Happy Halloween!

Halloween might just be the most perfect holiday at Fort Knox. We have had enough cool weather in the past couple of weeks to turn the leaves pretty colors and give my neighborhood a golden glow of autumn, but it was blissfully warm for trick-or-treat time last night. Fred and I sat on our front porch with Ginger, drinking wine, eating Doritoes, and hanging out with our neighbors. I had bought an amazing assortment of candy, and it was so nice to watch the costumed kiddies choose their favorite one (or favorite 2 or 3, as it got later in the evening, and I STILL have 4 unopened bags in my kitchen).

I had so wanted to make Ginger a Dorothy (from "The Wizard of Oz") costume. I have the pattern, and I have the blue gingham (and you can even buy little ruby red dog slippers on the Internet if you have more money than you know what to do with). What I was seriously lacking though was time. Between work and school and Homecoming, there just wasn't enough time to sew for Ginger, so she had to wear last year's costume, which she had actually grown into this year. She stayed in her chicken suit just long enough for me to get this picture before we took pity on her and let her go naked for the rest of the evening:



Speaking of naked for the rest of the evening, Mike and his friends had decided they were going to be Spartans in bikini underwear and red capes. I told Mike that he was smoking some serious crack if he thought Fred and I were going to let him prance around the neighborhood in bikini underwear. He said it would be fun, but I said that picking him up from the MP station did not meet my criteria for "fun" and to put some damn pants on. This was the compromise:



Annabelle and I worked hard for the past couple of weeks on her costume. She was going as Mrs. Lovett from "Sweeney Todd." In case you're not up on your Sondheim musicals, Mrs. Lovett is the partner in crime of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He kills 'em; she bakes 'em into meat pies.

We found Annabelle's shirt at GAP, but the rest of the costume is a Taylor & Taylor original. I made the skirt out of upholstery fabric, which gave it a nice stiff sturdiness. I also made the apron, but Annabelle did all of the embroidery on the front. (The pockets say, "We serve anyone . . . to anyone.")

Best of all, Annabelle was able to convince her friend Matthew to dress as Sweeney Todd, so they were quite the gruesome twosome last night:



Annabelle even decorated special trick-or-treat bags for them to carry. Hers says "Lovett Pies," while Matthew's says "Fleet Street Barber: Closest Shave Ever:"



I took this picture after it got dark, because I thought it had a nice theatrical effect:



Begging for candy is hard work, so at the end of the evening, they collapsed on the front lawn . . . dead tired: