The Stuff that Halloween is Made Of

EEEK! I know, I know, me as a black-haired fashion witch is pretty scary. Maybe because I didn't darken my eyebrows enough...

I made another one of my giant flower bows (see tutorial in my sidebar) as a headpiece...it's almost big enough to be a hat!

The necklace is one I made a year or two ago out of Femo clay.

Hazel loved this wig...she kept calling it my Pretty Hair. We had a big Halloween party on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning the wig was draped over a chair. When we were headed out the door for church, Hazel spotted the wig and said, "Mommy, why aren't you wearing your pretty hair?"

Because, my dear, it's not nice to scare people at church.

After church Hazel decided she wanted to give the wig a try.

Do you recognize the banana costume? 2 or 3 years ago Hyrum was convinced that he wanted to be a banana for Halloween. I made him this costume, but I hadn't designed the inner, stuffed headpiece very well and it kept sliding off center. Plus it was extremely top heavy on his tiny little 4 year-old frame. At the last minute Hyrum refused to wear the banana and we hurredly dressed him as Bob the Builder instead. The banana costume was relegated to storage....until now!

My friend's daughter was totally excited to be a banana this year, and her brother followed the fruit theme with the grape costume. I took one of his baseball caps and made a grape leaf hat out of felt. This isn't a great view of the hat, but you get the idea. Aren't they just delicious?

Speaking of delicious, when I saw the idea for making gingerbread skeleton cookies floating around online (sorry, I don't remember who posted the original idea) I just had to make some of my own!

I found a FABULOUS gingerbread cookie recipe online at AllRecipes.com - it is the best gingerbread recipe I have ever tasted. Soft and chewy with a slightly crisp exterior and a rich yet mild flavor. It's called, appropriately, "Gingerbread Man Cookies" and it's submitted by McCormick (the spice company). The only changes I made were to add twice as much cinnamon and nutmeg, plus I added about 1/4 tsp each allspice and cloves as well. I also used 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup shortening instead of all butter to help the cookies maintain their softness more. Be sure not to overbake and they'll be soft. Oh - and roll out onto parchment paper dusted with powdered suger instead of flour to prevent them from getting tough from too much flour. So yummy it's scary.

I also made kitty skeletons (don't judge me on anatomical accuracy, okay?) and various other Halloween-themed shapes. Yes, I had entirely too much fun making these.

These are a definite repeat performance, despite the time (and hand cramps!) involved in making them and decorating with white icing. P.S. I made a double batch of the recipe to produce as many cookies as you see here.

I finally got smart this year and asked other guests to bring some Halloween-themed goodies as well, and I'm so glad I did. Keva brought these adorable spider cupcakes - aren't they cute?

Another friend brought the RIP sandwiches, plus they brought mummy heads (BagelBites with olive bits for eyes and string cheese for the wraps) and breadstick bones, which I didn't get pictures of. I made Blood Punch complete with gummy worms (1 can frozen lemonade concentrate, 2 cans water, 1 package cherry Koolaid, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 large bottle of chilled ginger ale, and lots of ice. Plus the gummy worms, of course) which the kids got a big kick out of.