Halloween Catch-up

Matthew carved a beensy fairy-sized jack-o-lantern one afternoon in October. He was so delighted with it.

Then he tried to fit a candle inside. 

No candles were small enough.

Not to be deterred, he sawed a beensy birthday candle in half and stuck it inside. It worked so perfectly! 

It was the cutest little pumpkin of the season, and we enjoyed having it on our table for days. 

The week of Halloween was sure busy. 

One day we drove into town for the Halloween party at Nathan's work place. It's like a little carnival full of different games and activities for the children to enjoy. 

Sarah let me give her a quick face painting before we ran out the door. She really loves eye flare designs, and always chooses this type of pattern, no matter what the occasion is. This year her costume was a pretty witch. 

One of their favorite games this year was the cake walk. Joseph was so hilarious...he misunderstood the entire concept and spent the whole time walking circles around the same number over and over again. The funniest part of the ordeal was his body language- he was so confident and sure that he was right! 

He'd sit down by the same number each time, until Sarah or Matthew called him over to share their spot. Then he would scamper over to join them until the music turned on again, then he'd go straight back to his favorite number and start carefully walking tight circles again. 

Another favorite game was the costume race. Contestants had to run across a sandy volleyball court to the opposite end where a table was loaded with various costume pieces. They had to put on the costume element and race back to the starting line. Daniel really loved this game more than the others, and played it repeatedly. He was often laughing so hard that he couldn't run well, so he usually lost. He was a great sport about it all and had a great time. 

After watching several rounds from the sidelines, Joseph decided to join in the middle of one race. Here was the costume piece he chose to run with:

Joseph's favorite game was bowling with pumpkins. Little ghosts were knocked over by carefully-aimed pumpkins. Joseph thought this was such a clever game, and he begged to play it again. 

Matthew really loved getting his hair colored (even though the paint smelled terrible) and was so proud to wear it all day. 

This is my old fairy costume....it's way too poofy for my tastes. 

The next day was our Ward Trunk-or-Treat and Chili Cook-off. We had such wonderful time spending the evening with good friends, playing more carnival games, and walking the children past all the decorated cars for the trunk-or-treat. 

We were delighted to have a friend from school and her mother join us for the evening. Daniel and Matthew were worried that their friend wouldn't have enough candy, so they both generously gave her half of their loot at the end of the evening. She was thrilled, and the boys were pleased. 

The following day was our neighborhood hay ride. 

Since we live in an equestrian neighborhood where most homes have livestock gates across the driveway, it is pretty difficult to trick-or-treat here. The home owners organize a massive hay ride each year to accommodate around 75 resident children and visiting grandchildren. 

Several trucks pull four or five long-bed trailers which are stocked with hay bales for plenty of seating. They line up and make a slow parade progressing through the sprawling neighborhood. It's such fun! 

Home owners sign up in advance to host a stop on the hayride route, so the trailers know which houses will be passing out treats. The ride starts after sundown and lasts a couple of hours even though there are only about 10 stops. 

At many stops the families pass out fully stocked goody-bags instead of just one piece of candy, so our kids get the same amount of candy as their city friends collect. Some houses create spook alleys to explore, others have crackling campfires or music. It's such fun and the children all really look forward to it every year. We feel so blessed to live in this neighborhood! 

The events were all such fun and we really appreciated all the volunteers who put them together. 

I was very busy working all weekend. It sure is the busy season for body artists, but I was thankful for the gigs. I was booked for a 12-hour work day the Saturday before Halloween. It was quite a tight schedule rushing from one party to the next, but I was blessed to make it to all my commitments with plenty of time to spare. 

In the morning I was hired for a fairy party. My client had decorated their tree house like a fairy home, and it looked so whimsical and full of magic. When I arrived, she asked me to set up my face painting station IN the tree house so she could tell her young guests that I lived up in the tree. It was such an interesting idea, although I am nervous about heights. The tree house was pretty little (only about 4 feet by 4 feet), so it was a bit tricky figuring out how to fit my supplies, myself, and the guests. Luckily we managed, although I had to sit cross-legged and lean waaaay over to reach my facial canvases. The little girls would arrive at the party, receive wings and wands, then climb up to my 'house' to get fairy masks painted on. While they were being painted, I told them animated tales about my fairy life painting patterns on butterfly wings. The girls were enthralled and were convinced I was a real fairy, so I really enjoyed weaving tales for them about my fantastical adventures. By the end of 2 hours my back was super relieved to be done!

