Closed for Business

On Saturday we closed the door for the last time as we concluded three days of the Costume Shop and Yard Sale. Yes, I shed a few tears, both in gratitude for a great 15 years and in sadness for the fun times I'll miss.

Thank you to all who have been partons and volunteers over the past decade and a half. You have brightened my fall days, caused me to be creative and patient, and allowed me to live out a dream of attempting to run a small business. At this time the economy, my porfessional and personal place in life, and a decrepit building have culminated in a clear signal that it's time to do something else.

Never fear, I'll still be playing dress-up for Halloween and I hope you will, too.

With Great Affection,
Bronwyn

P.S. For all of you Twin Cities Metropolitan Area folks, I donated several costumes to Hastings Family Service who will benefit from your purchase. Twin Cities Costume and Magic on Seventh Street near lowertown St. Paul is a great local retailer and rental shop. I encourage you to use them rather than the internet if you can.

COSTUME SALE & more

It Is Finished.

After 15 years of playing Dress Up I have discerned that it's time to call it quits.

Our first season in downtown Hastings in 1996 was a whirlwind of hauling laundry from town to Vermillion Township and back. I didn't have a clue how more than half of the accessories matched up with the proper costumes, and my youngest was riding the bus back and forth to kindergarten from our corner store.

Our second season brought a flurry of Halloween activity to a tired old granary on our new residential acreage in Marshan Townshp, not to mention costuming Hastings Community Theatre productions and Meeting of the Minds school projects.

By our third season we had the hang of it and our troupe of volunteer Costumers and loyal Customers grew and grew. Big Tig the Tabby cat moved in to mind the mouse patrol. We had our best seasons around the turn of the century, before Target came to town and long before the internet provided in home shopping for anything the heart desired.

In 2004 my job changed and I had to rely more heavily than ever on my girlfriends for volunteer support and was no longer able to deal with off-season appointments due to my travel schedule. Then Mary was deployed to Iraq and we considered closing down. But the faithful crew of Costumers wouldn't hear of it.

We're still going strong but the rental market for homemade and tired old clothing just isn't there anymore. The building has progressed from cute, to quaint, to downright decrepit. A part-time business like this can't afford the overhead to repair the building. And Tig hasn't caught a mouse all season. He's a loving, tired, scrawny old cat.

It is clearly time for the collective creative talent and energy of this group to do something else. I can't wait to see what it is.

My deepest gratitude to all of our faithful customers, and to my amazing volunteer Costumers: Miss Kimberly, Princess Kathy, Mary, Danika, Barb, Peggy, Beth, Linda, Katie, Phyllis, Janet, Norma, Danielle, Summer, and Greta. Each of you, no matter how long or brief your tenure working in the shop, have brought joy and friendship into my life for which I am eternally grateful.

Lest I forget the men in the life of this business, many thanks to Bob the Builder, John the Electrician, and Captain Steve the Handyman. Arthur and Joren know the collection better than most and are the richer for being boys who played dress up as children. Dale, my husband and my love, thank you for indulging this dream. Can I have a new boat now?

Many pieces of our collection will eventually be for sale. Stay tuned to the blog and the website for details.

Now, before I am completely finished, I need to chase down five costumes and two bounced checks. Any bets on whether or not I get Helen's costume back before my birthday?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

We had a great time Saturday night. All kinds of friends got dressed up to surprise one another at Princess Kathy and Captain Steve's Halloween Party. I forgot my camera so I only have some before and after pictures. I got to help dress Mary up as Roxie from Chicago. She already had the leather and lace theme going and I just added on with accessories. Peggy was rockin' the Geisha Girl look (at left). I struggled with her make-up, but it wasn't a bad impression. We need to get authentic face paint next time.

As Peggy and I were still in make-up mode when Arthur and his friends hit the shop in search of large animal costumes. He, Kevin and Shane left the shop as a Tiger, Parrot, and Fox with Marisol the Veterinarian. It did my heart good to see them negotiating their costumes.

Dale was my hero tonight. (He's also my husband.) He will dress up in pretty much anything I ask him to. He shaved his full beard and mustache this afternoon so I had a fresh face for a Raggedy Andy palette. He held our ancient but authentic Raggedy Ann doll on his lap for me while I did his make-up. Too cute.

