Party Like it’s the Last Night On Alderaan…

Even the most introverted Geek Girl loves a good theme party. From a May the 4^th Star Wars Marathon to a full scale Halloween bash its all about the details. Sure it’s easy to one-stop-shop at Party City and get all the themed stuff you can find but come on, where’s the fun in that? So how do you create a party people are going to talk about for years to come?

Work With What You've Got

I’m lucky enough to live in an old house with a bit of ambiance that lends itself to a spooky atmosphere perfect for Halloween (it might be one of the reasons I live there). I realize not everyone has the benefit of fireplaces, creaky stairs, or even multiple rooms to get that haunted house look. If you've got a cookie cutter studio apartment that is sparsely decorated then think of an old mental asylum or doctor’s lab. If you’re in a house that hasn't been remodeled since the 70’s then you've got yourself a Murder at the Disco theme waiting to happen. Standard American suburban home? Why not turn it into a Housewife/ Pod Person abode. By working with your home’s look you’ll save yourself money because you won’t be trying to cover up what you already have.

I fully admit I’ve got a bit of Cabinet of Curiosities look going on in my living room so I’ve already got an edge on Halloween. I’ve had several people go “this looks great!” then look around with narrowed eyes and say “wait… how much of this is up year round?” Busted. But I was inspired by Clue and the first season of American Horror Story to tweak my place into a creepy party venue with some scraps of velvet and lace on my side and coffee tables and putting my old ancestral photos in a more prominent position next to some candles. I also took some of my art and photos out of their frames and put in those creepy photos that change from a Victorian lady into a freaky zombie when you take a couple steps to the side. A cheap Ouija board and some old books put out and it was quite the creepy parlor.

Now my neighbors who I co-hosted with have a much different taste in décor than I do. Not only did they have a more modern design to their space but they had overstuffed leather furniture and a deer head on the wall. Since their space was much more open and sparse, they didn’t like scary things, and it was not my turf, all I could think of was that it looks like a school dance auditorium with the harsh overhead lights and high ceilings at odd angles (plus they were dressing up as characters from Grease. Sigh… I know). So I worked the orange and black streamers with those hanging crepe fans and globes. I did take some license with the deer head though...

If You Can’t Make It, Invest In It

Don’t buy cheap crap. It not only looks bad but it will be junk by the end of your party and more stuff to throw into a landfill. By making my own decorations with what I have and buying decorations that aren't going to fall apart after one use I've managed to save money in the long run. I've been recycling a lot of the same decorations over the past several years for holiday parties because they hold up in storage. It may seem more cost effective to buy the cheap party in a box but a decent chunk will probably already be broken or torn when you put it up and it will be useless at the end of the night. Hit up stores after the holiday to prepare for next year or get yourself a Pinterest account and learn how to take what you have, throw some paint on it, and look like Martha Stewart. This wreath is made out of cheap skeleton hands that came in giant packs, florist wire, and a wreath frame. Cheap, sturdy, and looks pretty cool.

The Devil Is In the Details: A Taxidermy Tutorial

It's the little things that count. Whether it's throwing a creepy old silent movie onto your TV or putting some severed fingers around the dog bowl you shouldn't ignore the things that might detract from your ambiance. Embrace that elephant in the room. Even if its actually a deer.

Now the deer head in my neighbors' apartment could not just remain looking on so sorrowfully, that poor creature needed a Halloween reboot. I took a page out of Evil Dead and went to work under strict instructions that nothing could be permanent. As if that was going to stop me. 

First I made Clyde (yep, they named him) some new eyes by just taking some tissue, tearing it to his eyeball size and wetting it. The wet tissue stuck to the glass eyes and when they dried they were a freaky milky white. 

Next he needed to seem a bit more terrifying so he got a new jaw that would be far more intimidating. I started by taking some mesh wire sheets and molding around his existing jaw. That became his new upper jaw and I used the mesh to make a new lower jaw. I covered both in plaster strips and let them dry. 

Clyde needed to look even more intimidating so he got a new set of teeth that were actually from a cheap jack-o-lantern kit. I trimmed off the bits that were meant to be screwed into the pumpkin and hot glued them at odd angles in his mouth so he had a ferocious looking snarl. I couldn’t stop there so I cut the thumb off a latex glove, rolled up the rest of the glove and stuffed it into the thumb. A little pink paint and I had myself a deer tongue. 

You know that nasty dish of sticky, flesh-colored wax you get in Halloween makeup kits that you don’t know what to do with? Well I finally found use for it by smearing the bottom of Clyde’s new jaw with and then rubbing rolled cotton over it. It stuck in tufts and made a very nice fuzzy chin.


Next I went to town with some red paint and using the hot glue to make drool drips. It was looking quite freaky but then I had to figure out how to attach it without messing up the deer (ironic, no?).  With a couple rubberbands I was able to get the new mouth to hold against the muzzle but the bands were noticeable across the bridge of his nose. I took more rolled cotton and gave Clyde some frothing that came out of his nose and back over the rubberbands. It blended in perfectly and Clyde had a whole new look perfect for Halloween without breaking the bank or ruining his face.

