BOOOO! Halloween Party

There is no doubt that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  I don't know if it is because it kind of signifies the beginning of Fall for me, or if its the excitement everyone gets over dressing up and pretending to be something else for the day!  Last year, I was able to plan my first Halloween party and boy was it a good time.  I scoured Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, Party City, thrift stores and every Halloween store in town to find the best decoration deals I could.

My husband and I decided we wanted to keep the party in the garage and have it be adults only.  This allowed us to get a little creepier with the decor and by having it in the garage, we could set it up ahead of time.  For this party, I stocked up on a TON of "creepy cloth" and cobwebs from the Dollar Tree.  I wanted the look of this party to be that of an old, abandoned house.

I brought in some small furniture (love seat, oversized chair, side table) from our house and used some patio chairs and rocking chairs from our front porch.  I covered each piece of furniture that was going to be sat in with a white sheet, giving it the abandoned house look.  All of my sheets were thrift store finds and were under $5 (sheets had to be large to fit over the furniture).

I hung the creepy cloth all over the garage, making sure to tear and stretch it to give it an authentic look.  Cobwebs went everywhere cobwebs could go, making it look as if the place hadn't been cleaned in decades.  I also put plastic rats, crows and a variety of bugs anywhere I could.  I had two small tables that I used to put little extras on, such as, spray painted black vases with black flowers, old candle holders, candelabras, creepy pictures in frames, old books and an old creepy telephone.  The room was lit just by tons of candles to give it yet another element of abandonedness.

I had purchased two animated dolls from our local Halloween store.  One little girl that sat on a swing that hung from the ceiling and hummed some creepy tune and one little girl that stood about 4ft high and looked like the girl from the Exorcist.  She too hummed a creepy tune and lunged at you when you least expected it.  I also invested in a small fog machine from Party City that took the party to a whole new level of scary!

A couple of thrift store dolls were given a makeover and turned into some creepy bystanders that
stared at you no matter where you were in the garage.  I was pretty proud of their scary makeovers.

For the dessert table, I covered the table with a black table cloth and spread moss over the top of the table.  I used a roll of "weathered wood" paper from Michaels to create the backdrop, along with a black mirror from Bed, Bath and Beyond and two scary pictures in frames from the Dollar Tree.  The focal point on the table was a huge candelabra from Michaels (use coupons,
it saves a TON) with matching black candles (also from Michaels).  I had two glass containers from another party that went on either side of the candelabra, filled with a skull and bones and more moss.  Of course, everything (besides the food) was also covered in cobwebs.

As for the desserts, I made carmel apples, using a Dollar Tree knife as the stick.  I also made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and shards of "glass" made from drying a sugar syrup and breaking it into pieces.  I made a simple pistachio bundt cake and covered it with red
frosting to mimic blood and made marshmallow pops, stuck into a styrofoam skull.  Lastly, I made piñata headstone cookies with mini m&m's inside and "bones" out of pretzels, mini marshmallows and white chocolate (tutorial shared below).

Marshmallow and Pretzel "Bones"

Ingredients:
1 Package of pretzel sticks
1 Package of mini marshmallows
1 Package of white chocolate (I use Baker's brand)

Take one pretzel stick and push a mini marshmallow onto each end.  Melt white chocolate on double broiler, until smooth.  You may also use a microwave by putting the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heating at 30 second increments, stirring in between, until white chocolate is smooth.  Dip assembled pretzels into white chocolate and let dry on parchment paper.



This party was so much fun and everyone that attended loved it! We loved the decorations so much, we left them up for trick or treaters, some of which were scared to come into the garage.  We had people in our neighborhood giving us so many compliments and I can't wait until our next Halloween party!

Hope you enjoyed this party as much as we did.

Until next time,
Creative Details Event Planning.

Flirty 30

Hello again to my faithful followers, all 6 of them ;)  I have been a bit MIA lately.  I remember last year writing about one of my new years resolutions being to blog more...well that didn't go so well haha.  Maybe this year I can try it again (even though it is already 1/4 into the year and this is my first post :/ )

I recently celebrated a milestone birthday, the big 3-0.  I can't say that I was thrilled to let my 20's be a thing of the past, but it has proven to be okay so far.  I had originally planned this over the top, 50 Shades of Grey themed "dirty 30" birthday bash for myself.  Everyone was going to wear gray, have masquerade masks on and we were going to celebrate eating foods that reminded us of the books and the characters that made the book so interesting ;) Submissive Subs, Bow 'tie me up' pasta, red room of pain velvet cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, soft limits taffy, hard limits candy, you get the point.  Well finally I decided, why am I throwing my own party and causing myself stress on my own birthday!?!?!  I called the party off and planned on just having a stress free, low key get together with friends and family. 

On the Saturday before my birthday, we had some friends visiting from out of town and my friend Jaime and I went to get our nails done.  My husband made the appt, which was a little odd, but I didn't think much of it.  When we got to the nail salon, the nail tech asked to look at my nails.  I wasn't quite sure why she needed to see my nails as I had planned on just getting a quick mani/pedi.  She kept pushing getting fake nails to make them longer because I am a biter :)  I had just taken a set off and my nails were still thin from it, so I didn't really want to damage them more.  Finally Jaime said that Todd insisted I get the fake set.  I text Todd asking why I had to get them, because this was MY birthday weekend :)  He told me to stop being difficult and to do what he said.  I had a nail color all picked out and the tech came out with a printed out nail design based on one of the 50 Shades book covers. 

From what I was told, we were going out to dinner as a family to celebrate my upcoming day.  I thought maybe he just wanted me to have a piece of the book I loved so much since I wasn't doing the big party.  After my nails were dry, the tech led me back to the waxing room.  My first thought was, OH GEEZ, NOW WHAT!!!!!  Inside the room, she told me to change into a purple dress that had been left there for me (for anyone who hasn't read the books, Anna's favorite dress is purple).  On the box of shoes that were also left was a note saying: "Put this on and meet me at home. -Mr. Grey".  Then I got to thinking, maybe he is taking me to Seattle ;)  I put the dress on and Jaime and I headed back to our house.

When we got back to the house, I did suspiciously look around to see if there were any cars I recognized haha.  There weren't of course.  When I opened the door, to my surprise, a huge SURPRISE was shouted at me!!! 

It took me a while to take everything in.  There were all of my closest friends and family, wearing gray, in masks ready to celebrate my 30th.  As I looked around, I saw the vanilla and red velvet cupcakes, little wine with gray stripped straws, chocolate "keys to the playroom", submissive subs, sea salt chips, bow "tie me up" pasta!!! Everything I had envisioned for my own party was right in front of me and I didn't have to do any of the work!  It was fabulous!  My mom put together all the little details of the party, with help from my hubby, aunt and close friends as if she had been in my head!  I could not believe all the details and work that they had put into it!

We had a fabulous evening and I felt so special that I got to spend it with all my favorite people!  Hope you guys enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed telling you about the party :)

Until next time,
Lacey Cakes