Halloween 2012: Ariel and Prince Eric

Stephen and I didn't do a couple's costume last year, he was Stephen Colbert and I was a box of popcorn.

My Halloween costume, last year

For Halloween this year we tried to think of something we could do together.  After a few brainstorms we came up with Ariel and Prince Eric from Disney's The Little Mermaid.  Now, I'm not one of those people who uses Halloween as an excuse to dress slutty and put on a trashy outfit (see the box above) so I didn't want to be mermaid Ariel, I wanted to be Ariel with legs.

Ariel with legs and Sebastian 

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Ariel first gets legs and she's on the beach with her friends.  Scuttle makes an outfit for her with some fabric he finds washed ashore.  She thinks she looks gorgeous.  This is her first time meeting, when they're both fully conscious, Prince Eric.  I only had Sebastian with me because he was the only one of her sea friends that joined her at the palace during her 3 days when she tried to get Eric to kiss her.

Stephen as Prince Eric

How handsome is Stephen dressed as Prince Eric!?!  Our costumes this year were super easy.  I got a 2 yard piece of fabric and some curtain rope and wrapped it around my body and secured with safety pins.  It didn't look nice when Scuttle dressed Ariel in the movie, so I wasn't going for nice.  I found Sebastian on Ebay for $8.  The red wig was technically a Jessica Rabbit wig, but any long, red wig would do for Ariel.

Stephen's costume was even easier.  He bought some blue sweatpants (that I can't wait to steal for myself) and some black "boots".  The boots are really covers that fit over his regular shoes to look like they are boots.  Then he wore a white button down shirt and we got a yard of red fleece fabric for his belt.  Done and done.  We had to spray his hair with some black hair spray, but we already had that on hand from last year's Halloween.

Ariel and Price Eric

We went to a pretty huge Halloween party at one of our favorite bars.  I was surprised with how many people recognized me and when they did they told me how much they loved the movie.  I expected ladies to know who I was, but I was surprised at how many men also recognized me as well.  Pretty fun.

Two friends went with us to the party dressed as Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter (doesn't he look awesome!) and Nikki Minaj.

If anyone can pull of Nikki, she can.  We had a great time at the party and I'm sad Halloween is already come and gone.  We'll still get the kids trick-or-treating on Wednesday night, so it's not technically gone, but we won't dress up to hand out candy so it's done for us.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Uncle Shuck's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze

The change in the weather from steaming hot and sticky Summer to cool, perfect days in the Fall is one of my favorite times of the year.  It's comfortable to drive with the windows down, and sometimes even too chilly.  The leaves are starting to change color around the house and with this change in weather comes three great holidays back to back to back - Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm glad they're spread across 3 months because if they all took place in one month I'd flip out.  I absolutely love this time of year.

Where's Stephen?

Strange, I love the Fall so much, yet I've never been to an official Pumpkin Patch and I've never done a corn maze.  For those of you reading in parts of the country that don't grow corn, this doesn't sound too crazy, but for those of us in Atlanta, a 30 min drive in basically every direction will bring you to a corn maze, pumpkin patch or haunted house.  After 9 years in Atlanta, I finally pulled into my first Pumpkin Patch.

A company that I work with quite often was hosting a day at Uncle Shuck's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze in Dawsonville, GA so we decided it would be a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  We invited some friends of ours and off we went!

One section of the side of the corn maze

I was first shocked by the height of the corn stalks!  I mean, I see them all the time when I'm driving down country roads, but I guess I never got close enough to really take in how tall they are.  Uncle Shuck's also planted a loooong row of sunflowers the length of the edge of the corn field, such a cute touch.  The sunflowers were taller than me!

Quickly I noticed that the 4 of us might be the only ones there without a child, but that was okay.  We were there to feel like kids again, if only for an afternoon.

Our first stop was to check out the corn maze.  Can you believe this thing!!??!!

Source: Uncle Shuck's (The Pumpkin Maze wasn't there when we visited)

The two circles at the bottom of the maze are where you enter.  There are actually three mazes (not including the pumpkin maze) that start from those two circles - the Haunted House, the witch on the broom with all of her swirls below and a small maze between the two.  The mazes didn't connect.  To make sure you went through each of the mazes there were checkpoints for you to find on the map you were given.  Yes, we had a map.  No, that didn't make it easy. We still had to stop a few times to figure out where we were.

Deep within the corn maze

View of the corn maze from the top of the bridge - still didn't help you figure out where you are.

