And Finally...

... the porch. Here's what I did on my parent's porch this year.Happy Halloween everybody, even if it is a whole week and a day late.

No!toro

Here is the costume that I literally shed blood, sweat and tears over in my mad Halloween dash. It's B's Totoro, and no part of creating it went smoothly. Despite it being so freakin simple, I hit snag after snag. The grand blooper cherry on top of this blooper sundae, is that B absolutely refused to wear the thing. He's a funny sensitive guy, and as stubborn as his mom, and something tweaked in him and there was no talking him into it. I almost cried, after all the frustration I had putting it together, then I remembered that I'm the parent, and to behave myself. He ended up happily trick or treating in his trusty Totoro hoodie, and all was well. He has the candy loot to prove it.

Oo De Lally!

So, I got home with about 48 hours of costuming left before the big day. Miraculously, I finished our fox masks. They turned out so slick, so much cooler than I expected, and they were so fun to wear. In other words, I like them.
About half way through, they looked like a big pile of CRAFT. Maybe even KRAFT. Like I would be pulling out the puffy paint and Mod Podge any second. But once the entire mask was covered in the crepe paper it looked lovely. My mom tried to steal them Sunday morning to hang on her wall. For those of you who know my mother, you know that no mere craft gets wall space in her home. It's the highest form of flattery. (She also took these pictures. She says, "it's all in the paws.")These masks were made with Crayola Model Magic built up on a blank mask form, then papier mache, paint and finally crepe paper according to the instructions here. I love the relief and the texture, and am a little obsessed with the way crepe paper stretches and bends. Amazing. My poor family will probably just be getting a mask menagerie for Christmas. The rest of our costumes were equal parts made and found. They were warm and comfortable, and though we wore them out to great party and were seen by friends, family and strangers alike, I feel like I didn't get enough time as Marian. I may start wearing leather vests and shawls around town just for the hell of it. I could just be that girl.Look at my Robin Hood, sans mask. How handsome is he? He can swash my buckle any time he likes. Word.

A Meny Splendored Thing

Everybody knows the age old love story of the Narwhal and the Greaser. Ahh... Sweet Romance...

!

Ok kids, I finally have a minute to say that this Fall, and even the end of the Summer, kicked my ass. I never realized how much of my free time (read: sanity) came from afternoon toddler nap time, and evening toddler bed time. But, of course, the apple doesn't fall far from the insomniac mother. It's been months of bed time battles, really a full scale war, culminating in a parental white flag of surrender. Beckett no longer naps. Which means Beckett is often cranky. Which means I am too.

So I have little time to write, and less time to do anything about which to write. And when you throw in an emergency babysitting week in California (to care for my niece) I didn't even get a chance to post all of the things I have been up to. I'd still like very much to do that. If you don't mind hearing about Halloween costumes after the fact, I'll be posting my successes and failures over the next few days.

This is Halloween

I spent the morning building the form that I'll be using to make our fox masks, and at the end I had some extra white modeling material. You know, that spongy Crayola stuff that air hardens overnight? So Beckett and I had a crazy fun project session, making "ghosties" out of the leftover clay and some buttons and beads. Aren't they killer?
But even B's wonder-filled inventions couldn't break me out of my standard anal M.O. Insert some sentiment about a leopard and his spots here. Anyway, once the ball got rollin', we started making a bunch of little paper cut-outs (which became a garland), and pulling out the Halloween decoration box, and before I knew it, we had a full blown seasonal display in the kitchen. See? I can play home-maker. Scratch that, I'm a lousy housewife. One look at, or taste of, Zion's birthday cake last week would prove that. But I do know how to have a spontaneous good time with my son. And I like to think I make being domestically stunted look good. Word.

It Takes a Village

A Value Village, to be precise. Check out this perfect Sherwood Forest sweater I picked up today, not in the costume section. Seriously.And this sweet leather jacket that's about to be turned into a lady-outlaw's vest and a quiver or two. It looks pretty sharp on old Helen, wouldn't you say? Helen, you minx. Mild mannered dress form by day. Pam Grier look-a-like by night?Here's the working palette. So much potential, and so much potential for failure, not to mention so much leather. Eee! I'm so excited.