I have a confession:

I'm not excited about the new Alice in Wonderland movie.



When I try to write up my reasons, they just sound whiny and very 1997, so I won't elaborate. It's something along the lines of how you "discover" something and think you're the only one, or maybe not the only one but one of few who really enjoy it, and that's part of the specialness. Like a band, or a dive bar. And then some giant marketing force comes across and not only mainstreams, but oversells the heck out of it. Suddenly you can't even get into the concert or bar or coffee shop or whatever, let alone enjoy it how you used to. And while you're happy to see the success, something is lost in that popularity. I'm not saying I was the only one who knew about a book that's been out since 1865. And I genuinely like Burton-esque aesthetics. But something about 3-D, a million advertising tie-ins, and merchandising that began months before the movie was released just zap all the fun out of it for me.

See, whiny. Angst-y. I just can't articulate the feelings correctly.

Have you seen it? Should I go?

There is a book review in here somewhere...

How did I not have a "vampires" key word for labeling posts yet? Apparently when I first started sharing my secret shame with all of you, I didn't plan on making it a regular feature. Room to grow I guess. But since a sad amount of my life takes place on the vampire bandwagon, it's time for another installment of "those naughty books!"

Brief interruption: true story, minor digression: I was introducing the amazing Krista to my mother, and for some reason my primary technique for introductions involves describing people by what they were for Halloween the prior year. Yeah, it makes no sense to me either, but I can say the name "Krista" a million times and hubby won't know what I'm saying, but if I say "Meg Griffin Girl" he immediately gets it. Confused?

Clarification: Halloween 2008, Krista won "Most Original Costume" for her spot on Meg Griffin portrayal:



Is that not a spectacular yet simple home made costume? Love it! and it totally went with our "Hollywood Halloween" theme. Then, last year Krista once again pulled out a big bag of awesome with her twist on the Wonderland theme - VAMPIRE ALICE:



She made the red dress and white pinafore from SCRATCH, and I always give huge bonus points when people go to the lengths of pulling out a sewing machine and ironing board for costumes. That's commitment. And hello, how lovely are those fangs?!?! In a strange twist of fate, those creepy realistic chompers have a warning label cautioning you not to drink red liquids with them in. Apparently they stain - so sad. Maybe with a straw. Of course, in a pinch, Long Island iced tea works too.

Remember how this started out as a book review?

So one day, about 5 paragraphs ago, I was introducing Krista to my mother and explaining that she was in my "book club" and dressed up as Alice last year, Meg the year before. My mother gave a look of confusion "Oh, I don't watch those naughty shows..." assuming each was some sort of half naked character on a smutty vampire series. Egads. I'm developing a reputation.

AND IT'S ALL KRISTA'S FAULT. She is the local purveyor of all such smutty vampire media for a growing circle of us embarrassed but eager consumers. She got us all hooked and since she has the least willpower of all, she buys all the books immediately upon publication, reads them overnight, and then is nice enough to pass them around to the rest of us. I have previously admitted reading all of the Twilight books (terrible, but intriguing) and the Sookie Stackhouse novels (yum!) and then Charlaine Harris' other serials (not great, but good enough). Then for some reason I decided to spin out on my own and try selecting some books, which has not been nearly as successful. Thirst was awful (I had to erase that sentence 3 times to avoid bad unintentional puns - "sucked" and "bit" were my original choices, but even I couldn't do that to your ears. Eyes. Whatever.) After that fiasco (I'm still not sure if I'll give the other 2 stories in the book a chance) I dove into the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. I had high hopes. Another series to follow would be GREAT, especially one with a bunch of books already out so I don't have to wait a year between installments.

But I'm not loving Anita Blake. :(

It is definitely not anywhere near the craptacular nature of Thirst, but I'm not at all hooked either. I am finding it really hard to like the heroine, the weird religious undertones (souls are very important to her...which is not a given for me, and not well explained) and of course there is the problem that the covers look like romance novels (which I'm somehow more embarrassed about than if people actually knew they were vampire stories). The characters have annoying names I mentally trip over and argue with (Nikolaus for a woman just seems to be trying to hard), Jean Claude & Phillip just all blend together to become one cheesy vaguely French bustier ripping leading man - Jean-Phillipe-Claude-hopper. Blah. And there's all sorts of misty allusion to some dark thorny past that really needs to start coming out more significantly because I am just kind of bored.