In each of the two big mazes, the witch and the haunted house, there are bridges that take you above the tops of the corn.  They were like home base once we got into the mazes and started walking around.  Based on the distances on the maps we had, if you walked to each checkpoint you walked about three miles.  CRAZY.

Yes, we had a map, yes we had to consult it multiple times

It looks like Uncle Shuck's has been creating corn mazes for 10 years now.  Click here to see all of their mazes dating all the way back to 2002.  The Indian in 2004 looks crazy hard!

Kid size maze... I think it's soy beans

After we walked through the maze for probably an hour, we sat down for some refreshments and to cool off.  There was a hay ride we could take through the farm, but we passed.  It looked a lot more fun for kids and since we didn't have one with us we avoided looking creepy.

Path of the corn maze. You have no way of telling where you are.

Not only was there a hay ride and maze, but kids could also do their own kid size maze, feed some goats and pick pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.  We left empty handed and didn't buy a pumpkin that afternoon, we typically buy them from churches.

We loved our time at Uncle Shuck's!

It was such a fun afternoon outdoors in the amazing Fall weather.

Hot air balloons!

To cap off such an awesome day we say hot air balloons on our drive home!  I'm not sure I've seen a hot air balloon since moving to Atlanta.  They used to fly over our house in Orlando all the time and I didn't realize until I saw them this week how much I missed them.  I may have acted like a 5-year-old in the car yelling, "OOOH!!! Hot Air Balloons!  Two!  No, THREE!" I was quite excited and glad I wasn't driving so I could take this teeny picture of them.

Halloween 2011

I'm WAY late posting anything on Halloween.  I'm sorry.

If it wasn't official already, it is now: Stephen and I love to entertain our friends and family at our house.  We've already hosted two big events at the house and I'm looking forward to so many more.  (Thanksgiving will be at the house this year too, I can't wait.  I'm already thinking of decorations and food.)

We hosted a Halloween party this year for all of our friends.  I'm pretty sure at the most crowded time the house had 25 people (and one dog) or more in costume.  It was fantastic.

We spent quite a few days decorating the house, inside and out, in preparation for the party.  We had orange lights all around the front windows and porch, carved pumpkins lighting the way up the front stairs, a chalk outline of Stephen and Mabel on the sidewalk and hanging, tortured skeletons hanging in the windows.  Inside we had spider webs, blood on the mirrors and windows, spiders and rats everywhere and lots of food.

My favorite was the hanging skeleton, he'll make an appearance next year too.  I hung an orange, plastic table cloth on the inside of the front window.  Then I taped up a large, paper skeleton to the window behind the table cloth and lit one small lamp in the room.  From the street you can only see the orange glow of the table cloth with the shadow of the skeleton.  Love him.

The most important part of the holiday was my costume.  I can be selfish every now and then, right?

I was a box of popcorn!  We had so many boxes around the house after I finished moving in we had to put one of them to good use.

Above is the finished product!!

I started with the box and cut out the bottom and head holes.  Stephen had to help me measure my head for that hole.  Then it was time for the arm holes.  The box was much wider than my shoulders so I couldn't just do little holes or my arms would have had to be away from my body and uncomfortable all night so I made pretty big holes.  They also came in handy for storing my hands later in the night when I needed to eat or drink.

Then I duct taped red and white stripes onto the box, folding the tape around all the edges so it wasn't rough.  Very important, especially around your neck.

The popcorn was the next step.  It's Great Stuff.  The expanding foam.  That was the #1 question I got at the party.  Spray the foam into little balls and when it expands and hardens, it looks like popcorn!  There were lots of warnings on how to use Great Stuff, but if you're not working too fast and pay attention to what you're doing, it was fine.  Nothing spilled, no fingers stuck together.  Easy peasy.

A last minute addition to the costume was the popcorn on my head.  We had a few test popcorns and Stephen was brilliant and glued one to a headband.  The perfect finishing touch.

Halloween: a little teaser

Stephen and I are hosting a pretty big Halloween party at the house this Saturday night.  The past week has been getting ready for that party.  Every evening after work we've been decorating, crafting and carving to get ready for the big event.  I don't want to post pictures of our progress or costumes just yet, but believe me, they are going to be worth the wait.

I didn't want readers to think I'm not sticking to my New Thing Everyday theme, so here is a sneak peak of what we've been working on.  Check back next week to get the full update with pictures of all of our decorations, how to details and party pictures.

You'll have to wait and see what my mason jars will be.  I got the idea from a friend who is very crafty.  I'm testing my abilities, but not disappointed so far!

We carved 4 pumpkins last night, here is my first one.  Pictures of the other 3 to follow.