Tis the Season! Halloween is near!

While looking for Halloween pictures to put in this post I ran across so many it was hard narrowing it down...

That is one of the reasons I have not posted in a few days. After all that surfing I have quite a collection here, vintage stuff, movie stuff, tv stuff… many witches and all kinds of fun things. I will randomly be putting them in while writing. Turns out I have a tv/movie witchcraft thing going on... see how many you recognize… and please pardon the chaos. This post is kind of all over the place.

I love Halloween! I think more so now then when I was a kid but in a different way. Like most kids I used to love to try to come up with a good costume…however I did not really like the traditional outfits. I do remember however that I loved being a bum. A vagrant. A hobo. I can remember dressing that way a couple years in a row.

One of my hobo years was when I was in 2^nd grade. I recall getting some of my Dad’s old clothes, putting on a rope belt like Ellie May and rubbing dirt on myself from the backyard on Grant Street. I thought for sure no one would recognize me when I wandered into class… I reminded myself not to talk at first because the kids would know me for sure but if I remained silent for awhile I was sure to freak them out! I plotted and planned the while walking that whole block to school. Once there I quietly sauntered into the classroom... keeping my eyes down. Ya know how it is... I was just a bum out for a walk wandering into the classroom on accident…

“Hi Becca! What are you supposed to be?!” yelled out the first kid I saw. DANG!! I was made! My cover was blown! I don’t remember who that kid was but I kind of wonder if he was the same one who ended up with scissors stuck in his leg that year.

Well… that’s a story for another time.

When Amber and I celebrated Halloween I think one of her first costumes was a pumpkin. I am not a seamstress. I have to tell you when I was first writing this I wrote sewer... but somehow I don’t think that is spelled right or is the correct use of the word. At any rate, I can sew a straight stitch but that is it... however it did not matter. She was only going to wear it the one time and heck, I could just sew her little baby self right into the costume if needed. So... for her first outfit I made her into a pumpkin with a little stem hat and everything. When I took her to the Potter Valley Halloween festival and paraded her around she won a price for her costume for her age group. I still have that costume in the stuff I have been lugging around for years. (My family is very lucky I do not have a scanner thingy... bwa hah hah hah!).

As a kid Amber went back and forth with her costume choices… she was a Ninja Turtle, a ballerina, and a mouse. However, she was a black cat SEVERAL times.

As she was older and our climate was a little colder (Pacific Northwest) the costumes actually became a little easier… I used to buy sweat suits in the color of whatever she was going to be that year… and then decorate with felt or accessories from there. After Halloween I would dismantle the costume and voila’ she would have a sweat suit. Nifty thrifty.

For example, the time she was a mouse I bought her a grey sweat suit and then just the mouse ears and tail package that the department stores sell. I cut an oval shape out of white felt to go on her tummy, used eyeliner for whiskers and that was it! That year I decided to dress up too so I also got a mouse costume. (Grey sweatsuits were on sale that year) People would do a double take when we went to the door. I have to smile about that now because I was a big old mouse and she was a teeny one. We probably looked like the Lenny and George of the mouse world. Or shall I say.... Of Mice and Girls.

Sorry Mr. Steinbeck.

I went to a grownup Halloween party once at my friend Heather and Jason’s house. (Heather and I worked together as DPO's for a several years... we shared an office for awhile.) The party was great fun and I searched the web for clever costume ideas. I found a pretty good one I thought. I wore a black sweatshirt with yellow rectangles of felt sewn in a broken line down the front of the shirt. Then up in one corner I took an old stuffed animal, put red fabric paint droplets on it and then sewed red netting under it and then onto the shirt. I was road kill! HAH!

At the party there was this one guy (actually the guy I got Cosmo from) who had a pretty fancy silver Hershey’s Kiss costume on. He was all in brown and then had this silver metallic Kiss shaped outfit with a point hat and the little Hershey’s label sticking out of the top. Throughout the evening he was getting more and more buzzed and seeing this big kiss getting intoxicated was entertainment in itself. My friend Heather was a dead Beauty Queen. She found a prom or bridesmaid dress at a thrift shop, a tiara, made a sash, and had white makeup with blood on her face. That was a fun party!

Which witch is which?

Hmm.. kinda noticing a theme there with those last few sets of witches.
Apparently Ms. Granger stands alone...

As far as Halloween décor… for awhile I went through a Martha Stewart Halloween phase… well… I guess I still love her Halloween stuff… I make sure to buy her halloween magazine each year. However, more recently I have moved over into the Autumn, fall, black ravens, tombstones, old witchcraft kind of Halloween thing now.

A touch of Poe here and there. Garlands of fall leaves, pumpkins, gourds,

Ravens roosting in the house...

an odd ghost or skeleton now and then...

Ever read "The Black Cat" or "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe?

They are short stories... check them out. It will only take a minute of your time.

A great Halloween read and you will always remember them.

I also get a kick out of the Dio de los Muertos decorations.
The skeletons in their various living activities are great! Here is a pole dancer!
Found it on Etsy...
it is called Danse Macabre.

You may remember me mentioning there aren't a lot of kids around here so I don’t know if there will be any trick or treaters. One time on Whidbey Island I had a brave sailor knock on my door. A real sailor in his real sailor uniform. (There is a Naval Base on the island.) I opened the door to him standing there and in a rather deep voice saying, “Trick or treat!” His buddy was absolutely beside himself giggling out on the street. They were just having fun and I think the one was showing off a bit for the other or it was a double dog dare situation. I just played along. I said not only are you boys a little early (it was not even dark yet)… you are a little old. I gave the brave one candy anyway.

Once in Ukiah I went out to my car to go to work and there was a bloody guy wrapped up in Cosmo’s blanket passed out in the backseat of my car… Oh wait... That wasn't Halloween.

Well… that’s a story for another time.

As far as local activity… our neighbor Brenda’s birthday is on Halloween so she goes all out! She has several of those blow up decorations in her front yard, skeletons coming up out of the ground, and sitting around the trees.

Well that was a bit of a ramble... and I thought I would end with a classic...
They just don't make cartoons like they used to. Check out the dried flowers behind her, the picture of the butterflies on the wall, the Raven standing on the skull.
Nice.