Happy Halloween!!!

I must admit I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping up with my goal of blogging every Mon, Wed and Fri of October. True, some of the posts weren't brilliant but I least I tried.

One of the things that has been a downer this month is being broke. Really broke.

There were so many fun Halloween things to do and to get but it was all out of my means. I managed to snag a few though.

Krispy Kreme Ghostbusters

My mom's birthday was the 3rd so we actually managed to get out some with a little spare cash. So of course we ended up getting Krispy Kreme. 

They are weirdly cute. 

Before we left with our dozen of donuts mom noticed the Ghostbuster Donut Holes bucket. Before we left the parking lot she decided we had to get that and we ended up going through the drive thru to get it. Pity the guy who helped us inside also was at the window. We were really embarrassed by our geeky glutton ways

Halloween Drinks 

I finally found some Halloween Jones Soda. They had Caramel Apple and Blood Orange. I just could not make myself try the Caramel Apple, but the Blood Orange was pretty good. Like a tangy orange soda.

And no Halloween would be complete without Ghoul-Aid. I just wish I could get the powdered kind that you add to sugar and water. Maybe next year. 

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween Dessert Table

I love desserts

I love Halloween

It was obvious that I had to make some Halloween desserts. So pretty and oddly green

Ghost Meringues

I made these the day before we made everything else because they take time to bake and dry out.

I used my go-to recipe from here. I just like this recipe and it works really well. I always add some vanilla extract to this recipe. I used a baking bag and a large round piping tip to pipe the meringues into a ghostly dollop. For the eyes and mouths I just used some black food coloring gel and painted them on.

I made a bunch of these but not many made it into the top photo mainly because we snacked while making everything else. So good and crunchy.

Witchy Pretzel Fingers

I was at Michael's with my mom when we saw this witch finger mold. There was no doubt we had to try these out. This was the messiest thing we made, at least that day. Microwaving the candy melts and squeezing them into a mold, simple right? Nope!

Candy melt went everywhere. In the end we had to take a knife and pair down all the excess candy around the molded fingers.

They look really good though. 

Scream Egg Cupcakes

If my mom and I try something new, things tend to go a bit wrong. Its always fun though.

There are all of these recipes floating around on how to use Cadbury eggs in different ways. We thought cupcakes would be a pretty easy way to go. We just didn't factor how long to bake a cupcake that was mainly chocolate cover fondant.

When they first came out of the oven we cut one open and it was gooey and looked cool. But the cupcake itself wasn't actually done. So putting them back in for a few minutes more to fully cook the batter caused the fondant to crystallize.

Not horrible but very unexpected texture when biting into one. But hey, you cook, you learn.

In all, a very yummy and green dessert table.

Nightmare Before X-Mas Nail Art

I love nail art.

My problem is that I am not very good at it. It could be because I don't have any nail art tools, I use random objects to see if they will work. It is more likely that I just lack any real skill to do nail art.

It has not stopped me from trying.

I wanted to make some Nightmare Before Christmas nail art for the Halloween season. Here are my attempts.

Jack Skeleton

Only when going through these photos did I realize how badly I needed to clean up around the nails. I am sorry if it looks distractedly awful

The black and white striped nails were pretty easy, I just used some scotch tape. The same with making the initial triangle for the Santa hat. For the Santa hat trim and topper I used a q-tip dipped in white nail polish.

I had problems with the actually drawing parts though. I used a tack, toothpick, needle basically anything that might work in lieu of a dotting tool.

The end result was okay, as long as nobody looked too closely.

Sally

After the difficult time I had drawing Jack Skeleton I opted for something a bit simpler for Sally.

On my thumb and index finger I used a light blue with black "stitches" to represent Sally's skin and I just swooshed some red over those for her hair.

The other nails are supposed to look like fabric from her dress. I stuck with plain colors without patterns mainly because I doubt I could have pulled those off.

I actually like how these came out. Even though I tried something different on the pinkie nail that did not work well in pics. On the overall not terrible.

Oogie Boogie 

This is where the whole idea for trying out Nightmare Before Christmas nail art came from. In the clearance section of Ulta I found OPI's Don't Talk Bach to Me and it just reminded me of Mr. Oogie Boogie.

I free handed Oogie's head the best I could. Kind of looked like I tried to paint a whipped cream dollop shape on my nail. On top of the nail color I put on a few layers of Glow-in-the-dark polish. Then I outlined and detailed in black nail polish with a toothpick. 