I made it through the first book, not nearly on pace with books I've liked more, and it did pick up some towards the end, but I'm not sure if I'll be trying out any more of the series. Krista passed off a Sherrilyn Kenyon book which has an even MORE embarrassing cover, and the title "Fantasy Lover" that I'm planning to try next. I think I might have to start making little brown bag book covers for this kind of smut, sort of how a hobo hides their cheap liquor in a bag to lessen the shame. And hide from authorities.

I'm also mixing this up by starting "The Help", which I hear is very good despite zero vampires. An though I've borrowed it in hard cover so it doesn't fit in my purse, it is much less embarrassing to take out in public.

Wicked Wonderland: More Awesome Guest Costumes

I'm still slowly acquiring permissions to show you all of the FANTASTIC costumes my Halloween guests showed up in - I've said it before, but I was really blown away. Everyone really went all out, and they looked AWESOME! Here are a few more who have allowed me to feature their creativity:

Grant, as The White Rabbit


He's holding Earl Grey vodka he made himself - how perfect for a tea party! This costume got a little hot during DDR, but it's pretty wicked under blacklight:



Ben & Susan as Sonny & Cher (I honestly love these outfits, and would wear them daily if I were this pair):



Brooke as the Dutchess with her Pig Baby, and Rob as The Carpenter:



Brooke made her hat from scratch, and I'm totally impressed - how cool is that? And Rob apparently came up with his costume at the VERY last minute, but totally pulled it off! It's kinda freaky how much he looks like the Disney character from The Walrus and the Carpenter:

"Oysters, little oysters!"

I'm hoping to have a few more to feature soon, keep checking back :)

Tips & Tricks: Wicked Wonderland Talking Flowers Scene

I have to admit, one part of the Disney film I really enjoy is Alice's journey through the giant flower garden. The flowers are so snarky and superior, I just have to laugh, and I think their faces are really clever. Remember my post here with the great "school marm" iris?

I chose two walls essentially to be my garden area, in what is really the dining room but essentially a continuation of the living room :) I used the wall that is straight ahead as you enter the house, between the dining area & kitchen - where I had a table with all the sweets, and the wall between the dining area & hallway to the bathroom, where my china cabinet is.

I had a major photo fail regarding the china cabinet - I never got a picture of it all decked out, and took down all the decor before I realized it! Boo! Here's a photo from early on in the decorating, so you can see the giant gerbera daisies with their google eyes, and my Alice tea set & hand painted platter that are displayed there year round:



To that I added my standard fall decor of two lighted pumpkins I got for a steal at Patina's after Halloween sale in 2005, and four sections of glitter fall leaf garland I picked up at JoAnn's last year and wrapped with orange lights. You can see the lighted pumpkins in the same place last year with the Hollywood theme -



I have these all hooked to an outlet behind the cabinet, so I use a remote kit to turn them off and on (as opposed to pulling it out or climbing up every time). I got my kits at Costco, and can't seem to find the same ones online, but they are similar to these on Amazon - you plug their plug into the outlet, and your decor into their plug, and then a battery operated remote turns them off and on with ease. I use these for my upstairs window lights and outdoor stuff as well, and at Christmas I do the trees on them - so much easier than crawling around!

Another tip is that I use 3M cord clips to keep a set of extension cords accessible at all times in this area - I always seem to have something lit on top of the china cabinet, and it's a huge pain to move, so I leave them plugged in (I know, not the greenest option, but I'm okay with it) and have a cord clip holding the power end to the back top lip of the china cabinet. They're command strips, so they'll come off clean if I want them too, but in the mean time they're super handy:



On the other wall I used a sheet of green "net lights" from Menard's (meant to cover bushes or railings) to add the feel of vines & foliage. I hung them with the tiniest 3M clips, specifically meant to hold holiday lights. I can attribute a large portion of my budget each year to 3M strips, but it's totally worth it - they hold everything I need to hang on walls or ceiling, and come off totally clean, which is what I need.



