Every year, I do a recap of Sara’s wild Halloween requests. Let me state right up front, this has nothing to do with favoritism. Kelly, as you well know, despises Halloween and all its accoutrements. Even more than wanting nothing to do with Halloween, she wants even LESS to do with Momma’s handmade costumes. If she MUST participate in the fringes of this hellfire holiday, she will be doing it high, store-bought style. I don’t mind even one little bit, because the years they both want handmade? I lose a full month. My entire life becomes a circus of thread, notions, and ripped up bridesmaid dresses. And you thought you’d never wear them again!

Sara was very specific that she did not want to be “just a peacock”. She wanted to be a “human peacock”. I’m sure you recall our little gal asking last year “NOT to be an particular character from the movie ‘Epic’, but rather, the way that movie made her feel“. I told under under NO circumstances would I be creating anything during a move. Halloween fell exactly one week after the move and NO WAY, NO HOW. Find it, buy it, but I’m not making it. I even ordered the mask you see above to prove my point.

So when my friend found the vintage semiformal dress in a dead woman’s basement during an estate sale, turned around and said, “Lori! Look! It’s a human peacock!” Next came threads, notions, ripped up dresses, hot glue guns…you know the drill. I took in the dress (quickly and horridly, because my sewing machine table is broken, the darned thing almost fit her, and I’m not winning any 4H ribbons at my age). I found the blue “tail” fabric as a remnant, along with the green tulle (cleverly used to disguise how horribly I tacked the skirt onto the dress). Smoke and mirrors my friends; theater costuming is all about smoke and mirrors.

She didn’t have to put a black shirt under it, but it was a little itchy, and it snowed on Halloween. Snowed. I can’t even think about it. Everyone wore layers that day. I ordered the peacock feathers in a large lot of 100 and simply hot glued them onto the skirt. I was shocked at how well that went. I was fully prepared for Dante’s 7th layer of hell to descend upon me as I heated up the gun. At any rate, the entire thing start to finish probably took about 4 hours, and cost me about $40. She walked that parade like she owned the world, and it was wonderful to see her so happy in her creation. What can I say? I’m a sucker for Sara’s creative ideas.

I’m equally a sucker for Kelly’s grand visions and hoop skirts. This girl knows how to pull off the Queen look. I had to hold her hand so tightly through the entire parade (she walked it!), so I couldn’t get any shots of her! When I tried, her friends all crowded in for hugs, so I have a lot of just her face, surrounded by blurry love. Beyond adorable. I love this picture, because walking in front of her are 2 of her dearest friends, and because “Harry” and “Vanellope” were right beside her, she braved the day.

I was lucky enough to get her to pose for pictures the day she chose the dress. She changed her title about 10x, and was everything from “The Queen of Stuffed Animals” to “The Snow Queen”, to finally, “The Queen of Everything”. Sounds about right. Overall, Kelly’s anxiety response to Halloween this year was at least 25% improved over prior years. As her belief in fantasy begins to fade, so does her fear of this dark holiday.

But luckily her belief in the magical-mystical-world is still present. She wanted me to let you know that not only did the Unicorns SURVIVE the dreaded aidrocardinoids plague, but Unicorn 2nd from Left MAGICALLY reappeared! He went missing many, many months before the move. Where did he go? It’s hard to say. I’ve let Kelly imagine how we could have shown up 3 addresses later. Maybe someday, when she’s grown, I’ll tell of her how 2nd Unicorn From the Left got tucked into a fitted sheet during laundry, and that sheet was folded and put away on a high shelf, not hitting the rotation again until long after we’d left our home. Maybe Momma threw the sheet in the wash to freshen it up, and discovered this little guy, tucked tightly into a corner. For now, let’s imagine he was off fighting Chimera or Medusa, and after many illustrious victories, has returned home to his herd.

I hope your Halloweens were grand, and much, much warmer than ours. We spent it with lovely friends, eating delicious soups, and allowing the Dads to make the freezing neighborhood rounds. So I guess, I can’t complain! Ours was warm in spirit! Until next year…oh heavens…what will they think of in 2015?!