 Fake It With Lighting

Nothing can ruin a look more than bad lighting. When was the last time you were on a haunted house tour that was brightly lit with fluorescent lights or those big globes? Of course not, part of the scare is the lack of light and exaggerated shadows. My rule is there is to be little to no regular lighting during my Halloween parties. Flameless candles, tinted bulbs, glowsticks and LED light strips are what made my place come to life.
For Xmas and New Years I put some amber tinted bulbs in my living room, they had a very soft light and helped create the more natural but warm light I wanted in there. I wanted it to have a glow that you’d get from lots of candles without having to worry about guests setting themselves on fire so I got a lot of those flameless candles which can go from cheap one time use tealights to pretty fancy flickering ones on timers.

For Halloween it was all about the shadows and creepy colors. I stuck glowsticks everywhere outside. In the bushes, in between pumpkins and in the mailboxes. They go great in corners where your other lighting won’t quite reach. Plus they can give off some impressive shadows that you can’t get with bright lights. I also found LED lightstrips to be my best friend. Put under tables, under moldings or behind furniture gave a very nice glow and when run along the floor the upwards light gave everyone a very creepy look. I managed to get them in just about every room, I went a little crazy. But there is no denying they are what made my place go from good to fantastic. My kitchen could not have turned into a mad scientist lab without the blacklight making the autopsy sheets glow and the green LED strip running under the counter below the sheets. The kitchen was my pride and joy last year!

Don’t Forget The Food and Drink!

What’s a party without food? Not one you’ll get many people to. My rules for party foods are: stuff that doesn’t require utensils, won’t get stale easily, can be made ahead, and covers sweet, salty, spicy and savory. It doesn’t have to be catered or super expensive (go to places like Ross for gourmet snacks that are crazy cheap). My recommendation is to buy ½ stuff you can dump straight out of the bag into a bowl (candy corn mixed with peanuts are a huge sweet and salty hit) and the other half can be varying levels of stuff that requires some effort whether it’s the presentation or just making the food.  Let’s face it, it’s dark, people are tipsy, and nobody was going to know that I didn't make the salsa but they sure remembered that it was served out of a clown head.

I did a lot of scouring the internet for Halloween recipes and had mixed results. There was a lot of typical party food like regular mini burgers that were just called “Spooky Burgers”. Gimme a break. I was looking for something a little more than the usual with some traditional foods thrown in. I did find a recipe for eyeball cakepops, they were a hit but a pain in the ass to make. Hot white chocolate drips and burns. Sugar cookies are a little time consuming but with Jack O Lantern or Star Wars cookie cutters people will be impressed, even if you let your child (or grown adult boyfriend) decorate them with sprinkles and colored frosting. After trying some tedious recipes I have turned to the simple ones to avoid stressing out. It’s no fun being exhausted and stressed at your own party.For Halloween I had a recipe for some really spicy mixed nuts that became demon scabs, puppy chow covered in powdered sugar became ghost poop (metallic pens on black paper make great labels) and I could make them a few days ahead without much effort.
My Star Wars party centerpiece, Pièce de résistance if you will, was the most decadent Han Solo ever. Carbonite never tasted so good.

Presentation is what mattered when I made a Sarlaac pit out of hummus for my Star Wars party just by cutting a hole in the bottom of an overturned plastic bowl and fitting it to a cut off plastic cup that made the pit. I stuck some tooth picks through the cup so they pointed in like the sarlaac “teeth” and covered the rest in hummus. With some mini Return of the Jedi figures on triangle cut chips as skiffs it was pretty good and everyone got a kick out of it.



On the plate next to it was Jabba the Guac, nothing more than my plastic Jabba toy sitting in a bed of guacamole with some running down his face for good measure.  It was gross and people loved it even though all I was really serving was guacamole and hummus.



Themed drinks have become key to my parties, I think at this point people would be pretty bummed if I didn’t have them. By pre-making cocktails and pouring them into some labeled bottles nobody has to be a bartender and there’s something besides wine and beer. For my Mayan Apocalypse Holiday Party we had some candy cane cocktails as well as spicy Mexican hot chocolate for the DDs. For Halloween we’ve made candy themed cocktails: the Gummy Bear, Thin Mintini and Snickertini. One guest drained a bottle of a red colored cocktail called Vampire’s Kiss and declared it the best party ever. There are tons of drink recipes online for any kind of party theme you can imagine, go crazy. Just don’t forget to make something for the people not drinking and warn others if your cocktails are stronger than they seem (I had to snatch a deceivingly strong thin mintini out of the hand of a pregnant friend before her baby turned creme de menthe green).

So these are my most basic theme party tips to get you thinking. As I ramp up for Halloween in the next couple months I’ll post more on this year’s projects and ventures as well as a tutorial on making an Evil Clown Autopsy Buffet. Yep, you read that correctly.

Kristin

(aka Geek Girl Friday)