Tucked into the web and hanging from slightly larger 3M hooks are more giant flowers - evil daffodils! I mentioned I had scooped these up for a steal at a clearance center, knowing they were too good to pass up. It took me 3 or more years to actually use them, but they really make the scene! I debated using a less 'permanent' method of securing them open, but in the end I just hot glued the honeycomb portion - they didn't stay open with just the clips, and I was hot gluing the eyes on anyways. So they're not really salvageable since they won't fold down now, but that's fine, I think the whole bunch cost me less than $10.



The red eyeballs were 4/$0.99 at Michael's in the Halloween section, I think they're foam. The little divot in the center just screamed out for a single cyclops eye, so most of them have that and I love it. A few got two, a few got leftover google eyes - I mixed it up with what I had lying around :)



For finishing touches I tucked in my collection of Dept. 56 spiders - made from bells! I scooped up a whole ton of these guys at Home Goods a few years back, $7.99 for 6 and they're just my style. I hung them from more tiny 3M strips, and just sort of intermingled them in the garden - it's infested!



To add interest I printed off some of my favorite snarky quotes from the Disney version of the garden scene - simple green ink on white card stock, using the Beyond Wonderland font. You can google "wonderland quotes" or go to the IMDB sites of movies to find lists - like this one regarding the Disney film.



In the center of the room, between the food & flowers, I hung foil swirls from the ceiling (3m strips again) around the light. I just wanted to add some color and shine, I thought these evoked the feeling of walking into a tall garden. They didn't cost me anything, as they were reclaimed from a 60th anniversary party!

This was also the area that the food was displayed in, so I have to show some pictures of that!



I used more of the Queen of Hearts card suit themed decor to form a canopy over the buffet area, and created the "EAT ME" sign in PowerPoint. I printed it on 11"x17" paper then taped it to some tagboard for strength and hung it via the plastic tabs and 3M strips I used for everything else. Same with the canopy - it's one of the "Casino Ceiling Decor" banners, a few self stick tabs in strategic places, hung with 3M strips on the ceiling. I loved it!



To the left of the table I tucked in a "looking glass" I had snagged at the goodwill for $9 and spray painted silver. It was actually really helpful for catching all the red lipstick I was getting on my teeth, and after the party it's a great addition to my craft room where I sew and make costumes.



I actually had a really hard time fitting all of my food on to the tables, that should have clued me in that I made too much :) The first table was the "real food" - two chafing dishes borrowed from mom with the hot appetizers, and a crock pot of BBQ weenies, 3 plates of sandwiches, a fruit platter, and the munchies - popcorn, chex mix, goldfish. That bled into a 2nd smaller table:



With more "real food" - my puking pumpkin platter, meat & cheese platter, crackers, and mini bread bowls with spinach dip.



I either already have or will be soon posting tutorials and reviews on how to make all of my Wonderland menu items.

The third table, watched over by the giant flowers was ALL sweets!



The Queen's Stolen Tarts, Peanut Butter Balls, Cream Puffs, Brownies, Cupcakes, Oreos, and a gorgeous layer cake my neighbor made with a mocha frosting I'm in love with. Yum!

Other than the food, I hardly purchased anything to fill this space - I re-purposed items I already had, so that really helped keep my budget in check. I did get two new microfiber tablecloths in a dark red, but I was due for them anyways and can use them for all sorts of other holidays and events. For tables I used our 4' kitchen table as the dessert buffet, a 6' folding table for the main food (from Target - I have 3 of these and LOVE them, they fold in half so I can carry them around myself, get them up and down the stairs, and they fit in my car - SO versatile. I use them in my craft room as well. Today they're listed at over $100, but I got mine for under $50, they usually go on sale before Thanksgiving), then a narrower 4' folding table like this one that I actually got at Goodwill hardly used. This is a really great size because it's narrow so you can put it in a smaller space.

We're almost done with re-caps, stay tuned for the Mad Tea Party, Kitchen, and bathrooms, along with a few more recipes and reviews.

Wicked Wonderland: The GUESTS' Costumes!

All week I've been featuring my own work, but there was a whole other house full of creative people who helped my Wicked Wonderland party turn out so well - my amazing guests!

I couldn't have asked for better - people were actually pretty good about RSVPing and only one couple we were expecting flaked out, in fact most showed up close to the 8pm start time! People don't realize what a big deal this is until you have a party where everyone is "fashionably late" and you fret and wonder with every tick of the clock "will anyone come?" But boy were they fashionable! Everyone really threw themselves head to toe into their costumes, and I am STILL so impressed!

