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Halloween

The Angry Meatball

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As much as I love making costumes, it has come to my attention that I have a special knack for making Halloween gear that children do not want to wear. To put it bluntly: children hate my costumes.
It doesn’t matter how comfortable I try to make the outfit or how close I stick to their initial request (direct quote: “I want to be a Tyrannosaurus rex in a Mets jersey eating A PIZZA!”)…the kid would rather wear a hair shirt than whatever creation I stayed up half the night to make them. 
Sad face 🙁
I used to take it personally but now I’m over it. Now I just try to restrict my costume making to adults and everyone is happier that way. The only exceptions are my niece and nephew, Abigail and Luke, and even then it’s rough. Abigail initially hated her flamingo costume. Hated it.

Luke, on the other hand, is barely one month old. He is in the “loaf of bread” stage in infancy where you can dress them up however you want. He cries, sleeps, eats and poops. That’s his job. I figure, if he cries, that’s 25% of his workload right there. Who cares if the crying is costume related or not — he is just doing his part. The best part is that he actually looks really cute when he cries. Look…
Doesn’t he look like an angry little meatball?  
So cute.
I just love that.
 
In fact, I loved it so much so much that I made it the crux of his costume: spaghetti and meatballs. It’s made from a 100% cotton mop head I bought at Home Depot and some simple brown pom-poms. I just used fabric glue to attach them to a pre-existing shirt. Simple. If they lived in the same state, I would probably take the time to do a proper fitting and sew accordingly, but as is, I just wanted to make something simple and flexible, something comfortable for him to wear, something no other babies would be wearing, something that would hide baby vomit, and something that would not require so much time that I’d feel bad if he only wore it for ten minutes….actually, now that I write that all down,  that sure seems like a lot to ask of a costume. Gosh, way to deliver, Spaghetti!
I sort of wish I had made this in my size too. I wouldn’t mind a spaghetti ball gown. 
I shouldn’t talk about these things….the week is young.

Sequins Never Hurt Anybody

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At the risk of sounding like a total scrooge, I am going to declare something controversial: I’m giving up on pumpkin carving.

*Wave of festive horror goes here.*

I know. Don’t be ticked. It’s not that I don’t appreciate a beautifully carved pumpkin, it’s just that I would rather leave it to the professionals. Sort of like electrical installation or septic tank cleaning. Sure I could handle it, but it wouldn’t turn out well. And I might do some harm in the process. I mean, why risk it? 

Plus, pumpkin carving smells bad and I always end up bleeding. Why do I keep on going back to the well, year after year?

If eating cereal smelled bad and made you bleed, you would give up cereal, no?

If listening to Freebird smelled bad and made you bleed, I’m thinking you would give it up, along with Lynyrd Skynyrd in general. Am I right?

Of course right.

I’m sticking a carrot in the nose and calling it a day. Leave the fancy crap to the professionals and I’ll stick to my sequins.
Sequins never hurt anybody.

Dollar Store Skeleton Wreath

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Watch out, Halloween is going glitzy!

I made this nifty skeleton wreath just before I left for Mississippi. I’m sort of amazed nobody stole it off the front door seeing as it looks like a million bucks. A boney, cannibalistic, golden ringlet of a million bucks.

Note, generally speaking, I try to restrict my posts to projects that I thought of myself, or at least stuff that has a significantly special twist. This isn’t one of them. This is one of those projects I saw on Pinterest and five minutes later I was out the door to hunt for supplies. And that is the good news: you can get all the supplies in one place. I bought 5 plastic skeletons, one wreath base and a bag of hot glue sticks at the Dollar Tree. Grand total $7. If I hadn’t already owned gold spray paint and a glue gun, I probably could have bought them there too. It took ten minutes to assemble, two minutes to paint, a night to dry…and boom you’re in business.

Now get on over to Tried & True to see how this gorgeous creepy thing is made.

  

Expert Advice: Scary Movies

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The leaves are turning, the apples are out, and college girls everywhere are hunting for Smutty Goth Fairy-winged Barmaid costumes. It’s that time of year—Halloween. The second most wonderful time of the year. The first most wonderful being Girl Scout cookie season, obviously.

This is also the best time of year for one of my favorite things: scary movies.

A month ago I decided to write a “Top Ten” sort of list of scary movies and realized 1. That sort of list exists alllll over the internet and none of them are very good, and 2. Nobody would need or want to read a list of my personal favorites. I know what I like in a scary movie, but giving advice to other people? That’s a different matter. It was time to call in an expert. I called in my friend Michelle.

