Costumes and cookie cakes

Wanted to share some of the ideas/inspo behind Donnie’s costume as it was a bit unique but was completely him.

As of less than a week before a Halloween costume party that our friends were hosting, Donnie didn’t have a costume yet. No need for panic at T-6 days until the party but still, we were hoping to not wait until the very last minute.

On Monday, I dropped off a garbage bag full of clothes we no longer wanted to Goodwill (so good to get the items out of the house!). I noticed a sign in the window extolling people to shop their Boo-boutique to find Halloween costumes. Well, I (technically Donnie as I l already had mine...) did need a costume so why not check it out.

Once in the store, I noticed that most of their Halloween items were brand new. I walked past a row of wigs and then backtracked to take a look at one of them again. Then I did an internet search to see if the wig I was interested in was as close an approximation to what I thought in my mind it may be. Here was my internet search: Van Halen Cigarette Baby. This is what popped up 

The wig that I saw in the store was blond and had this little cowlick part in the front that reminded me of the CB in the above picture. An idea formed. What if Donnie dressed up as the VHCB? He could don a pair of angel wings, the hair wig and a fake cigarette. I wasn’t sure if Donnie would like the idea or not, being an obviously not completely obvious costume. I took a picture of the wig and sent Donnie a text asking him what he thought of being the VHCB for Halloween. I said that all we would need were the wings and a cigarette prop. I could see him really liking the idea or not at all. I decided to not buy the wig until I heard from him since I didn’t know if it would be returnable. 

Here's where I should back track and explain why the picture of VHCB was in any way shape or form in my mind. The short answer is that Donnie really likes the album on which the photo of CB appears, Van Halen's 1984. When we drove to see Abby on Saturday, Donnie played the album on Apple Air Play and when you play items on your phone with Apple Air Play, the album cover appears on your car’s screen. So the image of CB was right in front of me for close to an hour on Saturday.

The longer answer is that Donnie not only a big Van Halen fan in terms of just liking the sound of their music, but he is also a musician who enjoys playing Van Halen songs. He plays the keyboard and the guitar and enjoys replicating the sounds- he also uses software to enhance even more the sound quality such that he can record a song that sounds very much like the music from his favorite Van Halen’s songs. He has been on a Van Halen playing kick especially since we saw Sammy Hagar perform in August.

So back to the story on Monday. I ran another errand before leaving the vicinity of Goodwill and before I left the area for good, Donnie replied to my text and said that he thought dressing up as the VHCB was a great idea. Yah! I like it when I come up with good ideas. He’s usually the good idea person- not that it is a contest or anything but it is just a nice feeling to come up with something someone else considers a good idea. I went back to the Goodwill and bought the wig. Later Donnie texted me to say that he’d bought what he needed for the costume which I took to mean he bought the angel wings and a cigarette prop. 

So here is a kind of funny conversation that ensued when Donnie came home from work that day.

Donnie: (eyeing the wig that is on the counter) Why did you buy that wig?

Me (incredulous- did I imagine the text messages between us? Was I hallucinating?) Because you said that dressing up as the CB was a good idea, that’s why.

Donnie: But I told you that I ordered everything that I need from Amazon

Me: I thought you meant everything but the wig since you knew I was buying the wig.

Donnie: You never said you were buying the wig. In fact, I didn’t even know you were in a store when you sent me that picture. I thought maybe you sent that photo from seeing it online.

I thought that Donnie knew that since I was running errands, if I sent any pictures of a costume idea, he would know it was from a store that I was in. Donnie didn’t know that I was running errands and when I sent the text, I didn’t tell him that I was in a store. So.... I guess I can see how, once he got the idea for the costume, he went ahead and ordered everything for it. 

I guess it’s a classic case of getting our wires crossed, lol

Soooo, we wound up with two wigs- the one I bought from the store and the one Donnie ordered from Amazon. Donnie ended up going with the mullet wig that he ordered from Amazon and declared himself to be middle aged Van Halen cigarette baby. He also realized that for his birthday this year, he had been gifted a Van Halen t- shirt WITH THE CIGARETTE BABY from 1984 on it. Serendipitous, right? Wearing it along with the costume was kinda meta, I thought. 

I was a Tootsie Roll. This is the tenth or eleventh year that I have worn this costume. I bought when I saw it in a Halloween costume catalog and tried to convince one of the girls to wear the costume for Halloween. I thought it was so cute! They demurred so there was only way for this costume to be purchased and worn by someone in the family- I had to buy it and wear it!! It has been a fun part of Halloweens ever since then. (And I think one of the girls wishes she had taken one for the team and agreed to wear the costume to avoid my perpetual Tootsie Rolling for Halloween!)

Regarding the cookie cake that I made on Saturday for a Halloween party, it ended up pretty cute and apparently tasted good, too. (I didn't have any as there were lots of goodies at the party :).) I took some progress pictures of the cookie cake process because I like nothing if but a picture or ten of kitchen messes. It makes the final product and a finally clean kitchen after lots of clean up that much more worth it to see and remember the effort that went into it!!

First the cookie cake making mess. Of course, this pales in comparison to what is coming with the frosting mess. A warm up mess is happening here...

It may seem kind of odd to use a hand mixer for the cookie dough when I have a KitchenAide. I think the reason I prefer to use the hand mixer for cookie making is that my mom always used her hand mixer when making cookies (she didn't have a KitchenAide). So it seems normal to use a hand mixer. Also, with KitchenAide, I find that the paddle attachment (the default mixing one) doesn't do a great job at mixing the contents at the very bottom of the mixing bowl.

Oh dear... when trying to transfer the baked cookie onto the plate onto which I planned to decorate it, this happened. 

Eeks!

This was as good as I could get Humpty Dumpty put back together again!

One batch of icing and four colors...

I used cocoa powder to make some of the icing brown and to give it a little bit of cocoa flavor

So much sweetness this time of year! Linking up with Joanne for Talking About it Tuesday.