I've managed to talk a few of them into letting me feature their works on my blog, and I'm working on a few more - each and every one of them was a great example of how to really do Halloween right. Today I'll start by showing you the costume contest winners, who completely blew my socks off.

I probably don't have to say what a hard choice it all was - but I will. I definitely felt flattered that people had put in so much work to attend my party! It reassured me that people really do enjoy and look forward to it enough to spend their time and - let's face it, money - preparing. So one last time, I thank you all, you were inspirational and so talented!

On to the awards:

First, I gave out the award for the "Best Costumed Couple" - it went to newcomers Mike and Mara, as the Duchess (with her pig baby - can you see it?) and the Cook!



There were actually three Duchesses in attendance, and all of their gowns were gorgeous - this was another sign of how seriously people took their costume choices, the Duchess is a lesser known character who doesn't appear in the Disney version of Alice, so not a lot of people know about her scene - but my guests did actual RESEARCH! Several told me that they read the book in anticipation, or re-watched various versions of the films. Impressive!

Next up was the "Best Costume on This Side of the Looking Glass." Despite picking a theme, I knew not everyone would want to draw their costume inspiration from it, and I was perfectly fine with that (as long as they came in SOME sort of a costume!) So I tried to make it clear on the invitations and whenever I spoke to someone, and I wanted to specifically create a category for the non-wonderland costumes to reinforce that. And boy am I glad I did, because there were some GREAT ones! Since it was my party and my perrogative, I gave the award to another team - Holly & Kelly as Marge & Homer Simpson!



How fantastic is that! She actually made the wig herself, it was just fantastic. Kelly spent all night knocking things over with his Homer belly. Doh! :)

Best Wonderland Costume - I have to say it again, because they were ALL impossible choices - this was so hard! Everyone was uber creative and really put thought and work into their costumes, it was the greatest compliment a host could ask for. While there were several people dressed as each character, no two guests interpreted a character in the same way, and every one of them had surprising details.

And speaking of surprising, boy was I shocked when Carin walked into my house WEARING a house!



Giant Alice, with her arms (and legs, were she sitting) spilling out of various windows and doors of the White Rabbit's house - LOVE IT! She "built" the house herself, and every window had a different hilarious character - I'm pretty sure I saw Chuck-E-Cheese and Chuck Norris, with a whole host of others peeking out. When she sat down, she could stick her feet out of the windows and doors too, and she told me she specifically had to engineer it that way because her favorite part of the movie as a child was watching Alice's legs grow down the stairs and out the front door! Gotta love that :)

The last award I gave out was Most Original, and it went to another amazing Alice. Not only was the idea completely unexpected, but the craftsmanship was to die for. The award went to Trish, as Alice Through the Looking Glass:



The photo doesn't do it justice, her looking glass was spectacular - she created the effect of a large framed mirror which she wore as if she was halfway through.

Thanks again, everyone - you definitely deserved your awards and admiration! Hopefully I'll be able to feature a few more of the guests in the coming weeks as well - and you'll see how hard my decisions were to make!

Tips & Tricks: Queen of Hearts Scene

The "WONDERLAND" marquee was the first set of paper letters I painted, and I really like the feel. I got the letters on sale at JoAnn's, and used regular craft paint to give them an antiqued, aged, red & black finish. They're hung with plastic tags and more 3M hooks, and they're the first thing you see as you walk into the house, they are straight ahead and hanging down off the ledge between the living and dining areas.



Casino party decor really made my living room come alive as the Queen of Heart's court, and set the festive tone right off the bat. Most of it I ordered from Anderson's giant party store, they seemed to have the best prices, but many party stores seem to carry the same line. Anderson's site is organized a little strangely, but I've linked directly to all the items I used:

3 X "casino ceiling decor"
5 X "card suit stringers"
4 X "casino cascades"

My favorite are the ceiling decorations, they really fill up the space, the foil is shiny in the light, and it just feels "FUN" to me.



I hung three of them in the living room, starting at a common point in the center of one wall (over the DDR) and branching out at angles across the whole rest of the living room ceiling.