I wasn't sure how to do the rag doll bodies so that we could show off our authentic "I Love You" hearts. I managed to find two red union suits that fit us and made hearts to match.

For those who may be interested in creating their own version of the costumes I used Simplicity Pattern #2514, Classic Raggedy Ann & Andy. It was not an easy pattern and it was missing a piece (ties for Ann's pinafore and Andy's neck bow). Norma helped with cutting pattern pieces and puzzling out the missing parts. She created Andy's tie from scratch. Finding socks in red and white stripes proved difficult, too. So we settled for red and black and they looked truly excellent.

I did cough up the cash for the best yarn I could buy (thanks to Danika and her grandmother for that assist and consultation!) to create the wigs. Peggy and Barb get major kudos for attaching yarn to a wig base and barbering red dreds!

Dale and I had a great time tonight playing rag doll best friends. When we visited a few bars on our way home, just to see what kind of amazing costumes were out there, we were disappointed. At two bars we were told by many that we would have won had we been in time for the contest. But I have come to the unhappy conclusion that you have to dress and act like a slut to win a contest at a bar if you are a girl. That's why I was so thankful to Princess Kathy and Capt. Steve for having a party. We got to watch transformations and amazing performances. I will announce winners once the photos are in.

I hope you have/had a fantastic Halloween!

CATASTROPHE! CALAMITY! CATACLYSM!

A CONSIDERABLE SETBACK!

Last night I proved, again, that old buildings and with old wiring systems can't handle electrical overloads with very much grace. I guess having all the Halloween lights on the outdoor decorations plugged into the same circuit that was running a space heater and the computer just couldn't handle the load when I started the vacuum cleaner on another, what I thought was unrelated, outlet.

DARK . . . . . . and quiet. . . . . .

Crap!

We tripped a switch. I moved costumes to get to the breaker box and attempted several times to reset the failing switch. No go. Dammit!

I called my life-long electrician and consultant in Illinois, he did instruct me through an electrical repair from afar once before. He agreed that since the load didn't seem to snap the circuit, but gradually slowed it down, that it might be over-heated and could be reset once everything was cooled down. If that didn't work, he told me to call my local guy back to replace the breaker.

So let me be clear; on Tuesday the wind storm blew a dead tree down on the shop.
No damage. But is scared the s**t out of me, shook the whole shop.

Wednesday the electricity to the dressing rooms and front of the shop went out.

This morning when I walked out of the house there was an impressively noisy blackbird convention going on in the trees above the shop. The cacophony was damn near deafening as I drew closer to the decrepit building. I began to wonder, am I secretly on camera for some Hitchcock Reality TV joke? Am I being haunted by a snickering and secretive producer? I was picturing potential titles; "Death at Dress Me Up, " or "Costume Capers," or "R.I.P. at D.M.U."

Well, Princess Kathy's talented husband, Capt. Steve the Lumber-Jack-Electrician-Fireplace-Salesman-Wood-Stove-Technician, made a heroic visit to my little Halloween Habit during his lunch. I had flashlights and screwdrivers all ready. It took him all of 7.5 minutes to move the wiring from the bad breaker to an empty but functional breaker. YAY, CAPTAIN STEVE! THANK YOU!!!!!

The wind has also died down and the blackbirds have taken wing for another roost.

I guess I better quit my whining and get back to the Raggedy Ann and Andy costumes so they'll be ready for the Hastings Community Halloween Party tomorrow.

I look forward to seeing you at the shop for a round of Dress Up!

Procrastinator's Paradise

The Countdown Jack O'Lantern at the right says that Halloween is six days and four hours away as I make this post. That means that most parties are in four or five days. This is the week that all the busy folks, procrastinators, planners, and reluctant folks are beginning to stress about costumes for the Halloween weekend.

WE HAVE TONS OF COSTUMES READY AND WAITING FOR YOU!!!

The costume shop is never busy early in the season. It's always the week of Halloween that we hope to be crazy busy. So please come out and let us help you dress up. Don't forget to bring your friends, too.

See you soon!

Community Halloween Party

Our not-so-small-town of Hastings, Minnesota, has a great tradition this time of year. Our Youth First council that works toward partnerships and collaboratives for building assets with young people joins with the local YMCA to host a Halloween Party.

