Friday, May 29, 2009

Makeup--Haunted Book Review Thursday

You love her.
You hate her.
You love to hate her.
You hate to love her.
Any way you put it, the Domestic Diva of all time, Martha Stewart, takes the mundane, makes it impossibly complex, romanticizes it and then sells it to her adoring following while all the while making it look exceedingly simple.

I LOVE THIS WOMAN!

Martha's Halloween Ideas DVD

The Best of Martha Stewart Living: Halloween-Delicious Tricks and Wicked Treats For Your Scariest Halloween Ever

Martha Stewart, author, photographer, printer, videographer, chef, producer, food stylist, makeup artist, set designer, aw hell, you get the picture.

I will try to be somewhat unbiased (worship her!) in reviews. Most haunters have this book either in softcover or hardback so I'm probably preaching to the crowd. Granted the kid's costumes were probably done by an Asian monastery monk that spent his life dedicated to the art of origami, you probably couldn't get your little girl to be a flower or a butterfly because she wants to be Hannah Montana. But the possibilities!
Having a pumpkin carving party for 350 of your closest friends on a moment's notice with delicious homemade caramel apples with wonderful details like using a pumpkin as a soup bowl, but everyone will have little league football that night and are just tooooo busy to make it leaving you with 2 tons of food and a gallon of Ben and Jerry's to ease your disappointment. But the possibilities!
The elegant but subtle decorations that you worked for months on, with imported German glass glitter, vellum luminarias with hand cut designs, and Swiss batiste ghosts that flutter ethereally in the wind, only to live next to the person who ran the charge card up on the Halloween aisle at Wal Mart to where the kids exclaim at the plastic mechanical things with the scratchy sound cards, "That's soooo kewl!". But the possibilities!
This book is about possibilities and some honest to goodness old fashioned Halloween ideals. Are you going to be able to do these dinners and make these projects against the backdrop of a colonial home to set the scene for a spooky Halloween party?

Hell no you ain't so just forget it.

The DVD goes along the same lines of the book...you read it and see all the beautiful ideas and wonderful projects and the boundless inspiration that Her Majesty (whoops, slipped out) bestows upon you that is done flawlessly and simply to a grateful and appreciative family and friends.

Should you buy this book and/or DVD? Is the Pope Catholic? In all seriousness, Martha does supply a heaping dose of inspiration and wonderful ideas amidst a backdrop of beautiful photography and set design as she effortlessly shows her loyal/rabid fans how to have a wonderful Halloween.

Both the book and the DVD are (dare I say it?) a Good Thing.

6 comments:

ShellHawk said...

Love her minions ideas, detest the woman. *sigh*
But go to her website and look up Halloween. It's worth the time!

suzanne said...

I have to agree. No one does Halloween (or anything else) quite like Martha.

Melissa Valeriote said...

hehe.... you are too funny! LOVE her too and always look forward to the Halloween issues.

The Artful Gypsy aka Wendy the Very Good Witch said...

I am a Martha lover too. I can totally appreciate every second she spends on the 'details'...I am a 'detail' girl myself,and I love Martha for appealing to and placating that part of me. And your post was so funny, because it was SO TRUE...been there and done that. Only other true Halloween lovers can fully appreciate the time we spend preparing for our favorite holiday.

I've often fantasized about developing a neighborhood somewhere with a beautiful Autumn, where all the owners of the Halloween blogs on the web would move to so we could live out ours days in haunted Halloween bliss. Appreciating every fine detail! :o)

Ruthie said...

I am not really a fan of hers, but I did buy her Halloween sounds cd. And you know what? It's good!

Color me purple and call me grape juice.

I will have to check out this book and DVD now.

The Captain said...

I need to win the lotto so I can buy whatever I want, whenever I want! :(

Wendy,
I'll move there when you find it, as long as everyone else is coming.