The green shred with the card suit border hanging around the top of the walls is actually table skirting I scooped up on clearance at Party America, so I can't find them on their website, but I think I got 3 of them for $4.99 each. I had some trouble hanging them at times, but with a little persistence I got it all up there using 3M poster strips and blue painter's tape. I trimmed around the doors and windows for our own ease - again, this means it's harder to re-use, but less likely to get pulled down or annoy us during the MONTH we had it up :) so I went with it.



The green evoked the croquet story for me, so I hung plastic flamingos along it as well. These were from Litin Party Papers and originally I wanted to make them into 3D flamingo croquet mallets (I did one with hot glue since they were mirror images they fit together great, but were wimpy and would have cracked without some stuffing or reinforcement), but honestly I just didn't have the room to play and my dog would definitely have eaten any sort of hedgehog croquet balls, so on the wall they went.



Scattered throughout are quotes from the queen, printed in white on red background (I just used PowerPoint) with the Beyond Wonderland font. These are done on card stock and hung via painter's tape or 3M strips.



The fireplace is always a focal point, so I dressed it up in black & red. I put an old brownie pan filled with candles inside, and it glows like a fire without the smoke, mess, and heat of a real one. The garland I made myself - black roses from Michael's splattered with red paint, red jelly heart lights leftover from Valentine's Day forever ago, "Chop Shop" garland of bloody knives found at Big Lots, and re-purposed gold skeletons from last year's Hollywood garlands. I talked about some of it here, it's all just tied together with short pieces of black curling ribbon (blends right in) and hung with more 3M strips.



Another set of the red heart lights is wrapped around a black boa I had lying around and draped over the large picture frame - both strips of lights are plugged into a push button adaptor which sits on the mantle, the actual outlet is behind the photo frame and hard to access, but this way I just push the button to turn it all on.



For the photo frame I just switched out our family photos for some heart-themed jpegs I found on google image search - read about it here. I'm really proud of this idea actually, I think it was subtle but really effective - some people just assumed it was our normal art, but some people looking closer saw all the hearts, or the quote, or remembered it was usually family photos and thought it was pretty cool. It cost me next to nothing and took only a few moments to put together.



The rest of the mantle has a garland of playing cards, glass chess pieces from the goodwill (check which day games are 50% off, I think this set cost me $1), misc. black, red & silver skulls, candle holders, and other stuff from my collection.



The checkerboard wall is done with a roll of plastic tablecovering & painter's tape. The checkered pattern can be hard to find, I was annoyed none of the party stores carried it and had to resort to ebay. Still a big impact for a reasonable price - with shipping it was around $30 a roll.



The big entertainment I kept secret until party time - last year it was a shot luge, this year I rented the arcade version of "Dance Dance Revolution" from a local party rental shop. I knew watching would be as fun as playing, so I set it up as the "main attraction" in the center of the checkered wall. I already had a big area rug there to protect my wood floors, and made sure the dance pads sat on that (they're big, metal wrapped, and heavy). It was a little hard to navigate around when people were coming in at the beginning, but not awful - I'm still learning about the traffic patterns in our new house. The monitor was supposed to come on a stand, but when it didn't we improvised with a sturdy coffee table (some people did really start the house shaking with their wild "dance" moves, so I'm glad we didn't use anything less stable!).



To the right of that I threw up a little table with the costume awards & prizes, mostly so I didn't forget to hand them out, as well as a shelf with all of the goodie boxes.

Overall, this room was exactly what I wanted - a big old "impression" right off the bat. I think it captured everyone's attention right away and definitely portrayed the "Wonderland" theme. Now that I've taken it all down, my house feels very empty!

Tips & Tricks: Wicked Wonderland - Tiny Tea Sandwiches

My original food plan this year was to downsize (FAILED) and to focus more on the "savory" food than the "sweets." This was based on last year's party review, where I noticed I had spent most of my time making cupcakes, cookies, and various chocolate-dipped lovelies, but people really ate the artichoke dip and meat & cheese platter. So this year I thought a great "main course" of savory filler food would be tiny tea sandwiches. Simple, finger food (another main focus - I purposely avoided stuff that needed utensils), and a wide appeal. Speaking of wide appeal, I started with a vegetarian-friendly platter of classic PB&J:



