Halloween Last Call

and Goooooodbye!

This Halloween season really seemed to whooosh by this year.  I try to squeeze in as much spooky goodness as I can though.  Here are a few straggler activities.

We went to our favorite neighborhood pumpkin patch, which we have visited every year since PB was in kindergarten.  It is were he gets to pick out his own little pumpkin and after it's demise he keeps it's stem.

I really loved their hand painted signs this year. 

PB and I volunteered at the library to help patrons make 'zombie dolls'.  The library supplied an assortment of small dolls and accessories, along with markers and paints.  The creepiest one was made by a 4 year old girl of a bloody painted baby in a tiny carriage.  Very disturbing.

I made a big vat of Witch's Cauldron Cake for Mr. Husband Sir's coworkers using up my jar of maggot cookies.

PB decided he wanted to go trick or treating again this year for really the second time in his life.  I told him he better take advantage of the free hand outs before he becomes too manly looking.  We repeated the idea I had last year.  I decorated the interior of my Doom Buggy (SUV) halloweeny and played The Haunted Mansion soundtrack on the cd player.  I put the truck hatch down so the boys could ride on the tailgate around the neighborhood for easy access to beckoning lit porches.  I was really excited to see so many kids and parents dressed up this year.  Our family Halloween costumes, Killers from Space posed a bit of a safety hazard with the big fake eyeballs rendering us sightless so a plan B had to be put into place... lumberjacking part 2:

We dressed up as lumberjacks back when PB was 7 years old.  We still had the logs, beanies, and beards (Mr. Husband came by his natural).  The plastic ax was from Old Man Rimshaw and the shirts are PJ tops.  (PB wore his another time when meeting Mick Foley).  Last year I dressed up as a lumberjill to snag a KFC Halloween Trick or Treat bucket, which PB used this year for candy collecting.

Lastly, Nightmare Theatre ran a screening of Rocky Horror at a local music venue, as they have been doing for 20 years now. My horror of the evening was getting to see one of PB's middle school male teachers wearing a golden pair of speedos along with an apron portraying a realistic illustration of a naked man on it.

Roast Beast Zombies

For our Halloween dinner I made us some Zombie Roast Beast Sandwiches!

I used Telera Rolls from the bakery and cut a small wedge across just the top of them with a knife.  I then removed the wedge and hollowed out the section behind the face area.  I poked my finger through the eye socket areas and torn away little bits to make the eye holes the size to place cocktail onions in.   I then torn a thin layer of bread away for the mouth.  I diluted some black food coloring, which turned out looking green, but that works too!  I brushed the food coloring in the eye and mouth areas.  I then stuffed the brain section with roast beef and applied some of the food coloring to it for a moldy appearance.  Lastly I wedged the onion eyes in.  I had never had cocktail onions before...they are some nasty smelly/tasting things. I think I will be burying the rest of them out in the yard to keep away pests.

Image source: Sandwich Monsters

I was inspired by this cutie from Sandwich Monsters, which was a bread bowl with beef stew/goulash in it.  They have a bunch of neat Halloween inspired creations. The bacon wrapped mummy sandwich is the cutest!

Here are but a few past Halloween morbid menus:
Dem Bones Bread Sticks
Spider Bread
Cinnabone Skull
How To Cook Humans

Honky Tonk Girl

For Halloween this year I was my female idol
LORETTA LYNN!



It came about after I bought this 1970's dress for 50 cents at a church rummage sale last November.  It reminded me of the type of dress Loretta wore while performing during that time period.

I noticed she does a lot of tree leaning for photos....

and looking off in the distance, so I did the same!

I also decorated our 2 string acoustic guitar into hers.

I made the decorative guitar piece from a scrap of black paper and painted the design with acrylic paint.  The letters are stickers I have had forever.

We took these photos earlier in the day before going to a Halloween function.  I then realized I really didn't want to be touting the bulky guitar around town.  But I needed a prop or I would just look like a 1973 bridesmaid wedding extra.
Then inspiration hit me!

Loretta was the spokes person for Crisco during part of the 70's through the 80's.
So I quickly made a crisco container and it could also double as my purse!

The container is actually for Oscar Mayer Lard from the 50's but I turned the container around, slapped some vinyl sticker letters on it and cut the pie image from one of my many Jiffy Pie crust boxes, which I double sided taped it on the bucket.

I thought I had it nailed.  When I got to the event, I asked my friend if she knew who I was.  She says after a long pause...."Betty Crocker?"

Yep! Betty Loretta Lynn Crocker!

*******
Bonus Loretta Treat!:
Loretta Lynn In Concert!

Killers From Space!

This year's Halloween costumes were inspired by the 1954 B-Movie "Killers From Space".

