Happy Halloween!

Hey guys. Long time no post. I'll admit, this unemployed this has made me feel a little weird for the past month. Also, I got a new laptop and I was so used to my old one I have been intimidated to start editing photos again. But I'm doing it! Travis and I took a really great vacation to the Pacific Northwest and I have so much to show you!

But I'll start right here with Halloween! One of my favorite times of the year! I didn't end up decorating this year (I actually sold my taxidermy collection. Can you believe it?) but I threw together a witch costume and felt pretty cute in it. My best friend Crystal was the girl gremlin of course. We both love any excuse to wear full body paint. 

Travis wore his classic body suit. Sadly it finally ripped too much and he gave it a Viking burial (aka he burned it in our fire pit! haha) Definitely worth the 99 cents we spent all those years ago. 

We went to the coolest immersive theater event on Halloween night call Slasher! There was a dance party afterward (and lots of Slasher punch), then we went to a friends house to dance some more! It isn't a party now unless my knees hurt the morning after. 

The Friday night before Halloween Travis went with me to a reading/talk by Deborah Harkness at the Nashville public library! I loved it! I read her All Souls Trilogy over the summer, and am excited that some more work dealing with the same world is coming out. The coolest thing was Harkness is a historian by trade, and hearing her motivations and inspirations for the story was fascinating! I'm so glad my friend Jill let me know about this the day before! 

That same Friday we tried to go to Springfield to do a flashlight corn maze (aka corn maze at night) but it was closed. We had driven so far we decided to do the haunted woods instead and I was SO SCARED! I almost didn't go through with it. I'm such a chicken! The waiting in line turned out to be scarier than the trail! Haha. It was pretty fun and I only screamed maybe 5 times. And there was a 60 foot slide in the woods in the dark that was thrilling! I did wimp out when everyone else went through the fun house. Maybe next year. 

I hope your Halloween was as fun as mine was! I'll be back soon to tell you about our trip (did I mention we had an amazing time???) and tell you about my job situation. I'm making a decision right now that means I have to be brave, and I'm not usually that. We'll see how everything shakes out. 

Halloween and a Surprise Party!

I love Halloween and this year was one for the record books! Weeks ago I decided what I wanted to be but wasn't sure if I'd be able to get everything together and pull it off. But I finally found the perfect outfit and with some hair and makeup help from my friend Aubrey it came together perfectly! Can you guess what I was from this photo? I was cracking myself up every time I looked in the rearview mirror!

And here we are! We dressed up as John Waters and Divine! If you aren't familiar with Divine you can read about her here. I'm a huge fan of her (and John Waters DUH) and I'm thrilled with how this costume turned out! I felt great all night! Not everyone knew who I was, but those that did seemed to love it.Everyone else probably just thought I had crazy make up.

We met up with our usual crew, Crystal, Marc, and Thomas. Crystal wore her rams horns, Marc was The Count from Sesame Street, and Thomas wore his new gorilla suit! We went out to dinner at Rose Pepper, then headed to the 5 Spot for their Monster Mash dance party!They had a photobooth of course. I hope that trend never goes away.

The 5 Spot is the most fun place to dance I've ever been! Lots of motown and novelty Halloween songs and some 90's hits thrown in for good measure. Perfect! We stayed for a few hours then dragged ourselves home. We tried to leave several times and then something would pull us back in. You can't go home when Thriller is on!

The next day has been in the works for over a month! Crystal's husband Marc wanted to throw her a huge surprise party for her 30th birthday! He and Marissa did most of the planning, and I helped as much as I could. I wanted to instagram so many things while we were getting ready but couldn't without spoiling the surprise! Here are the pumpkins Travis painted, and I made over 40 sugar skulls! It ended up being too cold to decorate them at the party, so we're going to do it next weekend. And break the pinata we forgot about during the party. Haha!

We spent all day Saturday setting up. I didn't get photos of everything but here are a few! Candy buffet! The plastic witch fingers were a hit! They are perfect when you are dancing. (Tip: if you need fun Halloween candy go to the dollar store! They have so much good stuff!)

A shrine to Crystal. We papier mache'd the skeletons you see a few months ago and Marc painted them all, including the huge Crystal one!

Eye balls! One of my favorite Halloween motifs.

Thomas came and helped a lot with set up too. He was Henry VIII. The dress up theme was dead celebrity. Ashely and Justin won the costume contest. They were dressed as Tye from Clueless and Dimebag Darrell respectively.

We had a big tent set up in the back yard complete with a dance floor! I wish I'd gotten a photo of it!

