Halloween 2007

I won't be dressing up this year, thanks for asking, but when I had a turn-of-the-century home in Vancouver, it was perfect for spooking the kids, so I always obliged

We had a corpse sitting up in a coffin on the front lawn, another one on the stairs surrounded by chalk with a knife sticking out of its head with CAUTION tape all around; a spooky sounds CD with whoooo ooooo , chains and banging; blood dripping down the glass on the front door which was slightly ajar; and all the lights were out. We also had bloody bones in the front yard amongst homemade tombstones, lit up by candles.

(We didn't add these elements until the wee ones had come and gone.)

I was Igor, Kelly was Frankenstein. We were demented Blues Brother. We were crazed Sumo Wrestlers. We were corpses. You name it, we wore it

Hallowe'en is fun fun fun! Hope you all enjoy

I was just thinking earlier today that I need to start thinking about my Halloween costume......

I like the alien princess.

Wow, this really demonstrates the difference in cultures/countries. Here in Australia, it virtually passes without a mention. I have never had a person knock on my door yet, nor have I ever been trick or treating in my life as a child, or with my kids.

Seems like Halloween's spreading, though...

Of all the commercialized holidays (and really, which one hasn't been?), I like Halloween a lot. It allows for a lot of creativity, and it's very community/ neighbor-based.

I could do without all the candy but we tend to have 6-month stashes -- the Halloween stash, then whatever is left by Easter gets thrown out and replaced with the Easter stash.

Mame, that sounds great. We don't do that much in terms of decorations. A giant spider, a home-made ghost, a rattly skull hanging thing (with a motion sensor). Oh and fake spider webs on our shrubs.

caribou, will be looking forward to reading about what you decide on!

We didn't even buy candy last year. There are no kids are in our area.

Mo wants to be a ghostbuster again this year. Since we still have a lot of the props from last year I thought I'd fancy it up a bit and make it a little easier to handle.

I've been warned by neighbors that we live on "treat street" so I should expect bus loads (literally) of kids. We do live on a great street for trick or treating! I think it'll be a blast.

Oh!

The alien princess sounds super great. I hope you'll send me a photo!

Love that alien princess - how creative.

My older daughter wants to be a cheetah girl - so I figure I will look at good will stores and see if I can find some leopard skin clothes of any type. If not, I found the material at Walmart - I will try to find a very simple dress pattern and make it with that, cover her cowgirl boots with the material and maybe cover the rims of some sun glasses with it as well. Then just glamour her up.

As I can only be so creative - my younger daughter will either wear her Snow White costume from last year - still fits and it is her favorite princess or Dorothy costume her sister wore at one time.

I am so jealous I could spit.

Pouting....

My beloved says he doesn't want to do the big decorate this year, and he's not too sure of the costume party.


I may have to live vicariously through this thread...



Not that I EVER have good costume ideas for myself.
(Hey, I spelled vicariously right! Wow!)

Have you ever reeeeally looked at the costume of the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz? The hat with that killer brim dipping in the front was choice and the gown itself exquisite with a fitted bodice, puffed sleeves, a peplum flounce at the waist and an attached cape to die for. I've always wanted to whip that one up in dyed black muslin (cheap!) and a combo of patterns (my mother was great at combining patterns).

I've got another costume idea but it takes a trio who can bear to stick with one another all night.

We are going to a costume halloween party!

I found the most amazing dress at the thrift store, and HAD to get it. It's hot pink and beaded and poofy skirted. I'm going to be a Zombie Princess!

It's a princess dress like no other. And I've added some shredded sheer black to the very full skirt with some tarantulas to hold it on. A crazy short punky black and pink wig with tiara. Spider web gloves and wicked makeup. Maybe some long black fingernails...

Since I'm a princess, My man has decided to be Prince as in the musician. We found him some purple satin women's pj bottoms, a pair of pointy boots that we'll spray paint purple. A tux shirt that we'll add lots ruffles to, and we are making the guitar out of blue foam. The same guitar that Prince used at the superbowl, in purple, of course.

Oh, and I'm wearing fake eyelashes like in my avatar.