I flew across the metro area as quickly as I could and made it to my next gig in good time- which I was truly grateful for. I had been so worried that traffic would make me late. This was my biggest party of the year, and this client is always very particular about the details in her events.

I've been an entertainer for this lady for 4 years, doing her huge annual Halloween bashes and an extravagant Bat Mitzvah. She seldom hires event workers more than once, due to her high expectations of performance and service. She's usually disappointed with SOMETHING that is overlooked or neglected by her hired help, so they aren't asked to return. Luckily I've always had her approval each year, so I keep coming back. 

The Halloween Bash is filled with hundreds of guests, half a dozen catering companies, dozens of carnival games, live music, prizes at every turn, valet parking, private security teams, and plenty of amusements like laser tag, miniature golf, rock climbing walls, bungee jumps, and human hamster balls...all nestled nicely in one private estate. I will admit, it boggles my mind. It is such a fun gig to work!

This year I brought a bag full of magic tricks to add to my body art station. Any time my line dwindled down to nothing, I'd pull out tricks and start entertaining the guests who were near me. I never sat down or took a break for food (although the variety of gourmet meals, appetizers, and desserts was so tempting!) and always make it a point to be busy, hoping it makes me a valuable contribution to her event planning for future gigs. My magic performances were noticed when she strolled through the courtyard, and she tipped me very generously afterwards- what a fun blessing that was!

I came home very tired from the long day, but very pleased. My paychecks for the day were enough to cover our upcoming Christmas expenses, so I felt very blessed indeed that I had the opportunity to work hard all day. 

Halloween itself fell on a weekday this year. After so many parties this month, our family opted for a quiet Halloween at home. We ordered pizza and enjoyed watching "Monsters University" together until bedtime. 

Halloween birthday with lots of blood

Nathan's birthday is in October. When he was a kid, he thought Halloween was his own special holiday. 

This year we wanted to celebrate with a spooky date night, similar to our perfectly spooky date a few years ago. For that date we went to a historical cemetery to watch an outdoor performance of Hamlet under a full moon. That's hard to beat.

After dining at a great Italian restaurant with some dear friends, we all headed to a live play performed by The Baron's Men in Austin, a local theater group that performs Elizabethan plays true to their historical origins. 

The setting was naturally spooky. The theater is built on  private property, so the journey there was unusual. We followed a narrow road carved through craggy hillsides and winding through the sprawling estate. 

As we drove through the grounds, we passed signs stating, "Turn right for the carriage house" or "Turn left for the castle" and "Turn here for the village" or "Go straight for the theater".

 Seriously? What kind of place was this?

The theater was nestled under some majestic trees, near the lake shore bordering the estate. Torches lit the parking areas and costumed ushers collected our tickets. We could hear the bats flying overhead as the night darkened and shadows deepened around us. 

The theater was a replica of Shakespeare's original Globe Theater, with balconies surrounding an intimate stage. The setting was magical in its own way, making me wish I was dressed in historical clothing.

 Here is the view of the theater seating. 

The play itself was perfect for Halloween. It was a collection of over a dozen of spooky scenes collected from the writings of the Elizabethan era or earlier. 

Shakespeare's dark scenes were there: Hamlet's paternal ghost haunted the stage, MacBeth's cackling witches danced around their smoking cauldron, and Othello's murderous deeds filled the stage with screams. We were enthralled with Beowolf's classic battle with Grendel the dragon and witch curses cast in their original Norse language.

I love the contagious energy that  radiates from a live stage performance! It's so magical and captivating. We really enjoyed the acting (even though I admit it was too violent for me...I prefer non-murderous entertainment. One Greek play was performed where everyone on stage was stabbed to death in a frenzied bloodbath. Yuck!).

 The costumes were breathtaking and the special effects were disturbing, especially with the rampant murder scenes where everyone onstage dies of stab wounds. 

Nathan's friend is Austin's reigning expert on creating fake blood. He supplies all the haunted houses and stages in Austin with blood that he makes at home. It's crazy realistic...disturbingly so. 

Anyway, he had free tickets to the play and gave them to us. 

(Thanks again, Edwin!)

