pumpkins!

I really love Halloween. I just think it is so much fun, and people come up with such creative costumes! It's always been such a great time, and this year was no different. Although this might have been my first "adult" halloween in that I didn't really go out or do anything very special but stayed at home and greeted trick-or-treaters. For some reason kids in our neighborhood were really excited or just craving that sugar rush? I don't know why, but our first kids came to the door around 11:00am with no costumes on. It was weird. After a couple of groups came by with only a mask or a hastily put on crown I was getting pretty disappointed, grumbling about "kids these days..". BUT then a little boy waddled up to the door with a homemade Thomas the Tank Engine costume that had a train around him made out of cardboard and secured with suspenders. It was awesome. He (or his parents I suppose) redeemed my faith. After that we did get a lot of kids that were decked out, so many that we ran out of candy! Another one of my favorite things about the holiday is carving pumpkins. My parents just sent me a package and on the top of it was a picture of my mom, Micah and I carving a pumpkin together and I couldn't have been more than two or three, and I look pretty delighted! My problem is that I always have trouble squeezing in the time for carving, and this year was no different. After organizing a night where people came over for the sole purpose of carving pumpkins, I was somehow left with five untouched pumpkins and no jack-o-lanterns in sight. This was last weekend, so yesterday JP and I took them all outside and went at them full force. We each carved two and had a lot of fun doing it. JP went traditional and I kept with the animal theme of the past few years and carved an owl and an octopus that maybe looks kind of like a spider. Afterwards we roasted the seeds and (with inspiration from my brother) made some tasty enchiladas. Yum. It was a pretty great holiday. On to some pictures:

Hope you had an excellent holiday too!!

Halloween and my first visitors!

My mom and dad came for a quick visit to do the traditional parents things; grocery shop for me, build me a bookshelf, cook me great food, help me glue eyeballs on my octopus...you know the drill. It was so great having guests! We walked around my neighborhood (after the two feet of snow melted!) and checked out book stores ad coffee shops. My apartment has been really bare, and they helped spruce things right up. Em will be proud to note that I am in fact hanging my pictures as though they are in a museum, it's the only way! It was a little nerve wrecking though because the radiator was creaky and sway-y and we were attempting to hold a heavy picture up with fishing string, but even as I sit writing this the fishing string holds!




Once they had unpacked, out popped dad's traditional clown costume, fake rat and all to celebrate the occasion! Mom happily climbed into my strawberry costume. She chose to accent the costume with brown pants (mud) and a red sweatshirt (more strawberry) to make it her own. Aren't they cute!?




We had some errands to run, so here they are waiting patiently for my prescription to be filled. Use your imagination to fill in OctoElise sitting next to the strawberry for the full effect.. I think it's my favorite picture of the whole weekend!




JP chose to go as Leonardo, pulling it all together even at the last minute, but it turned out nicely and he was a hit downtown! Jeremy did crack that he was the skinniest ninja turtle he'd ever seen, but JP just used his ninja skills and defeated him.




I was, of course, an octopus. A cozy octopus with eyeballs that lasted for only half the night, but it sure was fun swirling my tentacles around!

clue two

This second clue was a while in coming because of a few mishaps, lack of supplies and also because it basically gives it away. I was trying to figure out how to show it without showing it, but then Nora got the better of my sneakiness. She was ruminating in her dreams about costumes and what she should be. When she came to the scariest things she could think of, she thought about being one of these, and instantly knew what I was. Here are a few steps:


My mom got me this sweet little Elna when I moved away. Even I, in my lack of sewing knowledge, can wrangle this machine into producing things relatively close to what I had in mind.


With a lack of furniture, especially chairs, in my apartment, I used my darling red suitcase as a perch while I worked. Balanced on my bed it brought me to just the right level.


With two down and six to go, I think it was shaping up quite nicely. Yes that is the instruction manual in the background...putting the bobbin in was a process.

See what I mean about scariest thing? But where's the beak you say? It's coming, as well as eyes and suckers..all in due time!

a patch of pumpkins

It was a gorgeous pumpkin patch day, with the mountains right next to us, but I couldn't get a picture cause the sun was setting right behind them.

1.
My lopsided beauty.

2.
The bountiful spread.

3.
Jeremy claimed his method of determination involved standing on them to see if they could hold his weight..

4.
JP, loading up the wagon.

5.
Trusty stead?

6.
We only had room for three.

7.
Menfolk.

8.
All carved up.

..but what could it be?

So I wanted my Halloween costume to be a surprise this year, but Nora has ants in her pants and so I promised her I would post some in-progress photos so she could guess what the finished product will be. Here goes:

*
In my bathtub dying my costume purple.

**
Stirring for thirty to sixty minutes turned the tips of my fingers purple.

***
Sad, sad, sad face because the container had a few holes and not only my costume and fingers turned purple, but also the porcelain..shhh.

****
First step complete. Any guesses?