I just now got the pictures back from the big Halloween party last Saturday! Check out the Halloween Photos page (at top) and don't miss the party details over at Pajamas and Coffee!

Now I'm getting ready for the 300 trick or treaters I'll have Saturday (if it's not raining too hard) It's been raining for two weeks here in Maryland so the graveyard is super soggy. I hope it's not raining on Sat, or else I will have TOO MUCH HALLOWEEN CANDY left over!! Yikes!

here's a pic of my husband and I on Saturday at our 9th Boo Bash:

Well this past weekend's party was a huge success! Despite a solid downpour throughout most of the party, necessitating a move of the haunted tiki bar to underneath 'the big tent' (which thank God I had!). Thanks to Halloweenmart.com, my husband and I had fantastic matching caveman/cavewoman costumes and cool accessories including sandals and bone jewelry! On ebay I got us matching wigs (mine had a bone in the hair- very cute) and his beard/wig combo had people thinking he was the Geico man!
The Halloween-colored Jello shots were popular as always, and this year we tried something new: bobbing for shots! We had a big Halloween bowl full of those little plastic liquor bottles (purple vodka) and people bobbed and it was tons of fun. Beatles Rock Band and American Idol karaoke (both for the Wii) made for lots of musical fun as well.
The costumes contest winners included The entire Willy Wonka 'cast' (complete with candy float, music and Oompah Loompah dancing!), The Jackson 4 (Afros, sunglasses, black suits, arm bands, sequined gloves, and all 4 carrying a full size gold coffin), the "Aging Hooters Waitresses" with their cut-off shirts and very saggy boobs (guys in wigs, too), Dick in a Box, Alice in Wonderland/Mad Hatter, the usual scary mask, and most original was someone dressed as my blog avatar over at the Pajamas and Coffee blog. She was a riot!
Now I'm busy getting ready for the 300 trick-or-treaters coming on Friday! Thanks to Hershey, I will have full-size Reese's bars for the kids! Gotta get the graveyard better lit, fog machines set up, etc. and figure out how many costumes teens I have to 'scare' kids. I always let the little ones get candy/glow sticks at the door, and the bigger kids can go up our driveway if they 'want to be scared!'

I'm scared. Really, really scared. I have like 100 people coming over on Saturday for my Adult Halloween Party (have you seen my book? wink!) and I'm nottttt readyyyyyy! I mean, I have a shopping list and I just got done scoping out discount liquor stores in Delaware (we, er, tend to go thru a bit of booze...). The decorations are mostly done- it's a haunted tiki party though and it's been raining for the last four days, so I still need to decorate the tiki bar. But other than that, I guess I'm almost ready! Thanks to Halloween Mart, I have cool costumes for my husband and I, so that department is covered!

I am going to put up some new pictures from last year's party- check out the Halloween photos tab!

Ooh, and one more thing! The real, actual ghostbuster people came to my house to look for ghosts. Got ghosts? Why yes, I do actually. Come read all about it in my Who Ya Gonna Call post over at my 'regular' blog, Pajamas and Coffee.

Halloween Cheers!

So does your neighborhood BOO?
In our small town BOOing is huge. Someone starts it the night of September 30 (October eve) by leaving a bag of treats, poem, and ghost for your door. They knock and run away, so you don't know who it is. You hang the ghost on your door as proof you've already been BOOed. Then you are charged with making two copies of the ghost and poem, creating two treat bags, and BOOing the next person!
(Hallmark stores have pre-made "BOO" kits for less work!)
I love being BOOed and BOOing others as part of the fun Halloween season.
Don't have BOOing in your neighborhood? Start it! There's still time.
Email me if you need the poem language... thequeen@creativehalloween.net.
BOO ON!

So, if you had to guess, what would you say the most popular Halloween candy is for trick or treaters in the United States? Want to know?! Well, I just wrote an article about it here on Suite 101, so come on by and see if your guess is correct!

Also here are some Halloween costume ideas if you haven't picked one out yet!