Ever wonder how to make fake blood? Are you itching to make your own? See Edwin's tutorial video for making professional stage blood here:

How-to do a Halloween face painting

With Halloween just around the corner, I wanted to share a fun spooky face painting video I made with my sister last year.

It's always hard to find feminine costumes that stand out from the parade of fairies and princesses that inundate town every year. (I admit, it's SO FUN to dress up as royalty or mystical creatures....and yes, I have a princess gown, elf costume, and fairy wings hanging in my closet.) I'm a nonconformist at heart....so I don't often want to blend in with all the other same old costume ideas.

Here is a unique face paint pattern that perfect for Halloween. It is a spooky skeletal/butterfly pattern. I did it in a video so you can see how to paint it yourself. Accompany this face with a cute black dress and -VIOLA!- the best costume ever.

Even though I used professional paints, anyone could imitate this pattern with eye shadow for the background colors and a good liquid eyeliner for the black and white lines.

Here is a picture of the final product:

Good luck with your creation!

Halloween face painting ideas

Just in time for Halloween! Here are some of my favorite Halloween face painting ideas.

Try painting a spooky pumpkin pattern like this one. This one can be made using eyeshadows as the background and a good liquid eyeliner for the black pattern. You don't have to have high-quality face paints to get good results on some of these patterns.

Princesses don't need face paints, right? Wrong! 

I love adding a face painted masquerade mask to a princess costume. 

Can skull paintings still be feminine? Kinda sorta. This was my attempt at making a 'girly skull'. 

It's fun to paint exposed muscle tissue for an interesting costume.  There is supposed to be an illusion of skin stretched across the face and stapled in place over the exposed facial muscles. This one is a bit tricky, and I'm not very good at it. I still need practice on this one.

Even fairies can add face paint for a colorful twist to their costume. 

I love painting eye masks. 

Masks compliment almost any outfit and make a great costume addition.

This is a mask I wore with an elf costume.

This one was painted entirely with eye shadow and eyeliner.

Abstract patterns are my favorite. It's SO FUN, like doodling on someone's face.

A tiger mask is super easy to paint. I like this stylized tiger pattern.

Here is a different abstract painting. 

Almost any kind of swirls will look great if you use two or more colors in your pattern.

Butterfly patterns are the most popular requests I get. Here is the standard butterfly face painting.

For a more elegant, adult look I shrink the butterfly and make it into an eye accent. This picture was taken at a sorority prom night. The pattern complimented her formal gown nicely.

This is my favorite butterfly pattern. It's a spooky butterfly. My daughter calls it an evil butterfly. We morphed  elements of a skull with the butterfly mask. Isn't it perfect for Halloween?

I made a video of how to paint this pattern. 

You can watch the time-lapse video of this pattern here.

See more of my face paint patterns here and here.

Have a beautiful day!

Halloween round-up

The week of Halloween is normally one of the busiest of the year for me. I feel like I've just jumped a huge hurdle, and I welcome November with open arms. There is simply too much to say about my past week, so I'll try to summarize and thus spare you the details that would run on too long, much like this sentence.

We had so much fun with our costumes this year. I never buy costumes new- it's so expensive. I also like the creative element in hunting out costume pieces in thrift stores. Sarah chose to be a beautiful witch, and she loved the face painting pattern we did on her. Her favorite part of the costume was the sparkly black tights. Very cute.

Matthew chose to be a vampire, and he LOVED the red-lined cape. His favorite part were the vampire teeth, and indispensable part of the attire.

Daniel asked me for a bed sheet with eye holes cut into it. He was so sweet and  particular in wanting the bedsheet ghost outfit, but I thought he'd get frustrated when the eye-holes moved. I found a great ghost costume that he really loved. The little tendrils would trail on the ground behind him, adding to the ethereal look.

I finally had the chance to wear the ball gown that has been haunting my closet for months. It was really fun. I wore a gold necklace pinned to my head in place of a crown. It was so fun to stroll around arm-in-arm with Nathan. We had several people ask for pictures- even little girls wanting a shot with Beauty and the Beast. It was really fun.

It is a tradition for our family to eat out at a restaurant after attending his work Halloween party. We love Tex-Mex food, so we went to Chuy's (if you ever visit this area, you simply must try out this restaurant, particularly the Chuychanga!). It is so fun to be dressed up in public. More people asked for pictures at the restaurant, and Nathan obliged.

