October Life Update; Happy Halloween!

Hi readers,

I just wanted to say Happy Halloween to you all and share my pumpkins for this year! I carved three different pumpkins over the last few days and the two above are outside my house right now. I really liked the baby bat and then I went for a scary raven and skull.

At the weekend, my boyfriend and I craved the two below; a witch and her cat. I left these at his house. We both enjoyed spending the time being creative! 

My boyfriend also took me on a ghost walk around Hoghton Tower which we had visited before. It was a really spooky walk around the old manor house with people telling us different tales about the ghostly encounters. We didn't see anything but at one point it felt like someone was tickling my back! We had a good time though and it was lots of fun.    

Today, the house is decorated and I've done some baking. I have also made gift bags for the kids this year as we ran out of sweets last year! So now I just need to wait for the darkness to come and then the fun can began! I hope everyone had a good time to night! 

Oh and I made a new friend too. Look at this cute little bat! 

Stay safe everyone and have lots of fun! 

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!

Book Review: Changeless by Gail Carriger

Hi readers, 

I know this post should have been up last Monday but I wasn't feeling well. So, now I'm a week behind in my reviews of this series, however I'm ahead in reading, which is good news because I've been researching what other novels Gail Carriger has written and I'm going to write about that when I review the last book. 

This book continues from book one: Soulless. I'd so recommended reading that review first because I don't plan to go into vast details about characters etc. The plot of Changeless is that Lord Maccon takes off to Scotland as a strange effected starts happening in London; the immortal suddenly become mortal. Alexia of course becomes involved in it and ends up setting off to Scotland to follow the strange effect and her husband. There she learns of her husband's last surviving relative from a long ago marriage. She also solves the mystery of the strange effect, which turns out to be an Egyptian mummy and leads into learning more about the soulless state. The twist at the end is also very good, though there are hints throughout the book about this that readers will pick up on, but I'm not going to spoil it here. However, in book 3 I shall have to write about it because it's an important plot point.  

I did enjoy the plot of this one as we get to learn more about Lord Maccon's past and werewolves. The change of setting to Scotland was also refreshing and new characters are introduced too, which all adds to giving a freshness to the second book. The pace felt just as fast as the first one with things going wrong quickly throughout and a mystery to be solved. The second plot line involves things happening behind Alexia and her life seem to be in danger. This to does get resolved, but I feel there is more to it. And of course having now read the 3rd book I know this sort of carries over.

The new characters that get introduced are really good. The first is Madame Lefoux who is a French scientist that dresses as a gentleman. I enjoyed her character and the fact that she likes men's clothing. She also has a connection to Alexia French maid, who actually isn't all she seems.... I love Madame Lefoux creations and underground lab. The second character that I want to talk up as Lord Maccon's great a few times granddaughter. She has been made leader of his old pack, even though she's not a werewolf and badly wants to become one. She is interesting because of her attitude towards things and the fact like nearly all female characters in this series she is going against the Victorian ideals of gentle women.

Like the first book I love the use of different dialogue and the Scottish accents. They are much more broad this time and it took my brain a few seconds to figure out the words. But it was easier enough to understand. It just makes the characters and settings more real.

There is slightly more steampunk elements this time and I enjoyed the traveling on dirigible scenes and the messaging machine. Was again the steampunk was light and in the background, meaning that characters could be more focused on. I do hope that the steampunk will grow stronger throughout the next three books, but I wouldn't mind if it did remain in the background.   

Overall, this is a good second book and I still find the characters enjoyable. The change of setting and the additional new characters as well as the two plots helps make it feel fresher.

Next week: the 3rd book Blameless.

Thanks for reading. 

Image from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6933876-changeless

October Update : Counting Down To Halloween, Part 3

 Hi readers,

I've got a mixture of things to share with you today in the third and finally count down to Halloween post. Kicking off this time are these Halloween lanterns ; http://adventure-in-a-box.com/enchanting-halloween-lanterns. I fell in love with them and really wanted to give them ago. As soon as I started buying and gathering everything I needed, I had all these ideas to make different ones. The one above is my practice one as art/drawing/painting is a weak spot for me. I'm so glad I decided to have a practice first because I learnt a lot from it. 