I actually do have a secret trick for making great PB&J's that hold up over time - are you ready? Peanut butter on BOTH pieces of bread. It forms sort of a barrier so that the jelly doesn't just soak into the bread and go all hard and ugly on you. Of course, it makes it more likely that the jelly will squirt out unexpectedly, but them's the breaks. Another tip from watching Erberts & Gerberts make my occasional "Pudder" sandwich is to use a rubber scraper to get all the PB out of the jar - especially when you're making so many of these, I emptied 2 jars of peanut butter. I went with classic white bread, creamy peanut butter, and strawberry jelly, mostly since that was my favorite. Hubby stole several during the building process, so they must have been appealing. Since they were a bit messy at times, I cut a square of parchment paper to put between the layers when I stacked them. I debated cutting squares or triangles, and ended up with some of both.



The ham & cheese were on both white and wheat breads for variety - the white went much quicker. I made them like a normal sized sandwich then chopped the whole thing into fourths - I considered cutting the crust, but decided it wasn't worth the extra time & wasting the sides. Since they weren't "drippy" I just stacked them on top of each other on the platter - the toothpicks with the card suits on top were both decorative and functioned to keep the pieces together - found those in the "poker party" area at Party America, I think they're 48 for $2.



Mmm, the turkey bacon is my favorite, I'm a sucker for bacon. I got a huge slab of pre-cooked bacon from Costco that I HIGHLY recommend - it's way better and cheaper than the Hormel I've tried before. Actually, the label still says Hormel, but also Kirkland. I'm pretty sure it was this:



Cooking bacon from scratch has always eluded me - it's too messy and nuanced and I have no patience, plus I honestly love cold bacon so this stuff is the ultimate snack. But I digress. These were just turkey & bacon on white or wheat bread - again, only wheat was leftover at the end, though lots of that was eaten too. I did heat up the bacon per the package directions before I made the sandwiches, just to crisp it up a bit - I prefer soft, but I know not everyone does so I went for a more middle ground.

All of the meat & cheese came from Costco, and it was a good deal, though I don't remember the prices now. I went through 6 loaves of bread but could have gotten by with 3, so I ended up bringing these for lunch all week - not bad by any means, but I'm ready for a change now! I didn't bother trying to save the leftover PB&J, and didn't act soon enough to force anyone to take them home, so there was some waste there. I made all the sandwiches "plain" and set out squeezable mayo, mustard, and ranch as toppings or dips - I highly suggest this over putting it on the actual sandwiches, mostly because I don't actually like any of the sauces but also because it makes them much more perishable. The plain meat & cheese has held up really well over the week in the fridge, though some of the bread is getting a little hard. I'm really glad I used traditional sandwich bread - even though the tiny appetizer loaves are cuter, I used them for another party a few years back and nobody liked the taste (they're really dry in my opinion), plus it was quicker to make one sandwich and cut it into fourths than it would be to make 4X as many smaller sandwiches. Just passing on the wisdom of my experience for you there :)

Tips & Tricks: Wicked Wonderland Menu - Puking Pumpkin Veggie Platter

Here's my adorable puking pumpkin:



I think he turned out really fun! This was a last minute addition to the menu, during my unnecessary panic over "OMG, how do I feed double the people we had last year?!?!" I had seen this photo floating around the Halloween food blogosphere for a while, and I thought it would be quick and easy to put together - as long as I outsourced :)

I have no skill in carving pumpkins. Seriously. A couple years back hubby and I tried it, and though we had bought at least 3 pumpkins I think we made it through 1/2 of one before giving up. They may have been mutants, but their skin was so thick by the time we cut the tops off we were exhausted, and nothing worked as far as penetrating their skin to cut a face. Mission aborted. And I haven't tried one since.

Knowing this history, I knew a jack-O-lantern wouldn't be quick...for me. So I emailed dear old dad and asked if he would like to share some of the fun, and he obliged! Yay!

Then I set out in search of a little pumpkin, like the one in the inspiration photo. These apparently don't exist. I found the mini decorative pumpkins, and huge monster pumpkins, but none of the cute little nerf-ball sized ones I wanted. Hmmm. Finally at the 3rd place I looked I asked the proprietor "Where are the little ones?" and he told me there was a "nation wide shortage, you can't find them anywhere." Uh...okay. when I asked why he said something about them being "pie pumpkins" and there just weren't enough this year. Load of crap? Possibly. Reason enough to stop looking? Sure. I grabbed the smallest of the monster pumpkins and dropped it off at Dad's. He turned it around into the evil demon you see above, complete with drilled out textured eye holes that would have impressed Martha.

