I LOVE Halloween

Halloween is my favorite holiday besides Christmas. Halloween is very close to my birthday so, growing up I had dress up parties. Now I am an adult and still want to dress up, but it looks weird to dress up on Halloween and go grocery shopping or show up trick-o-treating with my 2 year old as a tiger ... people just look at you strangely and it takes all the fun out of wearing a headband with tiger ears on it and a tail ...

Everyone has Christmas parties and December is such a crazy busy month anyway, so that's out. Thanksgiving is not a month to hold parties, cuz everyone travels to be with family and it's more of a family holiday and everyone thinks Halloween is a kid holiday! Nobody thinks of holding a dress up party for adults! I LOVE IT! I always write on my invitations: "costumes are required".

Anyway, so my husband and I decided to start hosting an annual adult Halloween Party. I got the idea from my older sister. I spend months trying to figure out how to transform my home into an evil lair or a haunted old mansion. And picking out the food is as important to me as the decor - it's not fun to go to a party unless there's some awesome treats!!! So I thought I'd pass on a few links to my favorite Halloween ideas and websites ... you should start a tradition too!

Halloween Food
Spooky Tree Centerpiece
Tombstone Brownies
Glitter Tombstones

Of course, Martha Stewart is a bounty of knowledge and ideas ... here are some favs:
Orange Jack-o'-Lanterns with Sorbet
Pumpkin-Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches
Papier-Mache Pumpkins

The year I was pregnant with my first little boy, I had to come up with a Halloween costume and I was almost 8 months pregnant and huge!!! This is what we came up with: 3 Peas in a Pod

frank bag

So ... I called Christina the other day and said, "I need to come up with a few more Halloween bags, what should I do?" We threw around a few ideas and she asked what cool amterial I had lying around. I pulled out some purple velvet, shimmering silver polyester, lime green, shimmering black, and a bunch of fleece. I don't know how it inspired her, but Christina blurted out "How about Frankenstein?"

I asked how the heck I'd pull that off and she started describing shapes to me, "The hair is like upside down grass, you know, all spikey and the face is like a rounded rectangle ...". I kept her on the phone until I had it all cut out, then hung up and went to work. And we came up with the "frank" bag. I love Halloween!!!