On Friday, October 29, children under 12, and their parents, are invited to dress up in their most creative costumes and show up at the Hastings High School Commons, 200 Sieben Drive, from 5:30-8pm. There will be games, tricks, treats, and the Haunted Hallway. Our favorite part? The Costume Contest, of course!

One of the ways that Dress Me Up supports this effort is to offer costumes for use by all of the volunteer workers who host the party. If you are a Community Halloween Party Volunteer in need of a costume that night, please contact Youth First Coordinator, Ann Grotjohn, at 651-480-6182 or at agrotjohn@ci.hastings.mn.us.

We hope you have a SPOOKTACULAR time!!!!

Walter the Wolverine

Oh! So you want to see the finished product, too. Here ya go . . . .



DOUBLE CLICK THE MOVIE FOR FULL SCREEN OPTIONS

WE ARE OPEN!!!

My website is having a hard time finding its new host. Hopefully this will be remedied in less than the maximum 48 hours that GoDaddy.com predicts. In the mean time, I thought I'd share a YouTube video that shows how my youngest son, Joren, and his film festival pals use the costume shop in the off season. Enjoy!



DOUBLE CLICK THE VIDEO FOR FULL SCREEN OPTIONS

PUMPKINS!

Dress Me Up Costumes is open for business!

We rented our first costume for the season yesterday. Any guesses?

It was a Belly Dancer!

What are you gonna be this Halloween?

Com on out for a session of Dress Up - we are ready to assist you.

ATTENTION! In honor of our 15th Season, we are giving away pumpkins with each rental of $15 or more until they're gone. They are beautiful home-grown pumpkins with fantastic Jack O' Lantern potential. Don't miss out!

We look forward to dressing you up!

Here We Go Again!

Welcome Back!
Dress Me Up Costumes is almost ready to assist you for the 2010 Halloween season. We're laundering, organizing, mending, dreaming, and preparing to contstruct some new costumes for the new season. On Saturday, October 9, we'll open our doors for the 15th! season under this management and 14th season in this location. I can hardly believe it!

So come on out and explore the collection. We're also planning for some 15th season celebrations and incentives. So stay tuned and plan to take advantage.

2010 Hours beginning Saturday, October 9

Sunday Noon - 5pm

Monday through Thursday 4-9pm

Friday & Saturday 10am-5pm

Extended Hours the week of Halloween will be announced.

Come on out for a session of Dress Up!!!

Happy Halloween!

We had a pretty fun weekend. It started on Friday as I had the honor of costuming my goddaughter, Maria. She was one of many volunteers set to help with the Hastings Community Halloween Party. Youth First and some other Hastings organizations coordinate the party each year. It's a pretty cool event that I support by donating costumes.

After picking up Martha Stewart's Halloween magazine at the airport a couple of Sundays ago, I was completely inspired with adapting a couple of her costume designs. I sent Maria a postcard from South Carolina telling her to call me if she wanted to collaborate on a costume idea. She got back to me on the Wednesday before Halloween. We met on Thursday to see if she was game and I had the right stuff. She's a great sport, isn't put off by my last-minute, harebrained ideas, and agreed to show up at 3 o'clock Friday to be transformed into a widowed bride.

I put her into some of my vintage costume pieces that I don't typically rent to teenagers - she is the exception to the rule. We rigged up Miss Debbie's wedding hat and veil to look a little ghoulish. I just happened to have a dried bouquet of long-stemmed yellow roses hanging on the wall. On the first pass through the hankie box I emerged with a petite, yellow hankie, trimmed in black lace, to complement the black and ivory ribbons for dressing the bouquet.

Costume complete.

Now for the finishing touch. Make-up.

I used Martha's doily stenciling method. It worked very well. Maria's skin tone helped - more contrast than your average scandihoovian kid from Minnesota. Her shiny, black hair hung in natural, curly ringlets, framing her face perfectly. We finished it off with some simple yet elegant jewelry. Beautiful, wistful, and spooky - all at the same time.
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING DRESS-UP, MARIA!!

We put together some other fun ones for ourselves and our customers. I'm delighted that the female cone head costume got to go out for the night. That one originated with my father and step-mother in Galena, Illinois, several years ago.

