Have you ever thought of yourself as a character? I’ve never really had that image of myself. My husband is bald and bearded. Easy to describe. Hard not to notice.

I’ve just always thought of myself as a short (ish) girl with curly brown hair, but kind of average. No real style to speak of, just kind of a everyday jane who blends in to the crowd. Till last Saturday night. My old house, the BBH threw their yearly pre-Halloween party, and we were surprised with two of our friends coming as us!! There were doppelgangers at the party, and they did gang-busters at duplicating us as a couple. Like it was so crazy that Mick would go to talk to her thinking it was me, and then remember I was wearing a costume. She outdid her self. It was crazy, eerie and hilarious. See for yourself.

Have you ever had anyone go as YOU for Halloween? I doubt it.

I heart Halloween. Its the time of year that I put my best, craftiest foot forward and throw myself into costume making and decorating. If I lived in a larger house with less clutter, and maybe a few kids running around, it would be full of Halloween decor and goodies.

I’ve been thinking about my costume for a while now. A few years back I had a super successful Halloween costume that I made and went as a bag of skittles.

I didn’t know how to sew, barely handstitched, and was a master at my glue gun. Needless to say, that was a one season costume, as all the glue has pulled away and its filthy.

Now, with my sewing skills passable, I decided to go the candy route again…it worked well for me last time. Can you guess what I’m making?

You are what you eat….

So I’m racking my brain trying to find a reason to make some of these awesome Halloween themed foods. I know that Halloween is just days away, but my place is too small for a party, and making thematic food seems a little silly for just the two of us.

I have family on the brain, and its this time of year that makes me realize how important it is to have kids around so I can have an excuse to make some of these spooky foods. I want to dress up my food all the time. Eating should be fun! I guess I don’t really need an excuse…

I remember making a pot of worms as a kid using gummy worms, chocolate pudding and crumbled up Oreos for the dirt. Loved being grossed out by what I was eating.

Parenting.com and Disney’s Family Fun have a slew of great recipes, and just cruising the sites, here are a few of my favorites.

Slimy Jell-O Snacks Recipe

Ingredients

• Gummy Worms
• Jello

Instructions

1. Prepare a package of lime or apple Jell-O as directed and divide among 8-ounce mason jars or clear bowls, filling only halfway; refrigerate them until firm.

2. Prepare another Jell-O flavor, such as cherry, berry-blue, or grape. While Jell-O is cooking, place three gummy worms on top of set gelatin and let another hang over the lip. Pour second flavor over the worms, filling to the top; refrigerate.

Pizza Mummies

Ingredients

• English muffins
• Pizza sauce
• Black olives
• Scallions
• Red or green pepper
• Cheese sticks or slices

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350º F. For each mummy, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of an English muffin (toast it first, if you like).
2. Set olive slices in place for eyes and add round slices of green onion or bits of red or green pepper for pupils.
3. Lay strips of cheese (we used a pulled-apart cheese stick) across the muffin for the mummy?s wrappings.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the muffin is toasty

Goblin Grins

Ingredients

• 1 pea pod
• 1 red bell pepper

• few slivered almonds

Instructions

1. For each one, use the tip of a paring knife to cut a slit centered in one side of an edible pea pod (a parent’s job).
2. Cut out a tongue shape from red bell pepper and insert the top of it through the opening in the pea pod (it looks best if the inside of the pepper faces up).
3. For the finishing touch, insert a few slivered almonds for teeth.

For some additional recipes you can visit the Disney site, Parenting, and the Food Network has a huge listing as well. Even Instructables has tutorials on how to make scary food (like these Vampire blood Lollipops).

Happy Halloween everyone!

There really isn’t much to say to this other than WOW. Her makeup was done at MAC, and you can see some of the process on the Geekologie Blog from where this came. Outstanding. It definitely looks like a Lichtenstein. His work was influenced by both popular advertising and the comic book style, and I definitely thought of his paintings before comics when I saw this photo. (I’m not really a comic geek)

Also reminds me of my Halloween dress from a few years back.

The weekend has come and gone with Rocktoberfest 2009 behind us. This was the first party at my old abode where I didn’t have to worry about the morning after clean up. It was nice to be just a guest…and it didn’t disappoint. I put up the few pictures I took, and thought I’d share my favorites. You can see the whole set here.

3-D, Ralphie, and a kissing booth

This may look like 2 ordinary dressed dudes....but they are actually dressed like each other.

Halloween is almost here!! Hooray! This means a pre-Halloween costume party this weekend at the BBH (think Rocktoberfest #2) This also means that I have yet another excuse to wear fake eyelashes. “But why do you need an excuse Lauren?”