I really need to invest in some dotting tools

Of course these pictures barely pick up the glow-in-the-dark polish but believe me, it glowed. That night I was like a small child "Ohh it glows" when I should have gone to sleep.

Spooky Reads

One week until Halloween!!!

I have never really been an avid reader of horror or suspense novels.

When I read I like to submerse myself into the world I am reading about. This is why I typically read classic fiction, historical fiction and sci-fi/fantasy books.

But that isn't to say that I do not enjoy a little horror or suspense once in awhile.

Good Omens 

Not your typical horror novel, because it isn't.

The reason I mention this book is the characters consist of a demon and an angel protagonists, Adam- the Antichrist and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

This is actually a really fun and rather sweet book.

It is a bit difficult to describe this book because there are so many characters and story lines that converge.

Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles

Twilight these are not!

I remember wanting to read these books when I was really young but I had to wait a few years. I can understand why now but at the time I was pretty obsessed with vampires. This was way before the whole Twilight craze.

(I read Twilight but I just didn't care for it)

Anne Rice's vampires are sexy, wild, cruel and ancient.

Lestat is my favorite vampire. He becomes a freakin' rock star!

One of the lesser know of Anne Rice's vampires in Pandora. Her book is so interesting from a historical view. Ms. Rice did her homework on ancient Rome. 

Edgar Allan Poe

I think almost everyone is familiar with "The Raven" .

I would like to suggest his story The Cask of Amontillado. It is creepy and interesting as only Edgar Allan Poe can write.

Also his poem "Annabel Lee" is disturbing pretty.

Do you have any Halloween reading suggestions?

LootCrate: Fear

This month's Loot Crate has arrived. 

Loot Crate is a monthly subscription box for the geeks and gamers. Every month has a theme and this month's theme, in honor of Halloween, is FEAR 

I am going to be perfectly honest and say that I wasn't overly thrilled by this month's crate. I think it is because of this shirt. A bunch of cats in the shape of a skull. The moment I opened the box up I said out loud "I hate that shirt".

I might be biased since I lost my 21 year old cat last month. Regardless I hate this shirt.

On the other hand I love this print. A superemofriends print of sad Daryl and dead Merle from The Walking Dead. Really great details. It is about the size of a postcard. This helps to make up for the shirt, a little. 

I am not a Sharknado fan but I am willing to give this book a read. It is How to Survive a Sharknado and Other Unnatural Disasters. It may be a good read. 

Also in this month's crate a Loot Crate alternative cover of issue 132 of The Walking Dead. I haven't read any of the graphic novels so I don't know how this issue connects with the tv series. From what I know, the graphic novels and the tv show have not really had too much to do with each other. So this may be interesting to read. 

A Loot Crate exclusive Dead Rising sledges saw hammer pen from Capcom. Another thing I am not familiar with. I know its a zombie survival game but I've never played it. The pen looks gnarly though, so I like it.

Rounding out this crate is a sheet of temporary tattoos including: Zombie bite, werewolf bite, vampire bite, scratches and zombie mouth. These look fun. 

The Loot Crate magazine cover was 3D hence the 3D glasses included.

The monthly themed button and the most painful and disgusting candy ever finishes the crate. Not including a smitegame code. 

I tried to condense the pictures this month but it still turned into a photo dump. Sorry about that. I am debating about using jump breaks for my more photo heavy posts. I think I will start that next month.

Since the July Villains crate Loot Crate has been decorating the interior of the crates with custom box art fitting each month's theme. This month it appears to be inside a hardware store during a zombie attack.  

Do you get Loot Crate? If so what did you think of this month's crate?

My Love of The Walking Dead Scares Me

I didn't do anything special for this season's premier episode. No watch party, live tweeting or anything at all. After last season's finale all I could do was curl up on the couch in fearful anticipation.

The season premier reminded me why I have become obsessed with this show. I have never read the graphic novels. I really did not think this would be my kind of show. The only reason I even knew anything about it had to do with Attack of the Show and their coverage of SDCC before the series premier. So I watched it out of curiosity.

From the first episode on I was hooked. Even though it makes me anxious because anyone, ANYONE, can die in this series.

