Halloween Wrap Up 2020

 Halloween wasn't too different than our usual this year.   But to be honest in the beginning, I wasn't planning on doing anything, I just didn't think I had it in me.  I am pleased to report that I did pull this Halloween off and with not much compromising.  Here's some of what we did and didn't do this season:

 I didn't decorate until the middle of the month but it still felt like the decorations had been up forever.  I think that's how my time perception has been working this year though, a week feels like a month.

We watched The Shining together along with several of The Simpsons Halloween episodes.

I decided to try out an idea kinda last minute for our Halloween costumes but it didn't quite work out with the photographing.   I am still thinking about retaking the pics over the next couple of weeks and still posting them for this year on MHiCTy.

I made a ton of treats and Halloween themed foods.  Some of which didn't make it to here because of photographing issues.

One thing that Mr. Husband and I like to do each year is "Halloween Hunting" at all of the stores in town.  We go to Target, Joann, Michaels, Big Lots, Walmart, Spirit, The Halloween Store, Hobby Lobby, Lowes, Home Depot, Dollar Tree, and even places like Dollar General.  It's fun to see the new offerings but honestly we don't ever buy much. We have been doing our best to stay out of stores other than essential shopping  this year.   We only checked out stuff if we had to go to that store for something already.  I did look up most of these stores and view their Halloween items online and I was not impressed.  I kinda wondered if the stores decided to scale back on their Halloween designs thinking people weren't going to be doing as much shopping this season.

In that same vein, this year I didn't do any post Halloween shopping either.  

We didn't get to go to our favorite pumpkin patch this year because it decided to not open.  But we did find another one for all our pumpkin needs.  They had these cute wooden cut outs of scarecrows with crows in their pockets as a bonus:

Probably the most interesting thing we did this season was Mr. Husband's horror host show, Nightmare Theatre aired a special Halloween episode.  It was filmed over a month ago with social distancing and/or masks and a skeleton crew.  

It was a pretty typical Halloween for us honestly.  We are homebodies anyway.  But it will be nice to one day be able to get together with friends or see our annual Rocky Horror Picture Show presentation again among strangers.  I just can't imagine right now ever feeling safe around people to be able to do things like that.

Along those lines I also took a break from news feeds for the entire weekend to help my spirits and enjoyment.  We instead watched a bunch of vintage David Letterman Halloween segments featuring "popular'' kid's costumes...so hilarious!

I needed a calm before the shit storm that is forecast to hit the fan on Tuesday.....

JOL 2020

I decided to go easy for our Jack-O-Lantern this year.  I don't think I have done this classic style (just a face) ever before in my life.  I usually favor designs with templates, minute details, and complicated cuts.  But this isn't the year to tempt the outraged spirits even with pumpkin carving.  Gotta keep it simple or else the pumpkin may spontaneously explode causing the seeds to fly out like projectiles, getting lodged in my eyes causing me to stumble then I would slip on pumpkin guts resulting in falling over onto the stem and tragically impaling myself...it could happen especially this year.

This guy turned out cute and didn't take much time or my life.  

 

Halloween Char-BOO-terie board

I mean, can I get more modern Pinterest-y here folks?!  This year for all of my Halloween treats and goodies I decided to do modern ideas since they are frankly just easier than vintage.  I happened to come across the design of a charcuterie board and lost my mind over the artfulness of the random yet balanced layout. I decided that making a Halloween version was going to be my big "Dun Dun Da Daaa!" for this season.

Like the nerd that I am, I "researched" and studied what was a successful vs. unsuccessful look (to me at least).  Unsuccessful looks like small groupings of like items symmetrically placed around the tray, no focal point.  A successful look has movement and groupings with varying amounts, along with three items taking the most attention and smaller items as filler.

I also noticed that some boards have little bowls or containers placed about, so I added into mine a ceramic ghost dish and a mini plastic coffin.

The items I used for the primary parts are Pretzel Webs, Pretzel Skulls, and Brownie Vampire Bites.  For the filler bits I have candy corn, candy cornish pumpkins, peanuts, gummy worms, reese's franken-peanut butter cups, and reese's pieces.

I am pretty stoked that it all came together with the look I was going for.  

I served it as the 'dead-sert" for us to graze upon Halloween....and for the days that follow since it was so packed out!

 

In Honor of Your Honor

Costumes were not on the agenda this Halloween.  There aren't any functions or get togethers to warrant dressing up.  But as Halloween was closing in I felt the need to do a costume, even if it was something that I threw together from stuff I already had on hand, snapped a quick pic, and took it off.

This year I decided it was fitting to honor the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I typically don't care to do costumes that are going to be on trend ( like the 230 Harley Qinns I see at cons in a single day) but I think the more Ruths the better.

Pack the court with only Ruths!

