October means: Halloween

Personally, I have a love hate relationship with Halloween I love the copious amounts of sweets and naughty treats and seeing peoples decorations. I love watching films around Halloween, not scary ones though, but ones where there is lots of Autumnal beauty. Mountains of leaves and pumpkins decorating peoples porches. Maybe I would love Halloween more if I was American. You Americans look as though you know how to do Halloween right. I like the sense of community and being neighbourly. Of doing something fun for the children (and adults) of your street.

I guess a lot of it can be down to how well you know your neighbours. I swear on our street there is not as many children than come knocking on Halloween. They must bus them in. Am I the only one that finds it odd to knock on a complete strangers door and ask for sweets or money? And yet the majority of the time we teach our children to stay away from strangers. And most don't have any manners (the trick or treaters that is). 

As a poorly person obviously I can't be walking back and to, to answer the door. Just hearing the door bell can give me enough of a fright. But if I'm going to celebrate Halloween then I think a party is the way to go. A few years ago we had a family party and I had so much fun spending a lot of time on Pinterest and putting them into action. So, I thought I would share some with you and hopefully give you a few ideas of how you can decorate and what you can be eating if you're thinking of having a party (big or small.) *Just a little note to say I was much healthier then.

So first of all to dress up or not? Find out what others are doing. You don't want to do an Elle Woods or Bridget Jones and turn up to the party as a Playboy Bunny when everyone else is in a twin set. As a child my Halloween costumes always consisted of either a bin bag with holes cut out for arms, or one of my Mum's black tshirts, a plastic witch hat and some green face mask. See below for proof. But in today's society that doesn't seem to cut the mustard (kids don't know what they're missing). There are some great and not so great out there. Type in Halloween costumes into ebay or Amazon and after scrolling through pages and pages of sexified costumes you might just find some gems. If it's last minute or on a tight budget then there's always the obligatory cat or devil option. As you can see the other year I dressed up as Sookie Stackhouse in the hope that Eric or Alcide might come a knocking. They didn't, Alcide did make an appearance this year though (thanks Ali.) Unfortunately most people there had never watched True Blood and just thought I was a waitress and could ask me for drinks all night. If you have a child in a wheelchair or want to jazz up your own chair, take a look at this Mum of a child with spina bifida blog on how to create amazing fancy dress costumes.

Personally I think it's the teeth (or lack of) and mad eyes that make the costume

 

I'm thinking about doing this, this year

  

When it comes to decorating I thoroughly recommend hitting your local Poundland, PoundWorld, B&M (insert budgettastic shop here). After having spent hours on Pinterest for ideas that is. Take a look at my Pinterest board of Halloween ideas, where I've included some decoration and food ideas as well as some fun craft projects you can do with your kids. Below is some of the ideas put into action. 

 

1. Skulls on candlesticks make a classy addition. I'd put some candles (or lights if kids and drunken adults about) to make the glitter sparkle even more.

2. Make use of that big crack on your drive with some severed fingers (from Poundworld). And pour some red liquid over them. We used grenadine as it has slightly thicker consistency.

3. A scary mask in the hood of a dressing gown. We put this on the back of the bathroom door. It didn't really work on the males as they had there backs to the door but I'm quite glad I knew it was there beforehand.

4. I saw this on Pinterest and just loved it. Cover table legs with some stripey stockings (again poundworld). If they don't stay up then put an elastic band or something tied around them and cover with table cloth. Then put each leg into a black witchy type of boot. You'll need to position it quite well as not to squash the boots. And also remember to even up the other legs so the table isn't uneven. A hardback book should work.

And what would a Halloween party be without treats. Again you will find lots of inspiration on Pinterest. I have included some food ideas on my Halloween Pinterest board and some above from the party.

1. Graveyard Puddings- basically chocolate mouse or angel delight covered with sprinkles and a biscuit marked with RIP with writing icing.

2. A platter of Halloween themed sweets. Chocolate eyeballs, red laces, vampire fangs and marshmallow ghosts.

3. Gingerbread men decorated as skelletons and vampires. You could also do voodoo doll design. And more sweets in the form of jelly snakes.

4. Vampire Cookie Monster Cupcakes. And what's a party without a chipolata? I mixed in some of the severed fingers with them and quite a few people were tricked. Hehe

So there you have it. A few ideas for Halloween. How do you like to celebrate Halloween and do you have any other decoration or food ideas?

Sian x