An hour before the party I set him on a platter, built a "retaining wall" of radishes to cordon off the dip, and filled in the rest of the platter with cut veggies - which I had also outsourced, and picked up at Target. I've learned that washing and cutting fruit & veggies, while it might save money, takes a TON OF TIME, and when I'm already stressed and busy I shouldn't be playing with knives, so I pretty much only serve purchased fruit and veggie trays now. But I do my best to make them cute.

I spooned the dip into the reservoir and up into the Jack's mouth, so it looked like he was spewing. I think it was pretty effective! The dip was thick enough to hold it's shape and not ooze all over the platter (one of my worries), and even though my pumpkin was bigger than I wanted, it still worked on the platter. I put a battery-operated tealight inside (love those things!)since it would be moving around and I didn't trust a candle.

It was cute, and people ate maybe 1/3 of it - no fault of the platter, there was just too much food overall, and when faced with chocolate vs. celery, I guess there was a clear victor, even amongst the vegetarians I was worried about feeding :) If I made this again I'd do it the same way - EASY. :)

Thanks, Dad :)

Tips & Tricks: Wicked Wonderland Queen of Hearts Costume

I build costumes in totally the wrong order, which is to say I waste a lot of money. I buy a ton of fabric when it catches my eye, then try to make it into something, which generally means I've bought TOO MUCH fabric. I suggest you plan first. Though I didn't. I first found this red glitter netting that I was loving, and picked up a ton of that:



Then on another trip I fell in love with this silky red & black blotchy stuff, that sort of looked like blood spatter:



When Ryan came to town, we finally laid out a plan. In no time flat he whipped out a coat. We used this pattern, Butterick 4732, which I referred to as the "Michelle Obama Coat" without the sleeves. Too bad my arms don't look like hers ;)



Since it was one night only and I'd probably never wear it again, we didn't even worry about hemming or finishing raw edges. Later I picked up some frayed fuzzy black trim and ran it down the front from one edge to the other along the opening, and that seemed to finish it off just fine. The trim was from the Halloween collection at Joanns - I didn't end up using the red sequins:



Then we constructed the grand collar, which required a little engineering and a trip to Menards. We got two flexible plastic tubes from the plumbing department, they were sorta red and probably an inch in diameter. We bent each tube into a teardrop shape, and secured them together with zip ties in a heart shape. It was lightweight, but really secure.

We laid out the glitter fabric (doubled) and traced around the heart structure, leaving an extra couple inches all around. Then Ryan sewed around the top 1/2 of the shape to form a little casing. You can't sew all the way around, or you won't be able to cram the tubing up into it. The rest was handsewn, just a quick baste.

Here's where a little flaw came in - the fabric I chose for the coat was a little too flimsy to really support the collar, but we made it work. I basted it to the back of the robe, mostly down the center back seam and it held okay since the heart structure was so light. If you're keeping track, the red glitter was a great choice - very lightweight, but the bloodstained fabric was too lightweight.



Ryan had to fly back to the Big Bad Apple, so after that he left me to my own devices. I searched 3 fabric stores looking for the pointed lace trim from my inspiration photo, but everywhere I had a coupon for only had small amounts. On a whim I stopped in at Hancock Fabrics and they had tons. I had pre-measured (for once!) and knew I exactly how much I needed - it hurt me to pay $7.99 a yard, but it really made the costume. Overall, I spent nearly $100 on trim alone. Ouch. I glued it around the edge of the heart, on the excess we left on the outside of the stitching:



And I did the same thing on the back side of the heart, but on the inside of the piping:



After this photo, I added a gold starburst in the back center, to cover up the hand stitching - it was actually a lightweight Xmas ornament, but I never snapped a photo. I also added an inner line of trim in the same red & gold color pattern on the front, this helped camouflage the inner line of the tube you could sorta see through the glitter fabric. I just used simple fabric glue, which saved a ton of time but also made it so I probably can't re-use the expensive trim. It was a toss up - but I was short on time, so the glue was the way to go!

