Handcrafted Halloween (long... with pics)

Happy Halloween everyone! Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. This may surprise people that know me, because I am deathly afraid of masks and have been all my life. I avoid places where these might be on Halloween night. Besides my aversion to facial coverings Halloween is great. I always love watching the shows on tv about haunted castles and towns, even though they give me the creeps and I never ever miss a show about the history of Halloween etc.

My love of Halloween goes way back. My mother, who is the original craftyminx, always went all out on Halloween. I remember her decking out the house in everything Halloween. It was close to the pomp of decorating for Christmas. There were tons of pumpkins to carve and paint as well as handmade satin bats and felt pipe cleaner spiders. She would hang them from the ceiling of our living room and we would put up spider webs and many other kinds of paraphernalia. She did that until I was 8. I continued to beg her every year to decorate and she said I was too old to go to all that trouble. Thanks mom.

Most of my costumes were handmade. I was sooo excited every year to tell my mom what I wanted to be and then have her spend hours crafting what I thought were the most wonderful creations that I had ever seen.

This fairy costume was by far my favorite. I wore it to pieces. The wings were made out of hangers (like I needed to tell you) and the skirt was tulle. The star for the wand was cut out of felt and covered in glitter.

I'm convinced this costume gave me my irrational fear of clowns. I was too young to remember wearing it. Either that or I have blocked it from my memory out of sheer embarrassment. Although, my mother should probably be the embarrassed one, she's the big clown in the picture. haha. My mom just told me that my cousin to the right was a street walker that year. We should be one big embarrassed family. Mom was really proud of these. She made them herself.... Every last pom pom, made with love.

When I was in the ninth grade my grandfather passed away on Halloween from lung cancer. After that I pretty much lost interest in the holiday until college. Sophomore year my friends and I went to the Halloween Bowl fundraiser at our University. It was a last minute decision so handcrafted costumes were back in action. I had an old Belle costume that I wore the last Halloween I celebrated (ninth grade). I wore that. My suite mates went as a hobo (a good stand by when you are pressed for time) and the tooth fairy (wearing my old choir dress that my mom had made.) Mom's handmade costumes were still a hit and she didn't even know it. Every year after that we went to the bowl and dressed up. Our senior year we went as Pink Ladies, we sold out and bought them, but they were cute so here's a pic. I wore this again this year to work and it went over quite well.

Last year was the greatest. Since Halloween was so close to the Goblet of Fire premiere in November, we all made Harry Potter themed Costumes and wore them to both occasions. I wore this one last Wednesday to my carving party. For those of you who don't know, we are Rita Skeeter, Prof. Trelawney, and Moaning Myrtle.

So there you have it, a photo montage of my crafty Halloween adventures. I love my mom for getting so into the spirit when I was younger. I will probably always find a way to handcraft my Halloweens from now on. What is your favorite Halloween memory?