This is fun!

That sounds SO COOL! I love when you find the perfect dress for cheap. Pictures?

Meanwhile, I'm <pant> almost <gasp> finished! My deadline is 12:45 PM EST, AKA about an hour. All that's really left is to do some hooks and eyes to reinforce not-very-strong velcro closing on the dress. It's gonna be cool, I'll see if I can post some pics. Probably the most complicated costume I've ever made, mostly because it has two separate but complicated parts -- alien makeup, and alien dress. Final product is:

- White velvet dress (I cheated and bought this, cheap, since everything else was so complicated and since it had a hoop skirt and I wasn't looking forward to making the multi-layered petticoat that I thought was needed for proper poofiness) that I modified extensively, including gluing on a bunch of silver-spray-painted leaves, exchanging the blah lacing in front for silver ribbon, cutting the sleeves (they were way too long) and replacing with marabou trim and silver ribbon, adding leaves to the neckline (it was too low), etc, etc.

- Silver satin and white faux fur cape. (Silver on outside, lined with fur.) Just finished that, it looks cooool if I do say so myself. The fur gave me fits though, little pieces of it are everywhere. Final product looks very alien princess though (if slightly more to the princess side of things). It was a last-minute addition, I really wanted her to have something warm.

- I sent sozlet to school with her hair in a high bun. I'm showing up later to:

- Spray-paint her hair purple
- Affix a sparkly, silver + rhinestone small tiara to the bun
- Put a third eye temp tattoo on her forehead
- Affix fake eyelashes over third eye
- Put silver makeup on all exposed skin
- Put spray-painted-silver antennas in hair or bun. (I spray-painted some plastic plant thingies from my fake plants -- they look antennae-ish -- then hot-glued them to bobby pins. Will stick 'em wherever they'll stay.)
- Put her in the dress + cape.

Then she'll be wearing silver shoes, and dangly silver and rhinestone earrings.

I think that covers it.

Whew!

The party was great! Our host, a co-worker/friend that has known us for years, actually stuck out her hand and introduced herself to us.
When she realized who we were, she fell to the floor! That was priceless!

Clicking on this smaller photo will take you to a couple others... One where I'm squeezed into the Wrangler in that super full skirt to drive. I did squish down the skirt around the wheel!
And another, when we had just won best dressed couple.

I'd love to see everyone's Halloween costumes. especially Sozlet's!

I love it! Truly excellent costumes!

I also love that this page starts with you pouting and ends up with you winning a prize.

Luckily Mo's costume doesn't require any fine tuning - he just changes his shirt, straps on the backpack and he's good to go. I just remembered today that he needs something to stash his candy in so I'm making a ghost trap and hoping to have it finished in time.

Wow, fabulous!

I love what you did with the black tulle. Definitely ups the fabulousness quotient.


Sozlet had her school parade/ party and had a BLAST. It all came together really well. I have one picture of her whole class grouped around her when she first made her appearance. Everyone wanted to touch things. (The fur lining of the cape, the fake eyelashes, the antennas...)

She had a lot to do with the rock star outfit last year but this is the first one that she was so involved with, conceptually, and she's really happy with how it turned out.

Now we take a breather, try not to destroy the eye tattoo and fake eyelash above it (silver makeup can be redone), and then reconstruct everything in another couple of hours for trick or treating.

The guitar is amazing too by the way. Great job! And did he get the pants and boots somewhere or did he already have 'em?

Do you do "penny for the old Guy?" When i briefly inhabited Ireland, that was what they did rather than Hallowe'en.

Fer the 'Mericans, "penny for the old Guy" refers to Guy Fawkes day, November 5th, when, i believe, children would go from door to door begging pennies. I don't know the details, and i'm sure our language-challenged English-speaking members can correct me or supply details. I find Canada interesting, because it's a blend of 'Merican traditions and English traditions. They do the Hallowe'en thing, but i don't believe they do Guy Fawkes day. They do Victoria's birthday, too, but i suspect that's just a convenient excuse for a day off. They do Boxing Day, but it's the big after-Xmas sale day--like the January White Sale.