You Know How I Know We're Getting Older

Guess who went out for Halloween this year? These roaming gnomes! Yes, these not so single ladies braved the Dallas cold in our homemade arden gnome outfits. Ashley is newly engaged and Danie entered "the mommyhood" not too long ago, life has been busy to say the least. We were overjoyed at the opportunity to get out and have some fun. Our night was an eventful array of hopping bar to bar, people watching and meeting interesting creatures.

Let me preface this by letting you know, I HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YOU (said in my best Agnes from Despicable Me voice)! The night started off slowly, with a staple bar we enjoyed in our single days. Compliments were coming left and right even with the sparse 10pm crowd, yes that is when our night started! It became apparent very quickly that we were over dressed for this party! It was around forty degrees yesterday night my friends. There were cute little {some not so little} co-eds in nearly nothing mini dresses, well I think its considered a dress? It covered most of their behinds. Which sent Ashley and I into the "you know how I know we are getting old" conversation. To get to the point I'll give you the highlights of the conversation.

5. We are covered from head to toe, literally.

4. Yes, we checked the forecast before heading out.

3. For Halloween we were not "sexy" gnomes.

2. We wore walking shoes.

1. There was no way we were paying $60 for something that had as much fabric as my five month old's onesie.

As the night went on we had some very colorful characters approach us and ask if we were any of the following...

5. David the Gnome

4. One of R.L. Steins creations {Goosebumps?}

3. Coneheads {What the what?!}

2. Elfs

1. Noddy {An Irish laddie informed us that this was one of the greatest cartoons that Ireland has ever seen, we think the emerald isle would appreciate if this gentleman, whom had butter knives taped to his wrist, would stop speaking on their behalf}

Reminiscing on the evening I cant help but laugh when I think about the guy who asked me if I could guess what he is. Well, I knew what he wanted to be, Kenny Powers... I didn't tell him that he actually looked like the lead singer of "Sexual Chocolate" from Coming to America {if the reference escapes you, click on the link}. This leads me to our list of costumes that were overdone.

5. Mario & Luigi {We didn't think it was possible}

4. Black Swan {Small disclaimer, it's really awesome if your makeup looked amazing or if you dress up as white swan and your BOYFRIEND dresses up like black swan, kudos to that couple}

3. Pocahottie {I am pretty sure we saw about seven and those are just the ones we saw}

2. Snookie {They were spitting images or her- tube tops as dresses, fur boots, rhinestone sunglasses and most of them were just as round as her ;)}

1.Napoli {In the wake of our unfortunate loss, this was inappropriate}

This leads me to the winner of the best costume award 2011, not quite sure what he was but he was creepy as all get out. Not only was our winner at least 6'5 but he was roaming around the bars alone and he moved like the wind, one minute he was there and the next he was gone. So when he walked past us in a bar, we seized the moment and decided to take our photo op.

Unfortunately our night had to come to an end but on a high note, our feet didn't hurt and we didn't complain about being tired- not even once! With the conclusion of every successful bar outing comes the 2am snack, I wont lie over the years it has been my favorite part of the night. Taco Bell tastes especially good after midnight and Ashley and I have come up with some of our greatest ideas at 2am in the Taco Bell line {Blogging being one of them}.

Tissue + Liquid Latex = Flesh

Halloween is creeping up on us and everyone is trying to think of last minute costumes! We have one in mind for those who enjoy The Walking Dead, zombies and other fleshy creatures.

Tools

Tissue Paper 

Liquid Latex

Halloween Makeup
Makeup Sponge 

First you will need to get your tissue paper out and cut it into strips or squares depending on the effect you want to have. If you want a gash or large open wound you might want to use strips and for puncture wounds or pieces of hanging flesh you will want to use squares.

Next paint your pieces of tissue paper with liquid latex and let dry {you will need to do a few layers of liquid latex, dabbing is better}.

