October Life Update Part 2: Happy Halloween!

Hi readers and happy Halloween to everyone! 

So, it's fallen on a Monday this year, which is pretty cool cause I get to share Halloween on the actual night! Also, though it does mean that I've had to get ahead writing this because I've plans and I'm just so busy right now. Which is good, but also not so good. Anyway, in to this post. So the Jack O'Lantern above is my tester one. I wanted something real simple and quick, which this tree was, but I know it's a bit messing because I had to hurry making it. 

I made this on Thursday because my brother who's just moved out wanted pumpkin pie, which he would have missed out on as he moved on Friday. I'm super going to miss him as we get on great and he's moving far away. Well, about 5-6 hours drive away to Southampton which is past London and we live in Manchester. So, he wanted pumpkin pie and then it seemed a waste to let the outside go to waste, so I used it for practice.

Also, I've been having a go at taking some better photos. So hopefully that'll be useful. So this year I've three pumpkins, which I think is like the max I've every had. I've not carved all three though. I've only every done two. The third one was craved by the new man in my life. We've still just dating at the moment, but things are progressing. This was the first time he's carved a pumpkin! It was actually great fun doing it together. 

Here's the pumpkins before carving.       

This one's mine and I decided to go with a Count Dracula face, but I didn't get it right. So it kind of looks like a weird face. 

This one is my date's. He went with a really scary face. We also switched out a candle for this light up balloon which made his even more creepy.

I think it all went well and they turned out pretty good. I just love shopping in October and all the Halloween stuff really attracts me. I've tried hard not to spend as much money as I normally do, but I think I've not been able to stick to that! The first thing I brought for Halloween was actually this baby werewolf plush soft toy. He's from Build-A-Bear and I just fell in love with him so much! He's so fluffy and I find holding him real calming. Which has been great for my anxiety problem. I could have brought this little ripped up blue denim jacket for him, but then he'd also need pants. I do kind of like him the way he is, but maybe I might make him clothes at some point - be a lot cheaper! 

I treated myself to another bear from Spiral.com this year too. Last year, I got the vampire Vlad and this year I got the grim reaper teddy. They also have a cat with bat wings which I might get next year. These two look so cute together though! Also, they match what my date and I dressed up as, which was a little strange! 

  

I always love all the different cups, mugs, goblets, jars etc that the shops sell and you can get. I don't actually have many myself as I don't use them, surprisingly! However, that changed when I got the purple plastic bat sippy cup! I totally love it and I don't think there's a day gone by since I got it about three weeks ago now that I've not used it! The bats have googly eyes on and it's actually a really big almost a pint I'd say in size. Now, the mason jars. They are huge in America and seem to be growing in popularity here in the UK. I got the white one which has like Witch's drink on it first and then brought the orange for my date to have. So we'd be kinda matching, which I thought was cute. The fourth glass was actually the first I brought and I was thinking of using it more of a tea light holder or maybe a little vase. 

I am a massive fan of candles as most of you know. But we don't get many autumn/pumpkin scented candles here. So when I see one I always end up getting it. I found this abandoned on a side shelf of Halloween masks and though I tried to find some more, I couldn't. I smells great though. I also got the new Yankee Candles scent which was called Forbidden Apple. Which smells awesome, but I do feel let down by it because apple is one of my favorite smells and I have a big Granny Smith scented Yankee candle which smells almost the same to me. I've got a caramel/candied apple too.

Okay, so this year for the trick or treaters I just got a big bag of 'monster' sweets/candy. I made goodie bags last year and ran out, so this year I'm just going with this. I've a sweet tooth but Halloween sweets just appeal to me even more. My favorites are the Chewits fangs, but I can only get them from one shop for some reason! But they are so good. 

My mum actually brought me the Twinkies - we don't have them in the UK and only certain shops - American themed sweet shops have them. But we found these in the world food aisle in a supermarket and I just knew I had to give them a try! They are brought out for the new ghost buster movie, but I guess the supermarket was like they are Halloween-y. They are key lime flavor which is like one of my favourite things, but you can't actually buy a key lime pie or anything else that flavor here. No idea why, I'd love that to change! 

Then there's a packet of witch's fingers which are peanut butter and strawberry jam centered- so tasty. And a big box of fancy chocolates. These are so good and just I could eat them all. My mum originally thought I'd give them out to the kids, but they are too good for that and too cute! 

Halloween fancy chocolates.

I've actually brought a lot of table clothes this year. I got three. Though one I'm actually using as a veil for my costume though! That was the first and it's actually the cloth I used for the table to take this photos with. The second cloth is the colorful plastic one. Even though I'm not having a party and don't need to cover a food table, I thought this would be great for actually going on the table/s outside were the pumpkins are to be displayed. The second cloth is the sliver bat one and that actually has a runner with it too. It was expensive but I love the fabric! Then I got so spider cobwebs as I really need some more that were not white or black.   

 Today, has been really crazy. Had to carve the pumpkins and decorate the house. Luckily, I'd got a few things out of the attic for that, but I think the big box of stuff is under my bed somewhere and I didn't have time to get that. Anyway, the front of the house looks pretty good. It's kinda the same how I had it last year I think. I wanted to get like some gravestones and them dotted around the front lawn bit, but I didn't have the money. I also saw some more skeleton creatures - rats, ravens, spiders, but I couldn't find any when I went back for them. It looks the part anyway.

We put up the decorations up first thing and then we carved the pumpkins. This is how the display looked this year. 

