Boo! The Most Creative Time of My Year

Halloween is my favorite time of year.  No gift-giving stress, lots of candy, & plenty of creativity and sewing.  Something about this time of year really gets my inventive juices flowing, and I have the overwhelming urge to get out the sewing machine.

The Clever Man & I aren't much for dressing up.  He, because there's no costume short of movie-set quality that he would willingly don.  Me, because by the time I get to me, there's nothing left.  You know how it is.

It started when we had our first daughter.  She was four months old at Halloween, and we'd just had the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics.  So I bought some white lycra, dyed it with RIT, and made her a track suit.  It never is easy.

Do you remember? Cathy Freeman and her hooded speed suit.  

We even got her number right.  Is she not the most darling!?  It was the beginning of my quest for costume perfection.    I know that it's not an exact replica, but I don't think anyone who watched the Olympics that year would mistake who she was.

With the addition of sisters the world of themes was open to us!  Themes are the icing on the cake, making costumes cohesive, also taking some of the guess work out of what everyone is going to be.

 Over the years I realized that costume excellence is in the details.  It matters what they're holding, what's on their head, and how their makeup looks. And there's no substitute for costume details.  The internet makes that part easy.  It's important to me that when you look at them it looks cohesive, planned, and that you can tell immediately who they are.  If you watch obscure fantasy shows, that is...

Clever Man has mad skills when it comes to technical details.  The Evil Fairy Wings out of wire with black nylons on top.  Most notably the Ahsoka headdress from Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon, fully covered in cement paste and air brushed.  We've enjoyed Avatar: The Last Airbender & Dead Ballerinas too.  As you can see once they got older, the ante got raised.  Now it's a game of escalation, and everyone who knows us fans the flame.  Pressure's getting heavy around here.

I will do a later post about The Minions Year and The Disney Villains Year.  They were major productions, and I really want to share details about how it was done.  Sometimes clever only happens once you've see how something is done.  The light goes on and you get it.  Learning by example is what makes women clever.

Only 8 more months until Halloween 2015.  Put on your thinking cap!

Books for Teens

Okay, so to me finding a good book is IMPOSSIBLE. I've read a lot. I don't consider reading to be my regular hobby but once in a while I like to snuggle down with a good book. Some of the books I've read are; Harry Potter series (twice), Hunger Games series, Great Expectations, Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, Book Thief, The Giver, Turtle in Paradise, and many many others. Some of these I read in two or three days. For my Honors English class every term we are given a list of books and we have to pick one to read that term. I read them and I enjoy them. The last one I read was Jane Eyre, which I absolutely ADORE, but I still want to find more books to read. Being in Junior High makes it even harder to find books. We have to have a certain number of book points to get an "A", but we can only read books off the ninth grade book list. So of course wanting an "A" I read what I have to. I just recently finished The Book Thief and let me tell you it was AMAZING!I read it in two days and I cried sooooo much! This book had the right combination of sadness and joy to make it incredible. Although finding books seems IMPOSSIBLE there are really good books out there. The books I have read have become my favorite. To find good books you have to ask for recommendations and you don't have to read garbage, don't be afraid to stop reading when needed. When you find a great book it becomes  a GEM. 

Happy Reading!!!