The next day was our ward party. (A ward is what we call a congregation in our church.) I was on the Activities Committee, so I took the children up to the church early to help set up for the party. The children were in heaven- the bouncy house obstacle course was already set up when we arrived, so they played on it all by themselves for 2 hours while the adults decorated and set up tables. It was the perfect setup- I had been worried that they would be bored.

Unfortunately I don't have pics from the ward party since I couldn't find my camera. There were several carnival games with prizes. The tick-or-treat doors game I made was pretty popular for the tiny children that were too young for the other games. Nathan wired up sound effects for each doorbell. The monster mansion had rattling chains, creaking doors, monster moans, and ghost wailing. The witches house had bubbling cauldrons, screeching cats, and a cackling witch laugh. The Pumpkin Fairy's home had chimed doorbells and magical wand sounds. The graveyard had owls hooting, ravens calling, wolf howls, and wind whistling through the trees. It was so much fun!

I had been a bit stressed before the party since I had been sick earlier in the week and didn't get everything prepared that I was supposed to. We were in charge of baking prizes for the chili cook-off and pumpkin carving contest- but we ran out of flour. I couldn't make pumpkin bread, and didn't have time to let a pumpkin pie set before the party, so in desperation I pulled out a couple loaves of homemade bread from our freezer. (We make 4 loaves of bread twice a week. I freeze them until we are ready to use them, since they don't have any preservatives.) I wrapped them and topped them with bows of raffia. I was surprised that the winners were excited about the bread. I had thought they might be disappointed. I was very flattered that they were so enthusiastic about taking home Kingsley Bread.

The trunk-or-treat was so much fun for the children. I was so glad they had the chance to trick-or-treat. We didn't go trick-or-treating this year on Halloween since it fell on a Sunday. Instead we had a festive dinner with fun foods. We had a family join us and we made bean dip with spider webs piped on top with sour cream, cheese fondue with bread and veggies for dipping, and pizzas dressed like little mummies. The drink was really fun- it was like swamp slime with fish eggs in the bottom. The eggs were tapioca pearls that had been boiled with food coloring. They looked exactly like caviar. It was really fun to eat it! Our friends made Jello blood worms, which were a big hit.

On Saturday I had worked most of the day painting for a private party hosted by a mulit-millionaire. It was my first time in such a house. This was the biggest party I've ever seen- a full size carnival for the guests. There were bungee-jumping, rockclimbing, giant hamster balls to run in, laser tag, giant video games, bouncy houses, and a full collection of a dozen real carnival games with prizes. The catering was amazing, and it was fun to have my car parked by the valet. Can I just say that the costumes were out of this world? There is too much to share all my impressions of this party. I had prepared myself for spoiled kids with a huge sense of entitlement, but I was delightfully surprised. All the children were very courteous and well-spoken. It was actually the best gig I have ever worked. There weren't lines, so I was able to take the time to make the patterns amazing. A lot of adult women wanted to be painted- and those are always my very favorite clients. It was SO fun, and I hope I will be called back again next year. There was only one drawback- I couldn't hand out any of my personal business cards, since this booking was procured through my agent. I could only hand out his card. What a bummer. There were so many people asking for my information at this gig- and they would be fantastic clients. Ah well.

Halloween party- posted a few days late

This year we decided to host a Halloween fest with some friends. It's simply not enough to attend a ward Trunk-or-Treat/Carnival, a neighborhood party, and a family party at Nate's company. We must prolong the holiday as much as possible! We need more sugar-highs and late nights. Really though, we need more days to dress up. There is a woefully inadequate shortage of days when mature adults can dress up to their hearts' content without garnering disapproving glances from society.

We planned out a fun party full of activities like eating donuts from strings, wrapping mummies with toilet paper, Halloween Bingo, and finding prizes inside a giant spider web maze. We also planned fun festive foods like mummy dogs, spider chip dip, crispy bat wings, and witch's brooms(my favorite).

Nathan was really excited because a friend of mine (a fellow entertainer) let us borrow his fog machine for  the weekend. He was so excited to set this up in our front room for the trick-or-treaters.

I had meticulously kept my day unscheduled so I had all morning/afternoon to set up for the party.

