trick or treat

Come Eeeeeen… And Geeeve Me Your Blooood

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Velcome!

That hat looked much cuter in the store.  And in all honesty, I am much cuter than this picture depicts.  Normally, my bosoms are high and firm (no, I am not lying about that), not almost to my waist as it looks like in this picture.  And that saggy,  pudgy elbow sticking out is not mine.  I do not know where that came from.  You may have to click on the pic to get a closer view of my vampire teeth.  They are so awesome!!!  I am wearing them to work in the morning.

All the little munchkins started coming around 6:00 this evening.  Here are my first ones:

the dude looks like a lady!

Oops!  That’s Nate.  He helped hand out whistles, play-doh, tattoos, booger pickers a/k/a monster fingers, glow sticks, spider rings,  freshly cut hands a/k/a latex gloves with a little air with some surprises inside, and caramel nut chocolate apples.  I would estimate we had around 200.  There were 140 small play-dohs, and we handed out those till they were gone, along with two or three other items.  After that we started on all the other things until I got down to just spider rings and a few glow sticks.  It was a fun-filled, packed neighborhood this evening.

My first guests to arrive:

A beautiful princess and a super hero

Next came this little cutie below.

Aniston

Most of the evening I spent here in these chairs or up walking around filling bags and talking to the kids.  They all love the whistles.  I love hearing them blow them all over the neighborhood.  A little whistle band.

Gigi the Vampire

My little Kate was Pocahontas, and Ava was the cutest flower petal you’ve ever seen.  I moved them around the yard trying to get a good photo of them.  If you’ve looked at some of my attempts to photograph them before, then you won’t be surprised at these.

"No, over here, Sissy."

Kate thinks she is the boss of Ava.  I don’t know why she should think she is the boss of anybody; she is always telling me, “You’re not the boss of me.”  So I guess that only works one way:  Kate is boss of everybody.

We kept after it until we finally sort of got a pretty good picture.

Flower Petal and Pocahontas

um, pretty close

Hold it! Hold it! Click

A happy time was had by all.  A tired Gigi had a ball.

Hope your Halloween was spooktacular as well!

Like Mother Like Daughter… Or Is It Like Daughter Like Mother

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On Halloween night to greet all the trick or treaters, I will be wearing this:

Vampira costume

… only I will have a shawl covering the flabby arms with some really cool fingerless gloves and an awesome hat.

I will also have these in my mouth:

vampire fangs

If you click on the picture, it will get larger, and you can see that they are supposed to be smaller and sexy.  (cough, cough)  I do not think sexy is going to be in my vampire costume equation.  They are small and will fit in my mouth with the aid of some kind of plastic goo that will harden just right (unless you leave it in too long) thus giving me the ability to take the teeth out easily and reinsert them easily.  Or at least that’s the plan.  I will probably wind up at the dentist office with a drill trying to get vampire fangs out of my mouth.

Last but not least, these will be on my fingers.

black fingernails

I think they come with stick-on paper, so I will probably have black fingernails all over the yard by the time it’s over.  They could be glued with that fake fingernail glue, but then I would probably be at the manicurist right after the dentist.

Tonight I find out that my daughter had already bought the exact same teeth and a vampire costume.  I forgot to ask if she had also gotten the fingernails.

So be careful… vee vill suuuck your bloooood!!  We have the teeth for it!

 

Some Funky Halloween Costumes I’ve Seen

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There have been some pretty wild and wacky Halloween costumes that I have been witness to over the years, and thought I would recall some of them for you.  One of the best ones was a ticking pillow.  For city folk, ticking is the blue and white stripe material used to make pillows, then stuff them with feathers.  Now a days it would be foam or the packaged white, fluffy stuff (what is the name of that?).  I was in high school, and my church was having their annual Halloween party.  One of my friends, Gail Addison, came as a ticking pillow, a body pillow.  She couldn’t see anything.  Her parents had brought her in and stood her up.  Of course, no one could guess who she was.

When the party wound down, some of us got in the car and headed off to do what all good church-going teenagers do:  soap windows… or trick or treat at friends’ houses, whichever struck our fancy.  But instead we got the bright idea to tell Gail that we were at somebody’s house, taking her up to the door, and instead dropped her out up town.  I have to tell you that looked pretty funny: a big body-size ticking pillow walking around.  We finally got worried she would fall off the curb and into oncoming traffic, so we picked her back up.  True friends.

The year 2009 when the swine flu was so rampant, I saw a couple dressed up as the H1N1 virus.  Had little balls all over them with a pig nose.  It was original and really neat.

And then there was the farmer with his sheep.  ‘Nuff said.

I have to tell you the flasher was hilarious.  He had a long trench coat on and would “flash” us.  Quite a surprise package he was flashing around.  Had something to do with a lady’s hose if I remember correctly.

Anybody got any unusual Halloween sightings?

October 11 – Full Moon

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full moon on a cloudy night

A full moon… an eerie cemetery… and an awesome fog machine.  Oh, yeah.  That’s what I’m talkin’ about.  It will also go well with my pumpkin head man.  He has little battery lights for his eyes that look so cool when it’s dark.  He’s a little skinny because, well, he’s actually dead, so I didn’t think he should be fat.  Nate and I had a great time this afternoon getting him all ready to go.  If you look really closely, you can see the electrical tape holding his hat together.  But from the road it looks just fine.

pumpkin man

I took a little time today and planted a few things in an old wheelbarrow that I have.  It turned out sort of nice.

scarecrow and wheelbarrow

wheelbarrow planter

And… I’ve already got trickers or treaters at my door!

trickers or treaters

This Halloween has been a fun one.  Kate decorated the two pumpkins I brought home with some plastic face pieces.  One is of her and the other is of Logan, her future husband according to Kate.  I don’t think Logan knows this yet.  The night of tricking or treating I will be a vampire.  I can hardly wait.  Even now I vaant to suuuck your blooood!

