Happy Halloween 2012!

I've never been into the "scary" or superstitious part of Halloween, but I've always LOVED dressing up! (and the candy was always just a bonus!)  This year, I reused my costume from last year and was a Woodland Faerie Queen.  I've got nothing special to do an no parties to go to...I'm just handing out candy at home this year.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2011

Hello loyal blog readers! Sorry I have not been such a loyal blogger lately! I've had a lot going on and focusing on getting ready for the November edition of Mayday Underground, my biggest craft show of the year! (And it's in only 5 days! Yikes!) Anyway, I'm taking a break to blog about my Halloween fun...

My favorite part about Halloween is the costumes. This photo was taken when I was "playing" around with makeup a few weeks ago, trying to get ideas for my woodland faerie queen costume.

Here is the first incarnation of the costume at a party I went to on Friday night. My costume consisted of a black bridesmaid dress (thanks Kasey!), my reversible corset, and my green velvet Renaissance Faire cloak. But on Saturday morning, I went to JoAnn Fabrics with my Mom and got some faerie wings and foliage in order to make my costume a bit more impressive and more "woodland faerie" like.

The foliage changed my color palate a bit and made it a little warmer and less monochromatic, but I think it turned out nicely...although my makeup when I was "playing around" was a lot more defined than my makeup was last night. But it was fun to do nonetheless! I love having an excuse to do crazy makeup!

We spent Halloween night at my parents' house, since last year at our house, we got maybe a grand total of 5 trick-or-treaters. It may have been because last year's Halloween fell on a Sunday though. We may try staying home next year. I'd like to try hosting a costume party for our friends!

I originally bought the fall leaves garland to make the headpiece, but I ended up liking the berry garland better and pinned the leafy garland to the back of the cloak so that the leaves looked like they were cascading down the back. But then, CJ and Mom suggested I bring the ends of the leafy garland around my shoulders and pin them in the front. I think that detail really made the costume! Almost every mother that came with trick-or-treaters commented that they liked my costume!

Luna was my little faerie buddy! (she only tolerated the wings for so long though. But whenever she would shake, it made the wings flutter! She looked adorable!)

(I like how the motion-blur makes it look like her wings are fluttering!)

CJ put on a skeleton mask and pretended to be a dummy sitting in the chair. He scared a group of kids really good!

Mom's tiki-torches with colored flames! (blue, green, and red)

Mom & CJ hanging out on the deck.

Handmade Costumes ROCK!

I saw this commercial while I was shopping at Target the other night, and it kind of annoyed me...

UGH! I feel like it's kind of a slam at handmade. I thought the homemade Iron Man costume was great! (well, until the light fell off, but some hot glue can fix that!) I think it was a brilliant idea to use a touch light for the Iron Man's reactor thingy. If I had been that little boy, I would have thought "Wow, my mom is so awesome for making this for me!" It takes more creativity to lovingly make a costume than to just go buy a plastic one! My mom always made our costumes growing up, and I liked it that way. I never even had a desire to go get any cheap storebought character costumes.

Case in point...

The year was 1999. Star Wars: Episode I had just come out. I was 17 and had gotten some comments from some people that they thought I looked like Natalie Portman, the actress who played Queen Amidala. I think she's prettier than me, but anyway, those compliments got the wheels turning and I decided that I wanted to dress up as Queen Amidala for Halloween...

I told my mom about it, and my wonderfully crafty mother (a woman who insists that she "can't sew") gleefully took on the challenge and MADE me this costume! And it was (and is) so much better than any cheap, overpriced thing we could have bought at the costume store!

One of the biggest challenges of the costume was the elaborate headdress. Mom bought a pool noodle, stuck the ends onto a wooden dowel, and pinned/glued hair extensions onto it. She then built the rest of the headdress out of gold fabric, red lace, cardboard and...lamp parts for the very top.

A cool little "secret" about the costume is the gold filigree design on the front of the costume. Mom used gold fabric paint, and wrote my full name in cursive, then mirrored it, so that to the untrained eye, it just looks like a scrolly design. Oh...and the little balls around the bottom?...clear Christmas ornaments stuffed with colored cellophane. And on the nights I wore it, we would put glowsticks in the balls so they would glow (the little balls light up in the movie if you look closely).

And I ended up winning every costume contest I entered that year. :)

So, whatever Target...don't tell me handmade costumes aren't cool. Handmade costumes ROCK!

Belated Halloween Post

I spent Halloween at my parents' house. We always have so much fun! Mom and I just like dressing up! Any excuse to dress up! Mom, CJ, and I were pirates, and ran with the theme while passing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Dad just wore his favorite costume...his normal black pants and hoodie with a blackout face mask. He didn't grow up celebrating Halloween, so he doesn't get as into dressing up as Mom and I do, but he does have fun with it. I think his favorite part is scaring people...but not in a mean way.


It was really nice out, so Mom and I both had the idea to have a fire in the front yard and hang out there to pass out candy. Mom took it a step further with giving the kids a choice. She has a big, old trunk in her front yard garden...and she also had a ornately carved wooden jewelry box. So she put the candy in the small "loot box", and then picked up random things around her house (old toys, markers and stuff) to put in the big "treasure chest". And then when the kids came up to our "pirate camp", Mom gave them a choice which box they could choose to pick out of. "It could be a trick or it could be a treat!" Mom would tell them.

The little kids tended to choose the big box (and were quite satisfied with getting to choose a toy), while the older kids wised up and usually picked the little box. Older kids have usually learned that bigger does not always mean better. Plus I think a lot of kids thought that something was going to jump out and scare them if they opened the big trunk (no...that was another year with my brother popping out of a much larger trunk...that is now acting as an end table in my living room!)

Oh, and Mom bought Luna a Halloween shirt in the kids section of WalMart! Since King had a halloween shirt to wear (glow in the dark skeleton torso), Mom wanted Luna to have one too! The basketball has a little motion sensor and blinks with little red lights when she moves! I thought the long sleeves looked cute on her! There is a dog shirt I saw at Old Navy that is on clearance that I want to get for her for next year. This one looks like King's shirt, but has a little red heart in the ribcage. (I was hoping to find a picture on the Old Navy website, but it's not listed). I would have bought her one, but the only sizes they had were extra small and extra-extra small...and while I did debate about the extra small, I think Luna only needs a small. She's a small dog, but not a tiny, itty-bitty dog. She's not a Chihuahua or anything (despite what the dog-ignorant people in my neighborhood ask me when they see me walking her. For these city people who only know Rottweilers and Pitt Bulls, any small dog to them is a Chihuahua.) Anyway...I think I'm going to check the other Old Navy stores in the area to see if anyone else has the shirt I'm looking for.

Best...Costumes...EVER!

Anyone know who these 3 kids are supposed to be? Need a hint?...

Mahna Mahna!

Doo doooo doo doo doo...

Easily the best Muppet Show sketch ever!

I found this via Craftzine. Click here for the whole story and the video on French Toast Girl's blog. (Warning: the song will be stuck in your head for DAYS!) She says the kids will have "the video loaded onto [an] iPod (which has speakers) and will provide a soundtrack - or an explanation as needed - when we go trick or treating. And instead of "Trick or treat" they can say "Mahna mahna."

So cool!!! I want to see a video of the kids in action. I bet it's hilariously cute! The woman who did this for her kids is so on my awesome list! It's something I wish I'd thought of!...and/or had 3 kids to do it with who love "Mahna Mahna" as much as I do!