Which brings me back to last week's season primer. Spoilers if you have not caught up yet. The first few minutes my heart was pounding as some of our beloved characters were lined up for slaughter, literally. It was bloody and violent, but perfect in it's way. I don't know how anyone watching that for the first time could not feel fear that at least one of the main characters could die.

What makes me really invested in The Walking Dead is the character development and growth. Let's take Carol and Daryl for examples. Carol was the beaten down wife of a bastard in the first season. She lost her daughter in the second. (Where's Sophia?! She was there all along O__o) So what happens to her? She gets all bad ass. If I had not watched the series from the beginning I could not believe that they are the same person.

Now onto our beloved Daryl. The unexpected fan favorite and rightly so. Daryl starts off as a racist, antisocial hick trying to mimic his asshole older brother, Merle. Instead of growing worse in this dystopian world Daryl becomes a hero. He is protective of his new found family, but also caring and kind in a sometimes unwilling way. He opens up and becomes a better person. 

The scene between Daryl and Carol in this season's premier really show the change in their characters since the beginning. Carol is the strong savior, stoically greeting her lost group and Daryl is the one who shows his emotions, his relief and gratitude to see her alive. I believe that these characters are evolving beautifully, with one or two hiccups along the way of course. But they need to change, to adapt to survive. Some need to become stronger where as some need to open up and trust each other.     

For the second episode of the season I decided to make my dinner themed for the show. After watching it though, I regretted my choice a little.

I made Terminus Ribs, a Bloody Terminus Mary (no V8 so opted for red kool-aid for looks) and a Splattered Jello Brain for dessert.

After what happened to poor Bob I felt a little sick. It seems like any character who gets too optimistic will have something awful happen to them. Better watch out Carl.

I am really hating the Terminus Cannibals. They make the Walkers seem tame. And even though the Governor had fights to the death, he never ate the losers.
I have so many questions.

Is it so hard to capture a eat squirrels that humans seem to be a better choice of prey?

What about the human equivalent of mad cow disease? Wouldn't humans have an adverse reaction to eating human flesh?

And why don't they want the living human race to continue? If you eat your fellow living people eventually the live population will become completely extinct.

Okay done with that rant.

Characters I Would Love to be for Halloween

This is my first time linking up to The Nerdy Girlie's 5 Fandom Friday but I just could not resist this topic. 

One of my my New Year's Resolutions this upcoming year will be to start cosplaying and go to some conventions. Here are some of the characters I want to try dressing up as in the future

1. Chiana from Farscape- This is a really great sci-fi series and all of the characters are cosplay worthy but Chiana's monochrome coloring and sassy attitude just make her stand out a bit more to me.

2. River Song from Doctor Who- I like all of her outfits except the spacesuit. And the hair OMG, what fun that would be. From the moment River first showed up on Doctor Who I liked her and with each returned I liked her even more. She is the best of Rory and Amy. 

3. Catwoman the 1960's Julie Newmar version- I grew up watching the Adam West Batman series. Robin was my imaginary friend. Everything about this show makes me happy. And Julie Newmar's Catwoman was the best. Her outfit is fabulous. A literal catsuit with gold claws and belt to match. I really liked the way she had her eyebrows fluffed up to add to the cattiness. 

4. Harley Quinn- Any Harley Quinn outfit would be fun to dress up in but I tend to lend towards the Arkham Asylum version. Its like a naughty nurse goes terribly wrong. Right Puddin'?!

5. American McGee's Alice- I am a big Alice fan, from the books to tv series, movies and video games. If I were to cosplay Alice it would be either one of the various outfits from Madness Returns or maybe the Syfy Channel's miniseries Alice (I really liked her dress)

*As you can tell I used pictures from dvd covers, video games covers etc that I have. I did this because I do not really want to take pictures from online for copyright reasons. I do not know much about copyright laws and blogs*

French Fry: A VooDoo Doll

*Today is the last day for my Halloween Giveaway*

I was listening to Pandora when a Robots In Disguise song came on: "Voodoo". As I was singing along to the catchy semi eleoctropop song I decided I should make a voodoo doll for Halloween. 

Instead of wasting material that I may need later I went through my scraps and sewed a bunch of strips together to make two decent sized pieces of fabric. I actually really liked the mismatched look this produced. 

I drew a haphazard little man on some card stock and then traced it onto both pieces of fabric. I messed this up because I should have turned the card stock over when tracing it on one of the pieces of fabric so they would line up with my bad drawing. 

