They did the mash! They did the monster mash...

Last night was Halloween!  It's one of my favorite holidays.  I have no idea why.  I didn't partake in any Halloween decor or festivities last year because I was squatting with my parents during the month of October (Mom didn't decorate because of the wedding) and then we were driving to Virginia on Halloween day/night.  Consequently I was super excited to pull out my Halloween decorations this year!  Except then I remembered I'd streamlined my collection before I moved, so I didn't have as much as I'd remembered.  What's a girl to do but add to it?? 

I could have added a LOT.  I was very inspired by glam Halloween decorations.  But in light of the fact that while husbands appreciate festiveness, they don't understand spending the money on them the way wives do, I kept myself in check.  Here were some of my highlights of this year's decor':

Casper, who has been part of my family's decorations since roughly 1984.  He was always one of my favorites as a little tike.

A new centerpiece addition on the dining room table, contents of the bowl from Pier 1.

New candles (orange from Pier 1, black glitter- which you can't really see- from Michaels).

Also, in case you are wondering, $28 will buy you the orange spider web candles and the pillar candle and surround acorn mix from the center piece pic, along with some a 4-pack of tapers and one lone orange taper from Pier 1.  Just in case you ever wanted to know how many candles that would buy you.

Glittery pumpkins.  Sorry the picture quality isn't so great.  There's a black one right next to the orange one.

And here's my kind of lame-o attempt at a jack-o-lantern.  A word to the wise: carving with a semi-dull paring knife is just not that easy and it won't yield fabulous results.  That's supposed to be a cat and a moon.  Next year I will be purchasing a pumpkin carving kit. 

Also, we were both excited about trick-or-treaters.  Sadly, our door was only knocked upon about 5 times, and one of those was 2 teenage boys (I don't think teenagers should be trick-or-treating).  The good thing is that all the kids were cute AND none of them noticed that my cat-o-lantern's front paws were oversized (due to my dull paring knife accidentally cutting off the little foot divider for the front legs)! 

We didn't dress up this year.  However, if I had, I know what I would have been: a cat in a cone of shame.  This requires a little bit of a back story.  On Friday night, my right eye started bothering me.  Very painful, very red, and very watery.  Definite crustiness when I woke up Saturday morning.  Luckily I still had some eye drops from a similar problem from 2 weeks prior.  Obviously, eye problems of this nature means no contacts.  Due to a multi-month bout with Pink Eye 8 years ago, I also know that when people see gross eyes, they tend to cringe and not want to hang out with you.  Thus, an eye patch (preferably of the pirate persuasion) would have been necessary.  And because I've been a half-assed pirate before, I knew I wouldn't want to be that again.  What costumes do I have on hand that are easy to wear and pull off?  Obviously a pair of cat ears and a tail.  So, to make it fit, I decided to add a cone around my head.  I would have looked similar to this, except black and without gloves:

Photo from whydoesmycat.com.

Except we didn't dress up.  So no cat in a cone of shame for me.  Maybe next year???