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Saturday, October 26, 2013

a Hollieween party

Last night I hosted my 3rd annual Hollieween party and as usual, the turnout was small. Very small (4 guests)  but I'm sure that's because 99% of my friends have moved hundreds of miles away over the past three years and I haven't made any new ones. What few friends I do have left, most are unmarried and childless and I think they're kind of turned off by the whole "Hollie's a wife and mommy now so that makes her uncool" thing so they've stopped coming around... oh well, more candy and beer for me.
But at least now I've learned that on the subject of party guests, it's definitely quality that matters. Not quantity.

For the party I dressed us all as hobbits. The original idea was to just dress River as a hobbit but then I realized that we all have the clothes to put together hobbit outfits. So there you have it, a family of hobbits.
Since I'm not fond spending tons of money on costumes the only thing I bought were our pointy ears, the elven brooches and rubber cavemen feet that I "hobbited" up with wood stain and hair.
I used wig hair on my feet and snipped a lock of my husband hair for his. Everyone was pretty grossed out by that.
For my costume I wore an old thrifted skirt and blouse, husband's vintage vest and a cape bought at last year's Renaissance faire.
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Here's the before and after on my hobbit feet. I used gel wood stain topped with my own liquid foundation makeup for a better skin tone match.
For River I cropped some old pants,  made his cape out of one the husband's old tee shirts and drew swirling hair on his little feet with eyeliner. The vest and shirt are handmedowns.
The husband wore old cropped work pants, thrifted suspenders, Renaissance faire cape and a shirt from his days of Civil War reenacting. 
A couple of days before the party, I spent a great amount of time decorating. Well, I didn't just do it for the party. I LOVE Halloween and I love low cost "use-what-ya-got" DIY projects.
The only thing bought for my tiny "laboratory" were spiderwebs and battery operated tea lights for a bit of subtle illumination behind my DIY specimen jars.
Ghost farts!!
(Packed cellophane, water and food coloring)

River and my friend Jennifer. 

During the party we played an impromptu trivia game I invented based off one of my favorite books Where are they buried: how did they die?. The book is full of mini-bios about some of the world's most famous people, how they died and directions to their graves. The game was to guess how these celebs died based on info given about their age at the time of death, the era they lived in and their lifestyle. 
The end results of the game? Lots and lots of lung cancer. 

  And here's one of my favorite Halloween revamps. Cheap strawberry wine turned into delicious virgin blood. MUAHAHAHA!
I love love love love Halloween. I just can't get enough of it and if it were up to me, I'd keep my home decorated like this year round, dress up in different costumes and have a party every weekend.
So how do you feel about Halloween? Any special plans for this year?

14 comments:

  1. What is wrong with you - you have virgin's blood on the brain!!! Interesting. I'd like to psycho-analyze that...

    I love Jennifer's make-up! That must have taken a lot of patience. Too bad it's only for one night. Or is it? You are so clever with your costumes and decorating. Your ghost farts could be accompanied by ghost poop - styrofoam peanuts. My old boss always called them ghost poop.

    I have to admit that I sort of like visiting grave's or death sites. I don't go out of my way to do it, but I have seen a few in my travels. I bet that book is interesting to ghouls like me.

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    1. two virgin blood mentions in one weekend? What IS wrong with me!?!?!

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  2. Cool! If I lived closer, I'd try to wheedle an invitation out of you. I, too, love Halloween. And I like your spirit of adventure.

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  3. Love your hobbit family costumes and your decorations. We thought about having a party but so many of our friend's are single women, who might not have been overly keen on wasting their cute costumes on the likes of a long married couple, with no opportuity to flirt with a cute pirate or zombie. And I don't blame them, considering Halloween only happens once a year. Here Halloween for adults really seems to be about the single scene and I certainly remember the fun and charm of a good costume party when I was single,

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  4. damn it! I just want to come round to your place, looks like a laugh, who are these losers that don't want to hang out?! No halloween plans, yet, would like to watch some camp Hammer Horrors though. The hobbit feet are brilliant, a work of art xx

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  5. Not a big Halloween fan, but I'd of come to your party. Oh, wait a minute, I'm old and married, so the bar scene is out of the question. (ps: you guys are way cooler then your former friends)

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  6. You guys are so cute!! Great hobbit costumes!
    Halloween is my favorite holiday :)

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  7. I'm so glad you kept those ghost farts in a jar. Don't let them out!! What a great party and perfect costumes. I love Halloween. And, yeah, a bunch of my single friends faded away when I had kids. Sigh....

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  8. It's not something I'm interested ior celebrate (typical Brit, I'm afraid) but there's no way I'd have turned down an invitation to get to hang out with you. Your outfits are fabulous! x

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  9. Yay for party making! Looks great. I love parties. Halloween not as much of a deal in NZ. We personally like to combine it with guy fawkes (fireworks night, 5th Nov) and make a Hallo-Fawkes bonfire welcome to spring bbq party! Brilliant fun..
    I would LOVE to hang out with you guys!

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  10. Wow, you really really like Halloween and I just love the laboratory stuff - how clever to make ghosts fart using cellophane and food colouring. A couple of years ago we had a Halloween themed birthday party for our 11yo and we thought it was the best birthday party ever. Her birthday is near the right time and there is lots to use to decorate the place. I was Bride of Frankenstein LOL. you all look amazing as Hobbits, and the feet are creepy and cool at the same time. I saw them on FB and thought they were great.

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