Incy Wincy Spider And Pumpkin Puke

My handmade spider costume: 2 pairs of tights, 6 newspapers, fishing line and tinfoil. The droopy leg on my right hand side is due to an early evening accident. I dipped it in the loo before I even left the house...

'Pumpkin Puke': idea stolen from Tumblr, handcarved by me.

Bucket of 'Trick or Treat' sweets. Lollipops, chocolate limes and fruity boiled sweets mixed with blue mouth, fishy and soapy sweets. Still there at the end of the night.

Happy Halloween!

Well, here you go ladies and gents - the final outcome! White and milk chocolate apples with hundreds and thousands and toffee caramel apples with a splash of vanilla - time to get stuck in!!

Trick Or Treat, My Sweet?

This is the plan for tomorrow afternoon. Dipping Granny Smiths into all kinds of delicious, gooey smotherings with the equally delicious Miss Lou. Doubt our efforts will look as good as the ones here, but bet they taste supa-dupa - lashings of caramelised sugar and bowls of hot melted chocolate just can't go wrong - or can it?? Glad we won't be doing it in my kitchen *eek*

What are your plans for this weekend? Lou and I will be dishing out our treats to some unsuspecting gals and ghouls at a party tomorrow night. I will (hopefully) be a spider *bleeuurrrgh*

Old-Fashioned Red Candy Apples
8 medium sized apples
8 wooden sticks
3 cups white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/4 teaspoon red food coloring (optional)

Wash and dry the apples. Remove any stems or leaves and insert a wooden stick into the end of each apple. Set apples aside.

Heat and stir sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan until sugar has dissolved. Boil until the syrup reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer, or until a little syrup dropped into cold water separates into breakable threads.

Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon and food coloring, if using.

Dip one apple completely in the syrup and swirl it around a little with the stick to coat. Hold the apple above the saucepan to drain off excess. Place apple, with the stick facing up, on a well greased pan.

Repeat with remaining apples. If syrup thickens or cools too much, simply reheat briefly before proceeding. Let cool completely before serving.

Caramel Apples
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
8-10 wooden sticks
8-10 medium tart apples

Wash and dry the apples, removing any stems. Insert a wooden stick into the end of each apple.

Combine butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and milk in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil for 30 to 40 minutes, or until syrup reaches 248 degrees (firm ball stage) on a candy thermometer.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Dip each apple into the caramel mixture, swirling to coat. Set apples on wax paper to cool completely before serving.

Recipes taken from here.

Hells Angels MC Sue McQueen

Gone are the days of settling disagreements with bare knuckles. Apparently today's Hells Angels Motorcycle Club along with their signature emblem, the winged skull, are registered trademarks and have been since 1982. The newest lawsuit to be filed by the Club's intellectual property attorney, Fritz Clapp, is against none other than our very own King of the Skull, Alexander McQueen. Clapp (a rather unfortunate name?) states that “There’s no doubt in my mind the designer had seen the death head mark,” and he has opted to file a suit because “it has a certain instructive quality in the public and in the market: Advertisers and businesses and lawyers are reminded that the Hells Angels name and logo are protected marks, commercially as well as on the street.”


I doubt McQueen, one of the most unique and inspirational designers of our time, felt he had to 'steal' a logo from the MC. All art is referential and perhaps the MC should view it as a homage rather than a trademark infringement. It'll be interesting to see what the outcome is.

In the meantime, all McQueen products which make reference to the Club or the insignia are to be removed from stores. Can you believe how much they'll be worth in the future now?!

You can read the whole story here.

Anyway, the main reason for me posting this story is as an excuse to post lots of photos of SAMCRO. Anyone else obsessed with Sons of Anarchy right now?

NEIN!

These fantastic nostalgic prints appeared on Creep Machine the other week. I'm posting them today because they reflect my mood - AAAAAARRRRRGGHHHHH!!!!
Work is a pain in the backside at the moment and I'm a total grouch. All I want to do is bash tiny humans with sticks and munch my way through hundreds of jars of chocolate chip cookies. Jump on over here to buy or read the slightly amusing story behind the prints.

