Halloween Prep 2011

As we all know, October is my very favorite month, Halloween my favorite holiday. Every year I scurry around making costumes, perhaps attend the Halloween dance at the Bog Tavern, and if it's a good year, scaring many small children as a dead pirate on a haunted ship.

This will be a good year.

Setup will be last-minute, because the forecast says wind and snow Sunday morning, so we're going to have to pull it all together in one day, which is freaking me out, but I'm sure we'll be able to do it. I have the kids this year (traded for tomorrow, when X is taking them to see his sister-in-law in a roller derby in Portland). Still need to work out exactly what Kira is wearing, but that'll come together, and bring down all the big boxes of props from the third floor.

Tomorrow night Michelle, Brenda and I will go out dancing, and I like my costume idea this year. I'm going to be a Titanic non-survivor. Wearing the deep purple full-length bridesmaid dress I wore in 1999 (yes, I've kept it. Who knows why. Wait, I do...for this!), I've made a life ring that says Titanic on it to carry as a prop, and I will be cold and dead and drowned. Yay theatrical makeup!

Michelle is going as Red Riding Hood, and Brenda will be a sexy sailor girl. She got a costume pre-made, but was a little unhappy with how tight it was, so we picked out some glittery gold ribbon and I deconstructed the sides of the dress and inset the ribbon (freakin glitter EVERYWHERE now). It should be just right now. (She's also got a pair of very high gold heels, which are just a little too small for her, and she intends to give them to me after Halloween. Shoooooooes!!!)

Interestingly, that's the only sewing I have to do this year! My dress still fits perfectly (which I'm a little depressed about, actually), and for Kira's costume I ordered an actual proper uniform, so that'll be all set.

Kira will be a dead cheerleader. :D

We'll get started on her makeup about 2 hours before the Carnival, since I have to deaden her arms and legs too, in addition to putting bruises and scars and blood. Originally we were going to have half of her face terribly burned, with parts of it peeling away, but she is hoping that a BOY SHE LIKES (oh eek) will be going to the dance afterwards, and didn't want to be dancing with him (-if- they were to dance together) with a peeling face. Sheesh. I can't understand why not. :P

I -did- make the pom-poms to go with her costume, as I am apparently incapable of having an entire costume be purchased. :P The pom-poms were easy to make, cost $3 total, made from plastic tablecloth fabric. I'm not wild about the slight mis-match of color on the yellow with the gold-yellow on her costume, but she's ok with it and I just keep reminding myself it's JUST a Halloween costume, for a 2-hour Carnival, blah blah blah, but you know me. These details get to me. (deep breath. let it goooooooo)

So, those are the Halloween plans for this year. Oh, and Michelle and I are going to see Paranormal Activity 3 on Sunday. :D

Just for something fun, for the last couple of weeks, I've been changing my profile picture on Facebook every day to some horror image or another, mostly movie stills. Today it's a collage of scenes from 'Psycho.' I have also put in a couple of art pieces (Jamie Wyeth's Pumpkinhead: Self-Portrait, Charles Allan Gilbert's All is Vanity) and two digital media pieces an artistic friend has created (Entrance to Desecration, and Ghost Town wallpaper--a friend of mine commented and asked if that was my dream home, to which I replied 'of course!').

Well, I have a couple of hours before I have to start transforming my beautiful living daughter into a horrifying dead cheerleader, so off I go, attempting to be productive. :P

Let me know -your- plans for this Halloween weekend! mk

Meet Paula

So, in an EXTREMELY exciting piece of news, my parents bought me a car!!!! Yes, it is time to retire the 1997 Dodge Intrepid (which I -love-, but she's unreliable and starting to break down around my ears). So for the last several weeks, I've been browsing for vehicles.

The first thing I had to do was let go of the idea of getting my dream vehicle, a Dodge Durango. That was hard to do, I've dreamed of having one for oh, more than 10 years. My friend Michelle has one, so I do get to drive one on occasion, which only made me want one more, but when I am perfectly honest with myself, I really don't need a vehicle that big, and the V8 engine is super thirsty, so I wouldn't be able to afford the gas. So with a HUGE sigh (well, a lot of huge sighs), I put away the Durango as a possibility.

Then I was looking at smaller SUVs...the ones that are sometimes referred to as 'cute utes.' In particular, I had my eye on the Honda CRV. Just the right size, great gas mileage, fabulous reputation.

As it turned out, Brenda ended up getting one on Friday!

So now two of my best friends have my dream vehicles. Can you believe it?

Still perusing craigslist and Uncle Henry's (Maine statewide classifieds publication), I first looked at and dismissed a car, but then went back and really checked it out. Researched the hell out of it (like I've been researching any car that takes my fancy...I could probably recite stats and true market value on several years of CRVs), and then called Mom & Dad. We drove down to Portland, took a good look at the car, barely had to test-drive it, and bought it.

Now I'm waiting for the paperwork to get worked out so I can get it insured and registered, but please meet the new markira-mobile. Mark insisted on naming it, and as it is a 2004 Chevy Impala, the name 'Paula' was a natural. Paula had one owner, a disabled older couple who are now both not allowed to drive, and stunningly, has LESS THAN 24,000 miles on her!

She's in absolutely brand-new condition, inside and out, has a trunk large enough to hold multiple bodies (which was my first comment when I saw it, of course, and has been verified...the kids have climbed in the trunk, they thought it was great fun...bwahahahaha), is sooo quiet you can barely tell when she's on. In fact, when I started it the first time, I looked at Mom and said, "The car's ON" and she, surprised, replied, "Are you sure??"

I'm customizing her a little bit, of course, to be more of 'my' vehicle. Yesterday I got these license plate frames. *grins* I'll be moving my stereo from the Intrepid to the Impala, so I can plug in my iPod, and I need new floor mats (seriously looking at these).

It's going to be interesting to be a little anonymous with my ride for a while, until people start to associate my vanity plates with the new car. I will no longer be the one with the purple car! (and most recently, the purple car with black primer paint :P ) Soon enough, though, people will start recognizing Paula. :) mk

p.s. Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit. I can't use the license plate frames. State law says:

False identification. A person commits a Class E crime if that person obscures identification number, identification letters, the state name, validation sticker or mark distinguishing the type of plate attached to a vehicle.

Well. I'll just have to find something else awesome. :)