Then finally there's us in our costumes. I went as a vampire bride and he was a grim reaper.

And I just have to show you my dad's costume! This was the one he made last year, but it's still so awesome. My mum and I helped him make it.

We decided to go to a local ghost walk tonight and though we didn't see any ghosts it was fun, and I learnt a little about the town I live in. We walked though the graveyard too and I took some creepy photos.

On Saturday evening, My date and I went into Manchester for a meal to celebrate my new job! I'm now a causal receptionist at the youth center. I've been volunteering on reception for the last 8 months and then this job came up and I totally aced the interview. So we went out to celebrate that. Also, Manchester was dressed for Halloween and there were a few different events on, but I think we must have missed them. Still though, I love the paper pumpkin lanterns in the trees and the gate was pretty cool. The town hall was lit up green, but you couldn't get there because they are busy putting up Christmas stuff and yes that is a big inflated Santa in the background!

Lastly, and I know it's not really got anything to do with Halloween, but I wanted to share this awesome wool I found. It was really cheap and I'm going to knit a nice woolly scarf with it!

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has had a fun night! See you all next week!

August Life Update: My Brother's Wedding

Hi readers,

Today I wanted to write a quick post about my brother's wedding. It happened on Thursday at a place called Peckforton Castle in Cheshire, UK. The castle was really lovely and dates to the 1800's, so it's all intact still, not like the castle we stopped at on the way there! There's not much left of Beeston castle, it looks like the ruins of a large tower on a tall hill now. The well was interesting though and you could see a lot from the top, though it was a very clouded day.

My room, photo below, at Peckforton was really nice. I was staying in the top floor of one of the towers. It faced out over the chapel and tower gates as can be seen in the photo above. I had a window box and a fire place, which I'm a lover of both, but I do wish I'd had my parent's bathtub as mine was just a normal bath/shower combo. I didn't sleep so good though, I don't like beds that are not my own and I think on the night of the wedding I was so over-tried that sleep was beyond me! Well....my parents and I had been up till 3am in the wine cellar reflecting on the day.  

I did so want to take a bath in this tub, but I didn't get the chance. In fact everything went so fast, I sort of feel like I missed it all and I so wish I'd taken more photos. Speaking of, I decided I'm not going to post up any photos of anyone but me. That's because it's personal family photos and I do feel the need to ask people if it's okay for them to be published here. Though even if they said it was okay, I'd still feel like this wasn't the place. So, I'm just going to share the photos I think are okay for here.

For the last few months/weeks leading up to the wedding, I'd become worried that I'd be super bored or wouldn't fit in. It had been weighing on my mind a lot, if my dresses were okay and what I'd look like in the photos. Well, beside from the photos - I'm so not good in any photos really- everything else was good. The day went by with lots of things to keep me busy - like chasing around after my brother to drag him in the photo booth and meeting relatives and friends I'd not seen in ages. 

My brother and his new wife had ordered a bird of prey display, an ice cream cart and an string quartet to keep everyone happy whilst they got all the photos out of the way. I loved all these things and I had a lot of ice cream and watched the birds flying about. I even got to hold one! He was an owl and his name was Mango, he also was the bird that delivered the wedding rings at the ceremony.  

This is an eagle hawk. He was a bit scared and didn't really want to fly around everyone. At one point he went off to investigate the ice cream cart and we didn't think he was going to come back! But then he did and everything was okay again.

I tried all the ice cream from this cart, but the vanilla one. It was really nice and since the weather was warm and sunny, it was very fitting. A few people hopped on the bike behind the cart and had their photos took, but I didn't. I have a nice one of the bride though. It was a hit with everyone I think. 

This was the room in the great hall were my brother got married. They then used it as the dance room for the party. The theme was purple and sliver, with a touch of Game of Thrones and Disney. I really liked it and it looked great. The DJ played some good music too - most of it seemed to come off the list I put together online as I reconsidered a lot of the songs! I really loved the table decorations too! They were floating candles with purple flowers underneath them in the water. They were present everywhere and this photo below with them by one of the great hall windows is really nice.  

  

Of course, no wedding would be complete without a cake! Their's was just so awesome. They had Game Of Thrones on the bottom with them seating on the throne at the top. The middle section was images of Totoro, which is the bride's favorite anime and like my second. I love it and it was so cute. The top was Disney couples. each layer was different, but we only got to eat the lemon one. The other two were red velvet and chocolate. I got a good picture of them 'mock' cutting the cake with a big sword.  

I think one of my favorite things was the chocolate fountain. There was lots of things you could get dipped into the chocolate, including mini doughnuts, fudge, fruits and gingerbread man! I think that's one of my new favorite things. I tried to find a photo of the chocolate fountain, because I didn't take one, but it seems that no one else so far has! I got this photo of me eating a gingerbread man, though I don't think it's a good photo, but I wanted to put up something. 

 Lastly, we went into the wine cellar. It was really nice and the perfect place to have a few more drinks before going to bed. My other brother's girlfriend and my next door neighbor ordered some tea and I was surprised that no one had thought to serve hot drinks down here. Like I said at the start, my parents and I were the last to leave. It was such a long day, but also really good. 

I still can't believe how fast it went though! I'm enjoying seeing all the photos everyone else took too. Hopefully, I'll get to see the one from the photo booth and the hired photographers. It's nice to be home, but I do miss the castle. Also, I have a sister now! That's going to take awhile to sink in. 

Next week will be a book review. See you then. 

Photos all my own.