Spooky goings on

Just thought I'd do a quick round up of some of the special Halloween events taking place in Northern Ireland this week for families and children. If you're not from the area, but have an event you'd like to share, please feel free to post in the comments section as you never know who's reading.

Tuesday 26th: Downpatrick Ghost Walks led by the Down County Museum, from 7pm. Taking in the old Gaol and investigating a creepy past of famous people, historical events and even body snatching.

Thursday 28th and Friday 29th: Hezlett House National Trust Property at Castlerock provides a two day event of creepy crafts, ghost walks and stories, hot food and drinks and a family fun fair, all organised by the staff and students of Ballymoney NRC. £4 admission from 5pm.

Friday 29th: Newcastle offers two FREE Halloween Mask Workshops, where children can make their very own magical autumnal mask and join the Parade of Light on Halloween night. For times and booking call the Newcastle Centre on (028) 4372 5034.

Saturday 30th: Black Box Goblin Market from 1pm (entry £1), a magical bazaar from Trans Urban Arts, in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter. Facebook users can get more information here

Free Family Fun Day at the Pavilion Bar (pictured), Ormeau Rd, Belfast. Magic George will be all set to entertain the kids, along with face painting and lots of free treats. I went to this last year and will be going again this year as the kids had a ball. Middle Bar, from 2pm.

Sunday 31st: Belfast and Derry will both hold their annual Halloween Carnivals and Fireworks displays this night.

Belfast's Monster Mash starts at 2pm and will include live music, fire breathing shows, street theatre, puppetry and samba drum shows, with the fireworks topping things off at 6pm.

While the LengenDerry Foyle carnival departs from the City Council Offices at 6pm, with a light parade, floats, stilt walkers and fireworks display at the Riverside from 7pm. Derry will the the inaugural UK city of culture in 2013 and if you haven't been for Halloween yet, try to check it out and see the sort of thing that secured the title for them.



And for Big Kids...

Most places will be holding special nights for Halloween. My recommendations for Belfast would be the three day Halloween Weekender at the Pavilion Bar, which includes the brilliant Knee Deep on Sunday, featuring Northern Soul Troop (in my opinion one of the best live bands in Belfast), and Bop Yestrum's Hallowe'en Party at the Menagerie on Saturday from 9pm.

Outdoors Indoors

Well there's a pretty significant ground frost this morning, and it has prompted me to take the wee man out to the park to collect leaves while we still can, that is, after I've completed my rule of five post alcohol tea drinking ritual - cup number four currently being sank. Hopefully the frost will have cleared and we'll be able to gather up a few good Autumn leaves to bring back home to use as Halloween decorations. It's perfectly acceptable to bring evergreens into the house at Christmas time, and I don't see why autumn should be any different. You can help make leaves and berries last longer a number of ways; glossed over with a glue and water mix, painted or simply doused with a bit of hair spray. Some interesting twigs, conkers, pine cones and even stones can help make attractive centre pieces, stair runners or fire place toppers. When I made my sister's wedding cake last October I even used sugared leaves as part of the decorations, all you need to do is ensure that they are clean and free of wee beasties.

Another form of decoration I'll be putting up over the next few days, comes courtesy of my friend Sara Love. I was DJing at a Halloween Hoedown last year and Sara had run up some home made bunting for the event. It's such a simple idea and one that can be adapted to so many different kinds occasions, using various colours and materials. But as I've mentioned before, when it comes to Halloween, the tattier the better, so I'll be using string and scraps of old worn material in browns, greys, oranges, dark greens and purples to construct mine.

Finally, and the wee man deserves credit for this, is the transformation of our windows into spooky stained glass. Last year when we received one of the mandatory Quality Street tins for Christmas, Damien insisted on keeping all the sweet wrappers for crafts. Shuggie discovered them this morning and has been sticking them to the window and they don't look too bad. I think we'll arrange them properly along with some ghost, bat, pumpkin and witch cut outs for added effect.



Top Image: Catherine Hadler / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Welcome Great Pumpkin

So I thought I'd try my hand at a little bit of Pumpkin carving today, getting in the mood for next week. Northern Ireland makes a much bigger deal of Halloween, certainly more than England anyway, for both children and adults, and I must admit that I'm really starting to get into the spirit of things. While I remember doing stuff for Halloween in primary school and of course trick or treating as a young kid, we never really made a big deal of it. You also couldn't get a pumpkin round our way for love nor money in the 80s, instead you had a turnip that had to be hollowed out using a Black and Decker power drill with a birthday candle stuck inside. It looked rubbish, went out easily (one year my dad just rammed a torch in there) and smelt like, well, turnip, so hardly the most exciting of stuff.

The Shugmeister was a little too young last year to warrant a big fuss - the truth be told he's probably not going to appreciate it all this year either - but we still made a little bit of effort, buying Munchkins and carving decorate shapes and patterns, putting tea lights in them and displaying them over the fireplace. They looked very cute, but didn't really last that long and you have to be careful as they can catch fire easily if they are a little too small.

This evening I thought I'd try out a small pumpkin as a test run, and because Sainsbury's didn't have any large ones when I was in earlier in the week. A quick Google and you can see just what can be achieved when you've a giant pumpkin, time on your hands and a little bit of inspiration. You can download some great free pumpkin stencils from a number of different sources, but if you're looking for something to suit young children, you can't really go wrong with out Disney's Family Fun site, which offers templates and decorating ideas.

I don't actually have a printer, so as I had to free hand it, I went for a simple Bat
Signal. It's now proudly displayed on my widow sill (I'll post a picture at a later date as my camera is charging), and I was able to make use of the pumpkin flesh by adapting an existing banana bread recipe. You can find details of it on Stuffed Crustie. As decorations go, you really can't ask for more than a pumpkin. It's multi functioning, and because its organic, it can be throw on the composter or into your food bin, meaning that waste in minimal. Tomorrow I'll be posting about some other fairly eco friendly decoration ideas, so keep an eye out for that, not to mention a couple more pumpkin based recipes. Next week I'll be stocking up on some giant pumpkins and doing a proper job of it.


Image: luigi diamanti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Make your own Halloween Costume

Well, I'm up to my eyeballs at the moment (exam on Friday) so have neglected the blog this past week or so, but I've taken some time out of my oh so very busy schedule to bang on about how great it is to make your own Halloween costume.

Not only do you ensure that you have something 100% original, but you can make the most of old clothes and scraps of fabric in the process. And before you shrink at the idea of tackling a huge textiles job, bare in mind that many costumes can be made using very basic techniques, cheats, adaptations and what's more, can be thrown back into the dressing up hamper (cupboard under the stairs) to be used and adapted again next year.

My sister has been taking this approach this year, preparing the above little creation for her daughter's Halloween party next week. She's going as her favourite bird, the flamingo, and the top (an old t-shirt feathered up with felt and fabric glue - ideal when you've a lot on and can't undertake a large sewing job), will be matched with a baseball cap beak and some pink tights.

I'll be doing the same for the Shugmeister's Charlie Brown inspired costume, having already ordered a second hand Snoopy toy from ebay, and for my own highly logical extra terrestrial outfit, I'll be taking suggestions on the best way to apply a United Federation of Planets badge to a blue top.

Over the next two weeks, keep an eye out both here and on Stuffed Crustie for a ton of home made Halloween costumes, decorations and treat ideas, plus recommendations for family and some more grown up film ideas for an extra scary night in.