Last weekend was our 12th annual Witches' Gathering!
We went with a spider theme this time, so I made some creepy crawly invitations:
Each guest's place card doubles as a bookmark. The little spider dangles outside of the book and looks really cute. As usual everyone had a spooky version of their name on their place card - an idea I picked up from the credits on The Simpsons Halloween Specials.
I had a few bookmark spiders leftover so I made them into a pair of earrings. I just punched a hole through them and clamped an earring hook through the hole.
By the way, these large spiders were another Dollar Tree find. I painted the little eyes and fangs on them, though. They're about the most light weight earrings you can wear at that size!
Each guest also received a glittery little spider candle holder with an led candle inside. We found these cool tea lights at Walmart and the "flames" give off a really bright orange glow.
The treat bags were also spidery.
Here's how the table was set. You can see all those little spider candles glowing away on the plates.
We had deviled eggs as an appetizer. These were more devilish than usual, with their little red pepper horns. I've seen this idea in magazines for years and finally gave it a try. The pepper triangles are a quick addition, but they added some personality and flavor.
For dinner we had Summer Dreamweaver Soup. It's one of the most amazing soups I've ever had. There is so much flavor in it! Even the guests who don't like veggies liked this. I found this soup recipe while searching for soups with lime. A favorite soup place around here recently closed down, and I missed the lime filled soups I used to have there. So that was my motivation for the search. If you're interested in the recipe, here it is: Summer Dreamweaver Soup
Our bread for the night was fittingly in the form of a spider!
This bread had more personality than any other bread I've made. It was a lot of fun to present to the group. I accidentally found the spider bread idea while searching for spider cakes. Here's the video that inspired me:
Obviously, our spider wasn't made for dipping. We baked our own bread, because we couldn't find what is advertised in this video. This bread was a lot less challenging than I thought it would be, and I couldn't have been happier with it. The guests had a blast taking their "legs" and laughed when our extra legs showed up. (It's handy to have extra legs.) We stuck the new legs in place of those we'd removed, and people joked that the spider had "regenerated".
As for that spider cake, here it is under the watchful eye of my pirate skull:
The cake is actually a brownie baked flat onto a pizza pan. I frosted it with orange frosting and made the spider design with melted chocolate and a toothpick. If you have patience and a steady hand, I really recommend making this dessert! The inspiration for this came from Pillsbury: Brownie Spider Web Recipe
The spider itself came from a candy shop and I painted his eyes and fangs on with frosting.
A bouquet of spider mums made the centerpiece.
Here I am again in my wicked shirt. I ended up using one of my skull scarves as a skirt.
You can't see my leggings in that photo, but they had this silver spider web pattern on them:
Out front sat our witchy pumpkins in their hats and masks. I tried something new this year by cutting pictures of eyes from magazine ads and gluing them behind the masks.
Our guests nicely left us some hostess gifts. Probably because of the spider on the invites, we got a few spidery gifts. Those lotions are from Bath & Body Works. I think the Plum Potion one is my favorite.
As the guests left, they were seen off by this spooky jack-o-lantern and some frog croaking, cat yowling sound effects.
I hope you enjoyed these photos! It's so fun to have a Halloween loving audience to share these with. For anyone who missed last year's witch party, here's a link to that post: Witch Party 2011
I'll leave you with a fitting song I just discovered today ~ Witch in White by Janie Jones:
P.S. ~ My Halloween blog party is this Friday. If you'd like to participate, please send me your costumed photo!
Each guest's place card doubles as a bookmark. The little spider dangles outside of the book and looks really cute. As usual everyone had a spooky version of their name on their place card - an idea I picked up from the credits on The Simpsons Halloween Specials.
I had a few bookmark spiders leftover so I made them into a pair of earrings. I just punched a hole through them and clamped an earring hook through the hole.
By the way, these large spiders were another Dollar Tree find. I painted the little eyes and fangs on them, though. They're about the most light weight earrings you can wear at that size!
Each guest also received a glittery little spider candle holder with an led candle inside. We found these cool tea lights at Walmart and the "flames" give off a really bright orange glow.
The treat bags were also spidery.
Here's how the table was set. You can see all those little spider candles glowing away on the plates.
We had deviled eggs as an appetizer. These were more devilish than usual, with their little red pepper horns. I've seen this idea in magazines for years and finally gave it a try. The pepper triangles are a quick addition, but they added some personality and flavor.
For dinner we had Summer Dreamweaver Soup. It's one of the most amazing soups I've ever had. There is so much flavor in it! Even the guests who don't like veggies liked this. I found this soup recipe while searching for soups with lime. A favorite soup place around here recently closed down, and I missed the lime filled soups I used to have there. So that was my motivation for the search. If you're interested in the recipe, here it is: Summer Dreamweaver Soup
Our bread for the night was fittingly in the form of a spider!
This bread had more personality than any other bread I've made. It was a lot of fun to present to the group. I accidentally found the spider bread idea while searching for spider cakes. Here's the video that inspired me:
Obviously, our spider wasn't made for dipping. We baked our own bread, because we couldn't find what is advertised in this video. This bread was a lot less challenging than I thought it would be, and I couldn't have been happier with it. The guests had a blast taking their "legs" and laughed when our extra legs showed up. (It's handy to have extra legs.) We stuck the new legs in place of those we'd removed, and people joked that the spider had "regenerated".
As for that spider cake, here it is under the watchful eye of my pirate skull:
The cake is actually a brownie baked flat onto a pizza pan. I frosted it with orange frosting and made the spider design with melted chocolate and a toothpick. If you have patience and a steady hand, I really recommend making this dessert! The inspiration for this came from Pillsbury: Brownie Spider Web Recipe
The spider itself came from a candy shop and I painted his eyes and fangs on with frosting.
A bouquet of spider mums made the centerpiece.
Here I am again in my wicked shirt. I ended up using one of my skull scarves as a skirt.
You can't see my leggings in that photo, but they had this silver spider web pattern on them:
Out front sat our witchy pumpkins in their hats and masks. I tried something new this year by cutting pictures of eyes from magazine ads and gluing them behind the masks.
Our guests nicely left us some hostess gifts. Probably because of the spider on the invites, we got a few spidery gifts. Those lotions are from Bath & Body Works. I think the Plum Potion one is my favorite.
As the guests left, they were seen off by this spooky jack-o-lantern and some frog croaking, cat yowling sound effects.
I hope you enjoyed these photos! It's so fun to have a Halloween loving audience to share these with. For anyone who missed last year's witch party, here's a link to that post: Witch Party 2011
I'll leave you with a fitting song I just discovered today ~ Witch in White by Janie Jones:
P.S. ~ My Halloween blog party is this Friday. If you'd like to participate, please send me your costumed photo!
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