Fall Fun

It has been awhile since I have posted a blog entry. Life got in the way. Work seems to perpetually pour from my pores. This summer included attendance at two conferences, some small family trips, and very little time at home. Now the summer is concluding and here we are with Fall fast approaching. So this week we have been cleaning out our apartment and putting our lives back in order.

This morning I decorated our hallway tree. Yes, originally it was a Christmas tree purchased many years ago. Now it is a permanent fixture in our hall. It had American flags on it for the 4th of July. I had intended to put sunglasses on it for summer. But that never materialized. It feels good to have it decorated again today. Acorns, pinecones, fall leaves now mix in with the evergreen branches. Looking forward to the preparations for Halloween. That decorating "magic" is back in my spirit. Check back in a few more weeks to see what we "conjure" up for the festivities.

Mummy Moments

So this year's Halloween party theme was a little hard to "wrap" my head around. The husband decided we should be mummies for our Halloween costumes. "Sure, honey!" and then the wheels began to turn. What can I use for decorations. I checked around online. I found lots of cute ideas. But many would have been too scary for the neighbor children. Halloween should be fun not produce tears. So I grappled with ideas until I saw a picture online of a white mummy on a black background with a silver pumpkin in the foreground. Bingo! Black, silver, and white and mummy would be the inspiration for the party decor. So the searching, shopping, planning and developing began. I did however find some mummy kitchen aprons. I tied them to the front porch railing. I think they worked. I wrapped $1 pumpkin trick-or-treat containers with white duck tape, and crepe paper.

At our local Target, I found a $1 mummy pose-able cutout decoration. At that price I had to grab a few. So one was hung in our hallway from the stair railing. And one was hung on the coat hook by the door. At the local dollar store, $1 Zone, I found white and silver chevron cups. I purchased a package of silver, a package of black, and a package of white dinner plates. Stacked them in an alternating pattern. I love doing this. It looks pretty and you know if you'd picked up two plates by mistake more easily then if you stack all the same color. Also at Target they had black polka-dot, white polka-dot, and orange polka-dot burlap pennant banners. However, orange did not fit my decor scheme. But they were $2 each (one string of alternating colored pennants.) So I brought home a silver sharpie from work and colored over all the orange ones with silver. From a distance they look just fabulous.  At our local Marshall's, they had some beautiful silver and black polka-dotted burlap runners.  I covered our square tables with black dollar store tablecloths. The runners then sat on top to accent them. Round tables with dollar store black tablecloths had old silver curtains folded as if they were runners down the middle.

I went through our storage tubs. Found our black pumpkins from previous parties. Located every basket I could find. Draped them in cheesecloth meshing and created a yummy candy buffet. What is a Halloween party without trick-or-treating?! At the dollar store I also found treat boxes decorated like probably white versions of Frankenstein. They blended in perfectly. Possibly my favorite piece were mummy candles I found at Marshall's. A great embellishment for the candy buffet table. At a Family Dollar while on a little road trip I found gift boxes that were decorated like mummy faces. I took off the lids and filled them with tissues. Perfect for anyone that needs a facial tissue.

I admit as people texted, emailed, or called to say that they couldn't make the party this year I lost my oomph. I would have liked to have made a mummified hotdogs and a mummy cheesespread... The fettuccine alfredo I did make became gummy while I worked on wrapping us both up in Mummy garb. So I opted for chips, dip, and pizza instead.

Here are few photos:

"MARVEL"-ous Halloween

The summer seemed to speed past our eyes quicker than the speed of light (fading daylight apparently that is). The warm summer days give way to cool autumn nights. As we dig out the blankets, jackets, urgh real shoes, it is time to admit that Fall is upon us. I loathe saying goodbye to flip-flops (well at work anyway). They still adorn my feet for grocery getting. But still my more rational side must admit - It's Fall.

