Some Halloween Themed Fun...

So I'm not much of a crafter. Let's be honest. I'm not crafty. My mother is. She can make something amazing out of a couple of Popsicle sticks and a gum wrapper. I have never had this talent. Nor have I ever been very good at makeup. Whenever I'm in a show, someone always does my makeup for me. I've had people do my makeup for Halloween parties. I usually can be pretty creative with a costume, but never the makeup. I also fucking love Halloween. I love Halloween everything. Pumpkins, dressing up, scaring people, horror movies, monsters, name it. I love it. I get annoyed when I miss out on Halloween things around this time. So - this year I've done pretty good! Granted, I'm missing my annual trip to Knotts Scary Farm, but I did get to the Queen Mary's Dark Harbor. Unfortunately it was overcrowded and the few mazes we did get into weren't that impressive, but we had fun anyway. At least I got to one! But I did hit a party last night, and I went to a pumpkin patch today! I also did something new with my friend Jill and took a crafty workshop. I'm trying new things more (and yes I was trying new things before my head exploded) so even though I'm not "crafty" I figured this Mini Alter Workshop would be fun! So here are some Halloweeny fun times in a bit of a photo blog! Our Mini Alter Workshop was at a place called Artology in downtown Fullerton. They apparently have little $5 workshops on Wednesday nights which I'd like to check out once in awhile and then they have these specialty workshops as well. In the spirit of Halloween and Dios de los Muertos, my friend Jill invited to me to join her for the Mini Alter Workshop. At first I was a little overwhelmed. The box was so tiny and there were so many options from glitter to paint to figures to sequins to paper things and on and on. I kept looking at some of the examples that the gal had and watched Jill go to work on hers. The little gal who ran it pretty much left us to our own devices and gave tips here and there and random ideas if we wanted to try. There was of course one very obnoxious woman I wanted to slap many times but didn’t. But aside from her, there were just about 6 of us and it turned out to be really fun.

I found myself getting very into what I was doing. I started wanting to match, and have a theme. Here is what I started with:

I decided I wanted to one side with my little lady to match her and be very Day of the Dead like, so I went nuts with the glitter. I then decided I wanted to other side to represent me, so I found a kitty image and little grapes to represent wine. I loooooove the sugar skulls so I put a couple of them on the back. Then I got a little carried away with the dots and different paint colors but I think it came out really good! Check it out!

Jill did a great job! I loved her purple and black colors she used!

And here are the back of our mini alters:

And here is us, not drunk like some people seemed to think in my FB post but just having a ball!

Last night I attended Jay's fabulous Halloween Party in Laguna Beach. He had a bartender, a chef, a beautiful zombie cake, the best party favors ever and wonderful prizes! He always throws an amazing party and puts so much into it. He and I both have such a love for this time of year. I always love seeing him and had a really lovely time! I was inspired to do a version of the Joker this year. I had seen a picture of a female joker that was gorgeous and thought I could come up with something close. So a few weeks ago, Terri took me to a couple of cheapy fashion stores and I put together the costume. When the wig arrived it was much too fluffy and girly than what I was hoping and for some reason would not lay right on my head. I futzed and futzed with it and finally came up with a fabulous side pony that I think worked perfect! I played around a bit with the makeup and actually think I did ok! I was pleased with my version of the Joker and even won the prize of the bobble head Saw character because he matched me almost! Ha ha! Anywhoo, here's what I came up with!

And this morning me, my best friend Lib, her daughter Hailey and her nephew James all went to the Irvine Railroad Pumpkin Patch and had an absolute ball. It's ridiculously overpriced in my opinion and Libby was telling me how much it costs to have a kid now adays which is such a bummer. But I forked out some dough because I couldn’t resist those darling faces and we had ourselves a great time! I wanted to do some photography at the Pumpkin Patch but ended up doing most of the kids! They were just too damn cute! Plus Hailey is my little bug who I adore so what can I say! Below is a photo log of our day! We arrive!

They had those wooden cut outs to take pictures in all over the place. We did a whole bunch of them and probably only did half!

Then we got the kids face painted! I swear the woman painted them in like 5 minutes!

Pictures with the bug! She wanted to look very scary.

Then we went through a Haunted House! It was very cute and the kids were NOT scared of course, but at the end James was ready to leave! He he he!

We had to pose for horse pictures...

Then the kids rode tractor things. Hailey was trying to take out the others. That's my girl...

We confirmed Libby is indeed only 5 feet tall...

Then they bounce housed:

Then we made cookies!

This was my cookie and what ended up being my breakfast. I'm still paying for that decision.

Then we went on the train!

Then we played games!

And of course the prizes:

Then we went through a maze!

I found a great place to use my auto timer and snap my favorite shot:

And then of course I got this adorable shot:

I did actually take a few non children shots:

And yes, I know this last part of this blog made me look like one of those crazed parents who take a million shots of thier kids. But I did this to show how much we did and how friggin exhausted I was when I came home! I'm always tripped out by kids. They have a boundless amount of energy that I wish we could somehow bottle and use to help us old asses get through a busy day. The kids were great sports letting me shoot them and pose them all morning. It was fun to watch all the families, some dressed up taking all kinds of pictures. I do enjoy my time with the kiddies sometimes! I don’t know how you parents do it. I'm off to take a nap!