Halloween - an Update

I wish the kids were still little on days like today; everyone rushing home, trying to get some food into them before it's time to put on the costumes they've been told to put up a million times since they were bought (my kids would not even hear about Mom's ideas for home-made ones, they had to have store-bought, non-dorky ones. What's wrong with being a Lego???), getting them ready to go, so when the magic hour arrives, off we go trick or treating. Now, I get to take the 14 yo to one of his friends, and leave them to their own devices for a few hours, with the caveat that if he is calling from jail, he has to call his dad. Ahhh, good times... I should have bought a bag of Butterfingers though.



They decided to do the pumpkin contest at work again this year - which they decided to tell us on FRIDAY. Ummm, people, genius sometimes takes a few days to percolate, so a WEEK might have been a bit more helpful. So I guess I will let someone else have a go this year, since I am the undisputed Pumpkin Master up until they stopped doing it 2-3 years ago. I still wish I could find a picture of my Pinhead pumpkin - it really was the coolest ever. But since I can't find that, here's a couple others I've done in the past:

The Alien (painted blue/green/grey, with hard-boiled eggs inset, painted metallic black)



Cinderella's Carriage (in a fish tank w/4 white mice that were the horses before the clock struck 12)



And since it's Halloween, I of course had a finish - on a CHRISTMAS piece - this weekend :) The first of the 3 Santas is done, except for a couple of other embellishments that will get attached after it gets finish-finished into a stuffed stand-up. But I want to try my best to get the other 2 done (a yellow one, on 18ct, and then a blue one on 22ct) and finish them all together - so knowing my speed & luck, they'll be done in January :) Kinda like a couple of Christmas things from last year, huh?

 

(you can see details of the embellishments I added, starting here.)

I also worked on Knotgarden this week, and have the 3rd gate almost done; might be able to finish it up tonight and move on to the 3 topiary plants Wednesday night. The question is - can I get this done by the end of the year? I really hope so. It just depends on how long it takes me to get through this 4th corner, though after all these gates, it ought to be a nice switch :)



And that's it for the week. During lunch and tomorrow at the Tuesday night at the IHOP, I will start my 2nd Santa, and then keep on on Knotgarden until I just can't stand the green for another minute. I am waiting for Cecilia's to invoice me for my Online Needlework Show order (IC Metamorphosis), which also contains the replacement threads for BoaF - so until that actually gets here, I don't have that to switch off to (though I could do that left-hand tree, I guess). That's the plan - we'll see how it works out.


Happy Halloween, everyone, and Happy Stitching!

 
(as much as I love the original J. Carpenter Halloween, Rob Zombie's re-make is actually pretty awesome - if you go in for gratuitous arterial spray and that kind of thing - which of course, being a Tarantino fan, I do :) )