I'm pleased with how it turned out, though I wish I couldn't have got the orange background paint a little bit better. There are lots of different ways to make these lanterns and I guess depending on things you might find one way easier then the others. So, how did I make my practice one? Firstly, I printed out some designs that I found free to use online then I cut them out and arranged them on my clean dry jar. I stuck them to the outside with some tape then got a Sharpie permanent marker and drew around them all. I also drew a bumpy line to connect them all and represent a hilly landscape. Next, I painted in the outlines and the bottom of the jar. I used glitter black paint because I love how the candlelight catches of glitter and it just enchants it a bit more. I put on three coats because the paint was thin and I wanted there to be no leakage of the candlelight. 

I then mixed orange glitter paint with water and placed it inside the jar. I swirled it around and tried to get a good coverage. I was happy with it when it was done and left it to try. An hour later, I noticed that the orange paint and water mix hadn't stuck and had pooled at the bottom of the jar. I swirled it around again and spent time rolling the paint around to try and get it to stick. When I went to bed, I left the jar on it's side and whilst most of the paint had settled, it still hadn't dried. I added more paint, because I think I might have used too much water. I left it to dry and though it turned out a little bit patchy in places, it still looks good enough. 

My other one I made today was this The Nightmare Before Christmas image. The photo is a bit bad and I'm sorry about that, but my other problem was I didn't actually get the spray paint right!   

I sprayed too close and too much and thus really didn't get the right effect I needed. The other jar did spray alongside this one, was to make a lantern using the witch/ moon cat village scene from the above link. However, I used too much was was unable to trace the images through. I don't know what I'm going to do with that jar now, maybe just do like I did with my first one and trace them on the outside? 

However, I please to say that I learned from my mistake and I got another jar, which I'll be using for the scene correct, if not a little under colored, but to be honest after all the troubles I've had with stuff today, I don't mind. I did my two others jars which are actually cookie /kitchen food jars that I brought for £1 in ASDA Homewares, at the same time and got a nice effect on them and their lids. I've this awesome idea all set to do with them. I just ran out of time and I don't want to rush them. 

That's the biggest thing I found out about doing this project; not to rush. I'm really bad at drawing and I think my worries about these turning out how I really wanted them has been playing a big part in my mistakes. Now, I'm going to try and stop thinking about that and just get them finished. I want the two cookie jars to go outside on my front porch area - somewhere! I wish I could but the others in the front window, but that's going to be hard to do as it's a jungle of plants and ornaments. Plus we have colored glass so they won't be easily seen. Hopefully, by Halloween I'll have made them and be able to post them up.   

The other project I completed last week was this one. I made a bat and a ghost out of toilet roll tubes. I thought they'd be a good idea for the kids at the youth center as I went back to work since being off ill last Tuesday. I didn't get a chance to do the activity though as I wanted to take it easy and someone else had already set up a dot-to-dot drawing art for the kids to do. I shall be doing them tomorrow though with my felt pumpkins - see part 1 for them- and I know the kids will love them! 

There's lots of different ways to make these. I didn't follow anyone else's pattern and I just free handed it. I got a cardboard tube and flatted the top part. I then shaped the corners into points for the ears. I covered the whole thing in black tissue paper then drew bat wings and cut them out from the same tissue paper. I stuck them on the sides before adding white and black circles of the eyes. I decided to complete the bat with a strip of red and two white fangs. 

For the ghost, I balled up some white tissue paper and stuck it on the top, before measuring out enough white tissue paper to drape across the tube. I stuck it down at the top with some tape then made some black eyes and mouth, which I taped on too. 

I'm happy with how they turned out and just wish I had enough time to make a witch - I've seen one on Pinterest or maybe a vampire or a pumpkin too. I've seen some spider ones which look pretty good too. They are so easy and simple to make, yet look effective. I also thought about getting some white string or thread and hanging them up. A collection of bats would look nice in the hallway.
    

