Witches Hats

I'm so sad that tonight is Halloween and all the fun festivities are over. I had so much fun preparing Halloween themed foods, getting crafty with Halloween house decor, carving pumpkins and all the other Halloweeny things we did this year. Today, I brought in "witches hat" cookies that I saw on the Betty Crocker website. These are so easy to do and you don't actually bake anything! They were a hit and my last Halloween culinary project for this year. I can't wait until 10/31/08. Thank goodness there is still Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years to keep me (and Evan) busy this year.

Evidence

My cat (no longer a kitten) loves make-up brushes. He dives into my make-up bag while I'm getting ready in the morning and steals them. At least a month ago, he took my powder brush and we couldn't find where he hid it. This weekend, Evan pulled it out from underneath the washing machine. The bottom of the brush is gone never to be found again, but the brush was, amazingly, still in tact. The picture above is the evidence supporting my claim that Buzz stole the brush.

Raising Sand

Although I work in the music biz, it is rare that I am so excited about a new album. The collaboration of Alison Krauss and Robert Plant on the new record, Raising Sand, is absolutely amazing! I never would have imagined that Alison Krauss’ blue grass background and angelic voice would match so well with Robert Plant’s raw sound. My interpretation of the sound on this disc would be a mix of musical genres, from folk to surf rock to classic country ballad-like harmonies and a bunch of different places in between. I was told by a great musical mind that my favorite track, Gone gone gone is an Everly Brothers’ cover. I’ll have to pay more attention to the Everly Brothers. Where ever Krauss and Plant got their musical inspiration from, that must be a beautiful place. Definitely, my number one album of the year!

Jack-o-lanterns

I think Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love Halloween decorations, dressing up, spooky treats and of course pumpkins. I love how Pumpkins grow in all shapes, sizes and colors. There are so many creative things you can do to decorate them. The pumpkins we painted when Evan's parent were in town have rotted, but we started a new this weekend with our pumpkin carvings. I went for a classic jack-o-lantern face and Evan carved a spooky pumpkin cut out of a pumpkin. We spent this gorgeous sunny Sunday on the porch cutting our creations and now I can't wait until it turns dark outside so I can light them up!

Farmer's Market Flowers

I know I've posted about my Farmer's Market Flowers before, but every bouquet I get is more beautiful than the last. I didn't make it to the Market this Saturday morning, but Evan was nice enough to buy a bouquet from our favorite flower stand. He said that three people stopped him to compliment the flowers before he could even make it to the car. I just love fresh flowers and these really brought some sunshine to my Saturday morning.

Bikes Blues and BBQ

Things have been so hectic around here that I haven't had a chance to catch up on my blog. The buisiest weekend of the year was two weekends ago, Bikes Blues and BBQ. I can't say for sure, but I was told it is the second largest Motorcycle rally in the US. It was indeed impressive. I have never seen so many bikes in one place in all my life. The town closed down Dickson Street (the main street in downtown Fayetteville) so that only bikes could drive it. From Wednesday to Sunday bikes would cruise up and down the street all day and all night. People pulled out lawn chairs and would sit on the sidewalk and watch the bikes go by. BBQ tents sprung up in the alleys and in cleared parking lots. There were stages built and bands playing all over town. We got to see our favorite local band, The Ben Miller Band. I've never seen this town so alive. Many of the bikers were dressed in full leather (which was amazing considering it was 95 degrees), but a lot of the riders were regular Joes. There were big Harleys, sport bikes, cruiser bikes with a back seat for the Mrs and a few kids on dirt bikes. I didn't get on a bike, but it was an amazing place to people watch.

October Bunco

This past Tuesday was my October Bunco party. I went with the Halloweeny theme and all the elements came together at the last minute. When planning my menu I had to keep in mind that I was serving 12 people a casual dinner that didn’t require sit down. It had to be simple enough that I could prepare it in only one hour and it had to cater to a wide range of unknown pallets. I couldn’t get to fancy or some people (like myself) might go hungry. I was very pleased with the end result of recipes and ideas I’d collected from a variety of sources. Everyone really enjoyed the food and a good time was had by all. Even though I didn't win Bunco it was really fun to have everyone over. I'm not through with my Halloween cuisine experiments. Luckily we still have a couple weeks to go! Here's my menu:

