Our Halloween Party

Saturday night we had some friends over for a Halloween party.  With the house all decorated, we had to show it off!

For Halloween this year, I dressed as my favorite artist - Frida Kahlo.  Ian dressed as Shane from The Walking Dead.

Here she is.  How did I do?

Any fans of The Walking Dead?  We are hooked.  I think the guys did a great job of recreating Rick and Shane, even Shane's ever-present scowl.

My sister Laura came into town and was a crazy cat lady.

And her husband was a zombie with perfect makeup!

Toy gun, people, toy gun.  No worries.

Mid-way through the part, we broke out the Jello shots ... lime with sour gummies.

Even Drake got into spirit as the Headless Horseman.  Or Horsedog.

We had a great night!  Did you dress up for Halloween?

Halloween: Setting The Scene

Happy Halloween!
My husband and I are true Halloween lovers.  We like to add to our collection each year.  Here's a little tour of how we set the scene for the spooky season.

Tutorial for my Halloween wreaths found here.

We have four of these ghosts hanging from our magnolia tree.  We made them last year using inexpensive white fabric, bouncy balls from the dollar store, and Sharpie pens.  They are hung with fishing line.

This year, our main addition to the decor was homemade gravestones.  Ian purchased two large plywood sheets and I drew the shapes on them.  Our friend cut them out with his circular saw.  A little bit of paint and some witty sayings, and we were done!

Everything looks so good in the dark!

We also have the inside of the house decorated.   For Saturday night's party, we had all of the lights off (you can't tell due to the camera flash) and tons of candles lit.  You can also see on the sofa table that we had jars with brains, hearts, eyeballs, and rats that we filled with water and the insides of glow sticks.  We shone a black light on them so the jars glowed.

We made an easy punch using Diet V8 Splash, diet ginger ale, and an entire can of lychees that resembled eyeballs at the bottom.  For those who wished to spike their punch, I had whipped-cream vodka next to the dispenser.

We also chilled the wine with dry ice.  A very inexpensive way to create a fun look.

Do you go all out for Halloween?

Halloween Costumes Through The Years

This post titled: "Halloween Costumes Through The Years"

also known as

"Getting Every Ounce Of Your Money Out Of A Black Wig"

Seriously ... it wasn't until I started corralling all of these photos together before I realized how overplayed this darn black wig was. 

Let's start with a non-wig year, 2011.

I was a ballerina (and if you are curious, Ian is Uncle Eddie from Nat'l Lampoons Christmas Vacation ... I know, it is an ingenius idea)

2010 was an off year ... we were engaged and living in a townhome in Columbia.  We didn't have many neighbors and we lived off of a busy road that parents in their right mind wouldn't let kids cross.  No costumes for us this year!

And now we shall commence with the wig years.
This was Halloween 2009.
I was a geisha, or something of the sort.
Ian was supposed to miss Halloween this year as he was in Florida for training and decided at the very last minute to fly back early.  He got in the afternoon of the party.  I threw this outfit together for him in about 3 hours!

Halloween 2008.

I was Cleopatra, or something of the sort.

My dear friend Mo was a nightstand, which was just plain awesome.

Halloween 2007.

The black wig again, but before it got a good trim!

I was Amy Winehouse.

And let it be known that I used to love wearing that jean skirt in the summer.  Yikes.

Halloween 2006.

The ever-so-classic Breakfast At Tiffany's costume.

(No wig appearance ... it's a miracle)

Halloween 2005.

The wig is back.

An overly tan and blinged-out Melania Trump.

This was back when the whole "You're Fired" thing was big.



As you can see, my costumes have become a little more tame through the years.  But one standard is that I always wear false eyelashes on Halloween, always!  They are just too fun, and when else besides that day and your wedding day can you wear big gaudy long lashes?

I'll show you my 2012 Halloween costume tomorrow, but for now, someone wants to show you his previous years' costume as well...

Aaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhh.

Slippers: Love or Hate?

So, I just spent part of my lunch hour shopping for shoes.

I'm in need for new black flats.  Which, for picky picky me, is just about as difficult as finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.

Yves Saint Laurent slipper shoes, $710 / Velvet slipper / Antonio Melani leopard print flat / Flat shoes / Canvas shoes / Zara slipper shoes / Miss Selfridge flat shoes / Miss Selfridge black slipper

I tried on a few slipper-style flats.  Mehhhh.  They look so bad on me!  Yet, I am strangely drawn to them!  What gives, am I just trying on the wrong pairs for me, or do you really have to have the right size/shape foot to pull this style off?

What about you ... love 'em or hate 'em?

Jewelry Giveaway ::: The Queen City Style

Happy Monday!  We had a fantastic weekend complete with an amazing Halloween party.  My costume consisted of a unibrow with some more fun accessories.  Any guesses who I was?

For now, I'm so thrilled to say that one of the most fabulous fashion bloggers in Charlotte, The Queen City Style, is hosting a giveaway from my A. Liz Designs Etsy shop!

The giveaway is live here and will be open until this Thursday, November 1, with the winner announced Friday.

Here is Whitley showing how she would style the earrings.  How pretty is she!

The earrings are made from red coral and turqouise-dyed howlite.

Whitley is giving you a few different ways to enter the giveaway ... eight different ways, in fact!  Complete all eight and I'd say your odds are pretty darn good.

I do hope you will pay her a visit and enter the giveaway.
It would mean the world to me.  :)
Plus, her post contains a coupon code you can enter in my shop!

Ciao, bellas.