Random Pictures from the Thanksgiving Break

While Kress and his mother and I celebrated Thanksgiving, a few small things around the house happened:

This crowded Peace Lily from my desk at work (which I brought home to divide months ago and never did) got cleaned up and separated into two pots:

The two new plants are very happy;  the smaller one in the center is a Chinese Evergreen that was in a pot with no drainage hole, and was NOT liking it.

Because I pretty much detest holidays, I completely neglected to plan any sort of table spread for dinner on Thursday, aside from the food.

This is simple and thrown-together (mostly from our basket of SCA feast gear, hehe), but it worked, and the food was awesome, which was the point. :)

Most of the cats, on the coffee table, scoping out someone's ice cream.  From the white-and-red one on the left, clockwise, that's
Sweet Pea
Rabi
Evie, and
Gypsy

Only Sasha is missing from this picture.

Kress' mom decided that she and I each needed a "little black apron" from Bloodbath & Beyond while we were out shopping Friday.  Lace trim and plastic pearls stitched around the neckline.  LOL!  Adorbs.



Hope everyone had a happy, safe holiday.

Hallo-week 4: Spooky Glow & Dead Things

"Bleeding" candles, made by dripping red wax down the sides of white candles. 

Low lighting (achieved by removing bulbs - a bit ghetto, I know, but it's what I had) + nifty "mummy" gauze bits strung all over light fixtures.  

Red/range glow in hallways, done by draping red and orange sheer fabrics over the light fixtures (I was very careful not to touch the fabric to the glass of the light fixtures.  No sense risking fire).   + More "mummy" gauze draped across doorways.

 Cute little Halloween bottle labels from the party store.  Most of these are bottles of mead that my boyfriend brews at home.  (Look - more "blood" on the countertops that I had to clean up later). 

Every available surface had dead rose petals and leaves scattered across it, vases full of dead roses and bunches of dried herbs from the garden, and as many drippy candles as I could pack in.

The end. 

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Hallo-week 3: Watch Your Step

Visitors and guests walked through my front door, about which I posted yesterday, to this:

 Bloody footprints tracked all over the house from front to back, and all through the living room and kitchen.  Don't worry, it's just acrylic craft paint in water - it should clean right up.  I hope.

Creepy?  Hell yes.  But, as it turns out, a little too creepy for some people.  In my enthusiasm for the holiday, I forgot that some people are genuinely *freaked out* by the sight of blood, especially lots of it, and this little Halloween trick ended up looking a bit too real for some of my friends.  (To whom I sincerely apologize.  :(

The scene in the refrigerator went over a little better than the floors did - most people thought it was cute and inventive.  The packages of "meat" (plastic food storage containers wrapped in painted paper) and hospital bags of candy "blood"...although the "blood" dripped on the shelves in the fridge? Not so much.

Not that you'd know it from some of the pictures of my sewing room that I've posted in the past, but I am a bit of a neat-freak (to those of you who just guffawed at that, I say :P   ).   The "blood" on the floors even creeped ME out all night long, not because it was "blood" (I'm okay with blood, even the real stuff), but because it wasn't CLEAN!  HORROR!   And apparently I wasn't the only one.

On the plus side, the stuff did clean up nearly as easily as I thought it would:  it wasn't easy enough to just mop, I did end up on my hands and knees sponging off the floors, but it wasn't a huge undertaking.  Although, on the tile in the kitchen and entryway I discovered that I hadn't been as careful with the footprints as I thought, and some of my grout is stained and now will have to be bleached and re-sealed.  ARGH.

So, nifty, spooky, creepy Halloween idea?  Yes.  Doing this ever again?  Hell no.  


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Hallo-week 2: Come On In!

Front entry:  bats, webs, and SKELETON FLAMINGOS.  I heart my skeleton flingos. Hee!  <3

The bats are just cut from light construction paper and stapled to the wall and post.  The planters, by the way, are filled with a mix of Sanseviera, Dracaena marginata, and red Caladiums...not that you can see them all that well in this picture.  The decorative piece above the doorway? Is a $10 plastic doormat.

Purple/red glow on the front porch after dark.  Yay!

And a blue tint on the back porch - the lights are purple like the ones on the front porch.  I've already replaced the blue bulb in the overhead light with a white one again - for security reasons - but I'm actually contemplating leaving the purple lights.  They're so cute! And it's much nicer to have them on at night when I'm relaxing outside than a bright glare from above.  We'll see.

Here's the little "lantern" I made with the Ikea JÄTTEBRA plant cachepot - all it needed was a candle.  I love the way it looks kinda starry.  :) 

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Hallo-week Episode 1: The Food

Decided to do Halloween-week here in The Land of Laura.  #1, because it's my favorite holiday.  2, it's also my birthday-week, and I can make five Halloween posts in a row if I want to, so there.  :P   3.  Because I had my annual Halloween-Birthday* party this past weekend, and I have *lots* of pictures.

Enjoy!

Yup. That's one of the cutting boards I made last week.

Thing the first:  the dining room table!     Complete with cheeses and meat cleavers (MWAHAHAAA!!!), "bleeding" candles, dead flowers, black doilies on old tarnished silver, red-and-black table linens (and curtains, in the background), and...

THE MOST AWESOME CUPCAKES IN THE WORLD, instead of a single birthday cake, made by my best friend, who is a *fantabulous* baker.  These are  Tiramisu cupcakes with cream-cheese icing, a wonderully squishy center full of a mixture of Kahlua and espresso, and topped with cinnamon and chocolate-covered espresso beans.  Pardon me while I have a cake-gasm.  Mmmm.  Plus? Cute little "Poison" and "Toxic" cupcake paper cups.  :)

(Know what else is cool?  The cuppies 100% vegan.  Even the cream cheese icing, which I think is better than the "real" thing!)



More tomorrow!




* which shall hereafter be known as "Birth-O-Ween", after one of my guests wished me a happy one of those as he left Saturday night, and it totally cracked me UP.