Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Welcome to the witch party! 2012

Last weekend was our 12th annual Witches' Gathering!


We went with a spider theme this time, so I made some creepy crawly invitations:

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Each guest's place card doubles as a bookmark. The little spider dangles outside of the book and looks really cute. As usual everyone had a spooky version of their name on their place card - an idea I picked up from the credits on The Simpsons Halloween Specials.

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I had a few bookmark spiders leftover so I made them into a pair of earrings. I just punched a hole through them and clamped an earring hook through the hole.

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By the way, these large spiders were another Dollar Tree find. I painted the little eyes and fangs on them, though. They're about the most light weight earrings you can wear at that size!

Each guest also received a glittery little spider candle holder with an led candle inside. We found these cool tea lights at Walmart and the "flames" give off a really bright orange glow.

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The treat bags were also spidery.

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Here's how the table was set. You can see all those little spider candles glowing away on the plates.

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We had deviled eggs as an appetizer. These were more devilish than usual, with their little red pepper horns. I've seen this idea in magazines for years and finally gave it a try. The pepper triangles are a quick addition, but they added some personality and flavor.

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For dinner we had Summer Dreamweaver Soup. It's one of the most amazing soups I've ever had. There is so much flavor in it! Even the guests who don't like veggies liked this. I found this soup recipe while searching for soups with lime. A favorite soup place around here recently closed down, and I missed the lime filled soups I used to have there. So that was my motivation for the search. If you're interested in the recipe, here it is: Summer Dreamweaver Soup

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Our bread for the night was fittingly in the form of a spider!

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This bread had more personality than any other bread I've made. It was a lot of fun to present to the group. I accidentally found the spider bread idea while searching for spider cakes. Here's the video that inspired me:



Obviously, our spider wasn't made for dipping. We baked our own bread, because we couldn't find what is advertised in this video. This bread was a lot less challenging than I thought it would be, and I couldn't have been happier with it. The guests had a blast taking their "legs" and laughed when our extra legs showed up. (It's handy to have extra legs.) We stuck the new legs in place of those we'd removed, and people joked that the spider had "regenerated".

As for that spider cake, here it is under the watchful eye of my pirate skull:

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The cake is actually a brownie baked flat onto a pizza pan. I frosted it with orange frosting and made the spider design with melted chocolate and a toothpick. If you have patience and a steady hand, I really recommend making this dessert! The inspiration for this came from Pillsbury: Brownie Spider Web Recipe

The spider itself came from a candy shop and I painted his eyes and fangs on with frosting.

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A bouquet of spider mums made the centerpiece.

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Here I am again in my wicked shirt. I ended up using one of my skull scarves as a skirt.

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You can't see my leggings in that photo, but they had this silver spider web pattern on them:

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Out front sat our witchy pumpkins in their hats and masks. I tried something new this year by cutting pictures of eyes from magazine ads and gluing them behind the masks.

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Our guests nicely left us some hostess gifts. Probably because of the spider on the invites, we got a few spidery gifts. Those lotions are from Bath & Body Works. I think the Plum Potion one is my favorite.

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As the guests left, they were seen off by this spooky jack-o-lantern and some frog croaking, cat yowling sound effects.

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I hope you enjoyed these photos! It's so fun to have a Halloween loving audience to share these with. For anyone who missed last year's witch party, here's a link to that post: Witch Party 2011

I'll leave you with a fitting song I just discovered today ~ Witch in White by Janie Jones:


P.S. ~ My Halloween blog party is this Friday. If you'd like to participate, please send me your costumed photo!

20 comments:

  1. That looks like a fantastic time, as always...even if I"m not one of the girls =)

    Those pumpkins are pretty creepy with the eyes on them!

    The bread is great, love it!

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  2. Dex ~ It was a fantastic time! "one of the girls" Haha! There have been a few guys who wanted to be warlocks at the party (mostly the witches' husbands) but we ran out of space! They're probably wondering what their wives are up to at this mysterious witches' gathering. ;)

    Yeah! I was surprised at how spooky those pumpkins looked with eyes. The eyes that are staring straight ahead really give you eye contact.

    Thanks! I was so happy with that bread. I now feel inspired to make other fancy breads for different holidays.

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  3. What an awesome looking party! I really like that spider bowl! Nice shirt by the way ;)

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  4. wicKED ~ Thanks! Yeah, I was lucky to find that spider bread recipe before the party. It turned out to be a very interactive dish. :)

    Ha! Yeah, I guess you would like a Wicked shirt. ;) It's just the shirt for a witch. I actually have a black and silver "Wicked" mug that matches that shirt.

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  5. Everything looked fantastic. I just might have to try that brownie with the spiderweb frosting! The Dreamweaver soup is picture perfect!

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  6. Your table setting is so gorgeous!!

    I also love the spider bookmarks...such a great idea!

