Halloween Party 2010, Part One

Well, I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and blog about our costume party on October 30th, which was also a birthday party to celebrate Erik and my 40th birthdays (I turned 40 on Oct 21 and Erik will be 40 tomorrow!)
We had a wonderful time and the party was great! As always, I wished to take more pictures, but I was so busy during the whole of it that I didn't get much of a chance to do so!
I did take quite a few while I was setting up, however!

A couple of weeks back I showed two new pieces of antique furniture we picked up at an estate sale (or I should say, my mother-in-law did!) Click HERE to see that post. I did not take a picture of the third piece we also got at the same estate sale, because it was actually still in our garage until last week!
So here it is, finally:

It's a spinet piano, circa 1939. I'll have to take a few more photos of it after I get the Halloween decor off of it!

It came in handy for holding a cauldron of treat bags for my party guests.

I made the treat bag tops using card stock, paper and stamps from my stamping supplies. I'm such a fan of Halloween that I have many Halloween stamps, of course!

Some of the treat bags had cookies instead of candy.

Olive decided that this spot was going to be her most favorite cat hang out place in the house. It's not often that one can get a live cat to become part of their spooky vignette!

E.B. wasn't quite sure what to think of the large piece of strange new furniture in the house. As an elderly gent of 13 and on the shy side, he opted to spend most of the evening in our room. No party animal is he!

We set up the silver punch bowl and cups on the sideboard.

A ring of roses, crawling with bugs gave it just the right spooky effect!

We set up the 'full bar' on the kitchen table. I later added even more booze to this table and also a tray of garnishes for the drinks (cherries and lemon, lime and orange wedges). Our featured drink for the evening was a 'Halloween Sunset' (white rum, orange juice, topped with grenadine).

Fun cocktail napkins.......

Wine and wine glasses were on the kitchen counter. I also had a large galvanized tub of ice for beer, bottled water and soda in the kitchen, but I forgot to take a picture!

These fun wine labels I bought last year. I put them on the backside of the bottle, so that if you turned the bottle around you could still read the real label. I placed them on a large faux silver charger, surrounded by glittery skeleton parts.

I also made a cute sign for the sideboard to tell guests what they would be drinking from the punch bowl. Ghoul-Ade!! It was green and foamy looking and delicious! It can be made with or without alcohol. I made it non-alcoholic since we had several guests who do not drink.

Some of my favorite "spooky" books made their appearance in the living room.This one I bought for Erik a few years ago at an old bookstore that was housed in an old canning factory office. It has illustrations by Edward Gorey, whose drawings I absolutely love.

Conversations with Mummies................a great book! Erik bought this for me after we saw an Egyptian exhibit at the Milwaukee Museum a few years ago. I love to read about Ancient Egypt and have many books about it.

And Wisconsin Death Trip......I can't even really explain what this book is....but it's been a favorite of mine for years.

Our 1916 Mandel phonograph is open and ready.............

And Martha stares back at me grimly as I survey the parlour in the afternoon sunlight..........

Olive posted herself on the chair for awhile as I moved about the house. (Actually, she was sneakily trying to play with the 'Caution' tape that you can see behind her.) There is a very large air exchange in the floor there, with a wooden cover. People have often made the mistake of standing on it (and it's not made to stand on), so this year I thought it would be cute to use the 'Caution' tape over it.

My pumpkins, both real and fake, are set out on the porch. Can you tell which one is the fake one? (Hint: it's on top of a plant stand) I always wait to carve my pumpkins until only a couple of days before Halloween because they stay fresher and look nicer that way.

Our scary flying skeleton angel is still hovering around..........

A full view of the porch display in daylight. Can you see the ghoul in the window, upper left??

A closer view of my pumpkins. The funkin on the plant stand with the giddy grin I did about three years ago. The other two are real and I carved them using those cool templates you can buy in  stores.

For this one I just carved a crazy face! I also carved two little pumpkins for the back porch.

The photo kept coming out blurry for some reason....I had these two little guys on the back porch and some votive candles. I also had votives on the front porch as well; I will show the night time pictures another day.

Thanks for stopping by!
Stay tuned for more pictures of the party and all the food!