All Hallows Eve 2015

Another year of pumpkin designs, overpaying on costumes and spooky decor that I don't need (because it's a sickness) and all the other Halloween fun has come to an end. Part of me is relieved, but part of me mourns the end of another Halloween. October is so much fun and it means the cooler weather is just beginning. 

Don't get me wrong - I love November. I'm just not ready for the throws of Holiday stress. Not yet.

As for Halloween, it is fun to finally be teaching at a school that allows staff and students to dress up on Halloween! I wore my Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup costume from last year. To go along with it, the students received a little art history and Pop Art lesson. In Middle School, a lot of students usually don't dress up. Still, a lot more kids were dressed up than I would have expected. It was a lot of fun.

It was also the last day of Spirit Week, so I dressed up other days too. The one that sort of ended up on camera was "Pink Day" two days earlier:

What does a teacher have to do to be taken seriously around here? Geez!

I do wish I remembered to get some new neon pink shoelaces. Those laces are old and way too short. 

As for tonight at our Trunk or Treat, I wore an old black and white stripe inmate costume from five years ago when I was very pregnant with Alexander. I wasn't about to wear this year's costume to work yesterday or tonight at our Trunk or Treat.  Oh, Chris wore his deer costume tonight, but I wasn't going to wear the counterpart costume. That was a one-time deal last weekend out in Queen Creek at an annual Halloween party. I wasn't too pleased with the pictures, so I decided playing with the "diffuse glow" setting was the only way to make the picture view worthy.  Hey, at least I'm posting the picture at.all.

Deer in Headlights

I think it also works in pink.

As I said, Chris wore the deer costume again tonight (below). The interesting irony behind our costume theme is we've had brushes with deer on our street and the connecting highway in the last few weeks. However, our costume theme was decided on way before that!  As the deer incidents continued, the costume made even more sense.

Our neighborhood is part of an area where deer cross and come through this time of year. Chris technically hit a deer a few weeks ago (he's okay, broken front light, and deer most likely limped away), and about two weeks ago there were four just standing in the street (two of them were babies) only about an acre away from our house. I wish they hadn't taken off before I could get a picture. It was quite a sight coming up on that in the dark. 

As for the kids, Alexander had his heart set on Iron Man for months. I wish he would have selected The Hulk. I tried to steer him in that direction, but no dice. Oh, I love Iron Man more than the Hulk, but costume-wise, the green skin, messed up hair and torn clothes would have been more fun. Still, Alexander was adorable in his Iron Man costume and his Tony Stark goatee underneath. And one of my, um, lights from my costume last weekend provided a wonderful addition to X-man's costume tonight.

 

















Christian was Doc Brown from Back to the Future. I wasn't sure that over-sized radiation suit was going to work, but Chris made it happen. By the time we got to Christian's costume and he was struggling with tactile and sensory issues as a result of the wig, I didn't think the costume would work out at all. But Chris picked up where my Halloween energy left off. 

Mikelle's Martin McFly/Marty McFly Back to the Future I and II costume goes along with Christian's, but she was celebrating with friends tonight. I wonder how I can manage to get a picture. I have some ideas. 

As for pumpkins, I forgot to take a picture of the latest one before I shipped it out. The costomer knew she wouldn't receive it in time for Halloween (due to when she ordered it), but I rushed to at least get it shipped out by yesterday.  

However, three others in the last couple of weeks were photographed. The orange one was a special request from a friend and return costumer. I don't officially offer orange as an option because those craft-pumpkins (below with purple bottle and eyeballs) are more challenging to decorate with the ink because it's a darker orange and the pen doesn't go down as smooth. Still, she asked for a fun Disney villains theme with it and I was pleased with the results. 

In the picture with the orange pumpkin, the large pumpkin in the back is one I made for myself last year that contains a theme of favorite dark music lyrics fit for Halloween.  I found it had enough uniqueness to use as a prop in the picture with the two others. 

She also had me do a Nightmare Before Christmas one for her daughter with the small white pumpkin (pictured below the orange one).  

There are two other pieces of art that I did complete this month, but I'll save those for the next entry. They weren't Halloween-specific and so far this entry remained rather consistent with the whole Halloween/Dress-up theme.

 Goodbye October. Hello November.