Fun and Spooky Weekend

I can't believe that Halloween has come and gone already! It was a whirlwind weekend full of lots of fun (and naps!) and already I'm missing the red hair I rocked from Friday to Sunday.

I really wanted to be a villian this year, so I decided to go as Poison Ivy from the Batman Comics. I made a green dress and then pinned and sewed HUNDREDS of little fake ivy leaves all over it. It took a few evenings of movie watching to do it, but I loved it when it was done. Really comfy to wear too! My friend Julia went to the party as Puck Bunny in a Maple Leafs jersey. Too cute!

There were lots of great costumes, like these guys who went as Terry and Dean from Fubar. This may just be something that only Canadians get, but there were a big hit.

This cute couple went for gory and looked great!

This costume may have been a highlight of my night. Anyone seen Office Space recently? He even got the mug and made a name tag!

But then I saw this one and it cracked me up too. Gotta love a fellow Scot!

What is better than hanging out with great friends, listening to the Monster Mash and dancing the night away?

The boyfriend decided to go as MacGruber from the SNL skits. We couldn't find a khaki fishing vest, so I took a pair of men's khaki cargos from the thift store and made them into a vest (Thanks for the idea, Mom!) And, no, that is not his real hair. It a wig that I cut butchered into a mullet.

Maybe we should have gotten Whiskey a wig too ;)

But he seemed happy just wearing his little bat costume.

Of course we had to get him in a picture with this Mistress of the Night!

Everyone wanted to cuddle and hold Whiskey. He even started to fall asleep in people's arms. So cuddly.

Some of my friends' neighbours stopped by in matching outfits. They really could be sisters!

Our hostess had out lots of great food, including this cake made to look like a cat litter pan (complete with tootsie roll cat poops). Looks disgusting, but it was actually really good. Don't worry, it was a new litter pan, that she washed about a million times and lined with plastic and the kitty scoop was washed too.

We tried to convince some of the guys to try on a little Tinker Bell costume, but oddly there were no takers. I think he looks dashing as a fairy with a mullet, haha.

Of course there was LOTS of dancing.

And many attempts to remember the moves to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

This one's for you! haha

End of the night high five to the hostess with the mostest.

It was a really fun night with all the girls (and guys and pups too!) Why do we have to wait a full year to do Halloween over again?

Thankfully with the way that Halloween was on a weekend, it meant that Saturday night was another party. This time I headed back down to the city for an 80s video dance party. I put a little forethought into my costume and opted out of wearing heels for fear of suffering while dancing all night. I took a pair of old flats that were on their way out the door and covered them in green fabric scraps from the dress and added a few ivy leaves for decoration.

There were tons of great costumes at the video dance party too, including these cuties who went as leftovers! They didn't need coats all night with those emergency blankets wrapped around them. They practically radiated heat.

I ran into another Poison Ivy there too!

And partied it up with a few droogs from A Clockwork Orange. Love the eye makeup!

What did you do for Halloween?

Happy Halloween!

Its been a weekend full of crazy parties and good times with great friends (which I'll be posting about tomorrow), but now I just want to relax on the couch and watch some scary movies with my favorite little bat. Maybe hand out some candy to the kiddos too...but probably just eat most of it ;)

What are you up to tonight?

Hope that everyone has a fun and spooky night!

Happy Halloween!

Caramelized Pumpkin & Squash Seeds

One of my favorite parts about carving pumpkins is getting to eat all the wonderfully nutty seeds! Usually I just roast them with a little olive oil and salt, but this year I wanted to do something different. Then I came across this recipe from Cooking with My Kid. that caramelized them and I knew that I had to try it. I made a delicious a mix of pumpkin and squash seeds. I saved the seeds from my spaghetti squash and butternut squash in the freezer and then just thawed them overnight in the fridge before I made this.

These are ridiculously good. Crunchy, sweet and salt all at once. They kind of remind me of the kettle corn that I tried at the Queen West Art Crawl. Give them a try this Halloween!
What you'll need:
1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh Pumpkin or Squash Seeds
Olive Oil Cooking Spray
2-3 tbsp Brown Sugar
pinch of Kosher Salt

Clean and pat dry seeds. You want to get rid of all the orange gunk.

