Halloween Party and Trick or Treating

      

      

It wasn't much of a stretch to transform my little one into The Devil. 

My friend Leesa hosts trick or treating at her house every year as her neighbourhood goes to the most spectacular effort to celebrate Halloween. 

It's such a great experience and my boys came home with {literally} a bucket load of treats.

Some of the guests brought some wonderful halloweenish food. 

The handmade toffee apples' tags read "eat at your own risk".

There were also beautifully decorated cupcakes adorned with black rats, picket fences and tombstones.

The savoury food included some severed sausage fingers, which tasted great but kept giving me the creeps because they were so realistic. And these mummy pizza muffins were a cute idea and were very yummy too. Aren't the chocolate vampire fangs and brains gorgeous! 

The brains oozed out with gooey strawberry fondant!

Spiders crawled up the walls and spectres spectated from outside, hanging about waiting for someone to throw them a bone.

Halloween Rocky Road

There is still time to make this before Halloween!

It's not pretty but it tastes good!

In a large bowl add as much of the following as you like; 

white marshmallows, 

salted pretzels, 

salted peanuts, 

reese's pieces, 

toasted shredded coconut and 

yellow and orange sour unbearables {the natural confectionary company}

Mix together with about 

two large blocks of white chocolate {melted with about 50 gms copha}

*Once it's all combined, pour out into a slice tin lined with baking paper and set in fridge at least 1 hour.

*Make sure you put it in the fridge to set for as long as possible. 

I did mine at the last minute so it was a bit soft, not as good.

I was planning to mix candy corn in with this, in fact I wanted it to be the feature but my source turned out to be a dud. I substituted with some Reese's Pieces which were probably the better choice in the end.

 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •   Happy Halloween!   • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 

jacarandas

It's that time of the year.
People say you can't see the seasons living in a sub-tropical climate but really you can.

things break

Sometimes things that you never thought could possibly break, do in fact break.
I was a little heartbroken when my son dropped my pale pink hollywood melmac cup which I have been using and treasuring for years on the bathroom floor this morning.
I just looked at it and cried and walked away.
On a happier note though, I discovered the new IGA at Greenslopes this week and it's pretty fabulous.
So much good deli stuff that is often so hard to get around here.
Such as these pretzels! Until now I would have had to drive to the other side of the city to get one, so I went without.
Ok, so that almost made up for the cup.
I know some friends of mine have had a very crappy week. Things that aren't right, aren't expected, can't be fixed and won't be compensated by finding a pretzel supply close at hand. I hope they know that they are loved and worth a whole big gigantic bag of pretzels.

Candy Corn

Candy Corn is not so readily available in Australia but I have it on good authority that the sweet shop near to me gets it in especially for Halloween. I will be hunting some down this week because I have taken a fancy to it after finding all of these pictures on Pinterest. 
We have a very special party to go to at a friend's whose whole neighbourhood does such a magnificent job of celebrating Halloween {also not so often found in Australia}.
It's is such a fun night, we will bring a plate and hopefully pull off some sort of costuming arrangement using cardboard, a hot glue gun and whatever else I can catch lying about the house before it scuttles behind a cupboard.

candy corn cupcakes - very cute

candy corn bark

a cute fluffy baby candy corn

how beautiful is this candy corn fudge!

candy corn garland

more candy corn fudge this time with pretzels, ahh sweet and salty!

I thought something like this candy corn costume would be great for my 7 year old as he already has beautiful orange hair, he would just need a yellow suit and a white pointy hat on top, maybe not.

and  finally, to wash down all of that sugar... a candy corn martini!

*** just another special thing I wanted to mention {again, not readily found in Australia} was the vist to Brisbane by Queen Elizabeth today. It was a little bit exciting. There were a crowd of about 45000 Brisbanians lining the cultural forewalk at Southbank hoping for a glimpse. 

"The man in charge of all the schools said we could have the day off to see Queen Elizabeth" 

was my son's opening argument towards getting a day off school but he was sincerely 

disappointed when I said no. He really did want to meet the Queen. he called me the meanest mother in the world, maybe I will make him wear that candy corn outfit to the halloween party.

I saw her arrival on tv whilst I was waiting at the doctor with the other doctors and staff collected in the waiting room to watch her too and I thought she looked lovely. 

She had on a beautiful shade of pale green coat and and matching hat with a speckled feather in it.

More Tiny Treats!

Here is some more tiny stuff from the Tiny Party.
Tiny bathroom, really tiny egg and spoon race and a tiny sweet shop to choose some take home treats from.
The tiny sweet jars are herb jars from ikea and look just like big lolly jars... but little.

                    

Tiny Treats!

Here are just a few photos of my niece's "Tiny Party" on the weekend.
This is the "Tiny Treats Table".
My sister and mother had been cooking up a tiny storm and made tiny lamingtons, caramel and custard tarts, mini lemon meringues, "cute as a button cupcakes" as well as tiny trifle cups and little chocolate crackles! My other sister designed some menu cards which were put in frames, one for the sweet and one for the savoury table. I got to help with the fun stuff which was helping to decorate. For the table, I added a few little miniatures which once belonged to a doll house I had many years ago, including my tiny little handmade cakes, iced buns, and jelly. I was glad they could be used again finally for something. It was all so cute and the whole party was beautiful and enjoyed by everyone who went!

a coconut and pineapple cake made by my sister and the little doll's skirt made my me.

Flower Markets

Amidst all the "day before" preperations my sister and I went for a quick visit to the flower markets at Rocklea to pick up some flowers for her little girl's birthday party.
We got some beautiful tiny roses and put them in tiny vases because it's going to be a "Tiny Party".

Where sunshine meets the sea.

I can feel summer just around the corner. The sun is warm but the breeze is still lovely and cool. I would say refreshing like a dip in the ocean. This is the the time of the year I enjoy most, thawing out after winter and soaking up the beautiful heat before the stink and sweat of full summer sets in.
This is the vibe I'm feeling - here are some absolutely lovely treasures via etsy

1 doily bath rug  2 lime coral bowl  3 vintage style photograph  4 jade scallop cup
5 mermaid flask  6 retro yellow purse  7 blue dahlia brooch  8 beach pottery earrings

9 island living - vintage paint by number  10 garden shorts {a little bit sound of music shorts I think}
11 vintage map of Australia  12 retro cocktail forks  13 soy candle
14 garden greens floral necklace  15 old fashioned barley sugar  16 september days - photograph

Old & New

Some gorgeous little milk glass bowls I found at the tip shop for 50c each as well as this pretty white plastic tray which looks ancient. An old glass bottle from the markets {a gift on Mother's Day} holds a gerbera from a friend. My large succulent produces lots of tiny new ones for me to replant about the place.
Hope you all had a great weekend and are enjoying the beautiful sunny, breezy days!