  I use Aleene's Jewel-It glue whenever I'm using any kind of embellishment.  It's actually meant for gluing rhinestones on clothing.  It's washable.  But I find it attaches any kind of little thing like a googley eye to a picture frame.

I started to add in lots more little googley eyes around the big ones.  And glue them all down.  I just dotted the glue right on each eye.  It was still messy.  

 

And after about an hour of gluing all the little spaces were filled it.  It honestly took a lot longer than I would have thought.  I had to keep taking breaks to wash off some glue from fingers just so that I could hold on to the eyes...well I guess really let go of them once they were on the frame.  But here's the finished product.

Overall I think it's pretty cute.  I just need to make up a piece of black paper to put in the frame that either just says Happy Halloween or like Congratulations you solved the murder or like Yay Best Costume. 

Shopping Adventure Part V - The Grand Finale

I swear this is it.  The last post about shopping last Friday in Abilene.  I maybe should have spread these all out a little.  But one thing I really hate about reading a blog that mentions something to buy and it's like from awhile ago so the store doesn't have it anymore.  So I wanted to get all of this out at once.  But too much at once, that was just going to have it all get lost.  So this is it for real, the last shopping adventure post.  I can't promise I won't buy more things and share, but from that one trip, this is it.

So the last and final stop on my actual Halloween shopping adventure was Pier 1.  I really do like a lot of the things that Pier 1 has all year.  Their prices are mid-range, so some things are really awesomely priced and others I just don't quite want to shell out the money for.  Unfortunately the moment I walked in I found that something I really really really really wanted to take home with me, but I wasn't shelling out $180.  Okay, I am totally shocked at the moment too, because I just found out you can actually buy stuff online at Pier1.com now too.  You used to be able to see all their items, but never be able to order them.  But now, you can actually get them shipped to you.  This actually excites me more.  I guess you learn something new every day.

But anyway, back to my dream item, it was a black metal walkway with orange lights and actual functioning gates.  You can check it out here online.  The website really doesn't do it justice.  I mean it's huge and awesome.  But I was not quite ready to spend that much one it.  But I will definitely be looking out for that one on clearance.  The other items I really wanted to take home were this rug and these pumpkins.  At the store the rug was buried under many other items, which made for a very nice display, but I couldn't find the actual rugs anywhere, so I couldn't figure out how much it was.  And after trying to take the display rug out and thought it wasn't really for sale, I decided to just walk away.  The grapevine pumpkins were really cool too because they were black with orange lights instead of the brown with white lights.  When you are more of a Halloween fan and not just fall harvest, you appreciate more Halloweeness.  They were however more expensive than other grapevine pumpkins I've seen.  And I guess you really could make your own with orange lights instead.

 Okay on to what actually made it's way home with me.

The first thing that I grabbed was this pillow.  I really fell in love with one similar last year.  I didn't buy it though.  In my head I was thinking I can so make a pillow just like that.  I have rhinestones.  But this is another thing, just like the apron...why not just buy the one you really like.  It was $19.95.  It's a small pillow, but it's cute.  And of course goes with all my decor.  I know I like things when I grab them and hug them and walk around the store, so once this pillow jumped into my arms, he was coming home with me.

Next I got this little orange glass candle holder.  Honestly I'm shocked I haven't broken it yet.  It just feel so breakable.  I guess that could be a negative.  It's really pretty though.  It's an opalescent glass.  With spiders.  It was $3.95, so  great price too.  

It's a little hard to tell what these are, but there are 2 in the picture.  They are bubble bath packets.  There are 2 sets of 3.  One of them is a black cat, one's a ghost, and the third is a pumpkin.  I bought them for prizes.  They are vanilla scented, so in actuality not totally Halloween in the end.  They were $3.75 each.

These are sparkly spiders.  I think that might be an oxymoron.  But I plan on using them in my table setting.  Either as like napkin rings or just scattered amongst the pretty jewels.  Possibly on flowers.  I saw a cute Martha Stewart idea that had spiders crawling all over pretty roses.  It's always an idea.  They were $2.95 each for 12 sparkly spiders about an 1 1/2 in diameter.

In the group picture this is the thing in the plastic bag, the big black blog in the middle.  I had to take it out of the package, because a plastic jumble was not doing it justice.  It's a tinsel spiderweb, but it has extra rings of sparkle.  Honestly I would have never bought this if it wasn't hanging up in the store.  It just looked so cool suspended from the ceiling.  And once again, we're in the Halloween glam category.  It was $12.95.  It's like 5 feet in diameter.  I have not exactly figured out where it is going.  Since it does require a large area.  I have a wall for it picked out, but it did look even cooler just randomly suspended.  More like a spiderweb would actually be. 

