My Favorite Holiday!

Well, my favorite holiday has come and gone already and Daniel and I sure did have fun! There was a ton of stress I put on myself to complete a very detailed costume in a week. Daniel and I had decided what we were going to dress up as for Halloween months ago. Since I crammed our month of October so full of events we didn't get a chance to start working on it until Sunday October 25 after church and after family dinner. You better believe I was stressed. I have not sewn anything with detail for about 2 years and I have never sewn anything with that much detail. I took a sewing class back my junior year of high school which was 5 years ago, so I had really set myself up with this costume. I bought most of the fabric on Saturday for my costume so I was ready to sew. Then I went to Savers (which is kinda like a D.I.) and found some stuff for Daniel's costume. I don't go to Savers or the D.I. except to drop stuff off so my mom and my sister had a good time making fun of the fact that I would not touch anything. I know I am lame, my whole entire family loves the D.I. they say they find cheap treasures there. I myself am not a fan of the place so I had Daniel do the rest of the shopping for his costume himself. There is reason I am not a fan of the place, it is yucky. When we walked out of Savers there was this lady sitting on the sidewalk with two children, she was hacking up a lung and she had abrasions all over her face it was gross and scary. If Maddie was with me she probably would have ran away because she thinks she is going to get a disease from people that look like that due to the amount of CSI television shows she watches, I can't say I blame her.

Anyway, after my eventful day shopping on Saturday I began working on my dress Sunday. I cut out all the pattern pieces that I needed and began to cut out some of the fabric. Once I was finished doing that cutting it was late and time for bed. I worked Monday and after work went and picked Maddie up to come help me with my costume. She did most of the cutting while I did the pinning and sewing. I had a Simplicity pattern and let me tell you how not simple they are. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to read in all of my life and I am a good reader. It took me all night Monday to get the bodice sewn together. I wanted to rip it up and burn it by the time it was finally together with the lining and all!

Ta, da!!! My finished bodice!

Once the bodice was finished we called it a night and went to bed. Then Tuesday came around and I went in to work and asked my dad if I could leave early to work on my costume. I left around 1 PM to go pick up Maddie. We ran a few errands to pick up some stuff that I had forgotten for the costume and went to my house to slave away on my costume. We got pretty much everything cut out and I worked on trying to read the pattern. It was pretty late and I had done nothing new to my dress and was so frustrated I thought I was never going to finish, so we called it a night. Wednesday morning I went to work and left early again. I felt like such a slacker because I never take work off, I don't like not working. I went and picked up Mad and called Aunt Connie. Her mother-in-law (Grandma Cosman) lives right next door and she is marvelous at sewing. I knew someone would be able to assist me if I went there. So, I went there and Grandma Cosman explained everything to me in ways I could understand. Even they said the pattern didn't make a whole lot of sense and it was even missing a part. After receiving some sewing advice we went to my house to tackle the project again. I took the night off from Wingers and I finally got the dress put together!!

Full dress missing most of the detail! Yay!

I didn't work on the dress on Thursday since I actually went to both of my jobs and stayed the full time!!! Yay me!! Friday I woke up early and added all the black beads to the arms and added all the beading to the bodice. I also made a collar which I forgot to bring to my moms house for the party. I was pretty bummed about that! It still looks pretty awesome. From head to toe I match Tim Burton's version of The Queen of Hearts as much as possible. I painted some of my ankle boots gold and put a black heart on the toe like hers and I even ordered the same tights as she has on. I say it turned out pretty well. As for Daniel's costume we made his hat from poster board, foam board, fabric and lots of hot glue. He has sewing spools, a pink collared shirt, colorful bowtie and stuff hanging from his pockets. Daniel pinstriped the pants himself since he couldn't find some already pinstriped in the right color. His Jacket was bought but altered to look like the Mad Hatters. Lucky him he found some boots that matched pretty close and socks too. Everything on him matched Tim Burton's version of the Mad Hatter as close as we could get, and that is pretty close if I do say so myself!!

The final products...FINALLY!!

We went to my parent's house on Saturday night for a Halloween Party. Most of my family was there since Halloween is pretty big to us. My dad was a Karate Guy and my mom was some sort of Ghoul. She always calls herself Jewel the Ghoul at Halloween.

Chaz decided to match Kelly and they dressed up as Mr. Ping and Mr. Pong they thought they were like some sort of Ping Pong masters. Brock was a Ladies Man...leave it to Brock to be something "cool" for Halloween. He was trying to master the pimp status without actually using the word pimp since the mom says its not appropriate :) ha ha he did good though!

Jelaire dressed up as a Lady Bug. I don't think she has ever been something ugly, scary or evil for Halloween. She is always something cute, pretty and nice. We are always opposite ha ha.

My sewing partner and one of my best friends Maddie and her husband Jakob came to the party. Jakob and I have been friends forever, I am actually how they met :) They were mobsters. You should have seen her shoes they were awesome with brass knuckles as the heels.
Jessica, Jen and Baby Ashton stopped in for a while. They are friends of the family and we love love love it when they have time to come and see us! They are sisters and Ashton is Jens baby. He is so cute! Don't you just want to kiss his cheeks? I sure do!! I told Daniel that next year we should be Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and steal baby Ashton for Jack-Jack :) look at the head it says Jack-Jack all over it. Then my sister said Jen should be Violet and all we would need is a Dash!! Happy little family.
Halloween is just about over. Here is a picture of our costumes again. You can see my shoes and tights in the picture with Jelaire and Kelly.
Here is a close up of what we look like as The Queen of Hearts and The Mad Hatter.
We were so tired at the end of the night and Jen decided to put herself in the hat that we made and we all though it was hilarious!! I mean look at it ha ha ha!
When everyone went home all the family stayed up until 2 in the morning watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. "This is Halloween, this is Halloween lalala lalala lalalalala" Then we called it a night! Now to start planning for next year so I don't stress myself out at the last minute. We have a couple options one is to be The Riddler and Poison Ivy from Batman and Maddie and Jakob will be Harley Quinn and The Joker. So far that is the one we are considering the most, but we have a year to decide.

Daniel and I will be celebrating our 2 year anniversary this coming Monday and we are pretty excited about that! Then New Moon is out in theaters on the 20th. After that it will be Thanksgiving...not my favorite holiday since I am a vegetarian, but I like the quality family time and also planning Black Friday!! Woot Woot!! I can't wait for that! Anyway I need to get going have a wonderful November!!