Science-Fictions's BIG Thrill Sensation so I have been told (by it's poster).
It's the story of a nuclear scientist being controlled by a few bug-eyed aliens hiding out in a cave.  They want to take over our planet and need this wimpy scientist guy to get some kind of information or something.  I don't remember.  But luckily the scientist comes to his senses and discovers that if the city kills the power for 10 seconds it will result in the alien headquarters cave blowing up like a massive Yucca Flats style atomic blast mushroom cloud.
The movie ends basically with an explosion...sky full of smoke.

Here we are straight outta Astron Delta:

 and film still below:

We have been watching a bunch of public domain sci-fi and horror movies lately for Nightmare Theatre.  I thought we could pull these aliens off pretty easily.  Hoodies, large eyeballs, and fake mustaches from dollar tree.  The problem came in when I realized that I wasn't going to be able to see (due to no glasses and those big saucer peepers taped to my face) very well to set the camera up and keep going back and forth to check the photo taken by the timer.  Oh man, I said some words that those aliens would not have been able to look up in a proper dictionary.

It's a funny photo, we kinda look like sad frogs rather than galactic murders though.

Jack O' Lantern Pumpkin Pancake Mask

Last year I made PB and myself some yummy cheerful Jack O' Lantern faced pumpkin pancakes inspired by this 1951 jolly stack:

Since then, I came across this mask image on the nets (below).  

It had to be some sort of premium that came with the case of Armour Pure Pork Sausage links!!


Since my pumpkin faced stack was so much cuter than the original, PB and I offer everyone this last minute Halloween costume mask:

To complete the look simply wear brown/orange clothes, carry a bottle of Aunt Jemima, and rub your hair down with sausage drippings for an aromatic complement. 

Halloween Party Cake

image source

Woman's Home Companion Magazine 1942

"Show 'em what a grand cake maker you are.  Serve this cake and hear compliments.  Look and tastes wonderful, yet it's easy to make---just follow recipe exactly and use Spry to be sure of best results."

For our Weeny Witch Halloween Party I made a fun vintage inspired "party" cake suggested by Aunt Jenny and Spry shortening. 

I am sure Aunt Jenny is going to be disappointed because I took the shortcut and used a prefab boxed carrot cake mix.  She had me dirtying up all the mixing bowls and pots I own with honey, shortening, and melting chocolate along with making a marshmallow boiled frosting.  No thanks, that's a sticky gooey mess I would prefer to skip!

The key feature of this cake are those cute little "decorations' as they are called in the recipe.  They are suppose to be the simplest part because they are just pre-made chocolate covered vanilla creme candies.  I see these"old -timey" things all the time on shelves of stores getting dusty and past their expiration date.  I guess some shift managers started to notice them too because there were none to be found in town.  I decided to make my own versions with homemade cake pops coated in melted chocolate.  I saved back the cake bubble I cut off the bottom of the cake, crumbled it and mixed it with a little bit of pre-fab tub icing that was shoved way back in the fridge collecting cobwebs.  I then shaped the little domed heads and froze them.  I then speared their necks onto sticks and dipped them into hot melted chocolate chips and placed them back in the fridge to firm up.  Sounds all very torturous for the happy little guys.

I decided I wanted to try out concocting a homemade cream cheese frosting for this cake.  That didn't go so well.  Maybe it was because I used fat free cream cheese?  I looked up the recipe in an old cookbook and it called for cream cheese, milk, and powdered sugar.  It never firmed up as a frosting and kinda reminded me of oobleck...but it tasted pretty good!

Weeny Witch Party

"Everyone enjoys a party and Halloween is not Halloween without a party.  Young and old are sure to enjoy a Weeny Witch party.  The ideas in this folder will help liven up your party.  Your guests will all say they had a good time.  That is the mark of a successful hostess.  Amusing the guests determines the success of the Weeny Witch party and feeding them well is important.  That's why you will find that your guests will all like tender, juicy, SKINLESS frankfurters."

For Christmas last year, Mr. Husband surprised me with this amazing 1951 Weeny Witch Halloween Party folder.  It covers all you could want for running a fun gathering: food, games, decor, and creepy masks!  Of course I obviously had to throw my own Weeny Witch party for Halloween this year!

Menu:

SKINLESS WIENERS

(Grilled or Steamed)

Jack-O-Lantern Carrots

Potato Chips       Doughnuts

Hot Dog Buns          Olives

Mustard         Relish

Ice Cream and Cake

Apple Cider

Here is my Weeny Witch resting in a nest of raw wieners awaiting grilling.  Not sure if they are skinless though.

I made the cake inspired from a vintage Halloween recipe, more on it in a upcoming post.

Yummy little powdered sugar doughnuts.

"Table Decorations help make the Weeny Witch party more fun for all concerned.  The centerpiece suggested in the picture is both attractive and appetizing.  Tender SKINLESS wieners on a platter decorated with parsley, carrots made to look like miniature pumpkins  with clove faces, and cutouts from the Weeny witch Party Book.  Included with the masks are the cutouts for place cards, pumpkins, cats, owls, and a Weeny Witch for your table.  The children will like "helping" you with the cutouts and decorating the table."

A closer look at the carrot headed Jack-O-Lanterns.  I made their eyes from bits of black olives cut with a plastic straw and attached with pins.  Cloves are for fancy rich folk.

A panoramic view of the party table.  The bowls on the left are from 2007.  They have neat angled legs and look like witches cauldrons.


There are activities suggested in the folder, a set of fortune telling games and a set of general games and stunts.  I decided we would do one of each...with my own spin on it.

Javelin Throw
"Players throw a soda straw through a circle made from a wire coat hanger.  Javelin thrown the greatest distance after going through the loop wins.  Allow several throws and record player's best throw.  For a variation of the game, have the players hold a straw at arms length and see if he can get it into a tall glass set on the floor."

I altered this game by having us pitching rubber worms into a large plastic JOL bucket set up across the room.  Whoever got the most worms in wins.



The Pumpkin Prophet
"A large, smooth pumpkin is marked into squares.  In each square make a symbol, such as: anchor for sailor, wings for aviator, $ money, wrench plumber, needle tailor, etc.  Each signifies a boy's future.  If a girl plays it signifies her husband's occupation.  The pumpkin is suspended by a string in an open space and twirled rapidly.  While it is spinning the player jabs it with a large pin.  Or a dart (if available) can be thrown at the pumpkin.  The square in which it sticks indicates the player's fortune."

I did several changes to this game.  No sharp darts are going flying through my house at a fast spinning hard pumpkin suspended in the air.  This game is meant to be played when you want it to wrap up with a trip the the emergency room.  I altered the activity by using a medium sized black chalkboard skinned foam pumpkin I picked up on clearance at Target several years ago.  I marked sections off and wrote undesirable yet hilarious occupations in the spaces, such as meat inspector, lard factory worker, and princess.   I then blindfolded each of us as we turned the pumpkin by it's stem on the table, stopping it and pointing to a spot with a finger to determine our true and ultimate occupations.   Mr. Husband Sir and I have a calling as subterranean engineers (sewer workers) and PB will find his fortune as a hobo.

               

(PB used his budding Photoshop skills to consolidate all of the Weeny Witch images so you can print them and run your own party too! Just click on each for a larger version!)

Fury Freak Show

A few weeks back Mr. Husband Sir and I went to a fun local Freak Show, put together by the Furys, an super neat couple involved in tattooing and hair/make-up art. So many intriguing elements and work went into the show, which only lasted for a total of 4 hours.  Mr. Fury painted all of the banners, Mrs. Fury did the make-up and hair and a local group of Improv actors played the "freaks".  There was also a fortune teller, a caricature artist, face painting, outdoor games and photo ops, raffles, food trucks, a taxidermy display, and crafty/vintage vendors.

Step right up and see for yourself!

:

I love the little details that went into the sets and costuming.  Notice the yellow pointy shoes similar to claws, the newpaper on the floor, and the very awesome mid-century wire birdcage-esque chair.

This photo unfortunately turned out a little blurry.  I am still not quite sure how they pulled this prank off ...comfortably or discreetly.   But the guys playing the parts were so funny and joked with the viewers about blaming the paper mill or their mama's heavy drinking for their condition.

When we walked through, Queen Cobra says to Mr. Husband "I played at the grocery store with you." and he was taken aback and said "I don't think you did!"  Then we realized she had.  She happened to stop by while we were at a friend's house and played a round of The Game of Shopping at The Super Market!  We didn't recognize her with her tail!

The judge head had a connection to his body somehow and could bang the gavel.

My favorite!  A Boston Terrier Terror!

The Furys own a feisty Boston named Bunny.  She was on display periodically chewing on a hand in a kennel.  Kinda hard to see in the photo.

The last display was an encased Bigfoot foot preserved in encrusted Styrofoam ice.

In a side room was a collection of vintage taxidermy belonging to several people.  Most pieces belonged to the Furys which they had inherited from a grandfather involved in the craft.  I am not sure if that is Harry Potter or possibly John Lennon's head in the top left corner...

One of many odds and ends displayed around the grounds.

Mr. Husband and I had our caricatures done.  Apparently I have jowls I was unaware of and Mr. Husband looks like a 400 pound Ape man.  Maybe these are our sideshow attributes or a glimpse of us in the future...I better invest in an industrial sized vat of face cream and a bunch of bananas.

Also, this is certainly not our first time with Freak Show involvement.  Check out mine and PB's Freak Show costumes and a traveling Side Show we attended in 2005:
Step right up! our Halloween Freak Show Costumes 2005
Yes Sir! More Sideshow~Alive! 2005