I threw this together from stuff we already had.  The black gown is a cheapo 100% polyester costume base for a nun get-up, the collar is a large piece of lace I sewed into a jabot, the vintage costume jewelry is my own.

I took these pictures in front of a Jewish law firm in town because I like their concrete columns ...very Supreme court-y!

 

Ghost pizza

 For a Halloween dinner I made each of us individual ghost pizzas.  I made them out of refrigerated pizza dough, cooked shredded chicken breast, premade bacon crumbles, alfredo sauce, mozzarella cheese, and a few black olives for the facial features.  To keep the ghosts having a fairly all white appearance I placed the toppings down first, then covered them with the white sauce, and then the cheese.  Shaping the dough into a ghost form didn't turn out looking as spooky as I had hoped.  I wanted the bottom to look torn and jagged but they didn't quite bake that way.   However they tasted ghoulishly good all the same!

Brownie Vampire Bites

 Here is the last of my Halloween sweet treats I made for this year inspired by modern ideas.

Super simple and cute!  

All you need to make these Brownie Vampire Bites is a box of brownie mix, York peppermint patties, icing and candy eyes.

Bake the brownies as the box instructs and let cool mostly.  While the brownies are only slightly warm press the peppermint patties into the top.  The warmth that is still left in the brownies will melt the chocolate on the patties just enough for the eyes to be glued in place.  Let the brownies cool the rest of the way.  Use icing to then make a little vampire mouth.  Cut out brownies and take a bite!

White Chocolate Pretzel Skulls

Here is another simple modern Halloween treat I made based after an idea from my Halloween Goulash and ghastly treats Pinterest Board.

While you still have the melted white chocolate out from making the Spiders Web Pretzels these skulls can take a dunk too!  Can you tell what they are?  Pretzel chips!  Make sure to get the 'original' plain kind, I don't think the 'buffalo wing' flavor would work out too well.  

To make these all you need are the pretzel chips and almond bark (white melting chocolate).  Dig through the bag of chips and find the very few rare ones that aren't broken.  Dip them into the melted chocolate, scrap off the backs a bit and tap so the eyes and nose openings are clear. 

The original instructions use white chocolate melting chips and cut the bottom off a few to make the 'teeth'.  What I did was before I started making these I melted the chocolate and spread a small thin layer onto a piece of waxed paper and placed in the fridge.  When I got to the point of making the teeth I just broke off pieces from the solid layer and placed them in the tacky slightly cooled mouth region.  if you try to put my teeth version on while the melted chocolate is still warm it will melt and disintegrate your toothy pegs! 

 

Spider Pretzel Webs

This year for Halloween I decided to do something way not me.  Modern Halloween recipes and ideas.  I know, that's scary!

 To me, modern stuff looks a bit easier to put together and source so I scoured my Halloween goulash and ghastly treats Pinterest Board for a few goodies.  

These spider webs are simply pretzels with melted white chocolate drizzled around and some Halloween sprinkles tossed on! 

Jezebel Brain

 

🎵"Neo-cortex, Frontal Lobe...

Brainstem!  Brainstem!"🎵

For a spooky inspired appetizer I made us a Jezebel Brain cheese ball.  "Jezebel" was first introduced to us by our Mertz/Ricardo best pals a few years back.  The most popular way of making Jezebel is as a sauce, which is comprised of apricot jelly and prepared horseradish which is then poured over a block of cream cheese.  

Our pals do theirs a little different and better I think.  They take the block of cream cheese, cut a few channels through it and place the horseradish inside, then put raspberry jelly over the top, hiding where the spice is.  This adds the element of surprise of biting into a big hunk of  horseradish!  You eat it with "buttery cracker rounds" also know as Ritz crackers to the name brand shoppers.  It is so addictive and delicious!

To make my Jezebel brain I placed a package of slightly softened cream cheese in a piece of saran wrap and shaped it into a brain form.  I then opened the saran wrap up and cut a few channels through the brain and placed horseradish inside, sealing them back up and reshaping the brain again with the saran wrap around it.  I placed the brain in the fridge to firm up.  In a sauce pan on the stove I heated a cup of raspberry jelly just to the point that it started to liquify.  I then let it cool some.  I took the brain out of the fridge and traced brain lines and fissures through the saran wrap. Unwrap the brain and place on a serving plate.  Spoon the cooled yet still liquidy jelly over the cheese ball. To help the fissure lines show better I smoothed the jelly down into them.  Spoon extra jelly around the brain, serve with crackers, and make like a zombie and enjoy!

Here's a brainworm (kinda like an earworm) for you too!

Frankenstein Windmill Cookies

Here is a fun themed snack I came up with to munch on while viewing the Universal Pictures classic 1931 film Frankenstein....burning windmill cookies!

The burning windmill in the grand finale is an iconic climactic scene that represents the film really as much as lab equipment, neck bolts, and green skin do. I say add these to a platter of Frankenstein green iced rice crispies and 'nuts and bolts'  for a complete Frankensnack experiment.

