Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! We had a great party on Saturday night and I decked out the entire house in horrific decorations. Click on the pictures for a larger view. Firstly, the living room:

Mom gave me these cute little vintage-style pipe cleaner cat ornaments and I used some bits left over from my big round of cake bunting making to turn them into a little garland. Recycled wallpaper, orange polka dot scraps, and orange and white baker's twine was all it took to make my favorite new decoration!

Black and plain cheesecloth, construction paper bats from years past, and a host of store-bought decorations I've been collecting since I was a kid covered the rest of the room. For the party we turned off all the lights and everything was lit with candles, black lights, and glow sticks. The majority of the Halloween decorations I have stored are candle holders and there are SO many candles around the room but you can't really tell.

The curtain is made from black plastic trash bags. I got the idea from an old issue of Martha Stewart Living.

The bathroom was lit only by a red light and completely covered in spiders and blood. There was a big web with a giant spider over the shower door.

The bedroom was lightly decorated with old Wolfie here, reading the latest book from my favorite local writer, Will Viharo. This guy spooked people pretty well as the bedroom was the coat room and the first stop before people's eyes really got adjusted to the dim lighting haha!

And here's the kitchen! I switched out the dining table for a long one and all the paper lanterns had green glow sticks in them for the party.

More candles everywhere and the infamous Kitty Litter Cake! When some of the guests arrived early they thought I wasn't done cleaning! Why would I clean the catbox on the kitchen counter? Gross!

Relax! Though it looks very unsanitary, it is actually quite delicious. 

To make it you need a brand new, clean litter pan and pooper scooper (for serving), 1 box of spice cake mix, 1 box of yellow cake mix, 1 package of vanilla sandwich cookies, 1 large box of vanilla pudding, green food coloring, and tootsie rolls.

Make the pudding and let it chill, then mix the cakes according to the directions on the box. Bake each kind in a 13x9 rimmed cookie pan until done, about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. When they're cooled lift one out of the pan and place it in the cat box, trimming it to fit. Then spread the pudding over the whole thing and add the second layer of cake. Crush up the whole package of cookies in a food processor or by sandwiching in saran wrap and smashing with a mallet. Grab a small handful and add a couple drops of green food coloring and smash it up so they turn green, set aside. Sprinkle the plain cookie crumbs all over the top of the cake in an even layer, then sprinkle with the reserved green ones so it looks like the little blue bits in litter. Lastly, unwrap the tootsie rolls and microwave them fro 10 seconds to make them a little easier to mold, then shape them into, well, poo, and place them on top. Enjoy!

And here we have Swedish Eyeballs, Jenn's vegetarian version, and the Meathead. This ties with the Kitty Litter Cake for favorite freaky party food.

The effect is even better after he's been eaten a bit, not to mention having it sitting in the fridge covered in plastic wrap beforehand. Here's the old tutorial for it.

Heideh made this amazing plate of Pumpkin Puke! So delicious and a great presentation!

But what really made the party great was having all our friends over to eat, drink, and play silly old-fashioned games:

Yes, that's me in the beard... and Dennis in the other beard lol. Ten coolness points to everyone who knows who we are (answers at the bottom lol)!

These pics are all of us playing Spiderweb. It's an old Italian game and it would take too long to explain! Jenn won! (And yes, I had prizes ready for all the winners of the games.)

And here's the whole gang, from left to right, row by row: The Dude (or Duder, El Duderino, etc), a stranded Australian tourist, Aphrodite, a personal trainer, Moose Man, Mr. Tapatio, Walter (Shut the f*** up Donnie!), a magpie, a nun, a soccer ref, a goth fairy, Past Jenn, a Sear's employee, and... Rob, aka the Muffin Man. Unfortunately Miss Frizzle had to skeedadle a little early, but her costume was spot-on!

Tonight Dennis and I are going to carve pumpkins and stay in to watch scary movies and give out candy. I have no idea how many trick-or-treaters there will be here since we are still so new to the neighborhood, but my mom gave me some goodie bags that I filled with Halloween pencils, plastic bugs, eye patches, and a bunch of candy. I was able to make 15, and if we get more kids I have extra loose candy too. Hope everyone is going to have a Happy Halloween!

(Also, How-Tuesday will be back next week, I'm busy these days and have not had time to find any new links!)