You guys know I’m into Halloween. I’ve waxed poetic about Theatre Bizarre. I’ve blathered on about my annual Halloween party and my dorky Luna Lovegood Costume. These images of Eleanor Rigby dressed as a sexy devil porn star, I have laid bare.

Please, no slut shaming. She’s been listening to a lot of Katy Perry and we’re hoping it’s just a phase.

So let’s just get to the meat of this post, shall we?

This Halloween I dressed as a ‘classy broad from outer space raising her alien baby alone while waitressing at a space wine bar to put herself through college.’

As you do.

She’s a feminist minded extraterrestrial, who dreams of working her way to the upper crust of space society. But she does it all for her Glirk. The baby, after all, is her own flesh and blerve.

Perhaps I am getting carried away.

Want to create your own Classy Broad From Outerspace costume? Here’s how!

For the helmet, I used a 14″ acrylic outdoor lamp shade. With a dremel, I cut the base large enough for my head to squeeze through and added a few air holes. For the antennae, I attached wire pot scrubbers (from the dollar store) to the ends of a couple threaded rods. For the jet pack, I wired two galvanized pipe fittings together and added 2-liter bottles, spray painted silver, to the tops. I added some knobs and dials to the front and clipped on book lights from the dollar store for added space-age-iness. For the alien baby, I carved the head out of styrofoam, layered on some paper mache, and added a few coats of paint. By the way, Martha makes the perfect alien-green paint color (of course she does).

A few photos from Theatre Bizarre…

Somehow, the Theatre Bizarre crew outdid themselves again. The artistry, imagination, and talent injected into this event is bonkers. If you’re not attending Theatre Bizarre every year, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. I’m sorry to yell, but it is the truth.

Over Halloween weekend, my friend Mish and I hosted our annual costume party at a new venue – Corktown Tavern in Detroit. The turnout was huge. Everyone danced, drank, thrillered, and time warped. I had the best time.

And now! Partially-focused Halloween photo dump in yo face! Blame the under-lit bar. Or the booze.

Only 349 days until Halloween!

xoxo

Halloween was one week ago today, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t suffering from a little post-holiday depression. October is always a whirlwind of Halloween festivities. This year I attended Theatre Bizarre, Creepy Cheapy (an amazing annual costume party where Detroit musicians put on costumed covers of their favorite bands), a haunted forest in Detroit, High and Haunted Tea with a tea leaf reading from a psychic medium at The Whitney, and a night of tribute bands at The Loving Touch on Halloween night in which Vince Neil spilled a drink all over my skirt *swoons*. But perhaps the most fun event of the season was my annual Halloween party, co-hosted with my partner in crime, Mish. We’ve held the party at Exodos bar in Greektown for the past seven years, but this year we tried out a new venue – The Berkley Front.

I made a mug shot style photo backdrop out of a flat white sheet, black electrical tape, and vinyl sticky numbers. We placed a table of photo-booth props next to the backdrop (severed limbs, mustaches, a megaphone, etc.) and encouraged everyone to take pictures and hashtag their photos #cleotilda13.

Sidebar – Cleotilda is the name of a terrifying Halloween prop that we display at our party every year. Bearing the likeness of a young dead girl in a soiled nightgown, her eyes light up green and she snarls at anyone who comes near. This year, our good friend Annie dressed as Cleotilda, winning best costume of the night for the second year in a row!

Here are some shots from my phone that night.

We handed out prizes for the best costumes, we Thrillered, we Time Warped, and we danced until we were dead.

We returned the following day to pick up our decorations and found this note from the bar.

I couldn’t agree more! Thank you so much to The Berkley Front for being awesome.

PS: Eleanor wasn’t able to attend the party, but she insisted on dressing up. Here she is as Sexy Satan and a Cobra Kai.

Only 358 days until Halloween!

xoxo

Artwork Via

Theatre bizarre, the infamous (and illegal) underground carnival created by John Dunivant and Ken Poirier, was originally constructed on a plot of land near Michigan State Fair Grounds. Shut down by the City of Detroit in 2010, Theatre Bizarre now calls Masonic Temple it’s permanent home. With the help of his army of minions, John Dunivant, the mastermind behind this event, transforms all seven floors of the temple into an immersive world of unfettered decadence for one night a year. A devoted crew of artists and volunteers spend weeks painstakingly bedecking the temple with props, banners, hand painted signs, and even replace every light bulb in the building with an amber colored bulb to reflect the autumnal palette of John’s vision. Hundreds of musical acts, sideshow performers, burlesque dancers, fire breathers, and tightrope walkers come together to put on a show like no other. It’s beautiful, it’s indulgent, and to those of us who have been a part of this event for so many years, it’s very, very special.

For more information about Theatre Bizarre, it’s history, and even a tour, go here.

This year, Mike D and I decided to dress as Henry Spencer and The Lady in the Radiator from the David Lynch film Eraserhead. The story centers around Henry Spencer, who is left to care for his grossly deformed child in a desolate industrial landscape. Throughout the film, Spencer experiences hallucinations featuring The Lady in the Radiator.

It’s an incredibly bizarre and surreal film, and I absolutely love it.

I created the puffy cheeks and mutant baby from a combination of Styrofoam, paper mache and gauze fabric.

Below is the “real” baby from the film for comparison.

And, voila!

We were recognized by a handful of people (which is always nice) and we were even asked to have our picture taken a few times! Costume success!

Here are some photos from my phone throughout the night.

To give you a little taste of the event, here are two 7 second videos I shot with my phone.

Basically it’s the greatest party on earth.

Thank you so much to Theatre Bizarre and all of the hardworking artists and crew members who work tirelessly to put this amazing night together.

Until next year!

xoxo

This past weekend I had a few of my lady friends over for my second annual haunted hussy house party. It was a smashing good time. I thought I’d share with you some highlights of the evening.

Oh and let it be known, I am full on cray-cray for Halloween. Any chance I can get to wear an afro, dance like a zombie, pour fake blood over my head, or decorate with faux brains, I’m ALL IN.  If you feel differently, you are dead inside.  (pun intended).

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRAINS!

Eyeballs in a jar. Terrifying!

Bloody candles.  Ghastly!

To make those bottles, I spray painted a few empty Izze & beer bottles with black chalkboard spray paint and once dry, drew on my own “label” with chalk.

To make the blood dripped candles, I melted a red candle over top a white candle to create the “blood” drips.  Easy Peasy.

Black candelabra = instant spooky room.

Perhaps you noticed the reflection of a suite of armor in the mirror above?  We leave him out ALL YEAR ROUND.  Sometimes at dinner Mike and I will pretend it is the middle ages and we are of noble birth.  Mike says things like “I give to you, me lady, the hot pocket” to which I say “Me lord, I demand LEAN pockets! Now do as I command, or I’ll have your head on a spike!”

That’s normal, right?

It is very important when throwing a party to always decorate your front door.  This lets your guests know what to expect.  Which in this case is THE DEAD ZONE.

Red velvet cupcakes with vanilla frosting, garnished with eyeballs.  Gross! And Delicious!

Adorable chocolate ghost strawberries made by my friend Bree.

Of course there was wine.  Macabre Wine.

This party coincidentally fell on our friend Kim’s birthday, so we surprised her with some gifts.

I gave her David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane on vinyl.  Best gift ever right?

Wrong.

Our friend Jessica gave her an airbrushed Tupac t-shirt, which by far is the best birthday gift in the history of all birthday gifts.  Not that I am jealous.

[I am]

What else…. Oh!  We formed a death metal girl-group that night. All of our songs include blood curdling shrieks and profound titles such as “I BURNED MY SOUFFLE!” and “WHO HID MY DIET PILLS?!”. We never landed on a solid name, but Broad Sabbath and Shetallica were tossed around, along with some others I shouldn’t mention.  It is possibly my best artistic collaboration to date.  Or my worst.

And finally, we all learned the thriller dance thanks to our talented instructor Mish who is like this chick, but cooler.

Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of this portion of the evening, however I did create a re-enactment drawing for your entertainment:

In conclusion ladies & ghouls, it was a spooktacular evening.

Yeah, I want to punch me for saying that too.