The idea for these popped into my head while I was thinking about what cheapo cookies/snacks at Dollar Tree that I could spook up into some Halloween treats.  A few years back I discovered Mystifying Oracles of Butter Rings Cookies there.  I recalled these windmill cookies and then the idea just hit!  A windmill is the final setting of the original Frankenstein film...only it's burning.  To add the flame effect to the cookies I simply daubed on some red and yellow icing with a toothpick in a flame pattern.  These cookies on their own are kinda plain so the extra icing is a flavor improvement! 

No flaming windmills or rioting townsfolk are necessary to put these cookies together!

via GIFER

The Sinister Shack 2020

So, it's Halloween, my fav-o-rite holiday...

But with this stank tank of a year I thought about skipping out on it.  However I pushed forward for the sake of the ghastly ghouls that share this crypt with me.

  Even with my not feeling it this year I did do a few changes that bump it up from last year's look.  The blow mold line up on the sideboard seen above is my favorite arrangement yet.

I usually call this area the "Mad Scientist Mortuary".  This year I decided to put most of the skeleton/skull items here.  I think next year I will also include some of our vintage glass lab equipment.

On top of the record cabinet I placed several of our past Halloween photos along with some Universal Monster bits.

Something new this year is a Haunted Mansion vignette featuring our Hitchhiking Ghosts costumes portrait along with my DIY Madame Leota.

I also decorated the green shelf differently this year.  It usually showcases all of our past portraits of family costumes.  Since our vintage Halloween collection has begun to expand some I put those items on the shelf and the portraits in various other spots in the living room.

 The wall and surrounding area could use more work, I'm not all that pleased with it...eh, next year.

A close up of the green shelf.

I threw this garland together while trying to come up with a new way to display my collection of vintage Halloween napkins. I decided to clip them onto a pom pom garland a friend gave me last season.  I thought it worked out really well since the garland had large spaces in-between pom poms, kinda like something needed to be there.

Lastly, here is Witchy Poo with her new do in the hard to photograph back lit corner of the dining room.

👻  👻  👻  👻

Creep through the Demented Decor of the Past:

Demented Decor 2019

Better Tombs and Brambles 2018

Demented Decor 2017
House of Horror 2016

Demented Decor 2015

Eerie Asylum Of Ruins 2014

Treehouse of Horror 2014

Tomb Views 2013

Halloween Digs 2013

The Morbid Mortuary 2013

Halloween Decor 2012

Halloween Decor 2011

Haunted Insides 2010

Witchy Hair Do

A few years ago a friend gave us this vintage Biestle(?) die cut witch that was missing her shaggy crepe paper mane.

Remnants from her scalping, seen above.

I came across this image out in the webs of what her hair style was suppose to look like.  I decided to give it a go:

I cut up some party streamers, crinkled them, and attached to the back side.  My gal's hair is a touch longer and less strands.  I am not sure if I am happy with her "do" just yet.  I may restyle it into a bob or shred her up some uneven "dead ends".

Necco Halloween Ad

{New Halloween Stuff 2020}

Mr. Husband shares my love for Necco Wafers and bought me this vintage full page magazine ad from 1951.  Back then Necco wafers were the size of hubcaps!

Skull Blow Mold Bucket

 {New Halloween Stuff 2020}

I found this small plastic treat container at an estate sale back in January.  It was the only thing I found at the sale and the gal said I could just have it!  For free!

Halloween Skelly candle

{New Halloween Stuff 2020}

And finishing out candles is the best one. 

A tall Gurely skeleton with orange cloak candle.

Halloween Ghost candle

{New Halloween Stuff 2020}

An orange Gurley ghost candle

Halloween Witch candle

{New Halloween Stuff 2020}

Gurley Witch Candle

Halloween Pumpkin Man candle

{Halloween New Stuff 2020}

A cutie pumpkin man (scarecrow?) Gurley candle.

Halloween Ghost Suni candle

{Halloween New Stuff 2020}

The last estate sale that I went to before the pandemic was in February.  There were lots of candles and I was able to get some really awesome ones, which will be featured in the upcoming posts.

This one is made by a company called Suni.

Halloween Yarn Witch

{New stuff Halloween 2020}

I love crafty looking things like this yarn and felt witch!  I picked her up at an estate sale back in February along with a bunch of cute candles (those are up next).

Halloween Paper Plate

 

{New stuff Halloween 2020}

Halloween Dessert Plate

{New Stuff Halloween 2020}

  

 

Halloween Placemat

{New stuff Halloween 2020}

Mr. Husband bought me this vintage paper placemat for christmas last year from ebay.  The seller had several so a search may bring them up if still available.

Since the placemat won't fit on my scanner bed I scanned bits for your crafting pleasure: