{Halloween 2015} My First Costume For This Year, And Our Annual Halloween Party

{living}&{making}

Halloween Party 2015 

This year we ended up having our annual Halloween party really early in the month because of scheduling conflicts closer to Halloween.  Which at first I didn't really want to have it that early, but once it was pretty clear that that was probably the best time for it and I got thinking about it a little more, I realized actually was going to work out really well for this year in more ways than one. Of course first of all it being a day that had fewer conflicts for people, but also I realized I kind of liked the idea of having a little more time between the party and Halloween night this year since I was doing two completely different costumes and themes for the two. (It's kind of a long story about why I'm doing 2 this year and I already talked about it in my last post, so I won't go into it again here really, but if you didn't already hear about it and are dying to know, you can check out my last post). I'm going to hold onto the "mystery" a little bit longer for my second costume and candy display theme (I tend to go a little over board with the idea of leaving out a bowl of candy for trick or treaters while we are out trick or treating and do a whole themed display the end of our walkway....), but today I'm going to share some pictures from the party and of the first round of costumes for my hubster and I.

The party's theme was Day Of The Dead (Which kind of made it even stranger to have it so early since The Day of the Dead is actually November 1st.... but like I said scheduling conflicts) While I don't have any Mexican blood in me (and neither does my husband as far as he knows, even though he's often mistaken for Mexican - even by Mexicans) we both have a soft spot for Mexico because of time we spent there in our younger days (not together, this was long before we knew each other) and I'm always down for a good Fiesta that reminds me of Mexico.  And then of course Day of the Dead stuff has become really popular the last couple years, so it seemed like good timing. 

The majority of the decorations for the party were tissue paper flowers in various sizes and colors, along with some skulls, sombreros, and cut paper bunting.  For food we just did frozen "Mexican" foods (mini beef and cheese tacos and chicken and cheese taquitos) along with tortilla chips and salsa and fruit salad. (the party was in the afternoon so I went a little lighter on the food than normal) for dessert there were cupcakes and decorate your own skeleton cookies, and of course we had Mexican cokes and Jarritos to drink (well and water of course lol)....

And so of course to go with the party JD and I needed Sugar skull costumes to go with the party theme.  And I have to say I really liked how they turned out! (he made his himself.....)

The corset on mine is actually a purple striped corset that I found at Goodwill for like $5 that I'm wearing inside out so that it's solid black (I actually think I've worn it more inside out than right side out and it's a little big on me really, but for $5 I can't complain) I used adhesive vinyl for the ribcage so that I can remove them with out damaging the corset.  The white dress is one I already had that worked perfectly and I made the tutu skirt myself by tying strips of different colored tulle on elastic.  JD made his shirt by laying a Dollar Tree skeleton decoration on the shirt and then spray painting around the edges of it.  And yes his mask is a Storm Trooper mask, decorated sugar skull style.....

My accesories included a headband with flowers and a mini sombrero, a skeleton hand necklace that I made, a pretty fan from Dollar Tree, lace mitts, and a bracelet of skeleton cameos (I know you can't see it terribly well in any of the pictures, but it was really cool) I was going to paint my face myself but I ended up running out of time so I used some temporary tattoos my mom had gotten (although I messed up the eye part on one of the eyes (not to self take the plastic cover sheet off of the tattoo before trying to stick it to your face) so I had to kind of change how they went to use what I had left....)

So now that we have one "Halloween" out of the way I have plenty of time to work on my second costume and get ready for "real" Halloween...... lots of fun to come.......

Long time no see......... {or should I say blog}

{living}

Wow...... um so yeah, I can't believe it's been over 3 months since I've posted anything..... and I had been doing so good too...... I actually even had a couple posts that were almost ready to go near the end of June, but then real life got in the way.  I feel I'm saying this more and more lately, but summer really flew by!  Now that Autumn is here though I'm trying to get back into the activities and routines that I really want to be doing (and blogging about...). We didn't even have Theme Food Week any this summer (definitely need to get back into the swing of that this month).  I have been working on a 1:48 scale Christmas Tea Room at the North Pole Dollhouse, which I'll be doing a post about here soon when I finish up the last couple little things that need to be done on it.

I'm getting really excited for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas too, along with cooler weather and falling, brightly colored leaves, and pumpkins, and pumpkin flavored everything..... We've actually already had our annual Halloween party (we ended up having it so early because it was looking like no one was going to really be available any closer to the end of the month) and I've made and worn the first of my two Halloween costumes this year. (yes you read that right, I had the first costume planned since last year, but then I saw the inspiration for the second one and really wanted to do that one, but was still really into the first - and had already started working on it - and then while I was still debating doing both, the friend I babysit for told me that she wanted her daughter to be the same thing my second costume was going to be (without knowing that I had been contemplating the same thing myself) so that sealed the deal.  One costume for our party and one for Halloween itself.  And yes I was being deliberately {confusingly} vague about the costumes on purpose..... I''ll be showing them off/chronicling making them in their own posts soon.  Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner this year is kind of a big deal too because it's the 10th year! I've already started going through all the decorations from past years trying to decide how I can put it all together without it being too crazy for the theme of "10 years of Thankfullness".

Now I would get some of this stuff I'm talking about written up and posted today, but I did manage to slip on some mud and fall down a hill (well okay it was a really small hill/embankment) this weekend and also managed to wrench my arm/shoulder back in the process and I must have pulled a muscle or two because it is extremely sore..... to the point that even typing kind of hurts..... so stuff will have to wait for another day, but I did want to make myself at least get a bit back into the groove.....

With more coming soon!