The base of the costume was just a black bridesmaid dress I scooped up at the Goodwill for around $8. It was a little too big, but Ryan took it in, and it ended up being perfect - and a lot cheaper and less time consuming than making something from scratch!

I rounded out the look with this GORGEOUS costume necklace from Ryan's costume collection. I'm in love with it. In fact, I fell in love with it on my last trip to New York, and definitely planned my costume with it in mind. And I may have worn it out for Chinese food as well.



The red fingerless gloves I ordered off Ebay, and I made my staff from a rubber human heart (BuyCostumes.com) and a broom handle, with some extra fabric remnants tied around the top.



I had a hard time deciding on hair - first I was going to spray mine bright red, but then I cut it (twice) and really didn't have enough left to work with. So I ordered this Vampire wig from BuyCostumes.com without reading the reviews - I have to say I agree with all the negativity, it certainly looked nothing like that smooth sculpted cut when I unwadded the one I was sent. As a last ditch effort I picked up a wig on my lunch hour from Party City, and it actually ended up being perfect! The coloring matched the cloak completely, and several people thought I should consider the color scheme for my everyday 'do (not likely, but thanks guys). Overall I wasted a lot of money on hair spray and the other wig, but the wig I did use was only $19.99 and is sure to come in handy again. It's the "Temptress" wig:



I wore a wig cap underneath, similar to a footie nylon you use to try on shoes at the shoe store. I ordered it from BuyCostumes.com with the first wig, and it was under $5. It was really helpful keeping all my short unruly hair back and confined under the wig - and it was hilarious to see what I looked like bald. Hopefully not a look I will ever have to adopt.

The crown is actually a Christmas Tree Topper! It's from Macy's or Nordstroms a few years back, I saw it across the mall and heard angels singing like in a movie - I had to have it! In hindsight I wish I would have bought a bunch of them, they'd be great for all sorts of things. I think it looks like the perfect quirky fairy tale crown, I could just see the frog prince wearing it.

I planned to sew the crown to my wig, but when I did a costume trial the night before it actually worked just fine to bobby pin it right through the wig and cap, so that's all I did. I wanted it slightly off kilter (part of my metaphor for the off-kilter queen) and I'm sure it moved a lot, since every time I went down the stairs I whacked my head on the ceiling, but it was otherwise comfortable and I loved the look.

I had a minor disaster with the eyelashes that involved some screaming, gluing shut of my left eye, and a lot of redness and burning, but that eventually cleared and I had Al help me out. This is really the best option for affixing whole sets of lashes - it has to be a team effort. I absolutely can't relax my eyelids if I'm trying to hold one open and one closed, which is okay for applying individual lashes but a total fail for full sets. Al did a great job, and I had long black lashes with red jewels along the lid - picked them up at Party America and used glue I already had. I think they were around $6. I could have reused them, but due to the first glue incident I think I had too much adhesive and actually had a really hard time getting them off (this is the first time that has happened, I've never had a problem before). They were pretty chunky with glue (as were my eyes for a few days too!) so I just chucked them out.

I've never been good with makeup, but I did my best to achieve a scary smokey eye - I grabbed a random dark eyeshadow set at Target for under $5 and a soft black eye pencil. I put dark shadow all over my creases, smeared it around, and topped it with Bare Minerals silver glitter. Worked for me. I outlined my lower lids and did some minor work with the eye pencil, but mostly used it to give myself big black evil eyebrows. There was no great science to that - I just eyeballed and freehanded it, I knew the wig would cover a lot of it anyways. Red Rimmel lipstick topped it off. This isn't the best photo, but it's one of the only closer up ones I have:



I felt pretty good when I answered the door for a trick-or-treater and he said "Daaaaaaaaang!" when I popped my head out. Mission accomplished!



All in all I think it came together pretty well! I learned a few lessons - #1, fabric and trim are VERY expensive. For the price of this costume I could have bought a full out ballgown or the most elaborate costume in the shop. I'm going to have to find a better balance, which is likely through better planning. #2, whenever possible, re purpose something rather than make it from scratch. The basic black skirt & top I picked up is a great example. Also a good example of the colored tag sales at Goodwill :) The big heart collar was large and made a statement, but didn't impede my movement too much, just when it was really crowded around the buffet line or bar. A few people called it "wings" (I wondered what they thought I was?) but most people got it - at least in the context of the Wonderland party!