How To Decorate For Halloween | The Confessions of a Product Junkie

Halloween Weekend: Costumes, Cocktails & Cough Drops

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{Image above: On left – Sookie Stackhouse from True Blood. On right – me in my Sookie costume.}

Happy Halloween! Obviously, today is a work day. So our celebrating took place over the weekend. My coming down with a terrible cold definitely put a damper on the festivities… But I couldn’t miss Halloween!

Friday night we celebrated with a small bash at our place. And I spent the rest of the weekend trying to get over this cold. By about 10 PM on Friday (only half way through our party) my voice was completely hoarse, I was coughing, and my throat was killing me. It was a bummer.

I’m not sure how many of you guys watch the HBO series True Blood. But if you do, you’ll appreciate Carter’s and my couples costume this year. We were Sookie Stackhouse and Eric Northman! And it actually worked out okay that Winston refused to wear his bat costume because in the spirit of True Blood he got to be Sam Merlotte. (Get it?!)

This year’s Halloween decorations definitely put last year’s decorations to shame. The majority of the photos in this post are of the decorations we put up for our party on Friday night. I also did some baking for the party and you’ll find our Witches Brew Halloween Cocktail Recipe down below as well.

I hope everyone got to celebrate the spooky holiday and didn’t have to spend it sick, like I did!

Witches Brew Halloween Cocktail Reciepe

+1/2 gallon vodka
+12 beers
+5 cans frozen lemonade from concentrate
+Food-grade dry ice
+A few drops green food coloring

Directions: Combine vodka, beers and lemonade into a punch bowl and stir. Add a few drops of food coloring. When guests arrive, add a few chunks of dry ice to make the drink start to bubble and smoke. Continue to add bits of dry ice as it melts to maintain the smoke.

Important! Take caution when handling dry ice and be sure to follow the directions that come with the ice to prevent injury. Be sure not to serve any chunks of the dry ice to any of your guest in their drinks.

My Past Halloween Costumes

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{Above: Angel, Little Red Riding Hood (me!), Cow, Army Girl.}

I’m getting very, very excited for Halloween!

It’s funny – as I was going through my Facebook photos trying to track down pictures of my old Halloween costumes for this post – it dawned on me that in college, we didn’t really need much of an excuse to dress up. Looking back through photos, it’s difficult to tell if it was Halloween or just another themed event. Now that we’re “grown ups” – we only really get to dress up in costume once a year. So I guess it’s more special now. (Okay – I miss college sometimes!)

At any rate, here are some photos of the costumes me and my friends wore over the past few years. Some of these are from college and some are after. And they’re really in no particular order.

Attention friends of mine who make an appearance in those photos! If any of you would like me to take one down for whatever reason, just ask!

{Jelly Belly jelly bean (me!), Olympian, Rockstar, Native American, and Football Player}

{Race car driver and a cat}

{It’s hard to tell from this photo what Chelsea was, but then we have a ladybug, blue crayon, lobster, Tiffany box, Minnie Mouse, and Bottle of Rum (me!)}

{Peter Pan, Bug? (me!), Candy Corn, Red Riding Hood}

{Ninja Turtle (me!)}

{I’m not even going to pretend to know what everyone was dressed as in this photo. But I was Helen of Troy (front row – you can’t miss me!)}

Couples costumes:

{Dexter and Rita}

{Heidi and Spencer Pratt}

{Little Red Riding Hood and her grandma}

And this year, Carter and I are doing another couples costume! I’ll post photos after the fact, though. I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween weekend! Take it easy on the sugar.

Off topic post: Spooky decorations

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Every now and then, I get excited about something non-beauty related and I feel the burning desire to write an off-topic blog post. Today is one of those days. And because my beauty blog is the closest thing I have to a lifestyle blog, this is where my off-topic blog posts end up.
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As some of you know, I moved into my first “grownup apartment” with my boyfriend Carter just this summer. We’ve been living here in our urban, cozy apartment for almost three months now, and I’m loving it.

However, trips to Ikea, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, Z Gallerie, and Pier 1 have absorbed much of my designated beauty product money.

But that’s not to say that I have nothing to show for it. Our apartment is (FINALLY) completely furnished and decorated (minus a bare spot above the couch that we just don’t know what to do with), just in time for Halloween to kick off the holiday season. And in the spirit of Halloween, the last of our decorating budget has gone toward prepping the apartment for the spooky holiday. I’m lucky enough to be living with someone who gets just as much (okay – almost as much) excitement out of getting ready for Halloween as I do! So, here’s a small preview of the Halloween decorating we’ve done.

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Tray, candelabra and spiders - From Target. Confetti - From Pier 1. Bats - From Carter's parents.

I dressed up Carter’s little mini bar with bats and other such Halloween goodies. Now it’s much prettier, wouldn’t you agree?

Sticks and ornaments - From Pier 1.

We replaced our usual flower centerpiece with something more Halloween-y for the holiday.

Stones - From Pier 1.

I couldn’t resist these stones when I saw them at Pier 1. They came with ghosts, bats, and pumpkins.

Skull - From Target.

I’ve been seeing these sparkly skulls everywhere from Target to Z Gallerie to Cupcakes and Cashmere. They come in all sorts of colors, but I thought the black went best with our centerpiece.