Halloween Part 5 - Tracy and Edna and a poodle skirt

For Halloween I was Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray! It was such a perfect costume for me.
My husband didn't fit the look of the fellows in the film but he did have what it took to play one of the other ladies, Tracy's mother Edna.







Also, my brothers girlfriend dressed as Sandy from Grease on Halloween night but didn't want to wear the tight pants to work that morning so I made her a quick poodle skirt.

Halloween Part 4 - Angels, Dark and Light

My brother and sister in law were a light and dark [fallen] angel.
I made the costumes although my brother started to get timid closer to the day so his is not as fantastical as I had originally planned.






This is the only photo I have found of my brothers wing nubs

Halloween Part 3 - Valkyrie

My younger sister Debiana was a Valkyrie for the day.
She could not make up her mind on a costume so I made the decision for her. I also made the costume for her.

Halloween Part 2 - Dark Fairy

Abby's second Silvana creation is dark fairy.

This costume cost exactly $3.25

Halloween Part 1 - Dolley Madison

So this is the first bit of Halloween crafting I have photos of yet.
One of the 8 costumes I made.
My baby sister somehow got two costumes out of me this year. One for tonight [an awesome deep purple blue fairy] and Dolley Madison [the FIRST first lady].
Her tiny christian private school has something called a biography tea this time of year so the kids whose families don't celebrate Halloween can still dress up.

...but what have you been up to?

Oh nothing much. Moved to a new city, took in my 93 year old grand-mother in law [thats right in LAW] got legally, though not yet symbolically, hitched, gained an uncomfortable amount of weight, became only quasi-employed and started reading again, sewing again, crafting again, living again.

Timeless?

I have a dirty little secret. Its a habit I have picked up in the last year. It has alot to do with my boyfriend, but I try to keep it from him as best I can.
My guilty pleasure: wedding websites. It isn't a daily exorcise, more the occasional relapse consisting of intensive multi-day binges.

I am just coming out of one now and I have something to say.

A lot of wedding dresses these days are painfully boring, and some are just plain ugly.

There are so many examples of this, but one shouts at me every time I give into the urge to type "weddings" in my google side bar.

The fully bustled skirt:


This

is meant for windows, but blushing brides.

Somehow the masses have been convinced that the billowing monstrosity is elegant and of the moment.

Lets have a look at what else was once considered elegant and of the moment.

In the seventies it was the 'Edwardian' style, which was popular for both brides and their maids.


When the eighties came around it was the giant sleeves.


Most recently, the nineties showed us the 'contemporary' hairstyles


Every one tells you not to pick a dress, or a hairstyle, or even makeup that doesn't feel like you. But even more than this, don't pick things that wont feel like you in ten, twenty, fifty years.