Halloween Fun

Halloween Fun!

Halloween is probably my most favorite holiday. It conjures up some wonderful memories of trick-or-treating with my friends. Getting so much candy, which I loved! Dressing up in some lovely costume that I felt wonderful in, and just being transformed into someone, (or something) else for a day. I think it is the only holiday that is just plain FUN!

All Hallows Eve!

To me, Halloween starts October 1, and ends November 1st. I do something Halloweeny every single day of the month whether it be decorating, planning, shopping, cooking, watching suspenseful and scary movies……. whatever it may be, I am LOVIN’ IT!!

You know, it was the baby boomers, like me, that kept Halloween going. I am at the tail end of the baby boomers, but I am still a boomer. Halloween used to be for small children, but it was my generation that loved the holiday so much that we kept it going even as we aged. Because of us Halloween is a big deal. Costumes and parties and movies and decorations. Halloween is a huge money making holiday. We are to thank for that.

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The magic potion……..

Gordon and Julie in our backyard enjoying our libation.

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Halloween 2014

Our Floating Ghost

I wanted this to take place in our backyard around our fountain. I love our fountain and the landscaping retaining wall that Gordon has built here. I really wanted something that was fun, elegant, classy, and beautiful.

Gordon digging a grave above, and Gordon uncovering bones.

Actually, we had dug up an azalea bush and replanted it elsewhere and that left this big hole in our landscaping. I got the idea to leave it alone until after Halloween because I knew that there would be something that we could do with that hole. The idea then came to me to add some skeleton bones and have Gordon to do some digging in his tuxedo.

I like the results!

Our Ghostly Fountain

Although a bit hard to see I have added dry ice.

Gordon with our Ghostly Fountain

Here Gordon is making me laugh.

Gordon The Vampire

This is my favorite time of day, dusk. I love it when it is just light enough to see and just dark enough to “hide”.

Ahh, the vampire potion.

Dry ice added to the “blood” are perfect!

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The Lighting

The lighting was easy. I found these beautiful Moroccan lanterns at a thrift store for just a few dollars and I placed a candle in each one. The pumpkins and crows were not expensive either. Most of them I picked up at the Dollar Store for guess what? A Dollar!

I love the black and white theme that I have going on.

A bit of dreary here.

Pumpkin in an old wonky urn.

Gordon and Julie Ghostly Photo

This is my favorite photo of Gordon and myself. I love it! It looks very ghostly. Our spirit photo.

Our Glowing Ghost Looks Eeerily Perfect

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How We Made Our Ghost

Gordon and I made this one from some chicken wire and fabric.

Although hard to see, the photo above is of our chicken wire ghost.

Gordon used an old metal coat hanger and wound it into the chicken wire to simulate an invisible arm holding the mask.

Ghostly Fishy Fountain

Try adding dry ice to your outdoor fountains to make them eerily delicious!!

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Meanwhile…………

Gordon Preparing Our Halloween Dinner

What’s on the Menu?Bleeding Hearts, of course.All Vegetarian

Stuffed Bell PeppersRed, Yellow, Orange, and Green(You can use any that you like. We used a variety of colors.)This recipe is for 4 whole bell peppers.Recipe:-4 Bell Peppers-1 small – medium onion, chopped-2 -3 garlic cloves, chopped-2 carrots, chopped-1 celery stalk, chopped-1 red chili pepper, halved, deseeded and chopped-1 large can of red kidney beans, drained (about 14 – 16 ounces)-1 large can of chopped tomatoes (or a can of stewed tomatoes) (about 14 – 16 ounces)-1 -2 teaspoons of a tomato paste-1 Tablespoon chili powder-1 – 2 teaspoons ground cumin-fresh parsley, chopped-salt and pepper to taste (We use Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper)-Parmesan cheese or any cheese that you prefer-some olive oil—————————————————————————————————————————–The first thing that you want to do is to wash and slice in half all of your bell peppers. Remove all the seeds and place them on a cookie sheet. Next drizzle some olive oil over them and then bake in a 400F oven for about 10 – 12 minutes.Add some olive oil to a large pan on the stove on a medium heat. You want to sautee your onions and garlic until they are soft for about 4 – 5 minutes. Then add your carrots, celery, the tomato paste and the cumin powder and cook an additional few minutes. Then you want to add the remaining ingredients, except for the cheese. You want to simmer for about 20 minutes to reduce the liquid and to thicken the mixture. Meanwhile you want to cut enough squares of aluminum foil in order to wrap each bell pepper that goes back into the oven. Spoon some of the mixture into each bell pepper and wrap securely with the foil. You will continue to cook them for an additional 10 – 15 minutes. Once they are finished then remove from the oven and unwrap each pepper from the foil and place on a cookie sheet. Top with your cheese and put back into the oven for an additional 5 – 8 minutes so that the cheese can melt. Here Gordon is spooning the mixture into a bell pepper.Individually wrapping each “heart”.

Next they go in the oven.

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Mummies on the Stake

Our mummies are nothing more that little chicken cocktail sausages wrapped in croissant dough and baked in the oven and then placed on bamboo skewers.

These are at least, healthy Halloween appetizers.

Cherry tomatoes and large pitted black olives on bamboo skewers.

BUGS!

