Hi. I hope all who celebrate it, had an excellent Halloween!
We marked the occasion with our friends Leslie and Niall, who came over for a pizza dinner and a movie.
Decorations included the few Halloween/Autumn decorations I already had …
↑ Here is a crocheted maple leaf garland I made last year, and wrote about in this post. ↑
↑ A piece of cotton fabric meant for quilt making, that I got from eBay. It arrived in the mail the day before this dinner, so all I did was iron the edges under, but I plan to sew it properly with the machine. ↑
↑ A felt cat from a few years ago, demonstrating the method in this post. ↑
↑ He sits in a wooden rocking chair, that my aunt’s father-in-law made, which was given to me as a seat for a certain Teddy Bear I loved. The bear is gone now but the chair is still here. ↑
The flowering plant is an impatiens that had been outside all summer long and was just brought inside. I’m not sure how long it will last, but it’s very pretty right now!
Also on that cabinet, to the right, is a porcelain candle holder shaped like a house, which was Nick’s cousin’s … a lady I never had the pleasure of meeting before she passed.
↑ This little ghost was made from a vintage handkerchief. The DIY is in this post. ↑
↑ Tucked in there is the crocheted pumpkin and doily (pattern in this post). The small hollow jack-o-lantern is something I got at one of my first jobs and have hung onto. The little pumpkin gourd is one I got at Thanksgiving.↑
↑ These pottery jack-o-lanterns were made by someone I don’t know. My mother is a retired school teacher, and a mother of one of her students gave her this to decorate the classroom. My mom was getting rid of it so I found it a home. ↑
↑ New this year is this silver-glazed ceramic jack-o-lantern that I spotted at HomeSense for $5.99. I thought it was perfect for my shelf of vintage chrome and stainless collection (It looks like it’s part of the tea pot behind it, but it’s not). It’s a room freshener which contained a small mesh bag of beans (yes, real beans — I’m going to borrow that idea) infused with the aroma of pumpkin spice. The scented part was a bit much for placement so close to the kitchen so I took the scent-bag out and hung it near the guest bathroom, making it a two-for-one purchase! ↑
Here are a couple of new-to-me things from a recent visit to Value Village. Just as I walked into the store recently, they were just setting out a whole bunch of vintage Halloween things. I scored this blow-mold jack-o-lantern for $1.49 and the ceramic plate (that I stuck a wire to the back of with heavy duty fabric tape, so it could be hung on the wall) for $1.99.
And here are some of our regular things that happened to work for a Halloween theme …
↑ My sister gave us these great Alice In Wonderland coasters for Christmas last year, which she picked up at a Makers’ Market ↑
Some coloured glass votive holders and a vintage vase on a tray, for candlelight while we watched the movie.
The sitting area …
↑ There’s the cast-iron gnome I got at Tribal Rhythm Vintage on Queen Street West a couple of Christmases ago, a shopping trip I wrote about in this post.
↑ The place-mats are thrift finds from that same shopping trip. ↑
Nick making the pizzas as we all stood around and watched …
The man has been working on his pizza making skills, and this dinner was proof of his dedication to the task.
The dough and sauces were all made from scratch. Two pizzas had a tomato-sauce base, one with assorted vegetables and thinly sliced spicy ciabatta sausage, and the other with ham, fresh pineapple and green peppers. Both were topped with mozzarella cheese. The third pizza had a homemade pesto sauce, topped with sun-dried black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and feta cheese. The fourth pizza had a bechamel sauce infused with fresh rosemary, red onions, zucchini, mushrooms and gorgonzola cheese.
After dinner, we served up the caramel corn ( recipe), and moved to the sitting area for the movie.
Thinking ahead, last month I ordered a brand new, factory-sealed copy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, from ebay for $15, including delivery.
(It came with a bonus disk that I haven’t watched yet, but look forward to seeing.)
Having been introduced to this movie by the cool guy in town, when I was a teen, this has to go down as a lifetime favourite. I’m not one for watching movies more than once, with Rocky Horror being the exception. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this 41 year old classic, featuring a young Susan Sarandon. I know every word of every song, and after making sure it was ok with the others, sang along to much of it!
Nick loves it too. This is the second copy of it that we’ve had, as he had bought me the VHS shortly after we’d begun dating, many moons ago. So, he was glad to see that I’d replaced it with a new DVD.
Leslie was also happy with the choice of movie, as it turns out she used to go to the local review theatre to see it every Halloween as a teenager, dressed in costume.
Chops, on the other hand, had never seen it, so we were all happy to introduce him to this great movie.
↑ See Eddie the cat in there? Party cat is never far from the action! ↑
The movie was followed by dessert – a delicious cake that Leslie made. It was a chocolate cake, with a layer of pumpkin whipping cream that was spiced with ginger (she folded pureed pumpkin into the whipped cream). This was topped by a layer of chocolate ganash. Oh, and it was decorated with eyeballs.
↑ I love a person who enjoys a theme as much as I do! ↑
↑ Leslie took this one of me on her phone and sent it over. ↑
Before they left, we divided up all the leftovers, with them taking some pizza and popcorn and us keeping a piece of the cake each, which was just as delicious the next day!
One last look at Eddie. He sat there at the top of the stairs, as though hoping that our friends would be coming right back!
I’m with him — the evening seemed to have flown by. It was a great time spent with excellent people.
Thanks for reading,
xo loulou
