Halloween!

It's Halloween again! I stopped by Sewing Mama's forum to check out costumes that folks are making for their kids and it took me a bit down memory lane. I was taken back to the days of sewing bones on a black sweat suit to make a skeleton costume, stitching apples on a green sweatshirt to make an apple tree costume, covering boxes and other accessories with fabric to sew a very complicated Darth Vader costume, making a leopard costume with hat and tail that doubled as pajamas over the next year, and so many more. We still have, though don't go through as often, a Halloween box in the attic that we'd get down mid-October for the kids to dig through. There are lab coats, cowboy hats, old costumes from years gone by, and a variety of dress up items for Halloween and other times. We had witches, hippies, cats, ghosts, vampires, and all ilk of creepy creatures in our house at one time or another. Fond memories indeed.

Halloween can almost always be addressed with what you have on hand. There's no need to go rent a fancy costume or spend hundreds on one with exactly all the right trimmings. Someone who can sew (or even use fabric glue!) can make a costume for Halloween or other times with old clothes, sheets, and who knows what else you have in your fabric stash. Be creative and work with your kids on something unique. Yeah, you might end up buying a hat or something to go with the suit, but your children will have fun dressing up before the holiday and after, and if you think ahead, you too can take out the Halloween box a while ahead of time and let them go a little nuts.

In most parts of the country, it gets cold shortly after Halloween and we have other holidays on our minds. Let Halloween be the end of the season and the welcoming back indoors that it always seems to be. Have fun. Go crazy. Laugh and smile. And by all means, treats, no tricks please.