Halloween party prep well underway!

So much for being able to catch up on the past year before Halloween…sorry! I did get the Baby Duckie Cake from last November posted, and I’m getting closer on the Spinning Disco Ball Cake, but it’s almost halfway through October, so I need to post my Halloween party prep progress already!

The Old Stone Walls technique from last year is back up…boy is that easier than covering the entire walls in flagstone gossamer! I love how it looks. That project is included in Enhanced Eerie Elegance and one of the episodes already released this season. The spooky Portrait Gallery is in the hallway again, with a few rearranged to keep things new. One has even moved into the living room!

All the holiday pillows are out, and all the curtains are changed to the black & gold tapestry curtains with the purple spiderweb lace. Since I’m still riding my exercycle in front of the TV until party day, I haven’t moved my new “thrones” into place in the large window yet, but they are carved wood antiques with burgundy tufted velvet that my mom found up north in my dad’s hometown…perfect for a castle!

My gargoyle collection has increased with some new Target purchases and moved to a new location clustered on the grand piano. I made sure to leave room for kitty sunshine through the spiderweb lace curtains, and it looks like Ebony appreciates that. I love it when my black cats cooperate as Halloween decor!

During Halloween shopping weekend I finally was able to stock up on black taper candles, since I had been low in stock since my favorite supplier Wishing Well had gone out of business…but then last week Shindigz.com had a 2-day sale with LED flicker taper candles on sale for $3.50 per pair! Everywhere I’ve seen has been $8 or higher for a pair, so I hadn’t invested yet. I bought 13 pairs on the sale, they arrived yesterday, and look great! I prefer cutting off the fake frosted plastic flame like on the right in the video, since then it looks more realistic like a low wick and gives off more light. Even though they are real wax housings, which I didn’t expect from the description, I will be spray-painting them black for Halloween, and saving a few other pairs to paint other colors for other holidays. Now I can start getting rid of my large stash of non-flicker battery candles with those ugly bare bulbs!

There are three giant projects for this year already in process. Two of them I am leaving publicly secret so my guests who read here will be surprised at the party, but the third I’m sure everyone can guess is the gingerbread haunted house! Third time’s the charm, right? Hey, for all those cake challenges on TV they usually practice several times, so I’ll consider the past two years as trial runs for learning experience. Soggy weather and a mandatory work trip immediately before my party foiled me last year when I had made so much great progress, and this year I already have the two days before the party off work on purpose. The bonus to not finishing last year is that I have learned what didn’t work, plus with my recent Etsy profits, I have finally decided to splurge on a printer dedicated for edible art! The printer, Kopykake food coloring cartridges, frosting sheets & wafer paper have all arrived, but I’m starting the baking this coming weekend 2 weeks before the party, so I haven’t practiced yet. I have way too many ideas how to use my new toy!

As for food, I usually wait until two weeks to start baking, but I tested freezing some spider biscuits after last years party and they worked fine. Now from this past week I already have 4 dozen spiders slightly underbaked and frozen, ready to pop in the oven on party day. The pumpkin pasty filling is baked and in the fridge to assemble the pasties tomorrow night, also for the freezer. Those I leave unbaked since the pastry works better that way. Since the spiders have leavening, I wasn’t sure if freezing unbaked would negate the rising while baking. All the other cookies and the haunted house will be baked this weekend.

Also speaking of food, I updated the Halloween Recipes page with some new recipes from both books, each recipe shows which book it’s in, plus the entire Halloween section now resides here on Britta Blvd with auto-redirects from the old britta.com location so no one will get lost. Camera.britta.com will remain the webcam page, and I really hope both webcams will work this year since I have a new Mac Mini home server! Still troubleshooting one cam at this point though…wifi is the bane of my existence out on the patio! *sigh*

My poor archway has seen better days, but it’s originally from 2004 so 7 years is decent value out of about $20 of foam! First it split at the top of the arch where it met the roofline, so I reinforced by adding more foam layers, but then the “legs” kept breaking in storage more each year, until last year it was barely held in place only supported by the gargoyle columns. I bought foam in February, measured and cut last weekend including an extra arch layer around the entire opening, and finally last night I had inspiration for the carving design so that is all sketched on the foam. Hopefully tonight I’ll get carving with the woodburning tool and film for a future episode of the Enhanced Eerie Elegance series.

A big disappointment was that when I took my stone walls out of the shed, where I thought they would be safer away from elements, I found lots of damage from a new rodent population that moved in this winter! Even the “ruins” have been chewed down to the white foam so need repainting. Since I have the new archway too, plus I will reveal that one of the secret projects includes a LOT of foam carving, I decided to finally invest in a paint sprayer. This Wagner 518080 Control Spray Max HVLP Sprayer had fantastic reviews on Amazon for the $100 range, not even needing to thin interior latex, so I hope to have enough carving done to start using he sprayer this weekend! Painting requires daylight outside but baking can be inside into the wee hours…

I was hoping to start my costume much earlier, but I didn’t find fabrics I liked that early. I finally found everything I needed at Halloween shopping weekend. The fitted blouse is completely finished as of last week, which includes button holes, finished hems & scalloped edging trim on the standup collar and cuffs, but the corset bodice & matching mini top hat only have pattern pieces so far. I have purchased a soldering iron & solder since the hat needs a wire frame, which is a new skill for me to learn. At least the skirt should be easy, and the stockings & boots I already have. I won’t say what the costume is, but when I start posting photos I’m sure many of you will be able to guess.

That’s it from me until my next update, hopefully next week. How are your Halloween projects going? Hope you’re enjoying the season so far!