Finally you will need to take the dry pieces of "flesh" and put them where you want your rotting flesh to be, your face perhaps? To get the pieces to stay you will need to use the liquid latex {little word to the wise, test a little on your skin before using to make sure you aren't allergic; wouldn't want you to really look like a creature on Halloween}.

You can get super creative with this project! The flesh pieces are very versatile you can make it look like you have a gunshot wound:
Hollow out the center of a square piece of flesh, attach to your face with latex. Fill in the "gunshot wound" with fake blood and some black makeup and match the skin around to your skin tone and BAM BAM you've been shot!

You can really have some cheap Halloween fun with a little tissue paper and liquid latex. Get creative and show us what you come up with!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

From The Roaming Gnomes 

Arden Gnome - DIY Halloween Costume

I am a HUGE Christina Applegate fan. Anyone seen Up All Night?? HILARIOUS! Well she had a show in the late 90s called "Jesse" - it only lasted two seasons, but the first episode had a scene I will never forget!


I can't find a YouTube video but here's the transcript. Jesse is Christina Applegate. John Sr. is Jesse's dad, and Darren is Jesse's **slightly slow** brother:

DARREN: "Hey, Dad!" JOHN SR: "How’s my en-tra-pre-nor?" DARREN: "I’m on to something very big, and when it hits I’m gonna buy a big house and we’re all gonna live in it together." JOHN SR: "So what are you working on now?" DARREN: (Uncovers what he brought in, reveals a garden gnome) "Garden gnomes." (Only Darren pronounces the G) JESSE: "I think the G is silent." DARREN: "Arden gnomes?" (Again with the pronounced G) "Point is, I bought 8,000 of these little babies and I got this guy down at Home Depot whose begging to take them off my hands. Cha-ching, I’m gonna make a killing!" JESSE: "I can’t believe that you bought 8,000 gnomes." (Jesse keeps the G silent) DARREN: "Gnomes, ah, right!" (He finally gets it) "I know what you’re thinking. If I’m paying ten bucks for these guys like everybody else, I’m an idiot. But when I’m buying 8,000 gnomes at nine bucks a gnome, huh, who’s the idiot?" Ever since them, I've called Gnomes (g silent) ARDEN GNOMES (pronounce the G - it's really fun I promise!!) Well, Dani and I wanted to make our own Halloween costumes this year so we chose none other than the **spooky** ARDEN GNOME.  And here's how we did it: 1 - Buy about 2 yards of Felt for the main part of outfit.  Then you probably need about half a yard of felt for the hat. 2 - Keep the felt folded in half.  The fold is going to act the shoulder seam. Grab an old shirt that you know fits you well.  Cut the felt the width of the shirt.  (If you don't want to do side panels cut it wider than your shirt) 3 - Cut a neck whole.  We decided to go with a V-Neck but you can do a round or scoop neck as well. Don't worry if you cut the neck too small at first. You can cut it larger. 4 - Try on the sheath that you've created.  In the picture below you can see that my sheath wasn't quite large enough. (We measured to the shirt and forgot that we would have to sew the sides causing us to lose a few inches! Also, since this is a dress I forgot to take into account my "wide" hips.) 5 - Create a side panel to sew onto the side of the sheath.  We did six inch panels (remember you need space to sew so the panel probably ended up adding 4 inches to each side).  See how we pinned the panel. Then run it through the sewing machine.  6 - Alright that's it for the sheath. After you try it on you can trim it up to the length that you want it.  I ended up taking about 3 inches off (you'll see final picture at bottom). 7 - The hat is easy as cake.  Buy poster board.  Roll poster board into cone shape (glue in place).  And hot glue felt onto the poster board. 8 - Add a belt, leggings, shirt (underneath), and boots. And VOILA! you have an awesome, unique, and oh so cute (not skanky unless you want it to be) Halloween costume! We are so excited to show off these DIY costumes this weekend! Did anyone else make their own costume this year? Come back tomorrow for tips from Danielle on how to make flesh!! Perfect for a Zombie costume... and the timing couldn't be better since as I write this I'm watching the season premier of the Walking Dead!!!!