Friday 9 August 2013

Skeletal Happiness!

Think I might be the most excited person ever!

Costco, my local Costco, has a pose-n-stay skeleton (about 5ft tall) in stock! And it's only August. And it's a reasonable price at only £28.78 inc VAT in store!

I'm absolutely getting one this weekend.

Slaves vs. Caesars

I've finally come up with the entertainment for this year's Halloween party - Slaves vs. Caesars, a twist on the game normally known as Tempt Your Fate!

When everyone arrives, they'll be sorted in some way into two teams, slaves and caesars. I haven't decided how this will happen yet, probably just picking a badge from a pot like I did last year.

Then throughout the night, people can earn points around the house by asking for challenges from me! I'll carry a cauldron filled with slips of paper, all containing different challenges.

Some will be fairly simple, like trivia questions about ancient rome. Some might be more physical like 'persuade a member of opposite team to give you their shoes'. I'm also thinking of having slips which command the person to take a shot, but I was also thinking of saving 'take a shot' for people who don't want to do the challenge drawn, or fail the challenge in some way.

We did Tempt The Fates in 2010 and it was pretty fun, though no one got points for it.

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Toga'Ween 2013

Our theme for 2013 is - Toga Party!

Okay, I know - me and most of my friends are closer to 30 than 20 these days. Isn't a toga party kind of a college thing, not an adult thing?

Maybe! But I'm convinced we can have a grown-up party, and still have a lot of fun with costumes and booze :) which are the essential ingredients of any Halloween party.

So far, I have the following plans: 

  • The decorations will be minimal in terms of fussiness. 
  • Lots of cream and white, with gold and green accents. 
  • Hanging ivy, plastic grapes and gold masks for doorways.
  • Plastic roman shields to hang on various picture hooks.
  • Finger foods like chicken drumsticks, grapes and bread.
  • Lots of wine available! Possibly watered? Apparently Romans did that.
  • Toga costumes for me and Terry of course.
  • Make the bathroom into a Roman baths with skeleton in the bath.
  • Turn one of the bedrooms into an astronomy room.
  • Turn the other bedroom into a shrine for the Gods.

I'm also thinking of making wreaths for people to wear in their hair when they arrive, but they might do that for themselves.

And of course, I want to do games! I think having activities makes a party even more interesting, and gives people something to aside from get totally hammered. I'm not 100% what I'll be doing yet though, so I need to go have a look at other party games and see what can be adapted!


The Big Update Post

I'm really terrible at this blogging thing. As soon as I get busy, I fold like a wet paper towel in a wet paper towel folding machine.

So! For the three or four people who might be wondering how the Harry Potter party of 2011 went, here are some photos. Not everything went as planned, but it was probably the best party we've thrown so far and everyone seemed to have a good time. And Ravenclaw won the House Cups!

Terry and I as Snape and Hermione.


The 'Guess The Potion' game, where people had to take a shot of a potion and write down their guess for house points.

The display of HP books.

The Honeydukes buffet.

Nearly Headless Nick grabbing a Sorting Badge.

My friend Holly and I - she came as Aragog! You can just see the floating candles above us, and the first HP movie playing in the background.

It was a great time. I did learn some things though - for a start, fishing wire is not as strong as you think it is. The floating candles kept sliding down into the centre.

Also, if you fill your bathroom with spiders and declare it Aragog's Lair, at least one person will refuse to go to the loo until it's made 'safe'.

But anyway! That was two years ago, so I'm on to the next theme. We skipped 2012 because we didn't really have the money or the time to put into it, but this year we're in a new house and I intend to do things properly again - and actually get decent pictures myself this year instead of forgetting like every other time.