Put seeds in a dry non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Toast them in the pan, constantly shifting them around so that they roast evenly and don’t stick to the pan.

When they start to pop and peel, take one out and taste it (make sure it’s cool enough first). If it’s crunchy it’s done.

Turn the heat down to low and spray the seeds with olive oil cooking spray.

Sprinkle sugar into pan.

Stir seeds while sugar melts and sticks to the seeds. Turn heat off and sprinkle with salt. Let cool and serve!

These are extremely addictive!

Let me know if you try them and tell me what you think! I know I'll be making more this weekend :)

Printable Version

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Tutorial: Dog Bat Costume

After the success of Whiskey's taco costume last year (tutorial here!), I had to think of something new for him this year that was both comfortable for him to wear and easy for me to make. It was those big cute ears of his that made me think of a bat. It was perfect! I made it while watching a movie, so it took me less than 2 hours to make it. Not too bad.

I decided to use black felt and a coat hanger as the main components to keep it soft and light. Thankfully, Whiskey loves wearing sweaters (he gets all jumpy and excited when I pull them out), so he's pretty content to wear this costume. I just have to keep an eye out for when he goes under chairs or he gets stuck.

Here's a quick step-by-step tutorial on how to make this yourself!

What you'll need:
- Measuring Tape
- Scissors
- Wire Cutters
- Pliers
- Sewing Machine (or needle if you're ambitious and want to do it by hand)
- Black Felt
- Coat Hanger
- Black Thread

First, I made a bat wing shape out of cardboard that was proportional to Whiskey's size. Then I cut out 4 of the wings in black felt, making two for each side.

Using my sewing machine, I stitched two of the wings together all along the top about 1/4" in from the edge, and then another stitch about 1/4" below that curved line. Then I stitched 1/4" in from the edge all along the edge of the rest of the wing, making sure to leave a space open where the wire will go in between the two upper stitches. Repeat with the other wing.

After both wings were stitched, I took scissors and cleaned up along the edges and make they all look neat and clean.

Next, I took an old coat hanger and straigthened it out using pliers. I made a curve in the middle to match the curve on the width of Whiskey's back, where the wings would go. Then I placed one of the finished felt wings down and curved one of the sides of the hanger to match the curve in the fabric. I repeated with the other side. Using wire cutters, I snipped off any excess coat hanger.

Now the wings slipped right on to the hanger, like so.

To make the belly band to go around Whiskey's back, I measured aroud his chest, adding 1 inch for overlap. Then I sewed velcro tabs on to make it easy to take it on and off.

This is how the band looks on his chest when put on. Next, I measure along the front of his chest, from the edge where the band is on one side, to where is was on the other side.

I added an inch on one side to sew it into the existing band, and then an inch on the other side for the velcro tab tucked in under the existing band. So it was the front of his chest + 2 inches.

One end of the chest strap was stitched one inch in on one side of the belly/chest band.To hide the velcro closure on the other end of the chest strap, I sewed it on the inside of the larger band. When I put it on him, I velcro the front chest trap on first, then the belly/chest band.

To add the wings, I put the sraps on him and then doubled checked where I wanted to place the wings on the band, and marked it.

I took a small piece of felt that was the length of the middle piece of curved wire and pinned it on the back of the belly band right where I wanted the wings to go. Then it was a matter of sewing four lines 1/4" apart from each other. The middle slot that I created was to hold the middle curve of the wings and the outer slots are just for support. I then trimmed any excess felt. Next, I removed one of the felt wings and then fed the wire through the middle slot. After it was secure, I added the wing back on. Then is was just a matter of quickly hand sewing a couple of stitches through the wings and band right where they meet, to make sure that they stayed on the wire.

We had a family party earlier this week, and I showed off Whiskey's costume there. It was a huge hit.

And I'm starting to think that he's liking all the attention he gets with it.

Shadow was happy to try it on too, although I think it makes her look scary rather than cute.

Especially with that crazy little ear that curves up. She's like a shark/dog/bat monster mutation...but I still love her to bits.

Are you dressing up your pets for Halloween this year?

This tutorial is linked up to: