Rocky Horror Our Way!

Every year for as long as we have been together we have celebrated Halloween with a Rocky Horror. In the past we have traveled to places to see Sing-A-Long version on a big screen but with our latest addition and no local screenings around Halloween we decided to watch it at home.

In 2011 we attended the showing at Leicester Square's Prince Charles cinema just the two of us dressed in the outfits from the 'Don't Dream It, Be It' scene. All the details are here.
2013 we were in London as Party Goers with Brad and Janet. Details are here.
2014 we attended as Party Goers again in London, details are here.

Since then we have been to showings in Sheffield and Wolves.

Dressing up for our home showing was still required.....

We had from left to right: Bisbee the Party Goer, (me) Coulmbia, Sam as Janet, Annabelle as Brad, Sara and Otis as Party Goers, Kate as Frank n Furter and Laura as Eddie.

The benefit of watching the film at home was we could eat a feast beforehand as we weren't working to timescales.

Laura whipped up Meatloaf (or Feetloaf) for main with Hot Patootie potatoes and we had Rocky Road for dessert. A perfectly themed feast for the evening!

Laura had also organised a goodie bags with all the vital props required - bubbles as the confetti for the wedding, newspapers for the 'car breaking down' scene, a latex glove for Frank n Furthers creator moment, party poppers for the 'coming' moment and cards for sorrow and our phone camera torches for the 'there's a light' song.

I love my wife all day, every day but this is her time of the year. Seeing her planning and thoughtfulness come together to put on this wonderful evening for us and our friends was amazing.

The memories we are creating are ones we will be able to share with Annabelle as she grows. Her first appearance as Brad made my heart melt.

And I can't wait for more family pics as she grows up

We didn't intend for Annabelle to stay up and watch the film but this girl suffers from serious FOMO, if we have people over she really struggles to stay asleep and this night was no different. We gave in and let her stay down and she was mesmerized with the music and moving pictures - a RHPS fan in the making! (Although hopefully it's a few years before we have to explain what some of it is about :D).

Do you have any Halloween traditions you do with your family?

Is Halloween Overrated?

So before we race of and start getting all festive-y I thought I would take a quick moment to ask a big question..... Is Halloween Overrated?

Here in the UK Halloween has historically been about dressing up as a kid usually in something scary and maybe knocking on a few people's door when trick or treating. It was never a major holiday. No-one ever decorated their house unless it was for a party.

Fast forward 20 years and Halloween has become so much more, well for me. We can blame the Americans, I blame my American, we can blame commercialism or we could just accept that people love the opportunity to dress up and Halloween is the perfect excuse.

Over the years this blog has featured many of our Halloween celebrations. A lot have included a night at the Rocky Horror Picture show but more recently it has involved family costumes. The change happening when we bought our house and could actually decorate and welcome trick or treaters.

This years Rocky Horror Picture Show outfits!

As with most things I took some convincing on Halloween. I'm not a fan of scary things and I used to prefer to turn off the lights and wait out the trick or treaters rather than encourage them. But then I realised it was me missing out in that situation. I was the one wasting an evening avoiding Halloween.

The first time I embraced Halloween as an adult was at Uni. Thankfully there are no photos in existence but I can guarantee 'scary' and 'not wearing much' would have both featured. Ah the shame!

Then when I moved to London, just before Halloween, it seemed like a great theme for a housewarming party. The only challenge was with everyone fully embracing the dress up, my 3 housemates and I had no idea who people were and it turned out by the height of the night we had a ton of strangers as well as friends. Thankfully we and the flat survived!

That year was the year I met Laura. We had just started working together and Halloween was some of our first pictures together. I should have sensed then that Halloween was going to be something I celebrated every year!

It's fair to say that we have celebrated Halloween in some way every year. Even our low key Halloween nights involve a fully decorated outside - complete with spider webs on the bushes and purple covers on the lights. For added scariness this is also scary music playing when the door opens.

Laura's proudest Halloween achievement is that in 3 years we have gone from being the only decorated house to now being one of 5 - all because of her :)

Last night we had a record 100 pieces of candy and we still ran out! That's 3 years in a row we have had to put out a sign saying 'Sorry we have run out of candy'. That also involves giving away our favourite pieces that we save till the end in the hope that we get to eat them :)

This year was fairly low key though, well for us.