So unteel vee meet again, enjoy zee full moon!

pumpkin full moon

 

Halloween Past

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Beauty and the Beast

These photos came out of my scrapbook.  As you can tell by the chopped off hair, it was one of my first books.  Such a nice point on Beauty’s head!  James and I had gone to my cousin’s house to one of the parties they gave just about every year.  He would wear this costume just about every year too.  It’s still around here somewhere.  The dress?  That was a prom dress of Keely’s that was way too tight then.  I couldn’t get an upper arm in that little baby now!

Brenda the Flapper

This flapper dress was one of my absolute favorites!  Cost quite a bit of money too for so many years ago.  I never did get it back from my neighbor who borrowed it.  She said she gave it back, but she didn’t.  I’m sure it was an honest mistake.  Those things just have a way of never returning, those loaned out items, money, flapper dresses.  I’m still sad about it, though.

All my kids were hobos.  Shoot!  I’ve probably been a hobo.  I love that hobo costume, too.  Just so easy, and they look so doggone cute.  Kids don’t dress up like this anymore.  They all want to be superheros or some other costume from the store, but I’m sure if I had had that option when I was a young trick-or-treater, I would have been Kitty from Gunsmoke or Captain Kangaroo or…

My family has been a little bit of everything from animals to outlaws.   I usually dress up every year for my little trick-or-treaters.  One year I was the tooth fairy complete with glitter and a tooth purse and tooth wand and wings.  As the little girl walked down the driveway with her mom, she had her head turned back looking at me in awe and finally said, “Mommy, that’s where the tooth fairy lives!”  Just priceless!

And that is one of the reasons I love Halloween!

The Hobos

Gypsy Keely 1981

We were all gypsies, too.  At least we girls were.  I doubt the boys ever were made into gypsies.  The fingernails were made out of paper that I either painted red or was already red.  I remember wearing that skirt!  Poor baby.  She looks a little ratty now that I relook at her from a few years away.

The kids were all good sports when it came to wearing some of the garbs that Momma thought up.  And a couple of them even won prizes in the contests held at school.  I have a few more Halloween pictures to dig out for next month, and in that group is the one of Keely as a geisha girl.  Someone had given her an authentic Oriental pink top and pants, so that was all the inspiration I needed.  She won with that little outfit.  That’s a definite October post.

Jarred the Belly Man

Below is Jarred in a costume that won him first place in one of the school contests at their Halloween party for the community.  Jarred’s hat is made out of poster board, and he has his hands up in it.  I painted his belly to look like a face and made hands out of paper.   As I recall, he was fairly worn out from holding his arms up for so long.  But he did like the costume.

Email me some of your wild, crazy, wacky, gorgeous, outrageous, odd, funny costumes.  I’ll post them in October, and we’ll vote on them.  The winner gets a prize!

It’s not that hard; however you may have to scan them if you don’t already have them on your computer.  Just attach to an email.  If you don’t know how, send me an email, and I’ll help walk you through it.  The email address is below.    apronsandappetites@yahoo.com.sg

Somehow I have a foreign “sg” on there for now.  Trying to get it fixed.  duh!  I’m sure I did that when I set up the email.

My Witch Heart Loves Halloween

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Halloween is right around the corner.  I’m sure it is because everything has been out since, oh, July or so.  And Christmas is right behind it because there are Christmas shelves and shelves and shelves in the stores containing all sorts of decorations and toys.  If I blink my eyes, I’m sure to miss it.  It’s that close!!  Isn’t it?

I was at Cracker Barrel tonight and just couldn’t decide.  Do I buy Halloween stuff or Thanksgiving stuff or Christmas stuff.  I looked all over for Easter stuff but didn’t see any.  I am amazed at how much stuff Cracker Barrel can pack into that little store.  But it’s such cool stuff!

There was an enchanted broom (click on link to see pic) that follows people around.  I absolutely had to have it!!  I can hardly wait to scare the snot out of the little kids that come for Trick or Treat.  I love Halloween!

Sometimes I feel as though I shouldn’t, with all the emphasis put on the devil nowadays, but I do.  It’s probably my favorite holiday.  And the reason it’s my favorite holiday is because it’s just fun.  Everyone’s in a good mood, laughing and visiting as they walk the neighborhood, although the Trunk and Treat move is sort of destroying the whole Trick or Treat spirit.  Oh, I’m sure they have the same camaraderie as do the rest of us who sit in our yards or houses and wait for the princesses and ghouls and other various superheros and monsters to come by.  It was just so much fun as a kid to wander all over town and knock on those doors and say “Trick or Treat!”

Even though the other major holidays hold a deep meaning in my heart, they are usually fraught with the burden of buying gifts, the sadness of loved ones not around, the lonesomeness of those with no one close, or the hustle and bustle to “get ‘er done so we can move to the next stop.”  It saddens me that Christmas and Easter have become as pagan as Halloween once was hundreds of years ago.  So I will always love Halloween.  It gives me a chance to be a kid again while I enjoy the kids and their families that walk with them.

Up next:  pics of Halloween Past from the Byassee archives.