Loves: Halloween and thrift stores.

Alright, it's getting in to the holiday season. My absolute favorite time of the year.

I start thinking about Halloween in September. Can I just say I love Halloween? Not for the gore or the scary stuff. I like decorating with cute spiders and ghosts and lights.

 These little ghosts were preprinted faces on little sacks I bought at the 99cent store. They slowed down the fan enough on low speed that it was awesome! They floated around nicely. I also like spider webbing. This green stuff was supposed to be glow in the dark. It worked better in the black light I had set up under my frame. We also taped up butcher paper to draw on with highlighters, which also looks cool under black light. This was when we first moved into our house and had a big Halloween party.

 These giant spiders were made from balloons and black party streamers. I taped pennies in the middle of the legs to make them hang to a point. The balloons started to lose air and constrict, pulling on the tape and causing them to pop. I won't do them so early this year. They look so cool and kind of creepy. I scared myself once, forgetting the reflection I saw in my metal mixing bowl was the spider on the ceiling and not a real spider.

I also love coming up with themed Halloween costumes and figuring out ways to make cute costumes from stuff I already have or can buy super cheap at thrift stores or $1 stores. I absolutely love 22nd st Thrift Store (for those of you in Tucson). I love getting already cheap stuff at 50% off with their coupons. Plus, they have old, crazy stuff that makes for great costumes.

For instance, a few years ago we did a Lord of the Rings theme. Don't laugh. It was awesome, and yes, we are nerds. (for crying out loud, we've been watching old episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation online...they are quite intriguing). Anyways, half the stuff from our costumes was from said thrift store.

My gown was a spaghetti strap for $2. I added a collar and sleeves to match and make it like Arwen's dress. Honestly I was inspired when I saw the dress at the store. I couldn't pass it up and tried to think what I could do with it. Thus, Lord of the Rings was born. My headpiece was an old necklace I had. It's too fancy and sparkly for practical use, but is nice for special occasions.

The girls' Hobbit costumes were vests and brown corduroy pants from a thrift store. I hemmed the bottoms to make them more like hobbit pants. Justin's costume and the girls' swords and capes were costume sets I bought online. Overall, not a cheap theme when you put it all together, but it was cheaper with my thrift store goodies. And, it was a lot more fun to figure out how to make it cheaper. If you look closely you can see little gold rings hanging from their necks. "It is a heavy burden you carry". A guy at the trunk-or-treat actually said that. It was all really funny and we were by far the best costumes of the night...I think anyways.

This year, I don't think we're going to have a Halloween party. We aren't going to have the money :( But that didn't stop me from looking up all kinds of cool food and decorating ideas. I like to bookmark all kinds of sites and put them in folders on my web browser. Justin totally laughed at me when he saw how long my Halloween list was. He knows I love Halloween, he didn't have to laugh!

By far the coolest thing I found was glow-in-the-dark food and drinks. I'm saving that one for next year's party, if we have one. Another really good treat is pumpkin pie milkshakes. Definitely going to be making those this year. I LOVE pumpkin pie. And, it's a pie in a shake! Can we say clogged arteries? It reminds me of a restaurant here called Something Sweet. It's just a dessert place where you can go and play games and order all kinds of desserts like pie milkshakes. I first thought that was just a piece of pie shoved in a glass with milkshake poured all over it. You're picturing it aren't you? No, Justin ordered one (it doesn't surprise me) and it's all blended up. It's quite good.

For some reason that also brings up a mental image of fish sauce. Do you know what fish sauce is? It's a sauce used in Asian food recipes. I was introduced to it by Justin's roommate while we were engaged. They both served in Cambodia and fish sauce is a staple over there, along with MSG. I love using it. The flavor it creates can't be duplicated. I was a little concerned about what it was made out of though. It smells like dead, rotten fish. I pictured the manufacturers taking little fish and stretching their mouths over a lemon juicer...and twisting. It's actually much sicker than that. They pack little sardine-type fish into wooden barrels with brine (salt) and let it sit. Then they collect the runoff. Needless to say it attracts flies and skeptical children before you cook out the stank. Back to Halloween.

So, this year I will still do my favorite Halloween decorations minus the party. We're also doing a Labyrinth theme this year. It's been Justin's secret desire for a long time to dress up as the Goblin King. He loves tight pants! We have a baby boy the perfect size to pull it off, too. Thrift stores, here I come. I already got some awesome dress-ups for the girls that they will be using as their costumes. $8 and $4. Can't beat that, especially when I saw one of them at Joann's for $50 new. Pictures will be forthcoming...well, as soon as Halloween finally comes around. I'm drumming my fingers with impatience.