Phew! It's Over!

I'm not really a Halloween humbug, but like I said earlier, it's not really one of my fav's. Kathleen's costume came out cute, although she said that at the party she went to Friday night, noone knew what she was supposed to be, so she was bummed. She can't say I didn't warn her! A "baby doll" is a touch less recognizable than Avril Lavigne. But whatever...she looked adorable, and had a blast. My niece Madeline made her own Pop Tart costume, and it was FABulous! I was so impressed. The kid is a riot. She used shredded construction paper for her "sprinkles", and she painted the board and glued that stuff on with a tiny bit of help from her mother. Isn't it fantastic?!

Jennifer's son Will was a little Native American, although he refused the face paint. I remember when Kathleen was his age--she didn't want to put anything on her face either. He lost his feather at some point in the night, but the persuit of candy was much more important than some silly feather.

So we had a nice spaghetti and meatball dinner with spice cake for dessert at my house, and then off we went through our neighborhood for a bit, then down to Kelly's. There were lots of people at Kelly's, and the bonfire was burning...I can't believe I didn't take pics of everyone around the fire this year. It's nice to have that small town atmosphere, and to catch up with everyone after we haven't seen them in a few months. And of course all the kids love it, because the get to run around in the dark like little monsters! :) We trick-or-treated down there (in New Baltimore) too, and that was a gold mine. The houses are fairly close together in the hamlet, and some people were really into the whole thing. The decorations were great. Kathleen got to meet up with more of her friends, and she had fun. She got tired at 8:30 though, so it was an early night for us, which was AOK by me! :) She had school the next day, and she knows her limits. The poor kid gets up at 6am every day.

I just shot into the dark at the kids with my flash, lol, so the quality is a little bit hurtin', but I wanted you to see the crowd at Kelly's. A giant hay-wagon FULL of little kids came by as we were leaving. There had to be 20 kids on it! It's a good thing Kelly stocks up! You can see Kelly above in the pic on the left...she's the one in the background with the big witch's hat on. She tries to make a new hat every year, and pesters me for fun fabric every year starting around the first of October.

I'll leave you with this Picasa collage of other pics from the night. I must say, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. ;) Hey, as long as Kathleen has fun, it's all good.

Happy Halloween!

Well, here it is! The big day is upon us! Kathleen is very excited. I finished her dress on Monday afternoon, and today I have to pick up some pink tights for her. Jennifer will be coming to dinner with her son Will, just as they do every year, and then we'll head out to do some trick-or-treating here in town, then down to New Baltimore to Kelly's house for her bonfire. Fun!

My dinner over at Pat's the other night was lovely. We had tomato pie, bruschetta, beef brisket, sauteeed kale with bacon, wasabi mashed potatoes, and little pumpkin bundt cakes for dessert. Yummy! I should have gotten some pictures of the food...I guess I forgot! We were supposed to do some felting, but after dinner, we just sat around the fire and chatted for a couple of hours. It was lovely. That Halloween tree above is in Pat's foyer. That tree will stay there through Chrismas, when she will deck it out wtih sparkly Christmas ornaments. I always look forward to her holiday decorations....she's really into it.

I got some great pictures of Kathleen that night, too. The sun was setting, and we were outside at Pat's, looking at the new pond that Cap (her husband) built. It had just rained, so the water was really rushing over the waterfall edge of the pond. It was pretty cool.

And this last one of Gus is for Annie, Amber. :) He's Cap's roping horse. Apparently they are going to get two burrows (donkeys) to keep him company this winter. Weird, man. Who wants donkeys? Eh...whatev. Hi Annie!!

Halloween Bits

I was over at my friend Jennifer's house the other day, and she had some cute stuff out for Halloween, so of course I snapped a few pics. She lives in an old stone house built in the 1800's, and her decorating style has always been somewhat minimalist, but not modern--always a sense of history in everything she does. I love this trough with pinecones in it. That wall used to be the back outer wall of the house, until they put this family room addition on. Those stairs lead down to the kid's game room.

Her mother's birthday falls on Halloween (she's Pat from Decadent Fibers...see link on left), and I think the overflow of decor gets gifted to Jennifer every year...lol. We're headed to Pat's tonight for some needle felting, cosmos, dinner, and girl talk. I'm sure it will be fun, and I'll have pics from her house, where there is always something new and interesting to see. She does Halloween and Christmas decor like nobody's business. I'll be sure to post the best of them in the next couple of days.

I just loved that little witch...isn't she cute next to the lovely painted wood compote filled with felted pumpkins?

Today is "make Kathleen's costume" day. She wants to be a "dolly" for Halloween this year. I tried to convince her to be Avril Lavigne, because she actually LOOKS a little like Avril, and with a little black eyeliner and some funky clothes and bracelets, we'd have it all wrapped up. But she was having none of that.

She saw an episode of America's Next Top Model where they dressed the models up like dolls and had them pose limply on oversized chairs and in oversized Barbie boxes for their photo shoots. It was actually pretty cool. So....we've got white eyelet fabric for the dress, and three different colors of tulle for the under-skirting, so it puffs out, and then she has a whole plan for curling her hair, using eyeliner for fake eyelashes on her cheeks (you have to see it), carrying a teddy-bear around with her, and looking d0ll-like. We'll see how it goes over. The kid has more imagination than me, I swear. When she did her eyeliner eyelashes for me, I was finally convinced. I'll be sure to post pictures when we're all done with that, too--we'll see if she can rival those silly models. :) Anybody else out there sewing costumes this weekend?