This weekend was Halloween, my favourite time of the year, so we planned a party at the Mews.

Tom did an amazing job with decorations, hanging orange and black streamers across the ceiling with dangly bats, pumpkins and spiders. We also had a spooky doorway, Halloween balloons, fairy lights and candles everywhere. We made super strong jelly eyeball vodka shots and a cauldron of punch, which changed flavour and colour throughout the night. Everyone brought spooky nibbles and lots of booze, so there was sugar overload.

We carved pumpkins. I carved a cat pumpkin, complete with carved ears, which we later sat around in a circle and told scary stories.

I also carved a robot and a spewing pumpkin.

Tom carved a very cute robot pumpkin and Lynsey carved a spewing cat pumpkin.

Oranges also make very good makeshift jack-o-lanterns.

After dressing the Mews, it was time to turn our attention to costumes. I dressed up as Poison Ivy – my hair became more and more green throughout the evening and it was a nightmare to get clean the next day.

Tom dressed up as a drowned sailor, complete with Sailor Jerry transfer tattoos and barnacles glued to his face. Emma and Alex made him an award for the best costume later in the night.

He wouldn’t have won without the help of resident makeup artist, Lynsey.

Emma dressed up as Swine Flu (with piggy tail, ears, flu bag and bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tamiflu), Lynsey was Liza Minnelli in Cabaret, Claire was Judy Garland as Dortohy from the Wizard Of Oz (with tic tac pills to pop), Alex was Sweeny Tod, girl Alex was a sexy pirate, Ben was Wolverine and Andrew was the Invisible Man. I annoyingly didn’t get many photos of costumes during the night.

The evening was filled with bobbing for apples, a spooky Spotify playlist, karaoke, Buzz!, creepy TV shows and spooky stories. I love Halloween.

Today felt like Boxing Day. Emma stayed over, so in the morning we slomped on the sofas under duvets, watched terrible shows and movies on TV and munched on left over candy. In the evening, Alex invited us over to her amazing apartment in Notting Hill for a delicious Sunday roast and we toasted marshmallows over her open fire.

Today my Mum and I went to Kew Gardens. Kew was a lovely little town filled with coffee shops, organic delis and pumpkins.

The gardens were huge and very picturesque, we had a sushi picnic next to the pond.

The tree top walk was pretty but a little scary when we realised that the entire structure was swaying from little children running around.

It was half term, so there were kids running and screaming everywhere – I wouldn’t think a botanical garden would make for a great kid’s day out.

My favourite part of the gardens were the aquariums, which had adorable little seahorses, turtles and pufferfish.

In the evening, we went pumpkin shopping. It was the 75th birthday of the Maida Vale studios, so there were lots of people and bands kicking around the street. We came home and I carved this kitty pumpkin, which I’m quite proud of.

This weekend was the Thames Festival, so Southwark Bridge was closed to traffic and filled with tables and chairs for a Feast On The Bridge.

I tried a yummy pumpkin flan.

Tom had posh sausages in a bun. There seemed to be a world record attempt to make the longest cake, which they paraded down the bridge and then they gave everyone slices of, but we were already stuffed with Hummingbird. Tom bought a mug which entitled him to endless cups of tea.

There was also a pumpkin carving competition…

and cute farm animals. We got to pet this baby cow, it was lovely and soft.

In the evening, we were invited to see Amanda Palmer play at the Union Chapel. Before the gig we met up with Snippets writer Nny, who had just  interviewed Amanda for our new issue, and her boyfriend. The venue was very pretty and if I ever have a band, and they ever get a gig, I want to play there.

While waiting for the doors to open, there were creepy puppets walking around the crowd. One attacked Nny and another one kissed me.

Amanda came out and played a song on a burning piano bike, which moves from side to side.

Polly Scattergood (who I interviewed in issue 16) was supporting and I really liked her dress.

At one stage during the show, she was up in the rafters doing a duet with Amanda and just before the applause, there was a very loud “Stephen!” shouted. It was quite funny but very inappropriate.

Amanda’s show was really entertaining. She had an artist paint a picture which she auctioned off at the end, and ask Amanda time, which I think every band should do. She also had Neil Gaiman sing a song with her.