I hand sew the pieces together inside out. I ended up re-watching American Horror Story while doing this. Twisty the clown is haunting my dreams.

I sewed every part except the top of the head and then turned him right side out. Using some embroidery thread I stitched some eyes and a mouth. Filled him up with batting next. I wanted him to have hair so I cut strands of crochet thread and hot glued them inside the top opening. The "hair" made the doll look a bit like an order of french fries hence forth he is known as "French Fry". I went ahead and hot glued the doll closed after that. 

Because there is not anyone I wanted to "voodoo", I wrote the word STRESS on him instead. So now whenever I am stressed out I have something to throw against a wall.

Spooky Cookies

Don't forget to check out my Halloween Giveaway .

I have a love/hate relationship with decorating cookies. Sometimes no matter what I do they just will not turn out perfect. Being a perfectionist is a pain. But how can I resist Halloween cookies.

  This is my sample batch.

Baking the cookies is pretty easy. After trying out different recipes I tend to go with the no-fail sugar cookie recipe I found on a baking forum. I am such a nerd. 

I have a ton of cookie cutters but for some reason I do not have a square or rectangle one. This is why my Franken-cookies are never the same shape.

The icing is a royal glaze from Sweet P's. Last time I made this I remembered to add enough water to make it where you can flood the icing to give it a smooth, clean appearance. Not this time.

I realized this too late so these cookies have a bit more texture than I wanted. Also I have the smallest sifter in the world and sifting a 2 pound bag of powdered sugar takes time, lots of time. When means I was ready to just get to decorating without taking the icing out of the bags and remixing them.

Even being a perfectionist has its limits

The spider web cookies are my favorite to decorate. I really do not know what they will look like until I finish swirling the icing with a toothpick. Yet every time they come out as the best ones.

Details!

I love making Halloween designs. They can be creepy or they can be cute. I went with cute this time. Happy jack-o-lanterns, grinning skeletons and slightly perturbed Franks.

I only regret the mummies. They went really wrong 

Halloween 2014 Giveaway

Its Giveaway Time!

This is my first ever giveaway. I really hope I don't screw it up. I have gathered a few Halloween type goodies to give away. Since I am new to this (and broke) this giveaway is for US residents only. 

This giveaway includes:

• Funko DC Mini of the Joker
• Minecraft zombie hanger
• Eskimo Joe's black and orange cup
• Jack-o-lantern earrings from this post
• Halloween pencils
• Assortment of candy including Vampire pez

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What To Watch For Halloween

Wednesday! So far so good on keeping up with the Halloween posts. 

I am planning on having a little Halloween giveaway this week, if I can figure out rafflecopter. So keep an eye out for that. I believe it will "go live" tonight at midnight. Now onto my favorite Halloween shows...

There are so many creepy, scary, weird and fun films and TV shows that you can watch this time a year to get into the Halloween mood. I could name at least a hundred right off the top of my head. Instead I limited my list to films I enjoy enough to own a copy of them.

The Halloween Tree

I remember watching this as a kid every October. It isn't scary but it is rather entertaining. As a kid this was my first introduction to the different customs of Halloween. This film used to be on every year but for the past couple of years it hasn't been played on TV. I somehow managed to score a VHS copy of it. It is one of my prized possession. 

The story basically revolves around a group of friends trying to save the life of another friend and in doing so learns about the history of Halloween. It is really family friendly.

And for the Trekies, Leonard Nimoy voices the "villain".

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

I love this movie! Great music, weird characters, awesome fashion and Tim bloody Curry as a Sweet Transvestite. I have Rocky Horror shirts, posters and the soundtrack. The great thing about Tulsa, OK is the nearly yearly production of Rocky Horror as the stage musical. A few years ago I went to the Rocky Halloween. An outdoor stage event where hundreds of people came dressed in all sorts of costumes, singing and doing the "Time Warp".

That was a beautiful night. And this is a wonderful film

Hex

This is a British TV series about a girl at a boarding school where her life gets really complicated. A fallen angel, played by the very sexy and charming Michael Fassbender, wants her to to carry his child, the Antichrist. He also kills her lesbian best friend who sticks around as a ghost. It is a really interesting show with some pretty impressive actors. There are only two seasons of this show and the second season is hard to come by in the USA. Honestly season one is the best because the two main characters leave after that.

Making A "Frank" Mask

It's Monday. Time for another Halloween post. How about some cosplay fail.

