Home-made Halloween

You can’t see the spiders in this picture, but I assure you… they’re there!

Halloween is my absolute most favorite holiday.  I love everything about it.  I love that it happens in fall, when it’s cool and crisp but not cold.  I love horror movies and people trying to “scare” me.  I love the costumes, and I love wearing black.  The only thing I don’t love is the candy.  (Yes, I know.  But give me french fries over candy any day.  Hey… holiday idea… something involving the consumption of french fries! But I digress…)

I started to think about my costume this year.  Every year for the past several years, I’ve wanted to be Alice in Wonderland, either the Disney version or a Steampunk version.  And every year, by the time I go costume shopping, the selection of Plus sized costumes is extremely limited.

I realized that I have never owned a store bought costume.  Never.  Not in over three decades of dressing up.  I’ve never gone to Wal-Mart or Target or the Spirit store and actually purchased an entire costume.  I’ve purchased props, like a witch’s hat, a wig, wings, fangs, makeup, craft items, or shoes.  But never a full costume.  I’m not sure why that is.  Honestly, I don’t remember ever wanting a store bought costume.  Most of the fun was in making up the costume, piecing together different things and coming up with something unique.

I’ve been lots of things over the years.  Last year I was a spider spirit, with netting sewn all over a skirt and an old black shirt, spiders hot glued on my webs.  I’ve been a witch, a vampire, a hippy, a devil, a black cat, and probably many other things I’m not remembering.  One of my proudest costumes was in high school, at a party I got a pity invite to.  It was a costume party, but I was the only person who showed up.  I used fake blood all over a white lab coat, smeared my face with purple eye shadow, and made up my lips and eyes with black lipstick.

Realizing this, I finally understand why I haven’t been able to find the perfect Alice in Wonderland costume… I haven’t made it yet!  I don’t know if it’s going to happen this year or not.  But when it does, it’s going to be great.

Do you make or buy your costumes?  What was your personal favorite costume ever?

Two Great Young Adult Novels

I recently read two really good young adult novels.  Cinder (2012) by Marissa Meyer is a must read. It’s a retelling of Cinderella, but in this version, Cinderella is a cyborg. The story stays true to the flavor of the original fairy tale, and I couldn’t put it down.  The only problem with it is that its a 4 part series with the second book (Scarlet) due out this month.  I can’t wait.

Sweep by Cate Tiernan isn’t a new series, though this is my first time reading it.  I’ve had the first book sitting on my shelf for a year or two and was just never motivated to pick it up.  It goes that way with me sometimes.  Well, I recently started it, and read it in one day.  It’s not a long book or a hard read.  Morgan is just an ordinary girl with a beautiful best friend.  When Cal starts at their school, she’s pretty convinced that he’ll never look at her.  He invites her and others to a “party,” where she learns that he’s a witch, and maybe she is too.  This series is 15 books long, and I’m looking forward to starting the next 14.

That’ll have to wait though, since I decided to revisit an old favorite series of mine… the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton…

Being Human

by The TV Guy

What to you get when a vampire, wolf and a ghost live together?

While this sounds like the opening to a bad joke, it is the premise for the British drama adapted into North American drama, Being Human.

I have been on the sci-fi bandwagon for a couple of months now and wish I had found this genre years ago. When I am able to watch a series from the beginning , no matter how ridiculous the premise, I am able to buy into just about anything. I always hated being introduced to a series in year three with no background. No ideas who anyone was or what the story was all about. Now with the opportunity to start at the beginning, I am able to better understand and in turn enjoy an entirely new set of genres previously left off the viewing docket.

The show is based in Boston, where a vampire and a werewolf work together in a hospital and share a house with the ghost of a recently murdered woman. The ghost, Sally, haunts her ex-fiancé, who killed her in fit a rage, while Aidan, the vampire with a heart of gold, attempts to survive on blood in bags from the hospital he works in. Josh only changes into a werewolf on full moons and has recently knocked up a nurse at the same hospital. There is all kinds of supernatural goodies in this series.

The first season was a blast and I am looking forward to season 2.

Again this is not for everyone, but definitely worth a watch!

Dark Shadows

 

by The TV Guy

Tim Burton has re-imagined the late 60’s early 70’s soap opera Dark Shadows. The movie was layered with grandiosity and color and the cinematography was classic Tim Burton. With all that said the viewer was never in a position to truly care about the characters.

Barnabas Collins, played by Johnny Depp, the 200 plus year old vampire and patriarch of the Collins family was inadvertently released from his casket. Placed there centuries before by a witch, he has been resurrected in 1972 to bring his fallen family back to prominence.

The movie was not what anyone was really expecting. It just fell short with the characters and the story was just flat. As a fan of Burton and Depp I wanted to enjoy this movie. All the funny parts were in the commercials, never a good sign. Not worth your time or money…