Eerie Elegance

For our July movie night, a record number of 42 of us gathered to watch Young Frankenstein at Magnolia Marquee, definitely needing both our outside and inside screens for everyone to have a comfy seat! We enjoyed my maniacal menu of fun food & clever cocktails, including Igor’s Eye Gore, Sedagive Syringes, FrankenFloats, Abby Normal Cheese Ball Brain, several cheeses for Puttin’ on the Ritz crackers, vegetarian egg rolls over veggie straw chips as Rolls in Ze Hay, Grillmaster Glen roasted us plenty of Burgermeister Burgers & Franks-in-Steins, and I tried a third variation of my handpainted Monster Mask Munchies including brand-new Bride Bonbons. Thanks to everyone who joined us for a true classic comedy!

Hooray for mobile Halloween shopping! I got the new Toastmaster crockpot cauldron that kept selling out as soon as the links went live! I bought mine from my phone on our recent road trip when I saw an announcement online. Three cute shaped non-slip feet and two curved handles on the matte plastic exterior with vents on the bottom, same as my larger normal crockpot since the metal heating sleeve inside the ceramic crock is what matters for cooking. At least they were smart with the cord control so a k**b wouldn’t spoil the cauldron look. Now what should I brew first?

My largest HomeGoods was already well-stocked with Halloween this week, and there are a few items that might come home with me on a future visit…like the cute garlic oven cauldron with lid or maybe the elegant Bride of Frankenstein figure…but after well over three decades of Halloween hosting and collecting accordingly, I must now be selective in what I buy!

My closest Marshalls didn’t have any Halloween I wanted yet, but this is an easy location for me to haunt more frequently, so I will be checking back every week or two just in case they have anything I cannot resist. 👻

I finally had the chance for some Halloween Hunting locally, restraining myself from any large Halloween Haul yet except for Cost Plus World Market. I found the official WolfMan wine to round out our Universal Monsters wine collection, I couldn’t resist the black cat gel eye masks, and I spotted the new Scare-Cuterie creepy cookbook for sale in the wild! Congrats to Lori Castellon on the gorgeous hardback, and good luck with your booth at Midsummer Scream!

Code Orange in Kennewick WA! Both At Home stores within reasonable access to me closed last year, so I was lucky to see an online Code Orange when we were visiting friends in eastern Washington. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a At Home store with so much Halloween! I resisted the cute haunted houses, and would have bought new pumpkin designs except they were only half deep. My spiderweb blankets are getting old so another is always wise, and I couldn’t pass by the beaded black pillows. I also found some oversized plastic & metal vases we will turn ancient Egyptian for our mummy’s tomb. Good thing we drove since I restrained myself but still filled all our spare space with Halloween Haul! 🎃

Since we had improved our Victorian master bathroom so much already, I finally dug out the antique brass shelf the previous owner left in the garage, soaked it in shifts in vinegar, and gave it some good scrubs and soft polishing. I found some brass screws in our stash, and it looks great with the main towel shelf facing it. Now we can hang hand towels at the sink instead of using our bath towels behind! Our kitten had shredded our old vinyl lace shower curtain, so a new lace curtain, new memory foam bath mat, and new teal towels completed the master bathroom refresh. It’s come quite a long way since we first moved in!

I finally used my tile saw again! Despite my efforts in sealing the entire upstairs bathroom floor when we first moved in, shower water was leaking to the downstairs ceiling. After lots of trial & error with scrap tile & plumbers putty, I had a plan to continue the tile border around both curved ends. I cut cardboard templates in 2023, bought matching grout & silicone sealer, and saved matching tile scraps from the BakerSpace kitchen remodel, but I was worried about cutting tile in a thin curved shape, let alone I couldn’t find bullnose mosaic squares to match, so it was going to be a lot of grinding by hand. Since the exhaust fan project with LED lighting was a success, and the clawfoot tub needed refinishing too, I finally agreed to tackle this dreaded project in 2026.
I definitely learned more for this project! I found that “Dark Emperador” is the marble tile color pattern we have, so flat mosaic squares & 2 solid bullnose edges supplemented my tile scraps. I marked the curves in tape since you can’t see guide marks once the cloudy water is spewing everywhere from the tile saw, cutting straight lines up to the tape to chip away along the curve. Thank goodness I had exactly enough bullnose edge to miter both corners! I bought diamond Dremel tips for shaping stone and used polishing compound to match the rest of the tub. At least I made the water mess outside with the tile saw and the Dremel, but I did ruin a pair of teal work pants in the process!
Gluing everything at a slight angle to drain back into the tub took plenty of patience over several sessions. Once the mosaic tiles were also glued solid, it was time to pipe premixed grout, including adding a refresh over all the old grout to blend everything together. After everything dried, I added clear silicone sealer anywhere water might sneak through. Now that we’ve had over a month of showers with no leaks at all, we finally can call this project a success...whew!

Did you know that when I met Glinda & Elphaba at Universal Orlando last year, they were amused & amazed when I told them about my version of Glinda’s Deli Dress? 😆 Since the Deli Dress display made me laugh so much for last year’s Wicked menu, of course I couldn’t resist bringing it back for Munchkin Munchies mini sandwiches this summer for Wicked For Good, but this time the Cheddar Brick Road included the spiral pattern of individually cut bricks with special center round Oz brick from Wicked For Good, and we even had our own Glinda attend!

The custom cocktails for my Wicked For Good movie night were my fourth iteration of Glinda’s Bubbly Goodness, plus a new Wicked Witch of the West vivid green apple martini with black sugar rim and optional black vodka top layer. You could even combine cocktails with cookies & creamy Elphaba’s Lime Sherbet for sparkling lemonade floats “Pink Goes Good with Green” topped with Wicked Witches and Tasty Tiaras!
Glinda’s Bubbly Goodness -
Enjoy sparkling pink lemonade from the bottle, adding strawberry rum to taste for extra cheer. Garnish with a magic wand piercing a raspberry and perhaps your own tiara?
Wicked Witch of the West -
🎶 “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, that’s my decree...Let all Oz be agreed I’m wicked through and through” 🎶
Embrace the Wizard’s propaganda and enjoy a deliciously devilish drink of green apple syrup & sparkling water with a black sugar rim, floating black vodka for even more wickedness!
Pink Goes Good With Green -
Fill a glass 2/3rds full with Elphaba’s Lime Sherbet, add Glinda’s Bubbly Goodness pink lemonade, and watch how it works in tandem...together they’re unlimited!