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jamie_mt

Do I Stay or Do I Go?

17 years ago

Greetings, all. :-)

Someone in the organizing forum suggested I might post some pictures of my Halloween decor here as I get it done, so she could see it. So I dropped in to "lurk" and see what people are posting here.

My word. I didn't really expect to drop in on a bunch of people just as addicted to tableware/serveware as me! And now I'm faced with a couple of quandries.

First, my Halloween decor is always themed for our annual costume party...but my hubby likes the...uh...scarier side of the holiday, so at least part of our decor is scary borderline gory (okay, 90% of it is meant to scare our guests, along with trick-or-treaters who drag thier parents back to our house year after year). Not sure if that really fits with the very elegant decor most of you are sharing (though I love all the pictures you have posted!). I don't want to offend anyone here...

Secondly, if I post here, I'm destined to read more...and that could lead to worsening my dish addiction...I haven't decided if that's a good thing or bad yet. ;-)

So we'll start with the easy question - Halloween pictures that contain potentially scary scenes (who knows how they'll translate to camera)...yeah or nay? I won't be offended either way, promise. I just don't want to offend anyone *else* - we do try to be careful of that, and I can keep the scarier stuff contained to my blog if it doesn't really belong here.

Back to looking around - I'm totally loving all the tablescapes you (collectively) have done!! :-)

Comments (11)

  • 17 years ago

    Yes, please do post your pictures. We have an annual Halloween party as well. This will be the fourth year. Every year I accumulate more stuff. But this year we have a theme. It will be Egyptian. We already have our costumes and are now working on the menu and extra decorations. I'll see what pictures I have that show some of the previous years' decor. Most of our pictures are of the guests.

  • 17 years ago

    Jamie, I had to change the subject line because I'd already posted. Here are some pictures from our past parties. Last year I made a gingerbread house from the Wilton kit. It turned out okay, but if I'd started it sooner, it would have looked better. It took a lot longer than I thought. I made chocolate mice the last two years using a great recipe I found on allrecipes.com. On the mantel I had a picture of us using an American Gothic photo I picked off the internet and then used Digital Image to paste our faces in. It turned out cute. The black cat has an ear in its mouth.








    Everyone, please post your Halloween pictures. I could use some new ideas. Our scarecrow and ghosts are getting a little tired looking. We've used them for at least 8 years now. We haven't decorated this year yet. Got to get the house pressure washed first.

  • 17 years ago

    OK Jeane,
    Give up the chocolate mice recipe! My kids and grandkids will love them. I must have that recipe!!
    Welcome Jamie. By all means, post the pics. We will tell you very nicely if the bounderies are crossed. Otherwise, we love pics of everything.
    Betty

  • 17 years ago

    Here is the link to the chocolate mice recipe. There are several pictures out there. Some are white mice. The best part is that they taste really good. I used half a mini tootsie roll for the tails. I microwaved it a few seconds and rolled it between my palms. I dusted them with cocoa powder for the fur. They were really a hit.
    http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Mice/Detail.aspx?prop31=5

  • 17 years ago

    Hey Jamie...good to see you over here!!!
    I think we would like to see your Hallowe'en decos...
    I can't imagine that scary would be all that unexpected...however if it's gory, I would entitle it that way, and persons such as myself could just slide on by :^)
    Then after Hallowe'en, it will be time for you to show us tablesetting pictures and THEN, it will be time for the wonderful Christmas stuff!!
    In between, you can give us (ME) lessons in how to organize and store all of this wonderous stuph!!
    Welcome!!

  • 17 years ago

    Hey, thanks for the warm welcome, and wonderful pictures too!!! Thanks for posting the links to the mice...that will work wonderfully for our party this year (Shipwrecked on Treasure Island - pirate theme)!! We've been trying hard to find inexpensive rats for the hold of our ship (our basement), but they all seem to be expensive for large ones. But chocolate mice for the dessert table (which is always downstairs) is a must! :-)

    I'll start posting this year's scenes tomorrow then, and just post to the same (new) thread as I go. I'll be decorating right up until just before our party on the 25th, so lots going on. :-) I hope you all will post your photos as you go too...I'm always looking for more ideas. We do Halloween like some people do Christmas...

    Here are some from last year - nothing gory here. Last year's theme was "The Academy of the Undead Zombie Awards Night". We all dressed up as "undead" movie stars, TV stars, or characters (James Dean & Marilyn Monroe were both in attendance - hubby and I were Walt & June Cleaver, and we even had Snow White and Prince Charming there). We generally are very "loose" with interpretations so everyone can find a costume easily. I hung metallic curtains in every doorway to make it kind of "awards like", and people took pictures in front of the cemetery arch (ironically, we never did get one of ourselves)...

    Our skeleton, dressed in an evening cape in the pool room:

    The TV room downstairs - it was a blacklight display, so we had all the regular bulbs replaced with blacklights, so the skeletons on the wall and all the webbing glowed:

    Our impromtu "bar" downstairs. I need a better way to organize this for this year - it was kind of a jumble last year:

    And our big Cemetery Arch...worked great for pictures last year. I need to customize it as an entrance to our "Treasure Island" this year:

    Tomorrow I'll start a new thread for this year's scenes... :-)

    Oh, and this stuff *was* sort of organized in our storage room until I started getting my village pieces out last weekend, and DH started digging for heads (we're creating a "hall of heads" this year). Now it's all a jumbled mess again - funny how quick that happens!

  • 17 years ago

    Welcome Jamie! It is so nice to have you join us and by the looks and sound of it, you have come to the right place - we love decorating our homes for holidays and have a passion for dishes and table accessories as you can see. Thanks for posting your Halloween party pics from last year - looks very creative. Great Cemetery curtain! I'm sure we will enjoy more from you this year.

    Jeane, thanks for posting your Halloween pics too - everything looks great - love the hands coming out of your black tablecloth!

    DD

  • 17 years ago

    Great pics from both of you Jaime and Jeane. You are both very creative. Thanks for sharing the mice recipe, I'm going to have to give that a try--little GD will love it!

    This is a "Holiday" forum, so your pics should fit right in. As Jaybird said, you might want to post the really "gory" ones on a separate post so any that might want to skip on by can. I know allot of people are really into decorating for Halloween. Lots of things in the stores to buy and lots of magazines with ideas too. It seems to be one holiday that the men really enjoy doing too.

    I'll be looking forward to seeing more pics as you finish up the decorating.

    Luvs

  • 17 years ago

    Welcome jamie_mt! We are thrilled to have you! I would love to see your photos. I love how far it has come in the stores for decorating for Halloween, there was not much when I was a child! (nothing like dating myself LOL)

  • 17 years ago

    I'm loving all your Halloween decs, Jamie! Keep them coming.
    Lynn

  • 17 years ago

    You both did a great job with decorating. I do have to try the mice. I think I will make them for my DD's class. I am sure kids will love those.