fright night minus light

Throwing a Halloween party in the middle of a blackout is some kind of tricky. However, it's not impossible, especially if you're lucky enough to have a gas grill and a generator.

We lost power at the start of Saturday's snowstorm, just as we began party preparations, and didn't get it back until late Monday night. (Not complaining, for real. Just about cheered when I saw the CL&P truck pull into my neighborhood. I know others are going to be stuck with a longer, colder wait.) This means the electric stove was off-limits, there wouldn't be much in the way of lighting, and half our party guests were already sleeping on couches since our furnace was plugged into the generator and their house was like an icebox.

Laura and I pretty much had to throw out our original cooking plan, but luckily have seen enough episodes of Top Chef to think we might be able to bake on the grill. Lo and behold, grilled brownies, grilled cupcakes. They're, er, a little charred on the bottom, but baked pretty well otherwise! We also did Rice Krispy treats and a vat of chicken-vegetable soup, as well as the uncooked treats like popcorn mix, sherbet punch, veggie dip, chips, candy, etc. Guests brought pepperoni bread and pizza to round it out.

The only sad thing, in the end, was that we got only one group of trick-or-treaters. The kids at our party couldn't find any open houses, either. I guess the outage really killed the holiday for most people.

WARDROBE:

Meesh as Endor Leia

poncho: made with my own sweat and tears. especially tears.

leggings: JCPenney

boots: Macy's

belt: NY&Co

Laura as Born This Way Gaga

jacket: The Limited

shirt: back of Meesh's closet

pants: back of Laura's closet

bowtie: iParty

hairpieces: Epic Cosplay

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costumes of halloween past: femme fatale fashion

left to right:  Harley Quinn, female greaser, Irma Vep, forest witch, Slytherin girl

I don't know that you could really call Harley Quinn a femme fatale, but hey: all goofball villainesses welcome.

Today was kind of a bust as far as this year's Halloween costume goes, so I ended up browsing through some more successful past costume attempts to cheer myself up. I tried fiber reactive dyeing for the first time, and after letting the garment cure for a day, the colors are significantly lighter than when applied. Kind of scared to see what it'll look like once it goes through the wash cycle. Although considering I also found out that the hairpieces I need won't be shipped on time, color accuracy is probably not something I should worry too much about!

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ninety-five percent anticipation

Yeah, I know. The socks kind of ruin the whole outfit. It was laundry day, what do you want. And I still haven't figured out how to make leggings work with flats when bare feet are totally impractical, like with today's surprise cold weather. Guess I have to finally kiss summer warmth goodbye.

Practiced a little indoor photography today, in anticipation of snow months when I won't want to go outside for pictures. The lighting situation at my house creates quite a problem, however. It's great if you want subtle bits of natural light streaming into a shadowed room for portraits, but good luck getting a clear, crisp figure shot without bringing all kinds of extra lamps into the place. I'm just not cut out for that much planning! Hence these somewhat grainy, blurry photos from this morning.

It's been a busy week here, and there's plenty more to come, what with Halloween approaching and neither decorations nor costumes being finished. I love this holiday, but it could not come at a more hectic time. (Okay, that's a lie. If it happened during the November-January stretch I'd probably cry.) Hope to have some pictures of this year's projects posted soon.

WARDROBE:

ruffle shorts/leggings: Forever21

tunic/flats: Charlotte Russe

cardigan: New York&Co

SET:

super-cute ghost mugs: Target's awesome Halloween section

refrigerator decoration: all silhouette paper cutouts by me

little pumpkins: the sad, bizarre result of this year's backyard pumpkin crop

CAMERA:

Me and the continuous timer, this time!

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