Fete Avec Moi

The few highlights of the Fall are the return of pumpkin infused everything! Muffins, donuts, coffee, even macaroni and cheese, and pancakes now get a little touch of pumpkin. Bring on the yum. And once I begin enjoying the Halloween Captain Crunch, you know it is time to begin thinking about Halloween. Well for normal people. I've been thinking about Halloween since the early summer. Deciding on our costume theme takes priority. Then that leads to our decoration theme. And then that leads to our Halloween theme. And voila the magic begins.
I was a good girl for the neighbors. I decorated just the upstairs hallway at the beginning of October. I didn't go marching in all barrels blazing with festivities. But now that it is time, yep I had fun.

Fete Avec Moi

Fete Avec Moi

The second weekend in October was the perfect spot on the calendar to break out this year's decorations for the front walkway. My husband teases me that if I do this much with just an apartment stoop and walkway, things will probably be quite amazing when we have storage and decoration real estate.  So since we are dressing as characters from The X-men I started planning X-men themed ideas. But then somewhere along the way I remembered wait X-men started as that great MARVEL comic book series that i loved.

So MARVEL lead me to super heroes. Which had me tie blue and yellow (wolverine colors) with masks and capes and then the web searches began. So during the summer the hunt for MARVEL (no I'm specific not DC - so no Superman, no Wonder Woman, no Batman, etc.) kids costumes began. I had this picture in my mind of several costumes hanging on the front step railings. I wanted child sized costumes as I didn't want them to be too scary for neighborhood children.

Walmart has a great selection of children's dress up clothes (wasn't really costume season yet). But if you get creative and explore the Clearance racks, you will be surprised what you can find. I found a Spiderman mask and pant set on sale for $6.00 in the clearance bin. It was missing the shirt but okay. So while visiting a friend in Pennsylvania I found a red shirt. Outfit complete. At the BigLots in CT I found an ironman costume. In Vermont on vacation I found a few more decorations. On a weekend away we visited the PEZ tourist center. Guess what they had? MARVEL Pez dispensers. Of course we had to snap them up for prizes. On the drive home we stopped at a Christmas Tree Store and found an Incredible Hulk costume. Then it was time to wait. Search online. Complete our costumes. Curate ideas for our annual Halloween fun.

Fete Avec Moi

Then finally after sitting on my hands long enough this past weekend it was time to decorate. In my searches I found several adorable pictures of wall art scenes that could be used for photo-ops. My friends seem to really enjoy participating with these when they are visiting. So I just had to recreate something similar as: sample one and sample two for our hallway.

After Halloween of course I will have more to share. But I don't want to ruin all the fun for our guests. Hope you will check back after Halloween to see the additional updates.

Garlic Onion Chicken Soup

Today is first weekend in October. Time to accept that the Fall Season is truly here. Started the afternoon with some Halloween decorating. [Blog post to come soon on this topic.] Settled in with some pumpkin coffee and some Nook magazines. Dinner was the remainder of a rotisserie chicken purchased earlier in the week, some mashed potatoes, and broccoli.  Than I had an idea. Why not make some nice chicken soup for next week?! Placed my minced onion and safflower oil (my new favorite) in the pot. Tossed in my chicken left overs. Reached for my chicken broth (I usually have on my shelf). Small problem, no broth container waiting for me. Urgh, time to restock the shelves with stock. But I did find the last half on envelope of Onion soup mix from the last time I made dip. Well worth a try...  Added water. Cooked away. Added minced garlic, cinnamon, Herbs de Provence, lemon pepper, and garlic pepper. The apartment was quickly filled with the most delicious aromas. Another light bulb lit over my head. I have Ronzoni Pasta Portions (small servings of pasta in 3 minute boil in bags). I added a bag to the soup. Let it cook for 3 minutes, covered. Removed the lid and enjoyed the sweet spicy smells. Drained the pasta and added it to the soup. Yummy, I admit. Felt I needed to share my discovery. Grabbed my camera phone and clicked a quick picture so I could add this to my blog. Hope someone else enjoys this tip when you don't have chicken stock readily available.