Film Fashion: Hocus Pocus

By now, it should be no surprise that I love Halloween. It's one of my absolute favorite holidays. As you may know, I personally have been celebrating all month long. I watch Halloween movies, eat bunches of candy corn, order pumpkin everything, and day dream about corn mazes. One of my favorite Halloween films is Hocus Pocus. So, in today's blog, we'll look into the fabulous fashions of Hocus Pocus!

Hocus Pocus starts out with these two goofy lookin' 1600's Salem Boybanders. Seriously, what's with the shaggy neat but slightly unkempt hair? This is the 1600's you're supposed to be tying it up in a bow. I know these things because I watch Sleepy Hollow. Anyway, Thackery (AKA Agent McGee; AKA the boy on the right) is looking for his little sister Emily. Here, they're making massive dork face because they've realized where Emily is...

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

The best way to celebrate this fabulous fall weather is with... PUMPKIN BREAD. As you know, this month is devoted to Halloween. And this is totally related to the theme because of the whole "pumpkin" thing, but I realize that it is kind of a stretch. But, it's also fun and delicious and a recipe you need to have anyway.

Now, the pumpkin recipe that I use is a super modified version of this one, so you can look over both and then make up your own. That's how recipes work, you know. 

To start, you're going to want to gather up some ingredients. These ingredients include:

• 1 can of pumpkin
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 banana
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups white flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla
• CHOCOLATE CHIPS

My dad got this new can opener that honestly looks like it doesn't do anything but then works super effectively. Anyway. It's pretty cool. I have such a hard time opening cans that it was really a relief to find this thing. 

In a bowl, mix up all your stuff. I just use a spoon to stir, but you can, of course, use a mixer. Pro-tip! If you're just spoon stirring, you might want to get as mushy brown of a banana as you can stand. Which will also help make the bread sweeter. Pro-tip Part-two: should you choose to, you can actually nix the sugar altogether and just use three bananas. But, if you do that, you'll kind of have something like pumpana bread. Not saying that's bad, of course. I've never tried it. 

Pour your bread into a giant casserole cake bread thing. Or whatever bread tin you want to use. I suppose if you use genuine loaf tins it'll be easier for you to share with your neighbor. If you want to share with your neighbor. Strange. What did your neighbor do to deserve pumpkin bread? Nothing. Keep it for yourself! 

Anyway, then stick the bread tin(s) in an oven preheated to 350*F and bake it for like an hour. While you're busy baking, take the opportunity to clean up your mess so that your roommate/husband/wife/father/mother/child/cousin/whomever doesn't have to do it for you.

When the kitchen is clean and the hour is up, check and make sure your bread is cooked all the way through by stabbing it with a fork. If, when you pull the fork out, a bunch of battery goo comes out with it, you'll need to let it bake a bit longer. If the fork comes out clean (or just smeared with melty chocolate) then the bread is done! Congratulations.

It will be golden and delicious. You can choose to serve it up and share with friends, or just take a fork and eat the whole thing by yourself in one go. Either way, you've impressed me! (Either by your generosity or by your sheer force of will!) 

This is one of my favorite fall recipes. So! I hope you enjoy it as well! <3

Halloween Party Essentials

How stoked are you for Halloween? I personally am very excited. As you may have guessed. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and today I'm going to combine it with one of my favorite things: Party Planning! Lots of people plan Halloween parties, so in case that's what you're doing this year... I thought I'd help you out. So, here it is. A list of Halloween Party Essentials:

1. A killer playlist. Any good playlist (for any kind of party) will combine new songs, nostalgic songs, and kind of filler-esque songs during which people can chat and play uno before getting super psyched as soon as that song everyone knows and loves come on. I've developed a sample Halloween Party Playlist which you can find here... but if you're going to make your own, make sure you include the Ghostbusters theme, Thriller, and the Monster Mash. Seriously, if you don't, your guests are bound to be disappointed. 
2. Halloween themed foods. I'm not saying that you have to make absolutely everything related to Halloween. This is a trend I've seen on pinterest. People are like, "dump some cheese puffs in a bowl and call them pumpkin poo and wallah Halloween themed!" Don't do that. Dump some cheese puffs in a bowl and let it be. It's orange, that's Halloween-y enough. What I'm saying is: make some ghost-shaped sugar cookies or decorate your cupcakes with candy corn. If you want some more ideas, I actually made a video about this! You can check it out! Or search through pinterest, but please avoid calling your marshmallows "ghost poo" and your cheese puffs "pumpkin poo" nobody wants to eat any poo, okay? OHKAY?
3. A familiar movie silently playing in the background. Sticking in a movie and silencing your TV is like setting up an animated decoration. Plus, it gives that one introvert who doesn't know anybody something to silently stare at without feeling too uncomfortable. My best advice is that you go with something everybody has already seen 100 times. Like, Hocus Pocus or Harry Potter. That way, people will look over at it and be like, "Ah, yes, the part where Ron barfs up slugs. Good times!" and not like, "What the heck is going on right now?"
4. Related: some stellar decorations. If you want to go all out, by all means, set up an amateur haunted house. Otherwise, you could just get some orange/black/purple/green bouquets or make yourself a ghost garland or make some tombstones out of styrofoam or, heck, just blow up some orange and black balloons. 
5. Disposable cameras! Everybody is dressed up super cute and they definitely want to document that. I know, I know, everybody has a camera on their phone... but personally I think the ability to take a ton of pictures and delete any you don't like kind of takes away from the photo-taking experience. Plus disposable cameras are fun. Also, this way you'll get to have all the pictures that people are taking, which is nice because you threw the party in the first place. Also, you don't want to give your guests access to your good camera if you're having one of those alcohol-consumption-type parties. Or, if you, like me, don't offer your guests alcohol but just happen to have lots and lots of clumsy friends. 
6. A few activities. Look. I know that "party activities" seem a little... juvenile... at first. But sometimes there just isn't much to do at a party other than, well, talk to people. Which I'm definitely all for. It's just... I like activities. Anyway. Here are some Halloween Party activity ideas:

• Give everyone a "Halloween Party" bingo card with things like "somebody dressed like Dr. Who" and "somebody whose costume is so obscure nobody ever guesses it correctly." This is something that probably works best if you're having a fairly large party, but it's nice because your guests' participation--when and to what extent--is entirely at their own discretion. 
• Buy a bunch of those little tiny pumpkins and some paints, then set up a little pumpkin painting station. I know what you're thinking: that's what they do at, like, six year olds' Halloween party. And that's true. But also it's also fun so stop being such a snob. Also, since it's a station, people can just go paint a pumpkin whenever they feel like it.
• Set up a sundae bar. Yes, technically this is a menu thing more than an activity thing, but putting together a sundae is fun and activity-ish, right? The point is, you can have ice cream, regular ice cream toppings, candy corn, crushed up Halloween Oreos, orange and black sprinkles, and any other festive toppings you can think up.
• Give any party game a Halloween spin. Like, Halloween trivia or Halloween charades. Also! You could play flashlight tag or murder in the dark. That stuff's fun for any party. 

Anyway! I hope you all have stellar holiday shindigs and remember: never ever, ever ever, call your cheese puffs pumpkin poos. 

Film Fashion: Addams Family

Okay, let's be real: Halloween is one of my absolute favorite holidays. So, I'm going to embrace this holiday all month long. And to help you get into a nice creepy spirit, I thought I'd kick things off with an Addams Family film fashion blog! All right. Here we go.

Everything kicks off with a group of carolers and dichromatic color scheme. Seriously, there are a ton of them, and they're all wearing red and blue. They're such goofs. At this point, you're probably thinking, "IDK, Kat, I think you watched the wrong movie." But if you're thinking that, you're wrong. See, standing above the carolers is this family...

Granny, on the far left, looks like a cross between a goblin and a bag lady. Lurch, in the middle on the left, looks a bit like Benedict Cumberbatch, and he's wearing a nice suit that screams "I had to go to a funeral earlier today." Morticia, middle right, is gorgeous as ever with a deep-v black dress. What a gorgeous evil goddess. Then, on the far right, is Gomez. He's got a gray pinstripe suit with a huge collar and black bow tie. Most of their family is so well dressed.

The Best Dressed On TV

So the other day I was watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch... look, I like nostalgic television and goofy shows about witches okay?...ANYWAY, I was watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch and I thought to myself, "Dang, Melissa Joan Hart is dressed well" and basically that is how I got the idea for this blogpost. Before I get started listing off some of the best dressed women on television, you should know: I was a little bit limited by what was offered on hulu+, netflix, or network websites. That's why Charlotte Charles from Pushing Daisies isn't listed. I was pretty disappointed about that one, Charlotte Charles is a fabulous dresser.