I pitted some dates and added peanut butter and a raisin for an eye and placed everything into floral ‘frogs’.

Our Bleeding Hearts Table Setting

A ping-pong ball with an eye painted on it floats in our cocktail glasses.

Our Bleeding Hearts, a.k.a. Stuffed Red Bell Peppers

Ghostly Dinner for Two

Gordon and Julie Halloween Dinner

Although not pictured here we also have some sliced baguette and some bruschettas.

Here’s to 300 More Years Together!!

Throw white tablecloths or white sheets over everything!

The table, the chairs, even the furniture.

The Ghostly Allure of Halloween….

Icccccca boddddddddddd……….

Sleepy Hollow, America’s Only Fairy Tale

Happy Halloween……

Ghoulie and Gordon

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Dinner and a Movie at Home

Saturday Night Spooketti Dinner

Green food coloring in the pasta water is all that it takes.

Now what else would I be watching???? 🙂

Rear Window, of course!

I’ve posted all of our big Rear Window party pictures to my:

Alfred Hitchcock Rear Window Page

Good Evening,

Julie

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Halloween Past

Me, age 5 dressed as a princess, what else?

Or as my children say, “OMG Mom, that is such a scary mask!”

How I adored those white go-go boots! Check out my record player! What I would do to have that back again!

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Flashback Halloween

Veronica and I in Ewa Beach, Hawaii in the 90’s in our front yard. Probably 1993. Obviously getting ready for a Girl Scout Halloween outing.

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Blast From The Past

That is me, standing in a coffin doorway.

Gordon and Julie at a Halloween party in Sevierville, Tennessee in 1984.

I love looking through our old photo albums and finding these kinds of photos of Halloween’s past.

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2013

Witchy-Poo

Guess what I am going to be for Halloween?

Vintage black cocktail dress I bought at an estate sale for $5.00. Lovely conical witches hat I bought on sale after Halloween last year for under $5.00. Vintage necklace and earrings that once belonged to my Great-Aunt Margie. Black vintage purse. Black gloves with silver nails that I also bought on sale last year after Halloween for less than $5.00. Oh, and green and purple feather eyelashes that I bought on sale last year after Halloween as well for just $2.00. Entire cost of this Halloween costume?

Around $30.00! Not bad, huh?

Have a Very Happy Halloween!

Julie

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A Delicious Non-Fattening Dessert

For Halloween

I am a borderline diabetic and I cannot eat a lot of sugar so I have to create delicious things that are, for the most part, sugar free.

This is one of those desserts. My sugar free angel food cake topped with sugar free black berry jam and sugar free Kool-Whip. Throw in some fresh blackberries and you have an excellent dessert.

The reason this is great for Halloween? Just serve on some lovely orange and black lusterware. A perfect non-fattening Halloween elegant dessert.

Julie

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Caramel Apples

This was such a fun ‘take me back to my childhood’ thing to do. Not to mention, delicious!

The tart green apples with the sweet melted caramel was wonderful!

(I did get a bite!)

Green apples and sweet caramel. Perfect!

We used a double boiler here. I think the old fashioned way of doing this is the best. You can melt them in the microwave but I think it tends to ruin the caramels, as you have to keep heating them up, they tend to get hard.

We used bamboo chopsticks to insert into the apples.

Above left, Veronica is taking two of them for her, and her boyfriend Brian. A caramel apple tip for using small apples is to bring out a cupcake pan and line it with cupcake liners. The pan will steady the apples as they harden.

Perfect and delicious! I added some gummy worms as an accent.

Tasty Table

Sweet Treats for the Trick-or-Treaters

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Happy Halloween!!

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Halloween Craft

Vintage Graphics on a Halloween Serving Tray

I made this tray a few years ago by decoupaging some vintage graphics and some stickers that I bought at a craft store onto it. In the center is a little flower pot that I had painted black and orange and added a candle to it. I love it and bring it out most every Halloween.

Happy Halloween Crafting

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The Making Of…………

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Veronica painting my Sleepy Hollow painting.

Have a spooky Halloween…………………. BOO!

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A miniaturized version of Sleepy Hollow.

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The Specter

An urn full of candy at the front entrance.

I love pumpkins and crows.

Look out world, Julie’s got a fog machine!!!

Oh no! Is that Me or Sarah Palin?? That is scary!

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This is my take on Edgar Allan Poe’s, ‘The Raven’.

“Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting—“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie they soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! – guit the bust above my door!” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

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The Cauldron of Candy

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I used glow sticks under the cauldron to look like hot coals. I set the cauldron in a twig wreath and added an owl to watch over the candy.

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Happy Vintage Halloween!

Here are some of my vintage graphic Halloween prints on cards and the tray that I decoupaged, pictured here.

An old ouija board makes a great place mat for this Halloween meal. A “ghost” sandwich and some ghostly fries.

Candelabras and vampires.

Halloween Dining

A festive punchbowl made out of a galvanized steel bucket. With a spooky themed wine as well. Crooked Tree.

Welcome to the party!

Some bats flying by………..

Even werewolves have to make cell phone calls.

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Sleepy Hollow

A painting that my daughter Veronica did of the movie Sleepy Hollow by Tim Burton. The Headless Horseman is America’s only fairy tale. A classic that I love and cherish since I was a little girl.