Halloween 2013; my well-laid plans were well-executed!

The pumpkin Matt and I carved together. We're calling it the Charlie Brown Pumpkin 'cause it's so ... unique.

Hoo boy, it's been a busy week or so. It feels like I've been underwater for days and my head just broke the surface! But today, I got to sleep in, I don't have any big plans, I just had my coffee and I'm sitting in front of our working fireplace (!) with a blanket on my lap and a dog at my feet.

Life is good.

So what was so hectic about this week, you ask?
Well, I:

1) Workshopped a new musical.
It was a 30 hour commitment over 5 days (5 days which also included normal 8-hour work commitments and a little sleep).

In this instance "workshopping" meant researching a particular character in the play's current draft, then inhabiting that character and thinking about her motivations as we went through movement improvisations, studied new and current songs within the show, and then put it all together. In 5 days we learned and rough-draft blocked about half the show. It was a fast learning curve and an exceptionally prolific creative endeavor -- that the show's creator now gets to pick and choose from.

In other words, we went from something like this:


to something like this:


2) Planned & executed Halloween at our office.
And it was awesome. In addition to some great decorations, we had a witches' brew, pumpkin carving and costumes galore.

   

Witches' brew complete with hand (which I made by freezing juice in a glove ... except the fingers came off while trying to deglove the hand.) 

Witches' Brew Recipe

punch: 2 parts cranberry juice, 1 part ginger ale

frozen hands: one was grapefruit juice, the other was apple juice with green food coloring. Pour juice into a glove and tie off the end, leaving it in the freezer for at least 24 hours. When time comes to deglove, run some hot water over the glove and use scissors to carefully cut the glove off the arm and fingers.

smoke: Buy 10-20 lbs of dry ice and two bowls. Put the ice in the outer bowl (blue tub in my picture) and punch in the inner bowl. Pour boiling water into the outer bowl. You will need to replenish the hot water every 15 minutes or so. [Safety warning: PLEASE read up about dry ice safety precautions if you intend to use it. It WILL burn your skin on contact.]

 

(L to R) People carving pumpkins to be entered in our contest; a taste of our office Halloween decor; me in my costume (wearing my husband's hockey referee uniform).

3) Got treated to the easiest at-home Halloween ever.

Matt cleaned the pumpkin, bought the candy, and even made dinner on Halloween night because he knew I was excited for trick-or-treaters. (After 7 years living in a commercial downtown area, we moved somewhere a little more neighborhood-y, and I figured we'd get some kiddies!) We got 2 ... but Matt gets major points nonetheless.