Appetizers:
Blood Ball – Shrimp ball with cocktail sauce (Peg Ferguson’s recipe)
Stuffed Coffin – Pumpernickel bread cut out to look like a coffin filled with dill dip

Main course:
Witches Fingers in Bandages - Frankfurters wrapped in puff pastry (recipe from All You Magazine)
Fried Goblin Fingers – Tyson Honey Battered Frozen Chicken Tenders

Side Dishes:
Moldy Mashed Potatoes – Betty Crocker Instant Mashed Potatoes with green food coloring
Bug Salad – Salad with raisins (recipe from All You Magazine)

Desserts:
Creepy Cookies – Sugar cookies with icing in the shapes of ghosts and pumpkins
Pumpkin Roll – The hit of the party (Aunt Grace’s recipe)

Halloween Party

I love Halloween! There are so many fun things going on as the season changes. This past weekend we went to a Halloween Costume party that was hosted by a co-worker of mine and his wife. The invitation should have given a clue as to how extravagant this party was going to be. It was a toe tag with all the party info. They went crazy with decorations at their house. They had scary mannequins positioned on chairs and hanging from the balcony. Fake cockroaches were scattered on the walls in every room downstairs. All the pictures in the picture frames were replaced with scary photos of asylums and haunting characters. The dining room was turned into an autopsy room with the walls covered to look like a dungeon and a corpse lay on the table. There was a real I.V. drip that was filled with Hot Damn! I had never been to an adult costume party and the guests’ costumes were really great. There was Genghis Khan and his Asian princess, OJ and Nicole Simpson, and the hillbilly with his pregnant bride to name a few. We went as Ketchup and Mustard. I was mustard and wore all yellow (shirt, skirt, shoes and earrings) with a hat that looked like the top of a mustard bottle. I felt like I should have done more once I saw how elaborate the other costumes were. None the less, the party was spectacular and I can’t wait for the next round of Scary Bashes!

Bubble Hair Show 2007

For the past three years I have had the pleasure to participate in the Bubbles Hair Wars, Hair Show Competition in Maryland. Even though I'm currently living in Arkansas I decided to fly home as I was in desperate need of a haircut. My stylist, Jamie, at the Annapolis Bubbles Salon is a genius and always makes me look amazing. My brother, Christian, always coordinates the show and makes all the costumes. Even with his launch into fame around the corner he came back and worked his magic. Our theme this year was inspired by our music, a remixed version of Pink Floyd's songs by Donnie. I played a naughty teacher and other parts were punk catholic school kids and an amazing head mistress, hair by Heather. I am excited to report Annapolis Bubbles won first place for the third year in a row and my hair won 1st place in the individual competition! Thank you Jaime! It was so fun to be apart of such a unique showing of artistic expression. My hair is more fabulous than it has ever been and I am so proud of my little bro who threw together outfits for 10 people and choreographed the show in two days. He is truely amazing and we won, AGAIN!

Painted Pumpkins

We got the idea to spray paint our pumpkins from All You Magazine. We chose black, yellow and silver as our spray pain colors. Evan's mother, Jane and I spent quite a while cutting out spider shapes on contact paper. Evan sprayed a yellow spot on the pumpkin and then we stuck the contact paper over the yellow spot. Then we spray painted black over the whole pumpkin. A few pumpkins turned out ok, but most of them peeled all of the paint off when we tried to pull off the spider stickers. It was still a fun project and I believe that our limited patience had something to do with the lack of success with this project. I think we will try again next year, but a whole black or silver pumpkin still looks pretty cool.

Great Visit

September was so hectic and I have so many wonderful things to blog about. Evan's parents paid us a visit! It was a great extended weekend. Evan took some time off and took them to Eureka Springs. We spent a lot of time on the front porch eating, drinking and being merry. I laid down to take a nap on Friday night a 7pm and ended up sleeping through the bon fire. We had another bon fire on Saturday night and invited the neighbors over. I lasted a little past 7pm, but was still the first to bed. The highlight of the weekend (other than the trips to Wal-Mart) was the Farmer's Market. We lost Bob for a little while in a sea of red shirts. We got flowers, garlic braids and broom stalks that started our Halloween decorating. It was quite an adventure getting the stalks home. Thank goodness for the Mercedes' moon roof. All around a wonderful time and we can't wait for them to come back!