Last, but certainly not least is this little glowy guy.  It was shown on the web in the store.  Now I'm not sure how to really attach it.  He's a lot heavier than the web itself.  Even the girl in the store was freaking out about this little spider.  She was like I'm glad you're getting this, but you know what it does, right?  And she turned it on.  I nodded, I had already excitedly tried it out too.  The legs each have lights that rotate glowing and the eyes glow.  For tiny little lights, it is pretty bright in the dark.  I was in my front hall (where the bat chandelier lives) with the lights off in the living room and there was quite a lot of glow.  So that's another factor in decided where to put the sparkly web along with the glowing spider.  He was also $12.95.

Well, that's all the shopping for now.  I hope you enjoyed as much as I enjoyed picking it all out.  Well, there will be no more shopping adventures before Halloween this year.  Whatever I can find online or at Walmart is all that's left.  That really wasn't so much of a grand finale.  If only the spider could take a bow too...

Shopping Adventure Part IV

The shopping adventures continue in Part IV.  That's kind of a lot.  And I already know there will be a Part V.  But then that's it.  I promise.  At least just from my shopping adventure last Friday.  Today's adventure is Michael's.  I really do wish that I had one closer.  Granted, I probably save myself a lot of money by not being able to run off and craft.  I mean you can't even order things online from Michael's.  I know some seasonal stuff might be difficult, but they always have beads and sequins.  I know this first picture of everything is a little bit blurry.  I seemed to be having some trouble focusing on anything.  Or I was tired of sitting on my dogs' bed to take pictures on the floor.  I have already overwhelmed myself with Halloween.  That's kind of bad, since it's just after Labor Day.  So my floor seemed like the best photo opportunity.  There was one more item, well 3 more items, that I bought at Michael's too.  I got these black glitter taper candles.  I'm sure they will make an appearance soon.  They are in my candelabra already.  One of my purchases that I made in South Carolina.  But back to Michael's.  I did have quite a few coupons in my app, but I decided that 15% off my entire purchase including sale items...that one was the best one to use.

First up, googley eyes.  These are making a repeat appearance...mostly because I couldn't get the size and quantity correct.  The final product with those googley eyes should be coming up in just a couple of days.  Trying to keep the suspense up.  One of the packages was $1.99 and the other two were $2.99.  Nothing too fancy.

Next.  On to sparkle.  Lots and lots of sparkle.  These are like gemstones.  Well, yes I guess that's the best description.  They look like diamonds...like the whole hunk of diamonds...like that would be set in a really expensive and pretty engagement ring...but they are plastic gemstones.  I bought them for table sparkle.  You know, like you would put really cheap confetti stuff on table tops.  But it's like classy confetti.  Actually, I bought very similar all clear ones at Pier 1, like 2 years ago.  I thought it would be so cool to put on a table at an engagement party.  Granted, I do not know anyone who is not already married in a serious relationship that I'm planning this engagement party for.  But I have the rhinestone things just in case.  But now I get to play because these are Halloween bling.  And I really bought a lot of them.  Two packages.  They were $4.99 each.  Plus my coupon.

From bling, well to paper.  So evidently after the elusive engagement party, I have the first anniversary gift for this imaginary couple too.  No, not really.  They are paper straws.  The whole idea of paper straws confuses me a little to be honest.  How does that work?  But I think they are kind of coated so they don't disintegrate.  I like straws for drinks.  Especially at Halloween parties.  I mean if people have make up on and what not.  Straws make it easier to clean stuff off.  Plus if you serve weird oddly colored drinks, everyone's mouth isn't purple.  So these were just super cute.  They were $1.99.

Next.  The awesome skull.  I have a story to go with the skull hunt.  Last year, I broke my skull.  Not my real one in my head, but a plastic very lifelike one.  I got it 2 years ago at Big Lots.  It was really cool looking.  Like icky realistic buried in the ground and dug up nasty skull.  I had a skull trio on my mantle.  After I finished my Skull vodka that I got for my birthday two years ago it joined the skulls.  I bought the third skull at Dollar General last year and it's black and sparkly.  But when I was packing up Halloween last year my skull was sitting on my coffin and as I walked by I knocked it on the ground.  Now if you weren't aware of my Halloween craziness, that sentence alone should clear it all up.  This skull was $14.99 and no, he doesn't look anything like the one I was trying to replace, but it does fit into my theme oh so much better.  It's not really rhinestones, just silver bumps.  But it looks like rhinestones.  Especially from afar.  I'm on my couch, he's on my mantle, he looks awesome.  You will see my decorations unfold very shortly. 

