Spider Invasion & How to Build a Ghoul

I showed off the Boneyard in my Frontyard here.  Every year my front yard gets transformed into a scary cemetary complete with giant spider.

This year a few more tombstones were added to the display and a whole lot more spiders were added to the front of my house.  It's a spider Invasion.

To the side of my door is another large web with a spider waiting for you.

There are spiders crawling down the house from the roof.

And there's even a trail of little spiders winding there way by the front door.  Impressive webbing isn't it?  Real spiders had spun their webs a couple weeks ago, and I decided to leave them til after Halloween.

I had a number of people ask how I make the ghouls that populate my cemetary, and I thought I'd share that with you.

It all starts in the wood scrap pile in our garage.

I snagged a piece of scrap for the body, a long one for the arms, and several thin ones for legs.  The legs come in 2 parts each.  One is to jam into the ground, and one is to help stabilize the creature.  Just a few 1 1/4" drywall screws hold the whole thing together and he's ready to get dressed.

Even though they'll stand on their own jammed into the ground, I like to place these peeking around tombstones and trees.  It gives them a little extra support when the winds kick up.

Thanks for popping in and scaring the neighbors with me.

Caught Red Handed

One of the quintessential thriller movies is Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.  Who can forget the shower scene in that movie?  For $19.99 plus shipping you can order one of these to frighten your guests from Think Geek.

Or you can do what I did, and buy yourself a dollar store shower curtain,

pour out some craft paint,

and get a little messy.  You need a few hand prints.

And some random blood splatter, after all knives create blood splatter.  We know this from too many Law & Orders, Bones, and CSI shows.

And just for good measure that last grasp falling hand smear. 

After squishing the paint between my hands, I realized that I wouldn't be able to take any pics, so I hollered for WD to come take a pic of my hands before I washed them off.

And here it is hanging up.

Thanks for popping in and getting messy with me.

Before Blogging Throwback Thursdays - Halloween

It's time again for our monthly Before Blogging Throwback Thursdays party.  Sorry about skipping last month's party, but the flood & flood cleanup really kicked my tail.  Read more about it here.  I can't wait to see what you all bring to the party.  This month I'm sharing some pictures from past Halloweens.  I've only been bloggin for a year, but in that time have had about 20 posts labeled Halloween.  It's the time of year when adults can dress up, play pretend, and act silly.  Here's CG and I way back in 1999 dressed as Obi Wan and Darth Maul.  Sorry for the grainy pic, but it's pretty old.

When we moved down here, we started throwing a Halloween party for Whirling Dervish's friends.  It's a party that's evolved each year.  At one time we had good old fashioned apple bobbing as one of the games.

It turns out that apple bobbing is disgusting.  The water gets all yucktastic from makeup and spit.

Back before our kitchen remodel, we had a small table in the kitchen, and had a gypsy fortune telling station set up with an older neighborhood kid as the fortune teller.  I remember that being a fun activity that we'll bring back this year.  We'll have to set that up at our bar stool peninsula seating.

Eventually SB was born, and the party had to evolve even more.  Here he is as a viking baby.  I remember how excited I was when the little viking hat fit.  I had sewn his costume, and there was no stretch to the faux leather, so it needed to be a good fit on the first try.

His room had formally been cleaned out of furniture for the party, but now we had to use the crib and rocker recliner as part of the decor.  We chained up a ghoul in his crib and another in the chair as part of the mad scientists laboratory.

Now with the party being for SB's friends, it's still changing, and it's fun being able to go to the past for some recycled ideas.

Now it's time for you all to share something you did, bought, or created Before Blogging.  Don't forget to grab a party button for your post.

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Spook Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

We're closing in on Halloween, and more spooky changes are occuring every day.  There appears to be an axe murderer waiting for you at our front door.

Lightbulbs are being changed out to an eerie, bloody red.

And our Dining Room table has gotten a bit of a spooky overhaul.  Tombstone grey square bowls sit atop of black & white salad plates topping blood red dinner plates.  A skeletal hand holds your champagne.

I placed spooky, tattered runners across the table to serve as placemats for the sidechairs.  You can buy "creepy cloth," but it was easy to make these with some cheesecloth, cut, torn, and hit with a quick spray of black spray paint.  I have a plain black linen tablecloth, but the dancing skeletons on this vinyl tablecloth keeps the mood lighter.

Skull candlesticks flank the centerpiece

where a pirate skull and bones lay.

Eek!  Looks like a few mice have escaped from the mad scientist's lab.

Thanks for popping in and decorating with me.

Pumpkin & Nutella Bundt Cake

I'd like to preface this post with saying that I hadn't planned on posting this recipe, because I felt like I could have done better, but every body else(all gluten eaters) raved about it with 2 of them getting seconds so what do I know?  Without further ado, here's my Pumpkin Nutella Bundt Cake.

In a medium bowl, I whisked together 3/4 cups rice flour, 1/2 cup sorghum flour, 1/4 cup tapioca flour, 1/4 cup arrowroot starch, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp salt.

In my mixer, I creamed together 1/2 cup softened butter with 1 cup sugar.  I beat in 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 cups pumpkin, and the dry ingredients.

I poured the batter into a greased bundt pan,

and dropped dollops of nutella over the batter,

before swirling it in with a knife.

I beat together 8 oz of cream cheese with 1/4 cup honey, and using a baggie with the corner snipped off, piped it in a ring on the bottom of the cake.

After baking at 325 for 50 minutes, I let the cake cool.  I made a quick icing with 1 cup of powdered sugar and enough Vanilla Spiced Rum creamer to make a drizzling consistency.

This cake was moist and had all the flavors of the holidays.  Sorry about the phone pic on a paper plate, but that's all I have.

Thanks for popping in and baking with me. I'm linking up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays and the parties below.