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?

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

by The TV Guy

What can I say!

This was an interesting film, or shall I say adaptation of the children’s story of the same name, minus the subheading witch hunters. The star Jeremy Renner, who you may remember as Hawkeye from the Avenger film, provided an interesting take on Hansel.

This is not the Hansel and Gretel of your childhood. Some of the story holds true; they were put out in the woods and ended up in that house made of candy. They were able to fight back and burn the evil witch.

But everything after that is pretty much a Hollywood writer’s take on what would happen if Hansel and Gretel became this badass couple of bounty hunters. The rest of the film is about them chasing witches, killing them, collecting money, and returning children to their communities.

While this is not my genre, I have to say if you have 88 minutes and enjoy watching things get blown up or burned, then enjoy. If you are looking for the true story of Hansel and Gretel, don’t waste your time.

Not my cup of tea, but not the worst cup I’ve ever had.

Available on Netflix!!

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…