ANYway, these are organized alphabetically by first name. I know, that's kind of a ridiculous way to organize a list, but I have the photos saved first name, last name. The point is, this is the order that my computer automatically organized them as when I stuffed them in my "Best Dressed On TV" folder.

Okay. Good. Let's get started.

Alex Russo - Wizards of Waverly Place 

• Alex is the queen of layers. She layers different patterns and colors--green long sleeve shirts under blue and orange patterned tank tops and mauve scarves. Sometimes she even layers one necklace over another. 
• Her hair is crazy cute. Seriously, half the time she wears her hair pin straight and half the time she wears it in big voluminous curls but all the time it's super enviable.
• She's always wearing a sassy attitude, and you know that's 9/10s of looking cool.
• She's a teenager and dresses like a teenager, but a cool, confident, a little bit outrageous teenager. 
• Plus she has magic. That bit isn't about her fashion, really. It's just cool.

Brooke Davis - One Tree Hill

• Brooke Davis is a fashion designer, so she always looks cool and she'll make you look cool, too. 
• In the early seasons of One Tree Hill, Brooke Davis was all about layers, fitted clothes, tank tops,  and wedges. She was a cheerleader and never missed the opportunity to show a little skin to catch the attention of whatever men she was interested in. She's bold and daring and that showed in her style as well.
• In the later seasons of One Tree Hill, her style matured. She traded in the jeans and tank tops for super cute dresses. No matter the season, though, she always wore a neckline that highlighted those killer collarbones. 
• Brooke Davis is always down for an attention grabbing costume. 
• Her favorite accessory is an attractive man... or lady... on her arm. So whenever she was in between boyfriends, she'd grab Haley or Peyton, who let's be real, were way cuter than those boys ever were. (For real, seasons 1-3 are all about sweat and sweatpants for the boys of OTH. Shudder.)

Guinan - Star Trek The Next Generation

• Guinan always reps a monochromatic style. And even the "warm" colors she wears are muted down so they almost appear to be a "cool" color.
• I have no clue how those funky hats managed not to catch on. For real, it's like a ski cap with a cardboard circle stuffed in the top. I wish I could get ahold of one, I'd wear it constantly.
• You would think that the giant monochromatic cloak/dress would be boring, but the use of fabric, seams, and texture makes them look really intricate. 
• MESH FINGERLESS GLOVES. SHE'S WEARING MESH FINGERLESS GLOVES. AND I WANT SOME.
• She's seriously the smartest person on the ship. Remember, there's nothing more stylish than smarts. 

 Joan Watson - Elementary

• First things first, if you're not watching Elementary, you're missing out. 
• Lucy Liu, who plays Joan Watson, is a gorgeous, gorgeous goddess of light. I'm pretty sure she could wear a tinfoil hat and a paper bag and I would think she's the best dressed woman in the world. 
• She occasionally wears colors, but predominantly wears blacks, grays, and whites. That's style, guys. That's styles. 
• Joan tends to wear loose tops and fitted bottoms--she wears a lot of tights, fitted jeans, and leggings, along with loose tank tops, baggy sweaters, and large t-shirts. She also rocks a lot of scarves and jackets.
• She's so functional. She dresses warmly. She wears comfortable heels. She takes her handsome, well dressed sidekick along with her most of the time because he's handy in a pinch. 
• She always has such an easy, effortless perfect appearance. Like she just woke up, threw her hair in a ponytail, and slid into a dress. Boom. Bam. Perfection. In fact, in a few episodes, that's exactly what we've seen her do. 

