halloween costumes: a retrospective

Here are some costume highlights from Halloween 08!


You don't get to see scary and cute combine forces too often. And it could only be done by Rocky & Chelsie.


Who knew Phillip could be so delicate.


Here is my old coffee shop co-worker Liza being a very convincing Peter Pan.


The perfect Juno. Our friends Jerry (Paulie Bleaker) and Andrea (Juno McGuff), winners of our "best couple" category.


Seth, the lumber jack on strike. The other side of his sign said, "rainfalls not chainsaws". Love it.


Robot befriends Ugly Betty.
Thank you Lisa (who won for most original) and Sarahrice.


Here's my new desktop. Jonscott doing a remarkable Mr. Tumnus which tied for best all around costume.


Prospector Bob. This costume was difficult to explain to our Japanese foreign exchange friends that came.


This may not be as shocking if you don't know these people, but let me tell you, it was a thorough costume that came with about a pint of bronze foundation, shaved chests, thick accents, and a back story. They won for funniest, though I marked them down for scariest.


I'm a sucker for interspecies merriment. Matt , the winner of the "scariest" award, and Meagan, as a very cute panda,which by the way needed no explanation to our foreign exchange friends :)


My favorite Halloween party co-hosts (mentioned in my Halloween decoration post earlier this month) Megan as a cow girl and Steph as an iPod.


Here's Thurston and I as Mario and a spider (the full on version).


The classic pumpkin by Hiroko and Where's Waldo by May.


If you know Yo Gabba Gabba, this will need no explanation. But in case you're like me and have little exposure to kids shows, this will help. And now that I'm totally in the loop- this family costume is spot on, and the deserving winner (well, tied with Mr. Tumnus) for best costume.

Halloween’s Coming (Hide Your Heart)

I walked into a Wal-Mart this weekend and straight into Halloween. Candy, costumes, moving six-foot-tall butler’s offering trays laden with assorted creepiness. Holiday frivolity abounds– get ready, kids.

For me, it just conjured up memories that didn’t need to be conjured. But Halloween's coming (again), with the inevitability of something that's...um, inevitable, and I can't stop it.

Halloween (which originated in Ireland, by the way) is one of those holidays I never seemed to be able to master. Great costume ideas that come to you in an alcoholic fog in February (That would be GREAT!) have long dissipated into the ether come harvest time.

Late afternoon on Halloween usually finds me slouching down the aisles of the Dollar Store wondering how much tin foil is needed to cover my body (too much), if this white jumpsuit can be fashioned into an ironically funny costume (no, decidedly not), or even considering trying to be Instant Karma again (Which, done right, will get you punched. Or maybe I had it coming.), in any case, I’m always screwed.

So, yeah, costumes. Not good at them. I blame my mother. Growing up, every year was an argument, every year I lost. When I was ten, all I wanted to be was a bum (I know, be careful what you wish for), and she said “No, you’re going to be a hobo, people don’t like bums, they’re dirty.” So while I scurried up to my room to look up “semantics” she started in on assembling what she believed to be the prototypical hobo costume. I’m guessing her “vision” was something like this:



Yeah, I'm sure in her mind's eye she saw me walking down the street, my bedroll tied to the end of a stick and thrown jauntily over my shoulder, dabbing the hobo sweat from my hobo brow with my perfectly starched hobo bandanna, all the while minding my manners and reaping more than my fair share of treats. That's right, her son, King of the Bindlestiffs.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was going trick-or-treating with Tim Murtha who was getting his sister to dress him in drag. He was a little ahead of his time, because I don't think "dressing in drag" had entered the common parlance yet. Then again, his whole family was a trend-setting, devil-may-care bunch. Which I think, in some small part, was the reason Mr. Murtha would wander his front yard, barefoot and shirtless with beer in hand, cursing at his crabapple trees.
So, anyway, off Tim and I went, looking like "Of Mice and Men" meet "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." And of course he (she) was the big hit. I ended up with half a sack of taffy and Murtha ended up with multiple bags of swag, looking like the Grinch right after he wiped out Whoville. I think some of those ladies are still sending him cakes and pies every Halloween.

Anyway, there's a lesson in there somewhere, but that would require years of therapy.

All that said, there is one small gift Halloween brings. For me, Halloween's single purpose is to serve as my own personal Distant Early Warning system, alerting me that the "family" holidays are closing in. Breathing down my neck. That the fresh hell of Thanksgiving and Christmas are approaching. And they always end badly.

October! We've been waiting for you.

Okay so I’d be lying if I said I was waiting for October to research Halloween decorations, but now that it is October it’s perfectly acceptable to post about it. Halloween may be the only holiday that doesn’t conjure the sneering remark “they’re putting _____ out already- ugh.” Halloween decor and costumes could come out right after Christmas and you would not hear a complaint from me. Although I’m not ignoring the fact that October means more than just Halloween. It also means my birthday (the 24th so mark your calendars), the NC state fair, and maybe most welcoming, the change in seasons.
Along with preferring cooler weather to warmer, I’m also set up in the camp that likes Halloween to be scary and gruesome as opposed to cute. Nothing at all against cute - I love cute. I spend exceptional amounts of time ooohing and ahhhing over baby animals. But as I learned last year while planning a Halloween party with my dear, dear friend Steph and Megan, I tend to be drawn to severed digits and spattered blood while the decorations they chose were happy-faced and covered in glitter. Let me stress to you again - happy faces: yes, glitter: absolutely yes; but it just doesn’t beat cobwebs and creepy crawlies.
One of the best sources for finding great decorations and recipes that are both happy faced and scary - Martha Stewart.
So here’s a sampling of my favorites so far:

Im definitely doing this one, even though I live in an apartment and no one sees my front door. It's just a ripped up trash bag pulled and stretched into eerie spindles. Love it!


I thought this was a nice change of pace for a jack-o-lantern.


Very easy to do and looks awesome. Megan did some of these for our party last year.


See. Glitter.


See. Scary.


Craft store creepy crawlies and some hot glue and you're in business.


Again, black construction paper has endless possibilities.


Some are taped to the inside and some are hung by string to distort the shadows. Subtle. I like it.


Bat garland!


See. Glitter again! I really like this one.


Cupcake brains. Your kids class would love these.


Cheesecloth ghosts- a little involved, but look awesome.


YES! Gross edibles. That's what I'm talking about.


Cheesecloth curtains- again, a little more involved, but cheap and spooky.


Paper silhouettes. Only give your candy out to the brave trick-or-treaters with these. Or don't answer the door at all and really give them a scare.
Find all theses directions and how-tos here.