Halloween Decor

Since everyone else is busy talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas, I thought I'd better share my Halloween decoration before it's too late! I had a party again this year and people actually came! Amazing. However, after all the stress, preparation, more stress, and not eating all day I passed out after half a bottle of wine at 11:30 at night. During my party. With like 40 people in my house. Classy, no? Luckily J is freakin' awesome and entertained the guests for the rest of the evening.

I've been attempting to get this posted for a week now, so I'm just going to throw these pics up in no particular order.

 Living Room

Ignore the deer head. He normally lives in the hallway to the basement, but we're having the house tuckpointed and J took him down.

Pillows with spiders on them, courtesy of Lilybethgoodies on etsy.

DINING ROOM

This was actually the next day and no, I didn't take the time to clean off the table.

 

I had J cut down some spare plywood for the labels and sprayed it with chalkboard paint.

The "spike" was Captain Morgan. Much preferable to Whiskey, IMO. 

The "Salem Witch's Brew" was a concoction of Midori, Vodka, Raspberry Schnapps, Grenadine, Lime Juice, Tonic, and Soda Water. It's not great. As evidenced by the fact that this was two days later and the container is still almost full. 

More cheesecloth. 

I was still unpacking stuff and shoving it in here as people walked in the door. Nothing like being prepared...

I've had these Living Dead Dolls for about 10 years now. This is the first time they've been out of the box. I have an irrational fear of taking toys out of their boxes... I got the creepy doll head for $2 at a flea market. 

LOVE my Ceramic Miner Skull! I hesitated for a year before finally making this purchase and I have never regretted it. I do regret waiting so long though. 

 BACK YARD

Not sure why the BBQ pit is in the "grass". Note: we have no grass, the dogs kilt it.

I bought a "Super Strobe" that J hide behind that left tombstone and pointed at the mirror. The previous owners had that mirror mounted to the side of the garage... Why?

Can you tell J was in charge of the backyard? He came back from Halloween Express with a whole buttload of gory stuff and I told him he could do whatever he wanted with it (in a very unenthusiastic tone). He took the hint and put it all up in back. He did a great job.

The graves looked veddy convincing IRL. If you ignore the crappy tombstones I bought at the grocery store in a last minute panic.

Did anyone else have a party? Were you actually prepared for yours?  I'd say "Maybe next year", but I'm a habitual procrastinator. Did you decorate for Halloween? Most of my decorations are just my year round decor, I just make them more prominent during the "appropriate" season... lol

Where to begin?

I've been AWOL for quite some time now. I have no exciting news to share with you... No pregnancy. Sorry. No big secrets. Nope. No major Before and Afters. Just life and lazyness getting in the way of posting.

Frankly, it's been so long and we've done so many projects, big and small, that I'm not sure where to start. I'm just going to jump right in with the changes we've made to the kitchen. I mentioned waaaaaayyy back in May that I was going to paint the kitchen either butter yellow or black. Black won.

BEFORE

AFTER

Try to ignore the mess and the giant tub of beer on the floor. We had a Halloween party on Saturday and that's how much beer we have left over. We are slowly making a dent in it, no worries. lol

BEFORE

AFTER

J ran new lights for me above the sink. It's ah.maz.ing. how much easier it is to do the dishes and cook when you can actually see what you're doing! They turned out super-great and look like they have always been there. He even added an extra switch on the opposite wall, so we can actually turn the kitchen lights on and off from the main part of the house, instead of just from the basement. It definitely pays to date an electrician. 

Looking at the befores makes me wonder how I lived with that blue for as long as I did. Ick. 

Actually I lived with this for a few months:

I really thought I was going to go with the yellow, but I hated everything I tried. Too yolky, too beige, too pale, too grellow, etc... The paint on the right above looks pretty in the picture, but IRL it made the trim look dingy and it was way too blah. 

You can barely see it in the Before shot of the sink area, but I also painted the AC grates. They had been painted multiple times with varying shades of white and beige, but I sanded them down and sprayed them with Rustoleum's ORB. I also sprayed the cords, the ceiling cap, and the little hat-like piece of the original pendants ORB and the shades Satin White. It's makes a big difference from the hideous-cheapy-looking-blue-glass-shades-with-dingy-white-details lights they were. I will eventually replace them, but for now I am drained on cash. The house is being tuck-pointed and it's majorly hurting my bank account. Sucks being a grown-up.

I've totally been missing out on my blog reading... What have you guys been up to lately?