Oscarvorus Grouchamaximus, Animalus Wyldapsychosis and Monsterous Cookiebanditous by Rhys Cooper

On my way home I'll mostly be listening to some germanic industrialists. Here's a small sample:

Doggie Costumes

Tompkins Square Park Halloween Dog Parade. Makes me wish I had a stupid mutt to dress up - Mildred Pierce would scratch my eyes out and enjoy picking bits of membrane from her claws if I attempted such nonsense with her.
These are my favourites. All photos taken from Gala or Gothamist.

Wonder-Dog

Lobster-Dog

Tron-Dog

Scarlett O'Mutt

Moose-Dog

Gaga - Doggie

Cocktail Dress

Nipped into Boots last night to pick up some essentials and qualified for a wee £5 off No. 7 voucher. What do you always buy with these vouchers? Nail Polish, cos it's the cheapest! I've been hankering after some delicious orange polish for a while now, so snapped up some Anniversary Edition called 'Cocktail Dress'. Opted for an undercoat as I'm sure the orange would leave a rather undesirable nicotine stain come this time next week. What you can see is one (very lazy) coat of the orange. I'm pretty pleased and would recommend it at £1.75, in fact, it's probably worth its full price.

The book in the photos is Pierre et Gilles.

Hello new followers! Have a good weekend x

Sticky Back Plastic

Gareth Pugh at work constructing THAT dress worn by Raquel Zimmerman last year.

Cool, calm and collected. He makes it look so easy!

"Yeah, so that'll be about that much"

Until...

"uh-oh...I've kinda fucked that up..."



Stolen from Put It All On Me

Lanvin for H&M Sneak Preview

Actively saving my pennies for this one. So pleased to see that there will be some oversized delicious jewellery as part of the range. Lanvin for H&M hits the shops on 23rd November. Christmas outfit sorted! Loving the ruffle dress on the right too :)

Style Factor

Right, who's been watching X Factor this year? Come on, just admit it. I'm hooked and not really on the contestants or their singing capabilities, but on the styling. Apart from a few specific blunders (Belle Amie's 60s inspired look this week?? No, just no.) I have been blown away. My favourites so far have been Aiden's white shirt from last week, Treyc's dress this week and Rebecca's whole outfit this week.



Very goth, very cute. Apparently it's a vintage shirt. Next up is Treyc's KTZ faux leather number. I had spotted this on the interweb last week and instantly fell in love, but could I remember where I'd seen it or who it was by? Of course not. Much "I love that dress!!", "I saw that dress only last week!!", "It's by *%(%£&*" Grrrrrrrrr.... After much frantic searching of all the usual suspect blogs (Kingdom of Style etc), Mr G came to my rescue and announced, quite matter of factly, "it's KTZ." Of course it is!! And I'd spotted it on the Bitching and Junkfood blog here. Panic over. And for those of you with a little extra cash to splurge, you can buy it here.

Next up is Rebecca's neoprene purple dress. It's by Lisa Marie Fernandez and can be snapped up here. But what set the whole thing off was her beautiful cuffs by Erikson Beamon. Simply devine. Can't wait for next week's show!

Gutted

This weekend has been a much needed quiet one. Long lie on Saturday morning followed by tea and toast, hair dying session, more tea and buttered gingerbread with Miss Lou, back to back episodes of Two and a Half Men (guilty pleasure), dinner, then off to the pictures for a giant pick n mix and Back To The Future with Marty McFly. Happy Days.

After a rather self-indulgent Saturday I felt it was time to bite the bullet and gut my wardrobe - a task I've been putting off for weeks with one excuse or another. Space is so limited that my clothes have to be in a constant cycle of in the wash basket, on the clothes horse or in a heap at the bottom of the wardrobe. Not anymore! I was ruthless!!

This is the BEFORE

And this is the AFTER. Complete with new tub for all all my winter woolies :)

Dresses to the left (out of shot as the triple door covers them), then shirts and blouses, numerous cardigans and jumpers and jackets and coats on the right.

Finally, a nice big pile of denims - including a few pairs I forgot I owned - sweet!

I now have a rather large bag of assorted leftovers, so watch this space - I might just attempt to sell them on :)

Gemma Slack SS10/11 On Sale NOW!

If only I had the cash! A few key pieces from Gemma Slack's SS10/11 collection are on sale NOW! Head on over to Not Just A Label to get in there first. I particularly like the Anthurium Dress (above). Reminds me of naughty Araki photos. I love anthurium flowers and really wanted them at my wedding, but they were out of season and would have cost a fortune.