    The spider bread is amazing too!

    Looks like such a fantastic time...and you look so cute! Love how you tied your scarf around your waist and of course your "Wicked" shirt!

    P.S. I am still planning on sending a costumed photo of myself for the blog party on Friday! Hopefully I can dig one up in time!

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  7. Wendy ~ Thank you! The brownie tasted great. I used one of those super moist brownie packages with the chocolate chips included. Good stuff!

    The Dreamweaver soup is fun in part because of all the color involved. I haven't tried many soups that involved red, green, and purple! It might sound weird, but the cabbage and the lime are what makes this soup. Try it and you'll be amazed!

    Spooky Vegan ~ Thanks! I was happy with how that table setting worked out. I like warm lighting and between the leaves and the little candles, there was a warm glow in the room.

    Glad you liked those bookmarks! I'm using mine now and the spider looks cute draped over the cover of my book.

    I was pretty happy with how that scarf worked out! I hadn't had a chance to use that before the other night. I bought two scarves offline - the one I'm wearing in my profile pic and the one that became a skirt. The "skirt" turned out to be a last minute thing. Those long scarves are pretty versatile!

    I'm sure you'll find a pic in time for the party, but don't sweat it if you need another day. I'll keep adding photos as they trickle in. :)

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  8. Enjoying seeing all your 'witchy' parties this month. Love all the cute and cleverly wicked ideas! Thanks for sharing these and you are such a cute Witch too....I think you look a bit like the original "BeWitched" witch, Samantha Stevens! :o)

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  9. Wendy ~ Thanks! :) Aww... You're actually not the first person to tell me I look like Samantha, which I take as a compliment! Now, if I could only do that nose twitch...

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  10. Wowsers!!! That is amazing!!! I want to throw a witch party next year =). I loved the spider theme and the bread looks like so much fun. I bet it was impossible to not have fun with all that going on. I'm going to show my best friends this post and definitely plan a witchy party!!!

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  11. Cherry ~ Thanks! Oh, you should throw a witch party and then I want to see some pictures! I enjoy looking at photos from Halloween parties.

    We had a lot of fun with the spider theme. I like working with themes for parties or gifts. It gives you a nice starting point. We already had a witch theme going, but after this many years it's fun to give it a different spin.

    I'm so glad you felt inspired by this post! :)

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  12. Outstanding! Your version of the spider dip bowl is great by the way.

    Ali

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  13. Ali ~ Thanks! We didn't end up doing the sauce bowl in his back, since that didn't fit with our meal. Maybe I'll do that part another time. I had to laugh at the exotic eye makeup I gave my spider. :)

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  14. How fun! Love the spider theme.And your hat is adorable. :0)

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  15. Jeanne ~ Thank you! I call this one my Pilgrim witch hat because of the buckle. I actually wore it for last year's party, but you probably didn't see the buckle under the leaf garland I had wrapped around the hat.

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  16. What a fantastic party! Beautiful pictures!

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  17. I've been waiting for this post and I just discovered that I had missed it in the flurry of Halloween prep! Your parties are always so thoughtfully themed! The spider theme is precious.
    The food looked out of this world!!! OMG, I cannot wait to try the soup :) And the bread spider, is so adorable! Too funny that ya'll kept replacing the legs! Can't wait to share this post with my mom :) She's super excited about doing the party again next year. I just posted about our Witch's Tea today! Thanks so much for being such a great inspiration for our Witch Party :)

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  18. Heidi ~ Oh, I know you had lots of stuff going on around the end of October! I'm still trying to catch up with people's blog posts too. Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed these photos. The spider theme was fun and gave us something to work from. After this many witch parties, we almost need another theme added in.

    I really recommend that soup! I know a lot of people wouldn't think of lime in soup, but it adds so much! There are so many tastes going on at once and it's just vibrant. Haha! Yeah, that bread spider turned out to be quite the character. The leg thing was hilarious! That actually wasn't as hard to make as I expected.

    I'm glad you guys will be making a tradition of this too. It's so cool to see another mother and daughter hosting a witch party! It's like we're part of a club. :) I'm very glad to have inspired your party. It looks like everyone had a great time!

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  19. I FINALLY tried the Dreamweaver soup recipie and I love it!!! The only thing that I added was ground turkey. Thanks so much for recommending the recipie :) Hope you're doing well!!!

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  20. Heidi ~ Cool! The Dreamweaver soup is perfect for summer. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. It's definitely a favorite soup of mine. I think I mentioned this in the blog post, but I found the recipe by looking up soups involving lime. I used to go to a favorite soup restaurant that served soup with lime. It was something really different. They were always trying new things. The place closed and I was feeling sad about it, so I decided to see what I could find to replicate those lime soups. So, the Dreamweaver soup is a silver lining to the soup place closing. :)

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