Halloween

               Halloween is my favorite. 

               Especially this year’s Halloween. I can say, with no ego, that it was epic. I have been itching to design/decorate for a while now, and I found that I had the time to put together a house party.  I knew I could pull together the Gothic or Victorian look with a lot of things I already had and I didn't want to invest in a lot of your typical Halloween props.  So, I decided to base the theme around The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

               And as you will probably be able to tell from the pictures, I had WAY too much fun.  :) 

               While I’m not big on broadcasting my life onto the interwebs, I wanted to post this so that it’s available for other people to use as inspiration.  I borrowed a lot of ideas and was able to get inspired by a lot of brilliant people out there who were kind enough to share their awesomeness with the internet, so I’d like to return the favor. 

Specimen Jars

               To start: the invitations.  A simple vial filled with candies and a tea-stained scroll invitation in a little box.  They didn't break the bank, and people love getting packages!  Plus, it’s probably the only party I’ll ever throw where I can send all these boxed invites via MPS. 

               Decorating was time-consuming.  I hung cheesecloth strips from the ceiling throughout the house to try and get that abandoned house feel.  Buying loose-weave cheesecloth in bulk is probably the best Halloween investment I've ever made: it’s durable, there are tons of applications for it, it can go with a lot of themes, and Halloween stores really overcharge for “creepy cloth”.  Most of the decor was from thrift shops or the Daiso (dollar store). 

               My artist friend was kind enough to draw on the mirror with dry-erase markers and I scribbled in some quotes from the book.  The duality of human nature and the internal struggle of good and evil desires in man was a big theme in the book… though I’m probably the only one who read it. 

               We converted a spare bedroom into a beer pong room.  It was a good choice. 

               In our study we set up a camera on a tripod and hung a black sheet to make a photo booth. So easy, and I think this was the most popular thing at the party!  We ended up with hundreds of photos and as the night progressed, they got more and more bizarre… looking through them the next morning was a real treat.

               I put out a game called Tempt Your Fate to keep people entertained.  You put a bunch of good and bad ‘fates’ on paper slips into a fishbowl and let people draw throughout the party, whenever they’d like.  Mostly they were bad fates, which require you to complete a task, which is usually pretty silly.  I put in some small prizes and told everyone there would be a grand prize for whoever ended the night with the most fate cards.  This ended up being unnecessary.  People love getting the bad fates just for the fun of it!  No one got competitive over the grand prize and after I ran out of cards, I put some paper and a pen out for people to write their own bad fates to add themselves.  A lot of times I find that party games fall flat, but this one is a keeper!  Nothing like people running outside to howl at the moon, or seeing one poor friend who had to spend a good chunk of time in character as a zombie trying to bite everyone. 

               As for the menu, I wanted to keep it themed so I cooked up some British treats.  Among other things, I served some mini Yorkshire puddings, mini Cornish pasties, and cream scones with lemon curd.  You could get a lot more adventurous with British fare for Halloween (eel pie, anyone?) but I played it pretty safe.  The only pinFAIL: glass (sugar) blood slides.  They ended up looking like a mess.  I think the recipe online included too much corn syrup....

               Putting the bar together was really where I got to be creative.  In the book, all it takes is the sip of a certain tincture and the civilized, sober exterior of Jekyll falls away, revealing the very ungentlemanly Hyde.  How better to stay true to the theme than going all-in with chemistry-inspired drinks to get the party going?  I already had some chemistry drink ware, and the small bottles were from Saveoncrafts.com.

In the test tubes we poured Brain Hemorrhages (they look disgusting).

A lot of the bottles I put in an ice-bath in glass baking pans, and I made some vintage-y labels to put on them.  This setup was great because I didn't have to spend all night mixing drinks! I also made some Petri dish jello shots which were a hit.  If you take some food coloring or heavy cream and poke it into half-formed jello with a toothpick, it really looks like something is growing in there! 

        

          I wish I could take credit for these awesome photos but a friend helped me out with that one.  I keep telling myself that someday I am going to master that camera.  It was a ton of work to set up but I loved every minute of it, and I had a really great time with everyone who came out.  I almost forgot to mention the costumes – my husband was Jekyll and I was Hyde.  Just took a little eye-makeup to make me look a bit evil.  Anyways, that’s all.  Happy Halloween!