Photos From Our Ghastly Cocktail Hour

Hello! As promised, I'm back today to share some photos from our Ghastly Cocktail Hour! It was LOTS and LOTS of FUN!!! I posted the invitation on my blog a few weeks ago. You can see that HERE (in case you missed it).

I made this flower bouquet by creating tissue paper pom-poms (following instructions from the Martha Stewart website), and then attaching the pom-poms to pipe cleaners. I added some twigs that I gathered from our property to boost the spooky factor!

Here's what it looked like on our decorated coffee table:

(Note: The label by the bowls of nuts says "Guests From the Psyche Ward")

Next up...a lantern I created using Halloween images from DeNami Design, orange vellum, black cardstock, and a lantern template from the Martha Stewart website.

I was really excited about how this turned out! And it was SO EASY to create!!! I'm thinking I need to make some of these in a winter theme!!! Wouldn't that be pretty?!?!

Here's what the lantern looked like when illuminated with a flameless tealight candle. (Note: You can buy these battery operated flameless candles at Michaels for two dollars.)

Here's a shot of our main dining table and the light fixture above it:

Moving on to the REALLY GOOD stuff...the yummy food!!! Tony and I had a super fun time making up names for each of the dishes at the party! And I made little labels for each using a selection of papers, buttons, dies, and stamps from Hero Arts, There She Goes Clear Stamps, DeNami Design, and Papertrey Ink. Here's just a selection of the items we served up:

(Homemade Spinach Dip. Label says "Hannibal's Brain Matter: pair with a nice Chianti perhaps???")

(I tied the ends of the breadsticks in knots so they looked like bones. My husband is a Biomechanical Engineering Professor, thus the reference on the food label...HA! The "bloody good sauce" was a homemade tomato vodka sauce...YUM!)

The label above was for our mini meatballs. We made them from ground venison (from a deer my husband got while hunting last season) and ground elk (from an elk that a friend harvested last season). We served them up hot in a crockpot covered in a creamy mushroom sauce.

I made these little pumpkins from cheese (an idea that I saw in a magazine). You roll cheddar cheese spread into balls and use a toothpick to draw the lines. Then, you coat the bottoms in crushed walnuts, add a pretzel stick for the stem and some parsley for the leaves. Aren't they CUTE?!?!

This was our giant pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. (Label says: "Bubbling Hogwart Soup: trust us...tastes like chicken")

These are stuffed jalapenos----one of Tony's specialties. They are SOOOO DELISH!! We called them "Fingers of Evil-Doers (i.e. litterbugs, tailgaters, etc.)"

And finally, our little wine bar. We covered the bar with webs and then adhered these Martha Stewart labels to the wine bottles! FUN!

Thanks for stopping by and for allowing me to share some photos from our Ghastly Cocktail Hour! My husband and I LOVE to cook, eat, drink, and spend time with good friends, and this get together gave us the chance to enjoy ALL of these things! We're looking forward to doing it all again VERY SOON!!!!

Have a FANTASTIC weekend!