Little Halloween Memories & a Spooky-Glam Party

To be perfectly honest, I've never been a Halloween-lover. When I was a kid, yeah, it was uh-maze-ing. I was one of the few kids that got to go trick-or-treating (to some of my friend's parents, it was "of the devil") and I actually got to eat candy (despite having the occasional share-time with my sisters or brother). Halloween was pretty fun. Our neighborhood was safe, so we'd all run around in our cheesy costumes. I remember one year (I really do.. not just from seeing the photo) I was a "princess" and poor Vanessa was a "little man". I won't ever forget the "Halloween Blizzard of '91" - the storm that blasted the Twin Cities on Halloween Day and lasted 3 days, giving us over 28 inches of snow. ISH. I think it was a couple years after, that I found some stellar "Laura Ingles Wilder" outfit/costume, complete with a bonnet and bloomers. Ohmyword, I was ecstatic. I don't know where it came from, but I somehow had this amazing shade of neon pink lipstick that I was given permission to wear for the evening. I remember putting it in my fabulous Laura-apron pocket, before we left to trick-or-treat. It must have happened while we were running around from house to house, but that precious lipstick bounced out of my pocket and I think I spent more time trying to retrace every street and home I had trick-or-treated to, than trick-or-treating itself. Desperately squinting and searching with all my might, knowing it was long gone, not wanting to give up.. I never did find it, and I was devestated for years.

No matter what, my sister Vanessa always kept her bottom dresser drawer empty, so she could stash her Halloween candy jackpot in it for the whole year. Little did she know, her "secret drawer" wasn't so secret. Sorry, Ness.. the Kit-Kat bandit, was actually me. As for Lanae and Mitch, I remember having candy-trades with them and manipulating them to think that the stale, waxy black and orange-wrapped candies were actually better than the snickers, butterfingers and milky ways. Poor little kids!

The first time I ever came to visit Justin in Greenville was over the weekend of Halloween 2005. I was so nervous to go to a costume party with him, to meet all of his friends for the first time at our friend Marco's house. Turned out, Justin waited until the last minute (literally) to find a costume. Everything was either sold out or too expensive, so he ended up with a toddler-size carebear costume! We cut and puzzled it back together to make it "fit". I might have wet my pants laughing!

Since that visit, I haven't bothered dressing up for Halloween. I have really just seen it all as overrated. Well. Now that I have become addicted to planning and throwing parties, AND since no one we know has thrown one in a few years, I thought it would be fun to host one. I didn't wanna spend much, so I knew it would be tricky to pull of anything remotely fabulous.

I wanted to utilize things that I have a ton of.. like paper. I found some inspiration from a few invites I'd found onlne, so I incorporated them with my own ideas. I am pretty happy with how they turned out!

I made a 3-fold coffin out of black paper. Creating the measurments was a bit tricky...

I used twine/hemp that I had to keep them closed.

I had seen some fun mummy and coffin invites on a couple blogs, so I incorporated those ideas into my design. I found the bat-shape online - I resized it and cut them all out by hand.

I used some cream paper I had leftover from my sister Vanessa's wedding programs and added some ribbon for a "mummy look"

I thought it was fun to add some little openable doors and cards for a more unique effect.. Maybe a little cheesy, but oh well.

I secured the ribbon with hot glue and had an piece that "unraveled" when you took it out of it's place. Costumes were mandatory.. afterall, it was a costume party!

I made my own envelopes (all the time and work made them probably not worth it!), and got them out. Decorating was fun, but obviously time-consuming. It's always nice to have help, plus it's more fun that way! My friend Gina helped me quite a bit, including some fun Halloween decor that she already had.

I made a fun banner/garland that said "Happy Halloween". It took me about 10 minutes to make. Man.. I LOVE garland. I think it adds a lot to parties and events.

Justin and his brothers: Caleb was a cop, Levi was Jason Voorhees, Justin was a 20s gangster, and Micah was Sweeney Todd.

Found these ADORABLE napkins at Target. I couldn't not get them.

We had lots of sweets and yummy snack foods

I made these fun cupcakes.. Super easy!

I also made these cute little Frankenstein cupcakes. I saw something similar on a blog and HAD to attempt it myself. There were a couple things I might have done differently with my execution (for example, I would have made sure the pretzels I had were sticks, not the regular twisty ones!).

I dressed as a 20s Flapper and Jen was Morticia from The Addam's Family

Gina was a cute little Mime

Paul was a Nerd and Jody was an 80s Chick

Chuck and Ashley were Floridian Retirees

I wanted to add something fun other than some purple string lights, so I cut out about 70 bats out of black paper, sprayed them with spray-glue, and covered them with black glitter. We strung them with black string and hung them from the ceiling. My friend Gina helped me out a TON! We also spray-painted some skulls and a bunch of mini pumpkins black, and covered with more glitter, to add to the spooky-glam feel.

Mummy Dogs anyone?

Found some cute spooky decor at Target in the Dollar Spot

Marco was a Werewolf, Michelle was Superman and baby Ruby was a Dalmation

Melissa was Kim Kardashian

Gina and her bf, Curtis, who's obviously Gene Simmons (duh.)

"Murder Scene" in the bathroom with some red acrylic paint



Ann was Amelia Earheart and Kevin was a Baby



Marco and Michelle gave Romeo this cute doggie t-shirt with a glow-in-the-dark skeleton on the back.. How cute!

xo

[These amazing photos were taken with my dear friend, Jody's camera]