Fall Party!

Some Jack O' Lanterns I made. Templates here.

I want to get this out there before Thanksgiving is over and the world prepares for Christmas!
My extracurricular activities (such as updating this blog) have been seriously hampered by the fact that I am now in school. I am studying Graphic Design at the Art Institute AND continuing my full time job. I am definitely excited for Christmas break!!!

I had a fall costume party and wanted to share some of the decorations I made.
My goal was to make it fun and fall but not Halloween-ey. I found this styled shoot and that was it!

Unfortunately, I was so focused on getting my costume together after school and before the party that I didn't get very great pictures of the set up.

Here are the shots from the styled shoot by Love Me Sailor, Mr. Caballero, and Geronimo Balloons in L.A. originally posted by 100 Layer Cake.

I mean. Beautiful right?!

I ordered one chocolate brown and one orange 30" balloon from balloonsfast.com and these gold foil baking cups, borrowed all of my mom's silver serving dishes, and decided to make everything else for the decor.

I plan to write up a tutorial for the balloon tassels soon and will link it here.

I had orange crush to drink with gold pipe cleaner curls, some beautiful french macaroons that I found at Trader Joe's, a tassel garland made from gold ribbon and tissue paper tassels, a silver bowl of clementines, and Gluten Free chocolate cupcakes (this recipe but with GF all purpose flour) with salted caramel buttercream icing (this recipe with coarse salt sprinkled on top).

A couple other people brought caramel apples and some fall doughnuts and we had a sweet time of it!

I also whipped up a vanilla cake with the help of a friend's recipe and cake frosting tools because there were a couple birthdays coming up.

For the cake topper, I cut triangles of brown paper, wrote Happy Birthday on them with gold paint marker, threaded them through with white embroidery floss, and tied them to kabob skewers.
The cake is decorated with gold stars and edible glitter.

I dressed up as Frida Kahlo complete with a light unibrow and mustache:

Happy Autumn Everyone!! (Even though it's pretty much over…)

Go Speed Racer! Go!

  This post should be dated Oct 31... but I've been busy.

My family is crazy about dressing up. We jump at any excuse to do so and tend to go all out. I can remember more than one situation as a child where I was embarrassed because I was the only person dressed up... or the person who dressed up the most. Now I just own it.

Steven however, has not worn a costume since he was 8 years old. This fall, I wanted to have a couple costume but didn't want to intimidate him with something too out there. I brainstormed up quite a list (with a little help from google searches... although they were much less helpful than I had anticipated) with good ideas for years to come.

Ths year, I decided on Speed Racer and Trixie. Not the most exciting costume for me, but I wanted Steven to feel comfortable. And awesome.

I think he did. Eveywhere we went people shouted "Heeeey Speed Racer!"

(My photos are not that great of quality due to poor lighting... but you get the idea)

He already had the helmet. We got his pants at the dickies outlet store (they were a little too big but he didn't want to try them on at the store. Silly), His shirts and red socks are from Target and I  cut out of fabric, backed with iron on and affixed the yellow G. He refused to wear a red neck scarf. I compromised on that. I already had some yellow leather gloves that I had gotten at Target a couple of years ago that he was able to squeeze his hands into. He wore black TOMS.

I got my shirt at Forever 21 and cut off the sleeves, sewed in the sides a little, and added the ties using the sleeves I had removed. I wasn't perfectly pleased with the ourtcome but it was alright. I got my red pants at a thrift store. They were originally from Forever 21 as well. Trixie wears capris but I was working with what I had. Found my yellow bow at a booth in the mall... would be easy to make though. Trixie sometimes wears white gloves but I didn't have any.

I looked at the closeup of her face and did my makeup like hers. Black eyeliner with 3 large lashes.

I poufed my hair and flipped it out on the bottom.

And there you go. Speed Racer! Go!