Previous years Laura had baked for work and held party games, see the outcome here and here.

Or there was the year we bought Paul the Pumpkin into the world and spent the entire evening making him do things pumpkins shouldn't do! Check out the photo shoot here.

A personal highlight of that night

Last year studies by Mintel showed that spend in Britain now hits £300 million on Halloween! With 40% of adults saying they would do something for Halloween. That is a significant increase from the previous year in a trend that is set to grow.

So whether you are a Halloween lover or hater one thing is clear - it's only getting bigger! If you think it's overrated now, prepare yourself it's only getting spookier!

I've accepted it for all the joy it can bring. Seeing kids faces when Bisbee shows up in her outfit, the sheer confusion on their faces when Laura asks who they are dressed as (either it should be obvious or their parents have just chosen a random outfit and they genuinely have no clue), the fear and anticipation of the first trick or treater. Laura's always convinced it's going to be teenage boys, it never has been. Laura's strict 'TAKE ONE' rule that I find so awkward (it's being British I think) but if she didn't do it we'd run out far sooner so I know it needs to be done.

It's a shame Halloween is but once a year!

Halloween Weekend!! A Weekend Round Up

This past weekend was one of my favourite holidays - Halloween! And on top of it, one of my closest friends from school is here in England on her way home from a travel nursing assignment in India. So, it was a doubley awesome week!

On Thursday, in the lead up to Halloween, Sarah and I continued our annual tradition of seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Prince Charles Cinema in London. It has been my favourite movie since I was 14 or so, and we've seen it every year we have been together (except one, 2010 when we were in Oz!).

This time, we took along my friend (also named Sarah, great name!) who had not seen RHPS before, let alone attended a screening full of people in corsets and fishnets, yelling at the screen and participating in the film. And we didn't really know how to explain the concept beforehand, either. So the poor thing I'm sure thought it was incredibly weird! But it seems she loved it all the same, even though someone threw rice in her beer haha. 

BTW I love Tim Curry so so much.

Friday, I threw a Halloween lunch for my colleagues at work. It was so much fun - I had creatively themed foods, a pumpkin carving competition, Halloween music videos going on in the background - it was awesome! My colleagues all dressed up as well, which I loved.

It's so odd being an American in this country, because on one hand I love being the influence to make my favourite holidays fun for all my colleagues. But also, I feel a bit sad that Halloween isn't EVERYWHERE like it is at home! It was their first ever time carving a pumpkin, most had never trick or treated before, or only done it once and not again because so few houses participated, oh and here, Halloween has to be scary costumes - my Cinderella one was certainly out of place! But on the plus side, at least now they can all say they've carved a pumpkin! Captain America strikes again!

We left early from work to get up to Birmingham for our very first year in the house to receive trick-or-treaters! I'd left a skeleton up all week as a sign to parents that we would be giving out sweets. But then, there were two accidents on our way up - resulting in us not getting home until after 7pm! I was sure our house would be egg'd or something for having the decorations up but not being in!

Luckily, as we pulled up there were two trick-or-treaters next door, making our way to ours. I scooted inside just in time! And am happy to report we got about 10 kids to our house!! I was pretty impressed as it would have been too late for the really little ones. I was surprised to see no Elsa's from Frozen - I know I'd been told about the scary costume thing, but didn't truly believe people wouldn't dress up as princesses or Disney characters! Either way, I almost cried because I was so happy - such an awesome Halloween, being proper grown ups, in our proper house, giving out candy.

Saturday, our friend Lisa joined, for a girls weekend/Vegas reunion. We took them into Birmingham town centre, where we walked the canals in the sunshine, and had a yummy pub lunch. We love nothing more than showing friends around, whether its London or Birm!

We went to Bonfire Night fireworks in the evening, it was good fun to take Sarah (our friend, not my wife) to celebrate a holiday they've never even heard of in the states). It wasn't too cold too, and we loved feeling like locals! We finished the evening with a delicious roast, and having her try a Yorkshire pudding - the result of a hilarious miscommunication where we were saying she should try one, and she was telling us she doesn't really like dessert - we couldn't figure out where the convo was going wrong, until finally we realised the word 'pudding' was throwing her off, it's not sweet!