Even though I'm broke there are a few new things I am DYING to get. Have you seen that Animated Witch Broom? It randomly roams around the room (or my front porch next to my life size witch aahh!) and I like absolutely have to get it. Also totally in love with the fog bubble machine. I have a life size crocodile coming out of the bushes and how cool would it be for fog bubbles to be coming out of its mouth and popping when the trick or treaters go by to see the cemetery?!?

PROPS to the peeps trying out the making of my Halloween window silhouettes- if you send me a picture I will TOTALLY put it up on the blog!

Hope your Halloween planning is going well! Hit me up at thequeen@halloween.net or if you are on twitter- follow me @marymac!

Need a Halloween book? Check out the Halloween Book tab above!

Hey Hallopeeps!

Some news! This weekend I was interviewed by the lovely Victoria Gaither on BlogTalkRadio- come check it out here!

I wrote a Halloween article on Halloween cocktail recipes for The Family Groove- stop by for drink recipes!

Also, have you checked out my Halloween articles?? Come see what's new!

80s Halloween is the hottest theme this year- find out how to make your 80s costume.

Also, I want to answer the number one asked question here at Creative Halloween:

Q: HOW did you do those windows on your house (pictured at left)?
A: The windows are done using inexpensive painter's dropcloths- they're 2-layered, you paint on the paper (not plastic) layer. I had an artist friend sketch the ghosts, then I painted the 'reverse' of the image in black. I lit the windows from behind with yellow 'bug' light bulbs (this year, I used green bulbs for a different look) with regular lamps behind each window, no shades. If you don't have an artist friend, you can hang dropcloths on wall in dark room, find a Halloween image you like online, cut shape out, and 'project' it onto the dropcloth, outlining with white chalk or crayon. Moving closer or away from the dropcloth with the flashlight will let you choose the size of your image.

This really is my favorite (inexpensive!) Halloween 'trick.' Questions? email me: thequeen@creativehalloween.net.

October FLIES BY and here it is, flying already!
My Halloween invites haven't shown up and I am ready to SCREAM! i have NEVER sent them out past the first! AGGHH! Luckily I sent an evite, so people know the date (for getting a sitter, costumes, etc) but aahhh, well, I'm learning to lighten up. Even about Halloween!
It's supposed to fun, and the people who SHOULD be at the party always are. I can't wait.
I'm transforming my summer tiki bar into a Haunted Tiki Bar, and it is a ton of fun. May as well make the place where everyone comes to worship (um, the bar) the most spooky fun!

Looking for cool Halloween cocktails? Check out my new article over at the Family Groove.

Ok, so we did the official attic dive this weekend and the 15 or so boxes of stuff are down and everywhere. The shadow of a huge spider on my bedroom ceiling actually scared the hell out of me the other night. Ha!

I am putting everything up on Wednesday so it's there for the Oct. 1 kick-off. I do this every year- I feel like if it's up too long, I'll get sick of looking at it. Also I am a psycho about everything coming down on Nov. 1! 

I do not know how to decorate my gargoyle this year. Last year he was wrapped in a spider websac thingy with a big 'mother' spider next to him. I have a huge alligator head from an old carnival ride that I think I'm going to put in the front bushes. I will take a pic and put it up for you guys.

HalloweenMart sent costumes to my husband and I for our party! So exciting. i was hoping some different Halloween companies would send me goodies to review/blog about but no such luck I'm afraid.

Halloween invitations (ordered, flat and kinda boring this year!!) should be here today- need to get them out this week.

Where are you guys on your planning? Let me know: thequeen@creativehalloween.net.

Spook on!

Well, we're getting close to the one-month mark and I haven't even gotten the Halloween stuff down from the attic yet! Now THAT is scary! This year due to- er, budgetary constraints, I am planning a green Halloween. Good for the environment- as in, RECYCLING EVERYTHING! And since I am recycling those ghost windows you see here on the page (they are from two years ago), I decided to use green light bulbs (cheap!) instead of the yellow. I will also re-use some of the spiders from last year's house:

as well. Write to me! thequeen@creativehalloween.net and let me know how YOUR Halloween plans are going!