Lydia Martin - Teen Wolf

• All the girls in Teen Wolf are well dressed, but I picked Lydia because she's by far the best dressed. That's maybe a matter of opinion. But as a matter of fact... I don't really care about any other opinions on this matter. 
• Lydia is in high school, but you won't ever catch her in a graphic tee and a pair of sneakers. Don't quote me on that. I didn't rewatch the whole series before writing this blogpost. 
• Her hair is always gorgeous. It's long and a warm color and whether she's wearing it up or wearing it down it's perfect. Even after... going to Mexico to search for Derek, getting kidnapped, getting free, finding Derek, and staying up all night at a vet clinic to make sure he's okay... she looks flawless.
• Her hair is always gorgeous... and her make up is always on point. And, yes, she's wearing the perfect shade of lipstick to go with her latest mental breakdown. (At least her mental breakdowns don't cause her to kill a ton of people. And yes, I'm looking at you Stiles.)
• Cardigans, necklaces, dresses, skirts, and adorable heels. She will defeat the bad guys and look fabulous doing it.
• You can always find her with a hottie on her arm. Preferably a lady hottie like Allison or Kira. 
• Remember how I said before the most stylish accessory is smarts? Well Lydia is the smartest character on the show. She maintains a killer GPA, helps all her friends who are almost always floundering, solves crime, all the while getting psychically drawn to murder scenes. It's a lot to deal with, but she does it better than anyone else on the show. (Again, I'm looking at you "why don't we just kill him" Stiles.)

Dr. Mindy Lahiri - The Mindy Project

• Mindy Kaling (my personal role model) called her character's wardrobe "complicated" and I think that's a perfect description. She wears layers of shirts, vests, and scarves. And she's always wearing fitted and flattering pieces. 
• She meshes colorful and professional perfectly. The second picture from the right the a perfect example of this. Blue pencil skirt, adorable boots with a short heel, and a red jacket? Perfect.
• She always accessories with a handsome man, too. And from here on out, hopefully, that handsome man with be Dr. Danny Castellano. Who is grumpy which just accentuates her bright and bubbly. (Here's a fun fact: you can see Danny by her side in three of the pictures featured on my collage, but he was ACTUALLY by her side in all but one of them. That's right. I cropped him out a lot. It was necessary. I wanted more Mindy!)

Poussey Washington - Orange Is The New Black

• I know what you're thinking: Orange Is The Black takes place in a women's prison! She dresses like literally everybody else on the show! Well, Samira Wiley is so adorable that in a gray sweatshirt she's stylish. But, also, did you watch the Poussey Washington flashback episode? 
• Poussey Washington's style is simple but edgy. She wears short shorts, fitted jeans, sleeveless shirts, and shirts that show a bit of her mid-drift. 
• That mohawk is kickin, I'm such a fan. 
• HEXAGON EARRINGS. Also do you see that jacket + moon graphic tee in the last picture? It's such an adorable outfit, even though she's breaking down. Poor baby. 
• And did I mention that Samira Wiley is the cutest person in the world?

Sabrina Spellman - Sabrina The Teenage Witch

• Okay, as mentioned before, I've been rewatching Sabrina The Teenage Witch and right now I'm on season two. So... all of these pictures are from season two. But she's super cute all the time.
• She rocks a lot of turtlenecks, layers, short skirts, and chokers. 
• Her clothes are usually matched by a color theme. You can see this in the fifth picture from the right. She's got an orange skirt, a reddish shirt, a reddish skirt, and an orange headband. 
• Her hair is never the same. I mean, sometimes it's the same. But other times, it's half braided, or pinned up, or just down, or in a weird swirly deal. Anyway, she spends a lot of time on that hair, apparently.
• Oh! She changes with the point of her finger. If I were a witch, that's what I'd do. I get so exhausted sometimes when I think about getting ready. There are just so many steps to it.
• And magic is always causes weird situations and so sometimes she's dressed like it's the sixties or  like a really fancy French lady... the point is she gets into weird situations and is always looking super cute.

Zoe Washburne - Firefly

• She has gorgeous curls. Her hair in and of itself deserves to be on this list. Also, she's gorgeous. So... that's a common theme, I guess. Gorgeous women could wear trashbags and I'd still think that they're really well dressed. 
• She wears a lot of toned down colors, fitted tops, and "I'm about to beat you up" jackets. 
• She wears a rope chocker a lot, and thick, fitted wristbands.
• Her favorite accessories include: a stern expression, a pistol, and her goofy husband. 
• Whether she's dressed up or dressed down she's dressed impeccably. 
• She's smart, tough, and stoic. Which is why, even caked in filth like in that fifth picture from the right, she's ready to out-style anybody. 

Okay, so there you have it! Nine of the best dressed women on television. Please let me know who you would add to this list and give a couple reasons why!