Sunday was amazing, relaxing, couch-ing, eating, and enjoying our home. 

What a weekend, what a way to usher in November! Now I can't get in trouble for singing Christmas tunes!!

#Hallowwinning

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, PEOPLE!!!

Or home-owner-ween in our case! BAM!

Today we are dressed as Rocky Horror Picture Show party-goers in preparation for our third or fourth (lost count) annual Rocky Horror viewing at Prince Charles Cinema in London, but as we are separate, I'm finding it easier to say I'm the Monopoly guy. Photos coming soooooooon!

As office manager/creative director/resident American in my office, I'm throwing a small Halloween bash for my colleagues in the afternoon. It includes Monster cupcakes, carved pumpkin, sweets, and a good old fashioned donut-on-a-string contest. Thanks of course to my beautiful fiancee for staying up way past our bedtime to make the cupcakes into monster faces!!!

Also, I'm making the couriers trick or treat. So far I've gotten a lot of confused what-is-this-weirdo-doing-should-I-take-candy-from-a-stranger reactions, ooh except they would have thought sweets not candy, because this isn't America, but they take the candy anyway and do say Trick or Treat, so I'm #Hallowwinning, really.

I've said before that it makes me sad that the UK isn't all about Halloween like home, or really excited about ANY holiday - but I'm pleased to report that my English office has been very good about it. My colleague Hugo is my new favourite because he has worn a child's cat princess dress all day. It's apparently pretty constricting, for vital things like breathing, but I'm impressed.

Have a fantastic Halloween - what are you up to, and what are you dressed as?

Also, watch this - I love Jon Stewart more than most people, and so when Kristen Schaal shows up, who I also love, and talk about 'sexy' Halloween costumes, which is one of my totes fav topics... it's just the best.

Is Kristen gay? If not, can someone PLEASE convert her?

Next year, I'm going as sexy pizza.

Our Autumn List, Plus a Bonus PSA

When we arrived back in ole' England a few weeks ago, we were (unpleasantly) surprised with how COLD it was! Apparently Autumn came while we were away! We were shivering outside for like 20 minutes waiting for Sarah's Dad to pick us up, and completely over it.

And then, sometime last week, I remembered - it's AUTUMN! As in, my favourite season of the year! The time for cute outfits, pumpkin flavoured everything, my BIRTHDAY, the lead up to 'no-diet' month (December, duh), and I finally don't have to see the mid-riff of every teen and tween on display! Hallelujah!!! Put that skin away, minors!

Then, of course, it randomly got warm again, so everybody awkwardly left their scarves at home, and everyone was sad. Except my colleagues who love outdoor summer activities.

We are currently going through some big changes at home, just got back from an amazing holiday, and preparing for one more hot holiday this weekend - so today, 3rd October, I'm going to make and share my our list for Autumn 2013.

Celebrate my BIRTHDAY - this Sunday! For the first time since we've been together, Sarah and I will be spending my big day apart (sadface) but will both be on holiday (redeemingly happy face!) - I'm turning 25 in Israel with my Dad, and Sarah will be in Spain with her parentals!

Introduce Sarah to a good old fashioned grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup

Try a new recipe every week - when it's cold outside, it's so much more fun to bake, cook, and listen to Michael Buble's Christmas album secretly in October - just kidding you guys, it's Bieber's Christmas album.

Go to the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Halloween!

Dress up for Halloween (separate to RHPS) - I'm in charge of my office Halloween party this year - so you know it'll be over the top and American-ized, like all good holidays are!

Carve pumpkins 

Aww, remember Paul you guys?

Start wearing cute scarves, hats and gloves immediately! Well, immediately upon our returns from holiday. You hear that Britain? Cool down. Now.

Restart our romantic date night once a month, as summer was just too busy to keep to any romancin' schedule

Have a child trick or treat at my house - or my work, or anywhere! I can't believe the child in the flat below us doesn't get to trick or treat, surely that's child cruelty? I'll give out candy to the couriers at work if I have to, it is FINALLY happening this year.