A lot of you already know her as the wickedly funny, amazing jewelry guru behind Mich L in LA…but you might not know that she spent years as a successful Hollywood screenwriter, not to mention that she’s the creative force behind one of the greatest cult-classic spoof horror films of all time. She will tell you about that in a sec, but I would like to say that I knew the movie longgggg before I knew her as a blogger and a friend. When I learned of the connection, I nearly crapped my pants and called my former art school boyfriend to brag that I now knew the woman behind the “foxy aliens with vegetable lasers!” and then he would have crapped his pants too. And it would have been awesome. Thanks for the fantasy, Mich.

So, as she is an expert on the subject (don’t let her be bashful and tell you otherwise), Mich was kind enough to assemble a list of recommendations. Not just her own personal favorites, but movies that covered a variety of audiences. There is something in here for everyone. Enjoy!

Hi, all you fabulous Fans-of-Aunt-Peaches!  I’m one, too – isn’t she the coolest person?  So happy to be sneaking in here today to give you some spooky movie recommendations.

Some of you might have heard of me from my blog Mich L. in L.A.  What most people don’t know (discovered, somehow, by Aunt Peaches, Girl Sleuth): when I was nineteen, I met a boy with similar taste in trashy genre films.  We fell in love, wrote a script, and made a goofy homage to 1950s alien invasion movies, called Revenge of the Teenage Vixens from Outer Space.  The boy has been my husband now for – gulp! – more years than I can count on my fingers and toes.  Ain’t that romantical?

I still love genre films best.  Who needs Oscar contenders?  Give me a guilty pleasure crapfest any old day!  So here are a few of my favorite scares – some you may never have seen, some you might have forgotten about and need to watch again…

If I can make even one person whimper into her microwaved popcorn, my work here is done.

Presenting: Mich L’s Scary 13


They Live (1988)  OMG, hordes of well-dressed, aggressive Young Republicans are taking over the world…and that’s not even the bad news!  (heehee)  This hilarious/horrifying John Carpenter film is really fun; you’ll giggle and scream at the same time.  It features an unusual lead actor, pro wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper.  And a storyline so relevant, you’ll wonder who had the time machine.

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)  The Sixties sure were fun!  Batty old neighbors, supernatural chocolate and nightmares of bestial violation: good times, good times.  Poor, sweet newlywed Rosemary puzzles over her strange pregnancy and her husband’s growing alliance with a pair of elderly weirdos in their groaning old New York apartment building.  This movie is so stylish, you’ll want to live in it – while screaming for Rosemary to get out, get OUT!

The Innocents (1961)  A 19th century British governess is supposed to be watching two angelic orphaned children…but are these darlings actually children at all?  Awesome performances, and a psychological thriller that builds slowwwly toward panic and terror.  Great for a night when you feel like settling deeply into something deeply unsettling, or in the mood for a cool classic in stunning black and white.

Sleuth (1972)   Michael Caine and Lawrence Olivier are oh-so-polite, oh-so-deadly adversaries in a brilliant two-character thriller.  Filled with shocks, twists and turns, these two play vicious mind games to make your head spin, all set in an enormous 16th century mansion.  Who’ll win out?  I’m not telling, but there’s an evil clown involved and you know that spells quality.

Tremors (1990)  Not exactly Halloweeny?  Maybe not – but it’s a genuine thrill ride of funny sci-fi horror.  A small desert town is under attack – from below.  This one will charm your socks off – but don’t ever let your bare feet touch the ground.  I am not sure why this is rated R – maybe some bad words?  The grue is pretty tame by today’s standards.  Watch with older kids and have fun!

The Fly (1958 and 1986)  Two great chillers about an accidental merging of man with housefly.  The original is spooky in a campy 1950’s way – love it!  And the remake with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis is one of the grossest movies I have ever seen.  Watch Dr. Brundle transform in gory, goopy, hairy, dripping technicolor.  Oh, Geena – you really should pick ’em more wisely.

Freaks (1932)  Now this one is fascinating.  It stars a troupe of actual circus sideshow performers, in an engrossing story of humiliation and vengeance.  If you think it exploits the actors, I’d argue that the film portrays the ‘freaks’ with a real measure of dignity and humanity.  An old-fashioned morality tale, try watching it like a fable.   Plus when the circus troupe turns the tables to exact revenge on their tormenters – yiiiiikes. 

