HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Trader Joe's pumpkin pancakes (I highly suggest going to buy the mix) and Trader Joe's Vanilla and Cinnamon black tea (buy this too).  Perfect Halloween brekkie!

My baby at Halloween "Yappy Hour" at the Ritz Carlton.

And lastly...a few Haunted House pics...

AFG the scarecrow in the Corn Maze.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Linzo says: It's Halloween night, get your game face on.

Halloween Booze

Pinot Noir with a crystal skull stopper and a Shipyard beer by spider candlelight (that's a spider votive holder)?  Perfection.


Linzo says: WARNING - don't drink and lay down...too much consumption of Hahn's Pinot Noir causes EXTREME drowsiness.

Drawing Inspiration for Halloween

I feel like I am the only one...but I'm not really ready for Christmas yet.  I have Halloween on the brain because, well DUH, it hasn't even happened yet.  I'm in a haunted house (again) this year that is put on and accepts donations for Laura's House.  It's lots of fun..last year AFG and I were zombies the first night and then I was a creepy doll in the clown house the second night.  Looking forward to seeing what this year brings!

Last year...

What is inspiring me...

 

Hocus Pocus...SJP is fan-freaking-tastic in thismovie.

 

I'd like to be this, although it's over $100 and I'm actually playing a Salem witch in the haunted house this year (I will be channeling SJP and NOT some ugly wench with a wart on her nose thank you very much).  I love Bridget from The Girls Next Door, she is my FAVE and now she has her own costume line...check it out here - Bridget by Roma.

http://lalalingerie.com/

I was envisioning myself a french maid and AFG a butler with a topcat, cane and monocle.  He wants a cane regardless.  He apparently is channeling this...

I love Scott Disick, yes he may be a complete goon but I think he's highly entertaining.

Speaking of haunted houses, looking at Grandid Road's Halloween Haven makes me wish I owned a big house with lots of space and had lots of money to throw an amazing Halloween party...sighhhhhh, one day.

 I would like my living room/mantle to look like this please:

Is there anything that really gets you in the Halloween spirit like Haunted Mansion Holiday at the Happiest Place on Earth aka Disneyland?  NOPE.  There's not.  I had the pleasure of going this past Sunday night and it was as fab as ever.

from the wiki page

"Heaven, is that you?" - Katie Redmond

Lastly, I will finally be carving a pumpkin this week and instead of doing my usual Jack Skellington face, I'm debating a bat.  Drawing inspiration from my recent trip to Austin, TX where I watched the bats emerge on their nightly conquest from the Congress Ave. bridge.  Yes- you heard me.  There are 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats living under the Congress bridge in Austin and they fly off into the dusk everynight and eat like a billion insects or something like that.  I was lucky to have caught a glimpse of them as it was early October and they migrate to Mexico in the winter.

yep, that's a dead one on my friend's patio...just to get you up close and personal.

www.ehow.com

Linzo says:  Don't be a party pooper, get into the spirit!

SLEEPY HOLLOW

I have always had a "thing" for Halloween and slightly creepy things.  In first grade we did a project entitled "One time I stayed up 'till midnight and..." and I finished my sentence with "I saw bats hanging from my ceiling" and proceeded to draw my little blonde pony-tailed self in my bedroom with bats everywhere.  My mom still has this and as a joke, it's hanging on my parents garage refrigerator right now.

Evidence

On this note...as a child I was obsessed with (and still currently am) was Disney's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad which was a VHS with 2 short films on it...the first being a story about Mr. Toad (from the Wind and the Willows) and a second being a short and adapted version of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (you know...Ichabod Crane?).  To make the latter part of this film even better (Ichabod's portion), it's narrated by Bing Crosby.  I would have picked this over a princess movie any day.

I LOVED this in my younger years and possibly love it even more as an adult.  So much that when I went to visit my friend Beege (Hi Beegie) in NY a few years ago, I researched how far Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown was from the city.  I then dragged my friend (who accompanied me on an NYC trip) with me, stating that it was bucket-list material (it was...is that sad?) and she sacked up, got up early and went to Grand Central with me that morning.  We were on the train for about an hour...staring out at the Hudson River and listening to the conductor rattle off names like "Harlem" and "Yonkers" while waiting to hear "Tarrytown".

To make a long blog not so long...we got a cab to the Old Dutch Church and walked around the graveyard....yes this is creepy I know and I am forever indebted to Jen Wells.

 

Washington Irving's grave

The Van Tassels-if you haven't seen the movie...then you don't get it.

bridge below the graveyard

 

somewhere in the middle of town

 

Best part of Sleepy Hollow?  HORSEFEATHERS TAVERN!  I actually yelped this or something before we went and found it on some page on the internet somewhere and it looked too amazing to pass up and BOY WAS I RIGHT!  They had these garlicky, seasoned croutons instead of bar snacks, nuts or popcorn that were so good, I asked to buy some.  They gave us a bag to go on the house.  THANKS HORSEFEATHERS!

Check them out here: Horsefeathers

All my homies! All Washington Irving characters.

Word to the wise...if you ever do make this trek up from NYC...go in the fall.  The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze starts October 1st.

The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze

Linzo says: walking around a famous graveyard is EVERYTHING it is cracked up to be!