Party pics and SPN rants and my usual ramblings, oh my!
Happy Halloween! So I haven't been posting much lately, I know. But trust me, I've had my reasons. There's been real life drama crap, work crap, a toilet that keeps breaking down (though not because of crap, heh), bickering kitties crap, some friend crap, some SPN fandom crap, and yes, sadly, it's all often led to some mood crap. But between all of that, the number one thing that has taken up my time was planning my second-annual Halloween party--what to make, letting Pinterest give me WAY too many ideas, freaking out over whether anyone would show up or have fun and so very much more. Good thing it was a success :) Anyway, I aim to catch up on everything I've missed in this post. First up, the party, held on Friday, Oct. 28th, 2011.
PLEASE NOTE: This is going to be hella picture-heavy. Duh-doi, I know, but I felt I should mention it anyway so you can think before clicking.
10 Things I Learned From This Year's Halloween Party
1. Save as much as you can from last year so you don't have to buy everything new this year.
I thought I did pretty good with saving stuff to use again, but important things, like the window clings I had last year, were thrown away, so I had to buy a lot of stuff new. But this year's window clings--the cats n' bats--will definitely be kept. They look really cool at night from the street, cuz with the hall light on, the yellow-orange background seems to glow. Oooooh! This pic was taken inside the house, however, and in the morning. The night-time attempt didn't come out, as some of you on Twitter know.
2. Putting gummy worms into a wet, turned-inside-out glove is one of the weirdest feelings EVER.
Seriously. I can't even describe it--you'll just have to try it yourself. But the results are very cool :) This was the second one I made, and it's shown with only part of the glove cut off so you get an idea of how I made it. I used the first one in the punch I made. It was supposed to reach out from the bottom of the bowl, but it wouldn't stand up. Did the site I got it from specify just how to keep it up? NO. EPIC FAIL. Of course, epic fail on my part for not getting a pic of the punch itself. Gar!
3.Things are gonna go wrong, so stop stressing and remember that the little things don't matter.
Stuff kept breaking or went missing all day. The toilet in the halfbath had been leaking a week earlier, so I fixed it, but then the day before the party, it broke again. Wouldn't flush or wouldn't fill. I went to Farm & Fleet the day of the party, bought a whole new fix it kit, and got it to flush amd fill...but then it started leaking again. ::sighs:: It's still like that today. Besides the toilet, the chain on my Unwelcome Sign, pictured above, broke after the first guest arrived, so I had to move it inside. And as for missing stuff, well, in the course of the day, I misplaced scissors, my double-sided tape, my corkscrew, and other stuff. Lots of deep breaths taken that day ;)
4. Start decorating much, MUCH earlier next year!
Although ant3ka and alcorandmizar, who is pictured above, came early to help me set up, it was still down to the wire. In fact, my first guest had to help me run stuff downstairs! The cool wall decorations alone took nearly three hours to do. But my incredibly awesome friends helped me get it all done :) ::FIERCE HUGS::
5.Do as much as you can of the little detail stuff ahead of time.
That includes practicing with a new calligraphy font (yes, those are my hands in the pic) BEFORE you actually need to write out the dinner plate cards. I was rushing so much that I had to do several of them over. Gar again! ::shakes fist::
6. Some things will never look as cool in reality as they do in your head, so stop wasting energy trying to perfect flaws.
As you can see, I got some of those cool change-o portraits, but no matter where I placed the first one, I simply could NOT get it to show the regular view of the woman, so most people saw the monster instead when they first spotted the picture. Not a huge deal, but one I spent a LOT of time on, nevertheless. I also need to get a few more of these for next year, cuz IMO, two were NOT enough. WIsh you could see the second one better--he looked like a really cool devil-demon >:-D
7. Pinterest and Michael's have WAY too many cool ideas.
Every time I thought I had all my projects decided, I'd either look back on Pinterest or take a trip to Michael's for supplies and get more ideas. Fun? Yes. Costly? HELL yes. But at least I can use stuff again next year. I did the big pumpkins, the dead flower arrangement, and the calligraphy on the card, while alcorandmizar did the glow stick jar, the little pumpkin with the teeth, the ageing on the parchment, and made the yellow worms and the mini-shepard, aka 'dead meat' pies.
8. If something looks easy to do, it's probably not.
These hershey-bar mummies, for example, each took over five minutes a PIECE. Pinterest said they'd be super quick! Well, unless the person who made them had some magic mummy-making machine, she was a lying liar who LIED. But at least they turned out cute :) Why is everything better with googly eyes, I ask you?