There is a movie called Frank that I really wanted to see.

After watching the trailers all I wanted to do was make a Frank mask and wear it to see the movie.

Unfortunately I didn't finish it in time.

So instead of giving it up this may end up being my Halloween costume...at least one of them. 

Trying to figure out where to begin was a problem. Regular balloons are too small to make a mask that will go over the head.

To my delight my mom found some bouncing balloons. The ones that are attached to a rubber band and you punch it to annoy others.

It was the perfect size.

Then began the paper mache from hell.

I thought it was going well after the first few layers. It started to go south on me once I started on the details like the nose and ears.

So many layers to build up that nose and it still ended up too small.

When it came time to build up the hair I shredded a bunch of paper into tiny pieces and poured the flour and water mixture directly on the pieces and molded it up like a sticky wet clay.

After the mess of a mask dried I ended up being too busy to finish it. So it sat around in various places around the house to the shock of anyone that came over.

"What is that?" became a familiar phrase.

Because it was shuffled around quite a bit, the bottom lost it shape.

There was no way I was going to make that all over again so bring on the paint.

The painting was easier that I could have hoped for. I used the colors flesh, blue, white and brown.

It may be the weirdest thing I have ever made.

Could you imagine walking into the local indie movie theater and asking for a ticket like this?

I would have done it.

Instead I have to content myself with answering the door like this.

Trick or Treaters beware!

I Wanna Be Harry Potter: Butter Beer

It's Friday. Time for my second Halloween post. Wizards and witches are always a good go to for Halloween goodness and the most beloved wizard of all is Harry Potter (or at least someone in the Harry Potter world)

I have read all of the Harry Potter books, seen all of the movies and I want to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter pretty badly.

One of the things about the Harry Potter books that I really like is the details about their wizard world delicacies.

From Honeydukes' assortments of sweets to Hogwarts Halloween Feast, there are so many strange and yummy sounding things to eat in Harry Potter's world.

One of the most well known is Butterbeer.

There are many variations for Butterbeer. Most of which use actual butter. I really could not see making a drink with real butter. I'm sure made correctly they would be decadent. 

Instead I used a variation of one from WizardingWorldPark. They have a lot of different butter beer recipes.  

Ingredients used: Butter Brickle ice cream, cream soda and butterscotch topping.

Mmmmm butterscotch.

When I say "variation" it means I didn't measure anything.

Basically I just put into the blender what looked good for me. 

And is was good.

Not really a float or a shake.  It had a creamy consistency with a butterscotch flavor. 

It may not be true Butterbeer but it was tasty.

And what is Butterbeer without gummi slugs and chocolate frogs. This would be perfect for a Harry Potter themed Halloween party or if you need a little something sweet while binge watching the movies.

Also a giant Happy Birthday to my mom today!

Halloween 2014 Begins: Pumpkin Earrings

After a rough September I am getting back into the blogging world. Thankfully it is October and I have Halloween to look forward to. Halloween is my all time favorite holiday. I love everything about it.

In that spirit I plan on having some kind of post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday this month. That is the goal so hopefully I can do it. The topics will be varied anything from crafts to Halloween favorites.

Its October the first so let's begin.

What is the first thing that pops into your head at the word "Halloween"?

While looking for some crafting things in my house I found a bunch of polymer clay. Halloween + polymer clay = Pumpkin earrings!

I had some orange, black and green clay. Perfect.

I rolled the orange into two balls and put them on head pins. Head pins are pieces of wire with either a small loop at the end or they are flat. I used the flat ones. 

Using a toothpick I made the grooves of the pumpkin.

Rolled out the black clay flat and cut out small triangles for the eyes. The mouth was made with just rolling out the black clay into a small rope and cutting it to size. Then pressed the eyes and mouths on the the pumpkins.

For the pumpkin stem I rolled the green clay thick and put it through the head pin then using the toothpicks I made grooves all around them.

With the tendrils I just twisted some of the green clay until it twisted around itself. 

Kinda looks like weird pigtails.

After that I just baked them in the oven on a piece of tile. The clay is non toxic but you do not want to bake it in anything you will want to use for food later.

A tile just seems to work best for me.

Pretty easy

I also had some white clay and made a vampire fang necklace. It looks good from the front but the back not so much. The head pin made the clay move and I did not notice it until after it was baked.

Oh well, I still like it.

Happy first day of October