# Lovin' the Forum



## HeatherEve1234 (Sep 5, 2008)

So I'm really loving this forum, I've found so much inspiration my head is reeling, and it's great to be able to share ideas for stuff I will never actually do, be it for lack of time or lack of money. And I'm getting fired up about my party too. Last year was the first, I am the type of person who LOVES Halloween and always ended up doing something disappointing. 

One year we bought expensive tickets to a Halloween Ball, and it was clearly a clique and we were oddly outside of it. I had an awesome Toothfairy costume with blue hair and platform heels and a giant tooth wand...and "Carrie" won the costume contest. Should a "Carrie" ever win a costume contest? I admit it's a fun and easy costume, but how about some originality points?

Another year we went to a scary film festival, but the movies were awful and it was scarcely attended. The costume contest never even happened. Another bust. 

The most fun was a small club opening, at least we got to see some cool costumes and it was cheap drinks, but it was too crowded to see the burlesque show and I'm not really a dancer.

So, I decided to have my own party. I was worried because so many of my core friends lived in far off states, and I'm not especially social, so I didn't know if it would look lame and small, but I went for it. I did generic Halloween theme, papercrafted invites with rubber stamps, punches, and jewelled embelishments, and really put my effort into the theme food. I did all the kitschy stuff I could find - strawberries dipped in white chocolate to look like ghosts, gravestone brownies, mummy pizzas, cinnamon chip bats, etc. It was pretty chill, we had a fire pit in the back yard and food & bev inside, I decked the house out in orange lights, made curtains for the TONS of windows our house had all in different foil burn out Halloween prints, and got a bunch of Gore-traits on Ebay. 

I dressed as Medusa, which I really liked in theory, if not the final execution. I made an awesome tiara wiring plastic snakes to a headband and spraying it gold, a toga, gold sandals, and a giant gold snake wrapped around me. But I had skin cancer surgery the day before and it totally zapped me emotionally, not to mention I had huge green bandages on my forehead. I basically bailed on my own hair and makeup, so my costume was disappointing, but I still had fun. 

This year we bought a house with a really fun basement including a full wet bar, so I want to really play with the levels and get people moving through the house. I don't want to plan a lot of activities since I know people just won't want to do them, but just having people over to drink and chill and eat is fun too. I'm planning to invest in an ice luge for shots, that should be entertaining, and do more theme food again. 

I'm still working on planning out my decor (and budget - the harsh reality of Halloween, it's EXPENSIVE!) and I'm thinking I'll do a costume that is more simple but well done, as opposed to setting myself up for failure with something complicated. Bride of Frankenstein, or a dead 40's starlet would fit our "Hollywood Halloween" theme well and be easy enough to pull off. 

I sent out the STDs but I'm struggling with the invites...I have something put together and I was going to order cheap Vistaprint postcards (I've had such great luck with them before), but apparently my resolution isn't high enough (not usually a problem, I'm not sure if I somehow compressed my files). It has a Hitchcock illustration to stay with the theme. They are creative and slick looking, without blowing the budget - I'd rather spend my $$ and time on decor this year, not to mention F&B.


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