What's Up Wednesday- Post-Halloween Edition

Post-Halloween Edition

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up.  Should you wish to join, check out Jaime's or Erin's lovely blogs and sign up with the link widget at the bottom of the post.

WHAT I'M READING

Lovely reading for this week! BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE & we're listening to THE NIGHT CIRCUS before bed. (one of my all-time favorites) Both books that remind me why I want to write.

WHAT I'M WRITING

I'm doing sort of a partial NaNo this year. Meaning that I capitalize on all the great energy and encouragement, but I don't kill myself to put out a huge word count. I've been working on a fun new project and also adding to LOVE AND OTHER CURIOSITIES. Usually, I don't draft two projects at once, but I've been inspired for a little of both lately.

WHAT WORKS FOR ME

Finally having a little time to write is HUGE. October was the most crazy, busy, wonderful, stressful month. But I did it! I completed everything. I made all the deadlines (including a full magazine feature in Cloud Orchid magazine for some of my crazy Etsy creations) and actually was able to finish my own Halloween costume. (Though I had to tweak it at the last minute.) But Fall just feels like writing to me. It's a mug and laptop and all the words just pouring out like they should. And having a little time to myself to relish in it...priceless.

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO 

We forgot to take a picture of my costume until about 3am,
so the lights had faded a bit, but you get the general idea.
Also, had to scale down the 7 ft antlers
so that I "didn't put someone's eye out"

HALLOWEEN! After living and breathing all things Halloween for weeks & weeks, you think I would have been burned out by the time the actual holiday rolled around. But we had an absolute Blast!! This was our 8th Annual Monster's Ball. (We kind of overdo it at our house...and by "we" I mean "me") Though Boy Chris tolerates my madness with good humor. Plus, he loves doing our custom Halloween homebrew. Sometimes I wonder if all the work will be worth it, but one party goer who didn't even know us said it was the best party that they had ever been to. I told them I could just kiss them for saying that because I really put a ton of time into it every year.

Into the Woods: Highlights- definitely our custom Bad Wolf Brown Ale; music around the bonfire (try playing the guitar in the dark after that much Sangria): the fire breather folks showed up in time for the Bonfire (and no one burned my house down): and best of all, the Cops didn't show up like last year (this one goes to 11)

And because at least one of you wanted to hear about the food:

A sample of the Menu: Black Forest Cake w/ coconut cream frosting (because Chocolate! Mine turned out more melty); Sweet potato avocado bites with heirloom tomatoes & microgreens; poison toffee apples (because they were just so gorgeously black); and trio of almond cheese spreads (hadn't made these before but they were tasty!) Every time someone asks me what vegans eat, I just say "Come to one of our parties and I'll show you" *grin*