9. It takes a village to put a party together.
Well, maybe not a village, but definitely some good friends. I already identified some of the stuff on the table though missing in this picture are the alien tentacles, i.e. asparagus spears, that alcorandmizar prepared. In addition, ant3ka lent me a card table and made the awesome candy corn cupcakes, the crazy-good oreo cheesecake bars, and the pumpkin fluff for the graham crackers. And johnboy91719 lent me a second card table and brought the all-important rum for the punch. They all helped out so much and this party would have suh-HUCKED without them. ::MORE hugs, just cuz::
10. Invite many, but expect few.
Though I knew my good friends would come, I had also invited about 20 people from work. I even started the party at 6 so they could come over after work and eat and leave if they wanted. Only two of my coworkers showed. And I LOVE them for showing up, because just the fact that they took the time to come over and make an appearance means the world to me :) But I won't be inviting many, if any, work people to any future parties. I already got snubbed on my birthday, and now I got snubbed again. And fine, so it probably wasn't snubbing, but still...it's disappointing when you plan and spend all that money and take all that time and then the majority don't come. Well whatever. I'm nt going to let it bother me anymore, because what matters is that my REAL friends were there, and I love them so much and we all had a BLAST.
BTW, the masks above were provided by moi--I said in the invite that if they didn't want to wear a costume, I'd just give them a mask. Of course, now I have a lot of masks, many of them never worn. Ah well, there's always next year :)
Here are a few more pics of peeps in costumes. If anyone wants me to take down their picture, just let me know. S'alright? S'alright :)
That's me, in case you didn't know :)
That's all, folks.
Oh no wait, I was going to say something about the last three SPN eps, right? Well I love that they are focusing on Dean's guilt, and I also love that people are actually NOTICING that he isn't doing right, but I can't help but fear that it isn't going to go anywhere, since most Dean storylines don't. ::sighs:: Prove me wrong, writers, I'm begging you! Also, goddammit, Sam, GROW UP. Every time I admire just how much you've grown, you pull a 180 and do something childish like, oh, I don't know, WALKING OUT ON YOUR BROTHER. AGAIN. Do you have a right to be angry? Sure! Dean lied to you, which would piss me off, too, AND he did what he said he wouldn't by killing Amy. But does that mean you should just stomp your feet and walk away from him again? NO! It's Season 4 all over again: you push and you push Dean to talk, and then when he does and you don't like what you hear, you leave and/or avoid him. And fine, so you're back together in the next episode, but come on. You were the one that got this ball rolling after all, leaving Dean in the dark in the first place (by sneaking out on him, stealing the Impala, and not answering the phone, all while he has a broken leg and can't walk!). Notice how Dean got angry about that, but then got OVER it? Yeah. And he managed to do it by not leaving your side, either. Something to think about.
Sorry to be so crass, but I'm sick to death of Sam leaving Dean. And I'm not the only one: I've seen at least 20 fic tags to the ep, and in each one, Sam realizes that Dean was just protecting Sam from having a repeat of what happened with Madison. Will that sort of realization happen on the show? Doubt it. ::sighs:: Oh boys. How I hate it when you fight. At least the rest of the ep was good. I still love how badass the Leviathans are. Love that Bobby and the good sherriff might finally be getting together. Loved the squeaky My Little Pony and Dean lip-synching to Air Supply. All good! And then that damn ending. So frustrating.
Okay enough about that. I'm off to do...something. NaNoWriMo stuff, probably.
PLEASE NOTE: This is going to be hella picture-heavy. Duh-doi, I know, but I felt I should mention it anyway so you can think before clicking.
10 Things I Learned From This Year's Halloween Party
1. Save as much as you can from last year so you don't have to buy everything new this year.
I thought I did pretty good with saving stuff to use again, but important things, like the window clings I had last year, were thrown away, so I had to buy a lot of stuff new. But this year's window clings--the cats n' bats--will definitely be kept. They look really cool at night from the street, cuz with the hall light on, the yellow-orange background seems to glow. Oooooh! This pic was taken inside the house, however, and in the morning. The night-time attempt didn't come out, as some of you on Twitter know.
2. Putting gummy worms into a wet, turned-inside-out glove is one of the weirdest feelings EVER.
Seriously. I can't even describe it--you'll just have to try it yourself. But the results are very cool :) This was the second one I made, and it's shown with only part of the glove cut off so you get an idea of how I made it. I used the first one in the punch I made. It was supposed to reach out from the bottom of the bowl, but it wouldn't stand up. Did the site I got it from specify just how to keep it up? NO. EPIC FAIL. Of course, epic fail on my part for not getting a pic of the punch itself. Gar!
3.Things are gonna go wrong, so stop stressing and remember that the little things don't matter.
Stuff kept breaking or went missing all day. The toilet in the halfbath had been leaking a week earlier, so I fixed it, but then the day before the party, it broke again. Wouldn't flush or wouldn't fill. I went to Farm & Fleet the day of the party, bought a whole new fix it kit, and got it to flush amd fill...but then it started leaking again. ::sighs:: It's still like that today. Besides the toilet, the chain on my Unwelcome Sign, pictured above, broke after the first guest arrived, so I had to move it inside. And as for missing stuff, well, in the course of the day, I misplaced scissors, my double-sided tape, my corkscrew, and other stuff. Lots of deep breaths taken that day ;)
4. Start decorating much, MUCH earlier next year!
Although ant3ka and alcorandmizar, who is pictured above, came early to help me set up, it was still down to the wire. In fact, my first guest had to help me run stuff downstairs! The cool wall decorations alone took nearly three hours to do. But my incredibly awesome friends helped me get it all done :) ::FIERCE HUGS::
5.Do as much as you can of the little detail stuff ahead of time.
