Costumin' and Carvin'

I love Halloween. Call it pagan, call it "fall festival," call it whatever you want. I love it.

AND IT'S ONLY FIVE DAYS AWAY!

What other day out of all 365 days in a year can you dress however you want and get away with it? Eat inexcusable amounts of candy and be commended on a job well done? Ring the doorbell at complete stranger's home and ask them to smell your feet? It's all fantastic.

Really people, I held on to the chance for trick-or-treating as long as I could. Who says seniors in high school are too old for that?! Not this girl!

However, despite my love for sweets and sugar-induced comas, the candy isn't my favorite part of Halloween. I'm split between two other holiday traditions.

Costume hunting and pumpkin carving.

I love dressing up for Halloween. Some years, I start thinking about my next costume as soon as the current Halloween is over. I also love making costumes. I can't remember the last time I bought a costume-in-a-bag. In my opinion that's just taking the easy way out, plus I need WAY more material to cover my trunk junk than any store bought french maid costume could offer me.

Also, like I've said before, I'm crafty, so this is just another way I can be somewhat creative. I also love the thrill of piecing a costume together. I'll find something here, something else there... To me finding the perfect finishing touch to an original costume is like winning a marathon. (Maybe that's a bad comparison. I can't run. Oh well.)

I'm thinking about costume ideas right now, and I think I'm stuck between two. Looks like you'll have to stay tuned and see what I choose later!

My other favorite thing to do around this time of year is carve pumpkins, and I got to do that with my roommates this past weekend.

We all bought kits and stencils, and picked out the perfect pumpkins, and were ready to go.

We made a gutting station out of kitchen floor, and after cleaning out five decently huge pumpkins, our entire apartment reeked of it. We didn't mind though, it's one of those things you get used to.

So, the pumpkins were gutted and the stencils taped and marked, so we all went to work. Carving and cutting, punching out eye holes and nose holes, cleaning up crooked lines.

Finally, they all came together. For fun's sake, here's a before and after.

Really when you think about it, these traditions of costumes and carving aren't that different. Sure, one of them is a big orange fruit, but it happens. But, look at the difference between all of the pumpkins!

They are all round and orange at first, but with a little work, they beome scences or terror, faces of happiness, or even chilling creatures of the night. It's just like us when we dress up in costume. I could be a brain-munching zombie prom queen, or I could be a disco ball, but in the end i'm still me, just like that jack-o-lantern is still a pumpkin.

That's what Halloween is. It's imagination. It's creativity. It's waking up one day and saying, "You know what, I'm going to put on fake purple eyelashes, color my hair blue, and wear a bright yellow suit today," and be totally confident in your ridiculousness.

It's the chance to be anything you want to be, or to make your jack-o-lantern smile any way you want it to.

Happy Haunting!