Side note, Last year I worked with a guy with two kids, who he wouldn't let participate in Halloween because it 'encourages celebrating the devil' or something of the sort. I was (and am still) completely offended by that - Halloween may have historically been about the evil spirits or whatev, but these days its about candy, and also about candy. No, it's about letting your child dress up, they can be whomever they want to be for that night! Also, it's about adults doing it too. And candy.

And no, Britain, it is not about dressing sluttily and getting plastered. It's about candy.

Well that took an odd turn. I'm off to wear all of my scarves at once, and to Instagram the hell out of it.

Also, judging from my social media feed, a lot of us suffer from CFD. Watch this PSA video on the horrific symptoms of this seasonal disorder.

Honey badger got CFD, but honey badger don't care.

Pumpkins.

What's Happening hot Stuff?? 28th Oct

What's Happening, Hot Stuff??

This week has been another busy one for us but we have both been battling the awful cold that seems to be sweeping through offices nationwide- according to Facebook updates filling our timelines! However, the end of the week had an expected twist. We were meant to be welcoming the lovely ladies of 2bridesto2mummies to ours for the weekend but found out on Thursday evening that Lauren had tonsillitis and the trip was cancelled. All four of us were beyond gutted! And it meant a change of plans for the weekend.

Friday night saw our annual attendance at the Rocky Horror Picture Show sing-a-long. We first blogged about the experience last year HERE and couldn't wait to head back this year. As the show started at 8:30 we decided to head for dinner first at Leicester Square. On a Friday night there is always a strange array of people in Leicester Square in various levels of undress but on a Halloween weekend you could spend hours people watching.

After dinner we headed to L's office to get dressed into or RHPS outfits. The cleaners there got quite the shock! Fishnets, corsets, tutus and not a lot else and we were ready to go. It was more than a little chilly outside so we made sure our winter coats were done up nice and tightly. Thankfully the walk was only 10 minutes!

One of the highlights of the evening is walking towards the Prince Charles theatre and seeing all the outfits - regardless of the temperature you can guarantee there is a man in a corset & high heels posing outside. Once inside it really is a meeting of unconventional conventionalists, it's not the biggest of theatres but it is PACKED full of people who really love the film. It is always buzzing! Laura is like a kid at Christmas, so we rushed to our seats to get our goody bags and make sure we didn't miss a second.

It was best night out we'd had in a while and we spent a large portion of the show laughing out loud (in between coughing) and Laura's singing of EVERY word was impressive! As it always is!

As it is Halloween and we already had pumpkins and candy we decided that we would have a Halloween filled Saturday. There was jut another slight hiccup - Sarah was invited home to go to the Reading game so it turned into a Halloween evening instead of a day. That still left enough time for pumpkin carving though, accompanied with toasted marshmallows and candy! After all, pumpkin carving is HARD WORK!!

Last year we created Paul the Pumpkin and documented his day HERE! This year we brought Bradley to life and as we brought a pumpkin for Sarah and Lauren we thought we use that one to do a design that works for both us and them! Thanks to L's handy work it turned out perfectly.

The weekend continued with L baking cookies and watching Halloween movies - The Night Before Christmas, seriously the weirdest movie! Casper  - can you believe the film is 17 years old!!! Next on the list is Witches - the Disney version of the Ronald Dahl book.

We have also been keeping track of the impending elections and came across this images that we thought were very apt! The second one is technically relevant the world over but when Romney has stated that if elected he will actively deny gay families rights we think it is relevant to the elections! We also read that when Governor of Massachusetts he made gay parents REQUEST an altered birth certificate so both parents could register. That means that the child could be restricted and questioned when getting a drivers license, passport - in fact ANYTHING legal FOREVER as having an amended birth certificate normally causes issues. Seriously, with no real economic plan, a dislike of anyone who isn't rich and white, an active intolerance of women, cabinet ministers with warped views on what rape is AND an active dislike of LGBT communities, why exactly would anyone vote for him?! (Rich white men excluded- we get why you'd vote for him!).

Right well that tis all for now, have a great evening/ rest of the weekend.