That includes practicing with a new calligraphy font (yes, those are my hands in the pic) BEFORE you actually need to write out the dinner plate cards. I was rushing so much that I had to do several of them over. Gar again! ::shakes fist::
6. Some things will never look as cool in reality as they do in your head, so stop wasting energy trying to perfect flaws.
As you can see, I got some of those cool change-o portraits, but no matter where I placed the first one, I simply could NOT get it to show the regular view of the woman, so most people saw the monster instead when they first spotted the picture. Not a huge deal, but one I spent a LOT of time on, nevertheless. I also need to get a few more of these for next year, cuz IMO, two were NOT enough. WIsh you could see the second one better--he looked like a really cool devil-demon >:-D
7. Pinterest and Michael's have WAY too many cool ideas.
Every time I thought I had all my projects decided, I'd either look back on Pinterest or take a trip to Michael's for supplies and get more ideas. Fun? Yes. Costly? HELL yes. But at least I can use stuff again next year. I did the big pumpkins, the dead flower arrangement, and the calligraphy on the card, while alcorandmizar did the glow stick jar, the little pumpkin with the teeth, the ageing on the parchment, and made the yellow worms and the mini-shepard, aka 'dead meat' pies.
8. If something looks easy to do, it's probably not.
These hershey-bar mummies, for example, each took over five minutes a PIECE. Pinterest said they'd be super quick! Well, unless the person who made them had some magic mummy-making machine, she was a lying liar who LIED. But at least they turned out cute :) Why is everything better with googly eyes, I ask you?
9. It takes a village to put a party together.
Well, maybe not a village, but definitely some good friends. I already identified some of the stuff on the table though missing in this picture are the alien tentacles, i.e. asparagus spears, that alcorandmizar prepared. In addition, ant3ka lent me a card table and made the awesome candy corn cupcakes, the crazy-good oreo cheesecake bars, and the pumpkin fluff for the graham crackers. And johnboy91719 lent me a second card table and brought the all-important rum for the punch. They all helped out so much and this party would have suh-HUCKED without them. ::MORE hugs, just cuz::
10. Invite many, but expect few.
Though I knew my good friends would come, I had also invited about 20 people from work. I even started the party at 6 so they could come over after work and eat and leave if they wanted. Only two of my coworkers showed. And I LOVE them for showing up, because just the fact that they took the time to come over and make an appearance means the world to me :) But I won't be inviting many, if any, work people to any future parties. I already got snubbed on my birthday, and now I got snubbed again. And fine, so it probably wasn't snubbing, but still...it's disappointing when you plan and spend all that money and take all that time and then the majority don't come. Well whatever. I'm nt going to let it bother me anymore, because what matters is that my REAL friends were there, and I love them so much and we all had a BLAST.
BTW, the masks above were provided by moi--I said in the invite that if they didn't want to wear a costume, I'd just give them a mask. Of course, now I have a lot of masks, many of them never worn. Ah well, there's always next year :)
Here are a few more pics of peeps in costumes. If anyone wants me to take down their picture, just let me know. S'alright? S'alright :)
That's me, in case you didn't know :)
That's all, folks.
Oh no wait, I was going to say something about the last three SPN eps, right? Well I love that they are focusing on Dean's guilt, and I also love that people are actually NOTICING that he isn't doing right, but I can't help but fear that it isn't going to go anywhere, since most Dean storylines don't. ::sighs:: Prove me wrong, writers, I'm begging you! Also, goddammit, Sam, GROW UP. Every time I admire just how much you've grown, you pull a 180 and do something childish like, oh, I don't know, WALKING OUT ON YOUR BROTHER. AGAIN. Do you have a right to be angry? Sure! Dean lied to you, which would piss me off, too, AND he did what he said he wouldn't by killing Amy. But does that mean you should just stomp your feet and walk away from him again? NO! It's Season 4 all over again: you push and you push Dean to talk, and then when he does and you don't like what you hear, you leave and/or avoid him. And fine, so you're back together in the next episode, but come on. You were the one that got this ball rolling after all, leaving Dean in the dark in the first place (by sneaking out on him, stealing the Impala, and not answering the phone, all while he has a broken leg and can't walk!). Notice how Dean got angry about that, but then got OVER it? Yeah. And he managed to do it by not leaving your side, either. Something to think about.
Sorry to be so crass, but I'm sick to death of Sam leaving Dean. And I'm not the only one: I've seen at least 20 fic tags to the ep, and in each one, Sam realizes that Dean was just protecting Sam from having a repeat of what happened with Madison. Will that sort of realization happen on the show? Doubt it. ::sighs:: Oh boys. How I hate it when you fight. At least the rest of the ep was good. I still love how badass the Leviathans are. Love that Bobby and the good sherriff might finally be getting together. Loved the squeaky My Little Pony and Dean lip-synching to Air Supply. All good! And then that damn ending. So frustrating.
Okay enough about that. I'm off to do...something. NaNoWriMo stuff, probably.