Pumpkin Stabbing 8: Hands of Fate & October Wrap-Up

reddit secret satanThe gift I sent out for the reddit trick or treat exchange. Another satisfied giftee!

pumpkin spice tonicI didn’t know if this would be a nom or a vom, but I gave it the old college try and was pleasantly surprised. It was like a gently spiced cream soda, not in-your-face pumpkin.

gross cauldronI took a cheap-o plastic cauldron and made it completely gross and somewhat dangerous with a number of coats of rust antiquing solution. I’m not 100% satisfied with it, but at least it looks somewhat spookier.

skeleton attack

skeleton dogs are jerksI don’t know how many trick or treaters saw this little joke, but it made me happy every day.

spooky living room or regular living room

plate of gross foodFor party food this year, I went less overboard with homemade stuff–it’s always been too much food in general and absolutely too many sweets and I hated having so much left over/going to waste, especially after so much work. So instead I gave gross names to dried fruits, because, let’s face it, people are still more likely to eat a “swollen spider body” than they are a prune.

punkins

orgrimmar pumpkinJason’s WoW-inspired pumpkin

eye of sauron pumpkinI thought it would be a great idea to make an eye of Sauron pumpkin, but I didn’t realize until I’d finished that it basically looked like a huge glowing vagina, so that may or may not have something to do with us not getting a ton of trick-or-treaters this Halloween.

As usual, October flew by in what felt like a minute. This year marked the 8th pumpkin carving party that I’ve hosted, and the first that didn’t involve a trip to a pumpkin patch, which worked out for a couple of reasons: one, it was late enough in the season that the pumpkins left in the fields would have likely been rotten, two, it was pouring outside so it wouldn’t have even been fun, and three, it is so much work to organize a party that meets at two different locations, with some people only coming to the second half. I didn’t end up taking many pictures of the various goings-on at the party because, well, basically I am terrible at remembering to bust out the camera when there’s socialization to do.

This is the second year in a row I haven’t made a costume–I couldn’t decide what I wanted to be, and even when I had some vague ideas, I couldn’t work up the motivation to actually make them. I don’t know if it’s general malaise or what, but I refuse to let this particular tradition carry on three years in a row. Next year, I will have a costume and I will go somewhere, damn it, and lord help us all if I decide to go as a classic (ie, nude) witch!

At least they make your butt look good.

 

cenobite jeans

All of my jeans are Cenobite Brand Jeans. If they aren’t too damn tight when I buy them, they loosen up over the course of the day and they’re falling straight off. You’d think all of this junk would be able to hang on to a pair of jeans. You would be wrong. If I’ve got a pair that’s sort of OK, I will wear them until they fall apart before I even start to think about going jeans shopping. THAT is how much I hate it.

Trick or Treat: It’s a chocolatey giveaway!

trick or treat giveaway

It’s my favorite day of the year! Later tonight, I’ll be handing out toddler-size chocolate bars to excited kids and sullen teens, so why not wrap up a fun week on the blog with my very first giveaway? For you, like some sort of half-assed Oprah, I’ve got some bars of Theo chocolate, fresh from the factory, and some of my favorites from the Northwest Chocolate Festival: Dandelion small-batch single-origin chocolate bars from Belize and Madagascar (You know how when you go to wine-tastings and some dude with his nose in the air swirls his glass and says he can taste piquant cherries, verdant summer, children’s laughter, and a hint of impudent squirrel, and all you taste is fucking wine? This is like that except you actually CAN taste the different notes. Amazing!), burnt sugar salted caramel sauce from Hot Cakes that made me weak in the knees, and some of the best toffee I’ve ever eaten from Holm Made Toffee (they make several amazing flavors and I almost included red pepper or lavender but decided to go with a classic instead).

All of this stuff has been paid for by me, is not sponsored or affiliated in any way, and is being given away for the joy of giving and also to maybe spread the word about the blog a bit. If no one enters, my game plan involves eating all of it in one sitting while crying, which sounds delicious except for the crying part so it’s really a win-win.

Happy Halloween!

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