The next item is a mold.  It's a chocolate mold.  Well I choose white chocolate for effect.  But you put pretzel rods in the mold and pour the melty chocolate stuff over and around it and you get skeleton finger pretzels.  I also bought the melty chocolate stuff.  I didn't take a picture of it because it already melted once and I put it in the fridge.  It gets hot in the car in Texas on an August afternoon.  But the melting things are kind of cool because they are re-meltable.  I like to keep them in the fridge though.  I have to keep my house at 80 or below or I find that chocolate begins to melt.  But with the melty things, they seem to melt a lot easier, so into the fridge they go.  Part of the reason why I actually try not to buy any candy until October.  Otherwise it starts getting melty.  But I bought one of these molds last year.  I saw it online and fell in love, so I had ordered it from Joann.com.  But that was one of the other things I let soak too long.  And when it was $1.99 it was no longer worth the trouble of cleaning.  So lesson learned for this year, clean quickly so I can keep it.  I wasn't going to bother with another one, but I actually got a request for these.  I guess the sweet and salty thing worked.  I also have this apothecary jar that's tall and skinny and it works like really well to hold these. 

The last item is actually the start of a project.  It's this cute little papier mache witches hat.  That's the correct French spelling, but without the punctuation.  But I have some plans for it.  I already have done most of them.  It was $2.99.  I actually thought it was cheaper when I bought it, but it was just cute.  I didn't think I had any witch specific decor, but I realized I do, but they are all serving dishes.

  
And that it all from Michael's.  There is still that Part V.  Part V, I swear, will be the last part.  The last stop on the trip, both literal and physically, was Pier One.  It was my last stop, and I think I got the most carried away.  

Shopping Adventure Part III

I'm still shopping.  At least I was on Friday.  This one isn't too long.  Here's my stop at T.J. Maxx.  It's a pretty new store.  It wasn't open last year at Halloween.  I remember standing in line at Ross with a very full cart (last year's Ross trip was a whole shopping cart full) and was talking to the nice old lady in front of me who couldn't wait for the T.J. Maxx to open.  I hadn't heard about it before.  But this was very exciting to me.  I am a bargain shopper.  For sure.  Sometimes I forget a good deal isn't always such a good deal.  If you're not getting quality who cares how much it cost.  I've been avoiding buying too many clothes from the T.J. Maxx type stores, but I very much like their home decor stuff.  Especially kitchen stuff.  I collect a lot of my pink kitchen accessories from these stores.  They are much cheaper on clearance and some of the oddities can be hard to find otherwise.  Last year my mom got me a pink skull shaped potato cleany scrub brush from Home Goods.  Okay, that was awesome.  It's my two favorite things, pink and Halloween.  Just like my pretty yet creepy skull salt and pepper shakers with a little pink bow.  Okay, random rambling.  But anyway, here's what I got at T.J. Maxx for Halloween.

First we have some candles.  They are all Yankee Candle candles and they are all candy corn scented.  I know that sounds kinda gross.  But actually they are kinda awesome.  I am a huge candy corn fan.  No, they're not all for me either.  The big one, that's mine.  I've already burned it twice now.  It's sweet.  It really does smell like candy corn tastes but like without the sickening feeling in your stomach that you ate too much.  The big one, which isn't the biggest size that Yankee Candle makes, but the mediumish jar ones.  That one was $9.99.  The two little ones were $5.99.  I figure that they will go into the prize gift bag things.  Man, I think I'm craving candy corn now.  Hehe.

Next I got these two glass jars.  They are both mercury glass.  Well probably more like faux mercury glass.  I saw the big black one and almost grabbed it and didn't want to let go.  But it was breakable, so I peeked around the corner first.  The selection was not that big, so I grabbed it.  I'm pretty sure I had seen that big one on Pinterest a couple weeks ago and I thought I would never find anything like it.  But, yay!  I found something really kind of different.  Neither one is functioning.  They are just decorative.  The big one was $12.99 and the silver one was $7.99.

I was literally already in line, well the queue where a line would go.  There weren't many people in the store on a Friday afternoon.  I found a few more Halloween items.  That's where I actually picked up the two little candy corn candles.  I then grabbed the spider web punch.  It's another Martha Stewart punch that really matches my strip spider web punch.  It was only $3.99.  I was already putting everything on the register and I reached back over and I grabbed the spider too.  It was also $3.99.  I really couldn't pass them up.  Especially since I already have the other one.  The one that I used in my spiderweb save the dates.

I guess I wasn't really thinking when I picked up the punches.  I was really thinking about putting a punch at the top of the invitations and little clues.  Which that works really well for the spider, but the spiderweb not so much.  It does make good kind of confetti kind of stuff.  Oh well.  That's what double punch means.  Now I know.

Part IV of the shopping adventure is Michael's.  I really wish I had one of those.  They always have coupons!  Oh well, I think I'm going to get high off my candy corn candle some more.