The Dead Zone (1983)  Maybe it’s just a favorite movie of mine, but I find this darker and more affecting each time I watch it.  A Stephen King story about a man named Johnny (Christopher Walken, who does tormented better than anyone) awakened from a coma able to read the dread future of anyone he touches.  Gee, neat superpower – until, uh-oh!  He realizes it’s up to him to save the world, ’cause it’s gonna explode and no one believes him.  Man.  I hate when that happens.

The Omen  (1976)  Infants switched at birth, Satanic rumors and mysterious deaths surround the adoption of a perfect little boy by an American diplomat and his wife.  As young Damien grows, horrors escalate.  The diplomat (played by Gregory Peck) kinda sorta knows there’s a teensy problem, but how to tell the wife?  Featuring the best name for an Exorcist ever penned.  Look out, Lucifer – it’s Father Bugenhagen to the rescue!

The Others (2001) A terrifically atmospheric ghost story, complete with haunted house, innocents in danger and murky, menacing fog banks along the English coast.  Nicole Kidman is an anxiety-ridden single mom, fiercely protecting her two photosensitive children from the daylight – and from the haunting presence of ‘the others’ that may be living inside the walls of their spooky old mansion.  

Duel (1971)  Steven Spielberg was a baby of 23 when he directed this edge-of-your-seat cat and mouse film.  Before he made swimming in the ocean terrifying, he did it with driving on the freeway.  A psychopathic, unseen truck driver terrorizes an ordinary motorist…so real, so brilliantly plotted, you won’t even notice there is almost no dialog!  Road rage may have originated here.


The Night Of The Hunter  (1955)  Beautiful and horrible, a nightmare of a story with the most terrifying preacher man ever committed to film.  Don’t you love a villain who seems so righteous and gentle, but turns out to be evil personified?  This is a thriller and a horror movie rolled into one.  C’mon, I know it’s old and you weren’t even born when these people were famous, but it’s a goodie.  Sometimes horror hits you right in your gut – the final  third of the movie is one of those times.  Don’t watch it with younger kids, mmkay?

Angel Heart.  (1987)  Set in the 1950’s, with seedy back alley voodoo, Satanic ritual murders and Mickey Rourke as a private dick with a dark secret.  Lisa Bonet is absolutely incandescent as the damsel in distress and more-than-disturbing love interest.  Why that girl never became a giant movie star is beyond me.  This film made me avoid gumbo for years – see it and you’ll understand.

Dead Ringers.  (1988)  Young Jeremy Irons plays creepy twin gynecologists with an evil bent.  This whole movie, in fact, is pretty bent.  The twin docs share lovers (pretending to be each other to consummate relationships), and the women don’t realize it.  Ugh!  And then it starts to get psycho, and you kind of want to crawl under the covers but it’s dark under there, and what if Jeremy Irons is hiding at the bottom?!  This is classic David Cronenberg – if you have a tolerance for ooky, this one’s for you.  Note to self: make gyno appointment, review all my friends’ online matches for guys with twin brothers.

Thanks for having me over, Aunt Peaches!  I loved picking these for you and your readers.

Nighty night!

***
Thank YOU Michelle!

What a list! Some of my favorites and some I have never seen. Don’t anybody request Freaks on Netflix until I get my hands on it first, OK?  

Anyone else have a favorite? Chime in the comments!



Tie-Dyeing for Formal Dining

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There are so many reasons I love setting the table for an autumn feast: Thanksgiving, Rosh Hashanah, breaking the fast for Yom Kipur, Autumnal Solstice, International Talk Like a Pirate Day, Be Bald and Free Day… the list goes on.
Here, I decided to set up a formal dinner party for Halloween. A small, spooky gathering is a great way to feel festive without everyone feeling obligated to don a full costume or sit on the porch handing out candy in the cold. Then after dinner everyone can crash on the couch for apple cobbler and a scary movie. Now doesn’t that sound good?
OK, let’s start by setting the table. It all hinges on the table cloth and today I am making my own. Saddle up, this one is going to be fun!

When I initially signed on to do a sponsored post with Rit dye, I thought I would demonstrate  a new way to use the dye like a funky costume or some outdoor decoarations, but after thinking about it, instead I decided to show a new way to display everyone’s favorite way to use fabric: tie dye.

Autumn is the perfect time of year to break out the tie dye. Tell me you don’t see where I am going here…

Okay, let’s get the elephant out of the room and talk about tie dye. Because tie dye gets a bad rap. People (some people) think is garish and weird. Or, as my father called it “beardy weirdy.” Which was also slang for “hippie dippy.”