Unfortunately, my booking agent called this week and said, "Lifetime Fitness is having their big party on Halloween day and they specifically requested to have you be there. PLEASE tell me you're available!" Erg. This is a long-time client of mine so I couldn't really say 'no'. These are usually the type of parties that run for 3-4 hours (which equals a nice paycheck) and are very well-organized and relatively low-stress to work. The problem is that the party was scheduled to end only an hour before my party at home starts.
Double erg.

The gig itself was also more stressful than usual BECAUSE it was Halloween day. Everyone wanted their kids to have the BEST face painting ever so they could wear it to their costume contests, other parties, and trick-or-treating that night. A lot of kids would pick something simple, like hearts, but the parents would say 'No, you don't want that! Get a full cat face to match your costume tonight!" or "Show her a picture of your other costume that you'll be wearing, let's have her match the patterns on the fabric!"or "Get something big that people will see tonight!" As a result, the line was massively long and people were sneaking in line even after I cut off the end of the line.

*Quick rant* I really hate to send people away when it's time for me to leave. I feel like a criminal. All the kids have been hoping to get painted and they are so crushed when they are turned away. That's definately the worst part of my job. A mother had cut in line even after I explained 3 times that the people in front of her were my last customers. She said she would wait anyway and she told her daughter they would get painted. I felt so bad, but I really had to leave since I was already 10 minutes past my end time. I explained "I have told you 3 times that the line is ended, I'm sorry you waited in line, but I REALLY have to leave." The lady wasn't happy with me and the little girl was crying. It made me frustrated at the mother for getting her daughter's hopes up like that when I had clearly explained the situation. I felt terrible. *end rant*

Nathan and Sarah worked the entire time I was gone and they cleaned up the house and made all the food and drinks. I learned that setting up the giant spider web was way more work than I expected, but it did look very cool. We filled the living room full of yard strands weaving back and forth and I hid prizes at the ends of the strings. Each child took a string from the starting point and followed it through the room, climbing over or under other web strands as they searched for their prize. It was really fun and the kids liked it.

The definite favorite was eating the donuts off the string. We used powdered donuts, which added to the fun. The children loved looking at their faces after each round so they could see the mess. We played this game several times since everyone wanted to repeat it.

The mummy wrap was fun, but the little kids lost interest after 3 minutes and the bigger kids finished it up. After that the children just played on the trampoline and with the chickens (but not at the same time). It's surprising how much fun it is to chase a flock of chickens, catch one, and pet it's soft feathers. I think some of our friends played in the chicken 'pasture' for over 20 minutes.

Dinner was delicious...everyone brought fall foods. There was a delicious assortment of festive food that made it a feast. Nathan and Blake made a 'witch's brew' with dry ice and sherbet and Sprite. We learned that dry ice freezes the thick protective plastic table top and actually warps it. Luckily it went flat again as it warmed up.

It was so fun to spend time with friends that we see far too rarely.  One of our pregnant home school friends delivered her baby three days ago and she still came to our party! I told her she was not allowed to leave the rocking chair and we gave her a brass bell to ring whenever she needed food or drink. It was so fun to see their beautiful baby!

By the end of the party we started receiving our first trick-or-treaters. After our friends all left, we decided that we did not want to actually go trick-or-treating. We were such humbugs that I decided not to give out candy either (even though we had bags of it for this purpose). I just wanted to have quiet time and be with my family. I turned off all the lights and we put on a movie and the kids had fun sorting their candy, counting it, and making a chart measuring their treasure.

We picked out any candies that would work well for a gingerbread house in December and put that all in a bag in the pantry. Then the children ate whatever candy they wanted. Anything left over was put in a bowl by the front door for the Pumpkin Fairy. The Pumpkin Fairy comes at night to take away the candy and leave prizes in the bowl. Sarah and Matthew woke up in the middle of the night and snuck downstairs with their glow sticks to see if they could catch the fairy. They had planned out this adventure very carefully and were so excited to tell me all about it in the morning!

They all received new character toothbrushes (they always love this in particular since they get the 'fun' toothbrushes with favorite cartoons on them, or battery-operated toothbrushes that vibrate) and new books. We really enjoyed reading Matthew's new book as a family. He received "Mr Popper's Penguins". On Sunday afternoon Nathan read it out loud for almost an hour while everyone listened and cuddled.