Pinata loot.

Travis dressed as Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character from Boogie Nights. An idea he come up with all on his own. Haha! The shorts weren't the greatest choice since it was freezing cold that night!

Crystal was totally surprised and it was awesome. Marc bought her a Patsy Cline style dress to put on. There was a food truck there to provide dinner (Confestador for locals! The fried avocado tacos were AMAZING) and a DJ to provide dancing music! It was FUN!

The best part was the photobooth truck Marissa found! It is called Photo Boot and was so fun! They print a copy for you in the trailer, then posted them all on facebook this afternoon. We laughed so much taking these! We had a wonderful night and it was a party we'll be talking about for a long time! Happy birthday (early) to my best friend in the world!

Costumes of Halloweens Past

I love Halloween! While plotting and planning for my costume this year I started looking through some photos of past costumes and thought it would be fun to share some of them! Starting with the witch costumes Crystal and I wore on a hike in the Smokey Mountain National Park.

We always dressed up as kids and I swore I had lots of photos, but I could only find this one. My brother and I as lions. My uncle Lonnie made these!

One year I was Brody Dalle from the Distillers. Fake tattoos drawn on and all.

Another time I was Stephen Colbert. With Harry Potter glasses.

One time Travis and I dressed as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle dumb. It was for our Mad Tea Party, but I think it counts. Another random night I dressed up as a pirate at Crystal's house. There are a LOT of silly pictures from that night.

There were a couple years where we dressed up as zombies all the time. I still have a makeup kit full of flesh colored latex and blood gel and fake wounds. I almost always did the slit throat.

Haha, there are a lot of portraits of us dressed up like this smiling.

Then I was a fox. I couldn't find a full body shot. I had a tail.

One year Crystal and I both dressed up as Miss Argentina from Beetlejuice. I love this green foundation! I kinda wish it wasn't freaky to wear it all the time.

 

We wore these costumes to the zombie walk. People kept asking if I was Avatar. UGH!

The next year I reused that face paint and did a witch thing. Travis wears that skeleton body suit whenever he can't think of anything else.

And last year I was a vulcan. Since Travis was Spock. Yowza!

Halloween is the best! I hope the costume I have in mind words out this year! What is your favorite costume you ever wore? I wanna see!

Our Halloween!

I know it's a few days late, but I still had to post our photos from Halloween! We spent the afternoon at my best friend Crystal's house, getting caught up on American Horror Story: Coven and getting our costumes ready. I have been planning Travis' costume since the summer, and I am SO happy with how it came out! OMG. Here are my two best buds getting ready in the same mirror.

Ahhh! I'm still obsessed with Star Trek. I started watching the original series last week (I started with Next Generation) and I LOVE IT so much! So I was thrilled when Travis let me cut his hair and cover his eyebrows. My perfect dream date!

After stopping by Kroger for bottled water and cash, we met up with some friends at Barista Parlor.

I was just going to be Carol Marcus, but my costume felt so boring I decided to be an anonymous vulcan. My ears were more gremlin than vulcan, but it was still fun!

Crystal's husband Marc made her that Sailor Scout costume! It was so cute! And he was Jack Sparrow! He and Travis had a contest to see whose costume got the most shout outs. Spock won!

Here is the group! We got our waitress to take a picture after we had dinner. I'm really hoping some of you will be able to tell what Brett was dressed as...

I mean....

We stopped by the grand opening of Nashville's new oddities shop, Hail! I LOVED IT! Yes, I am vegan, but I still love weird antique/vintage taxidermy. This fox, tagged as "Silly Looking Fox" came home with us and will have place of honor in our house.

We ended the night dancing for a few hours at the 5 Spot. I don't have any photos, but the poster should give you an idea of how great it was! While the crazy wind blew outside we danced like crazy to plenty of Motown and a few modern songs, with monster mash thrown in for good measure!

When we got back to Crystal's house around 1 am we made sure to get a few full body shots to document our costumes! Next year we'll try to get ready before the sun goes down so we can get some good natural light pics! As you can see, Marc's costume didn't make it all the way home.

Mr. Spock. I made his costume by sewing some silver ribbon on a sweater from Old Navy. Our insignia are made from glittered scrapbook paper.

And here is one of me. I couldn't believe I found a dress that matched this sweater exactly! As you can see, my perfectly straight vulcan hair didn't make it through the rain and wind and dancing. Oh well. I hope you had as much fun as I did on Halloween! I'm already looking forward to next year!