Yes, tie dye is beloved by Phish loving hippies the world over, bless them, but it’s also beloved by people who know a good thing when they see it. 

Me? I love to use tie dye as an active neutral. Something that goes with everything. Other active neutrals include black and white stripes, moss green, navy blue, thick silver sequins, Scotch tartan, and my personal favorite: leopard. These are colors and patterns you can add to a composition to bring all the other elements together. A common thread. Tie dye is an excellent active neutral. Especially on a dining table set with jumbled components.
See, I have a lot of nice things in my house, but a big matching formal dining set just isn’t one of them. Do I care? No. Why? Because I know I can always pull things together with an active neutral. Like tie dye!
Yup. I use disposable paper products for formal dining. Mind blown.
For this set up, the only special purchases were the black “poison” paper plates ($2.50 at Target) and some white pumpkins (2 for $1.00 at the farmers market). Everything else is from my everyday cupboard. Plain white china, plain wine glasses, melamine polka-dot plates from Target (another active neutral), some red leaf glasses I bought at Goodwill, and oodles of candles. The good silver was a gift from my friend Ann, but beyond that, nothing on the table falls in the “special occasion” category.  I’m even using outdoor patio chairs. But, put them all together on a tie dye background and they sure do look gussied up! If I had done this set this all on a white table cloth it would have been totally Snoozeville. Tie dye is the trick.
Bonus: Sloppy dinner guests? Tie dye hides stains like nothing else. Score!
   
Before showing you how to make this, I want to say two things:
  1. It is really hard to take pictures while wearing rubber gloves.
  2. There are endless varieties of colors and patterns you can achieve with various tie-dye techniques. Rit has great information about this online. Consult with them and the directions on the package for specifics, but I can assure you it is easier than you think. Just don’t let yourself get hooked on a visual in your mind before you start the process. Embrace the unpredictable.
Materials

Okay, let’s get started…

    Dye Bath (Follow directions on your box depending on your garment, below is what I used)
    In an old pot on the stove, I mixed one quart of simmering water with half a bottle of dye, plus half a cup of salt. I stirred for a minute, then turned off the heat and dipped my big wad of fabric, starting with the lightest color first.
    This part is hard to demo in pictures so I photoshopped a black and white photo with pink and orange to help illustrate (see above, does it help?). The gist of it is that I dipped the top half of the wadded up sheet in orange dye, let it sit there for a couple of minutes, then lipped it over and dipped the bottom half in red dye. I knew red would be the hardest color to achieve with fabric dye, so I let it set in there for a couple of hours. Then I rinsed it out with cold water in the sink, then threw it into the washing machine with the teensiest bit of soap. Cold water cycle, rubber bands still on there. When the wash was done I removed the rubber bands and threw it in the dryer on the hottest setting (heat helped set the color and thicken the cotton sheet a little).
    I love it. It came out a little lighter than I expected, but I love it just the same. It looks both autumnal and spring like. Now I can use it year round. Toot toot!
    If I wanted to go back in time and hold out for deeper reds and oranges, I probably would have used whole bottles dye (instead of half) and let the fabric set in the pot overnight. Maybe that pinch of washing detergent was a no-no. Oh well, I don’t care, ’cause I love it!
    Side note: You like the autumnal tree centerpiece? It matches, right? I know. I tossed a few coffee filters in the leftover dye baths, then I cut out leaves and hot glued them to an old branch. See my cherry blossom tree for directions.
    Side note 2: You like the pedestal bowl? It’s made from one of those plastic pumpkin head trick-or-treat buckets they sell everywhere. Click here to see how it was made two years ago.
    I love a generously sized tablecloth, but the sheet was just too big. As long as I was tearing off the excess, I decided to make napkins from the scraps. 
    Note, I said tear. 
    Just snip an inch then yank the fabric apart on a straight line– if the fibers are natural they will leave a nice frayed looking raw edge. You might have to pull a few loose threads, but it beats hemming all those edges. Granted, if I was planning on using these things more than a couple times a year, I would probably hem the edges. But I’m happy as is, raw edges and all. If William Sonoma can sell raw edge napkins for $8.00 a pop, so can I.
    I love folding napkins. It’s my secret talent. 
    Oops. I guess it’s not so secret anymore.  
    For the Halloween table, I set out some wax paper spider web luminarias. 

    My favorite expression; Candles are like panty hose for your house, they make everything look good. 
     

    Happy Halloween!
    *Note: I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign for RIT Dye and Blueprint Social. All opinions are my own. I have been buying Rit dye in the laundry isle of my local grocery store for 20+ years and have always been pleased with the results. If you have never tried fabric dye at home, I suggest you grab some rubber gloves and a bottle (or box) or Rit. Prepare to be amazed! For more information about RIT Dye, check them out on facebook, twitter, and pinterest.

    More Liberace Pumpkins

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    Last year I made two snazztastic Liberace pumpkins. Now this year they made three friends. Okay, maybe I made them. Just the same, they are altogether now a happy gang of five. Next year I’ll aim for nine. I figure if Liberace appreciated anything above all else, it would be abundance. 

    My favorite is the one I am calling The Snooki Pumpkin (not to be confused with Alexa’s amazing Snooki Pumpkin). Mine started out as a $1.99 foam pumkpin from Goodwill. It was a little rough around the edges so I decoupaged it with leopard print tissue paper, sealed it with Mod Podge mixed with a spoonful of gold glitter, then just to keep things classy, I topped it off with some randomly dispersed orange rhinestones ringed with concentric circles of puff paint. The painted dots are so simple but they add a sort of ethnic flair I think. I’m not sure what kind of ethnic flair that might be but I know it’s there.

    Happy Halloween!

    Happy Halloween!

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    Muppet fever made its way into the pumpkin patch. Cute huh?

    Must give credit where it is due — this idea came from my wonderful friend Ann, who sent me a photo of a Muppet pumpkin from years ago (see the original featured above with her beautiful children, mom and friend, decked out for some serious Halloween festiveness!).  I love this idea so much. If I get my act together and my carving knives unpacked, maybe I can make a whole Muppet gang next year? If anyone deserved to be made out of gourds, it would be Gonzo.  

    This particular pumpkin had super thick walls, so I had to keep the cuts simple. And since a smile was about all he could manage, I felt compelled to give him a couple of teeth. I don’t know if Muppets usually have teeth, but a little hillbilly flair never hurt anyone.

    *Someone* decided to get in the fun too so I made her a witch hat, but it came out looking more like a sequined pilgrim hat. Or a pimp hat. I’m not really sure, but Lola will be looking extra fierce for the Trick-or-Treaters tonight.

    Happy Halloween!

    Liberace Pumpkins

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    My love of Liberace is no secret.

    I mean, let’s face it: the man knew how to dress.

    I always try to weave some Liberace flair into my holiday decorations, but this year with all the stores vamping up the jingle factor so early in the season, well, I can’t help weaving Liberace into Halloween too. He is everywhere. G-d as my witness, one day I’ll get myself a Liberace costume! In the meantime, a few glitter encrusted pumpkins and a round of Moon River will hold me over until Christmas.

    Bonus: Lola gets to feed her sequin obsession

    This crap never happened to Snoopy.

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    As someone who has been packing and unpacking, cleaning and painting since, oh, what feels to be the dawn of time, I was really looking forward to a weekend in the country. Kiki and I drove halfway to Iowa for some autumn fun on a farm that promised glorious apple picking, hayrides, and best of all, a real live pumpkin patch! No, not a pumpkin patch in the grocery store parking lot; a real pumpkin patch where the pumpkins grow on the vine. The kind where Snoopy and Charlie Brown would have found The Great Pumpkin. 

    The pumpkin patch was barren. The apple orchards were empty. And the hay ride had no hay.

    I’m telling you, this crap never happened to Snoopy. 

    Zombie Lanterns, Hayo!

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    Know what I love? Kittens. Sunshine. Chocolate Ice cream. Zombies.

    Yes indeed, zombies and zombie heads are rad in general, but these crafty-as-a-beaver Zombie Lanterns are the best. And so easy to make. Just get a rubber mask of your favorite deposed political leader, spray paint their face, strap it over a pumpkin, and BLAMO you are ready to go.

    If I really had my act together, I would have made ten of these and strung them from the porch rafters come Halloween night. Trick-or-treaters love scary swinging zombie heads. Love them.

    Say, why not take this to next level? Swap the electric candle for a low/no heat LED light bulb and keep it on display all year round.  Nothing keeps the home fires burning like Richard Nixon’s zombie head on your night stand. Nothing.

    Don’t like zombies? OK, what’s wrong with you? Oh, I get it. Well, a Yoda lantern might look awesome too.  


    Anyone else need a mask or last minute costume supplies? Click HERE to receive a discount on your order from HalloweenCostumes.com.