Today in the kitchen I made Headstone Biscuits. The recipe for these came with a chocolate moose tray bake graveyard in the third cooking book I own. I made the tray bake three or four years back and it turned out really well. However, I like making the gravestones more! These turned out so good and am way pleased with them. They are a vanilla butter biscuit with a hint of ginger and cinnamon, which I added myself. I spent awhile decorating them too and thinking about what to put on them. I don't think they are going to last very long around here though! My parents have been sneaky eating them since I told them they were like my test run and not for any purpose. 

I've got two other recipes for gingerbread Halloween shapes to try later on now. I'll be writing about them in my Halloween post. Hopefully, I'll get time to make at least one of them, because I've signed up to be a stand in member of staff at work over the half-term holidays, so I might get called in. I so need the money for Christmas and to put towards a car. Anyway, moving on.   

Of course, my candles this week have to be Yankee Halloween ones! I'm still annoyed that there's only the choice of two this year; Witches Brew or Candy Corn. I do like the smell of the Witches Brew as it's just patchouli, which is dark and spicy but not overpowering. The Candy Corn on the other hand isn't sweet enough for me, nor does it fill the room and linger like the Witches Brew and other scents do. I really hope next year Yankee brings out some new candles and/or works on improving the smell. I'm loving my new pumpkin wax tart melter though! The whole range can be found here; http://www.yankeecandle.co.uk/en/uk/halloween/icat/halloween

Comparing these candles to the set I brought off Amazon, I do have to admit that I was more impressed with them. I like the mixture of smells and the different choice I can pick through. I'm burning the purple Witching Hour again, mainly because it was already in my white wax melter. It smells like patchouli, cinnamon and jasmine, though I know there's a few other things too. I've still not tried Witches Brew, Tricks or Treats and Mulled Cider. I'm sure I'll have time before Halloween though. Here's the link if you are interested and please read count down part one for more information. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Halloween-Scented-Wax-Tart-Melts/dp/B00FBM8680/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1445613462&sr=8-21&keywords=Halloween+candles

This week I'm writing my novella Trust. The six parts will cover everyday (starting yesterday and ending Friday) expect Halloween, on which there'll be a Halloween night themed story. Trust is the story of newly made vampire Fern and her maker/lover Brook. It's about Fern's changing and growth as a vampire. It's also about the conflict between other vampires and the challenges they have to face in 2015. 

These next parts -19 to 24- are about the arrival of another vampire, who Fern and Brook have already had a brush with. Fern seems to be falling in love with this other vampire, but has Brook become too distracted trying to defend his home/territory to notice Fern's wondering attention? 

If that's got you as interested as it has me, you can find the full listings here; https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?category_name=trust-novella

I finished reading The Little Paris Bookshop last Wednesday and I've written a small review to be published sometime in November. I also re-broke my not buying any books promise. It's a bit too late anyway as I've brought about 12 books, which for me is actually good because it should be double or triple that really. I brought The Welcome To Night Vale novel and I'm so into reading it right now. I've posted about Night Vale before, but here's the link to them on YouTube anyway. It really is worth checking out; https://www.youtube.com/user/WelcometoNightVale. I'm sure I'll be reviewing it as soon as I'm done! 

Lastly, I brought two pumpkins at the weekend, sorry there's no photo of them, there was meant to be one but they are currently being stored in my mum's car and I forgot to take a photo and now it's too late. But I'll do one before I get carving them. I've still not decided what to carve actually. I wanted to do a wolf but then saw I'd done that last year. I also wanted to do something that children would recognize, like with my 2013 Minecraft pumpkin. I was thinking of a Disney character, but I'm not that big a fan of anything Disney or animation to motivate me enough. I did think about doing a vampire because I've never done one of them, but I've yet to find a design I like. It'd be interesting to do a matching or connecting pair of something though. I'm sure more research would give me more inspiration and now I've got the pumpkins I can really start doing that. 

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave comments and check out my other blog. I'll be posting next on Halloween night and putting up lots of more photos, so be sure to come back then.    

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Photos; My own. 
(The Frankenstein lantern stared in last week's post, but I got a better a photo of it to share today; )