Honestly its because I prefer the totally obnoxious lashes. The ones that look best with some sort of costumery. Recently I bought 30 sets of lashes off of eBay, and 20 of them were black, cheap and lame and when I put on one pair, I lost half of the lashes on the application(serves me right for buying them on the cheap).

Mick however bought me a few nice pairs for my birthday, the first of which will come out with my 3-D glasses costume because they match! I’ll get pictures up after I wear the costume, but for now, I leave you with a little retrospective of eyelashes past.

Santacon 2007

NYE 2008

St. Patricks Day 2006

Halloween 2006

Halloween 2008

I do love October…its when monsters aren’t so scary. Monsters are revered, duplicated, imitated, enjoyed and loved. Halloween is only a few weeks away, so love em before you are scared yet again of the monsters hiding in the closet and under your bed.

Grr..Arrgh..This “Being Frank” piece is visually stunning. The colors and black-work on this 5″ x5″ piece  from Jack and Cat Curio make it a monster worth owning…Frankenstien’s Monster in fact.

Check out this lil teeny monster. This brooch would be adorable to represent during the month of October. Katie Kylie Designs has a bunch of Ferociously festive monsters..

I’m a huge fan, and customer of WeeKnits finger puppets. They make great gifts for friends with babies, especially considering I don’t have any and I just can’t avoid buying these. This batch of monsters is perfect for today.

This pillow just makes me smile when I look at it…its so silly, and I guess the underbite reminds me of my dog and the underbite that drew me to him in the first place. LilyPad Design has this cuteness in many colors, and other patterns as well.

I had to include ONE Where the Wild Things are post, especially with the excitement of the movie coming out on Friday. This Max ornament by My Little Cabbage was my choice for today.

Last on my list today is this adorable monster rattle. Ollie Rose makes all of their rattles from custom designed fabric, so all that “scary” detail is already there! Love it.

I have been trying to keep my Halloween costume on the DL, but after Wednesdays Boing Boing blog post, I had to share…

Nicole Linder had put up a series of hand made Halloween costumes…and has since sold out. I will admit that I saw the dress the first time when a friend posted it on Facebook, but I saw it, and immediately had to have it. With under 10 of them sold throughout the country, I will hope and assume that no one else will be wearing my dress, at least not parties that I will be going to.

I’m going to Halloween it up with a wig and tights…eyelashes and some 3-D glasses, and rock it.  I’m already excited. I will of course post pictures of me in it AFTER the holiday.

Nicole was great to work with, took my measurements, sent me the dress 3 days after I ordered it, and let me know that if it didn’t fit, I had ordered it early enough that she would be able to fix it for me. Thats right…I ordered it BEFORE October 7.

So great for her to be mentioned on Boing Boing, its what every designer hopes for….now my her dress is famous.

Seeing as though EVERY animated film is being made in 3-D now, with my 3-D glasses and dress, I’ll be ready.

In the theme of October festivities, I figure I’d keep Etsy tag Monday on the horror side, and get you all excited for Halloween. You all need to stock up on the spook right? Pardon the extra long post today…there were too many awesome items to choose from, so I wanted to include them all.

Lets start off with this Zombie Attack Lamp shade. Horror Decor really knows the gore.I don’t know how well I could sleep with this lit up in my room. I think what sold me though was that until October 6, if you order $20 or more, you get a free Urine Sample Candle. I mean…who doesn’t want one of those?

I don’t know if I could rock 7Lightningbolt’s sweatshirt every day, but its pretty gross, and definitely Zombified.

I know Zombies aren’t supposed to be cute….but seriously, these finger puppets are just too cute to speak of. Cherylasmith definitely has a way with felt.

This shop of Sock Zombies is hard to take seriously as serious undead brain eaters. They are just too cute.

Eeeek! You want these things on your wall? Just in time to creep out your houseguests. Pillbox designs vinyl stickers make for great decor.

Argh…Brains. This 13″ Laptop sleeve and cord case is ghouly yet functional. Maybe with a brain on your case, people will think you are smart? Brokesy has plenty of different sleeves, if zombies aren’t your thing.

This lil guy may be tiny, but definitely needs brains. Native Baby’s shop has all sorts of cute lil monsters…

This Conjoined Monkey Twin Sock monkey is definitely worth calling out. I’m a huge fan of the sock monkey, but I love Trigo’s take on changing it up a bit.

With a few craft fairs behind me, my inventory in my Etsy shop keeps getting bigger…which is great for all of you who can’t come see me the fairs. I have put a few new ones into the shop, and will continue to update it this week. I have added all of my new Halloween wunzees and bib as well, just in time for the holiday. I mean, aren’t you supposed to dress for it ALL of October? You can find them all in my shop. Remember, if these aren’t the size you need, let me know and I can make it the right size for you.

Halloween collection