Arthur and his buddies went for the Three Musketeers. They look sharp and are pretty comfortable. Arthur's friend, Marisol, let us dress her as a Lady Pirate. I love it when we can give that costume to someone who wears it well. She looked fantastic. We added a vampire (more make-up fun for me!) and a fox to their merry band and wished them well as they headed off for First Avenue in Minneapolis where they saw many awesome costumes, among other strange things.

Mary and I used a cheerleader costume and my son's freshman year football jersey and socks to create our own version of Zombieland with a Hastings High School, Todd Field sort of touch. We had a good time, even if the bar party scene in Hastings was pretty lame last night. Oh well.

Barb created a one-footed Zombie, a al Larry the Cable Guy style. Her Jello molds of brains and a heart were truly disgusting. Sorry I have no photo for that one!

Beth participated in a creative collaboration to simulate Martha Stewart's spooky equestrian. Between the two of us and some fun playing with make-up, we did pretty well. I love her basting brush riding crop!

We missed having Peggy with us. We called her, left messages, and even went to her house. It was dark and no one answered the door. Very spooky. Hope the Zombies didn't get her!

Pumpkin Carving Contest

Holy Cow, where did this month go?!?

Well, being ever crafty and creative out here at the Costume Shop, last week we held a Pumpkin Carving Contest. We need you, faithful reader, to be the judge! Please use the comments section to make your first choice known.

We adopted the Martha Stewart School of Carving with real tools and unexpected methods. We hope your Halloween preparations are going along swimmingly. Although somewhat picked-over, we still have many fabulous costumes available for the weekend.

Pumpkin #1


Pumpkin #2


Pumpkin #3


Pumpkin #4


Pumpkin #5


Stop out for a session of Dress Up!

Winter Before Halloween?

In October of 1991 I sewed a Jester costume for my oldest son, two-and-a-half-year-old Arthur. I created the costume from an old red and blue quilt and jingle bells. Arthur insisted on doing his own make-up and smeared lipstick all over his face. I planned to stay home with the two-month-old baby Joren, while Dale took Arthur on his first ever Trick-or-Treat expedition around the 165th Street neighborhood in Vermillion Township in rural Hastings, Minnesota. The morning of October 31 it began to snow; heavy, wet, fat flakes of snow.

Poor Arthur had these baggy pants around his ankles, gathered at the top of his boots that I insisted he wore through the more than 4 inch accumulation that was blanketing the ground by late afternoon. He insisted that he still wanted to go for his first Trick-or-Treat trip and off he went with his father in the winter storm. It proved to be a legendary storm in a legendary year that would also produce a major blizzard at Thanksgiving time, too.

Since then I don't think Arthur has ever missed a Halloween opportunity for dressing up and playing Trick-or Treat, and he certainly loves snow, as do I.

So neither of us was particularly distressed when we woke to the bizarre contrast of looking out upon green leaves on the trees above a snowy blanket of white obscuring the still green grass of our fall lawn. It continued to snow and melt throughout the day. The pumpkins looked cute, frosted with wintry precipitation.

The Costume Shop is looking great. Mary and Danika worked hard yesterday cleaning and organizing. Mary returned the upstairs to an organized state while Danika and I sorted through accessories downstairs. And today Katie and Linda helped with new decorations to the exterior of the shop. We have bats, skeletons and other surprises waiting to welcome you on the Dress Me Up grounds.

I have begun construction of the first new costume of the year; yet another pirate costume, Capt. Morgan style. You're gonna love this rich red and gold creation. I'll keep you posted with updates as there is progress to report.

In the mean time it was fun to re-dress the Half-a-Witch in the pumpkin patch and to help Danika with a study-break session of Dress Up in which she demonstrated the efficacy of the beat-up old Batman costume.

"Holy Walnuts, Robin, what is that in your rubber codpiece?!"

Okay, never mind. I guess you had to be there.

We are ready to dress you up. Come on out and let us know what you have in mind.

Opening Days of 2009

DAY ONE
I am so sorry, faithful customers and costumers, for my failure to get the shop open as promised on Thursday, October 8. That very day my oldest son, Arthur, was helping me with some cleaning and lifting chores around the shop in anticipation of your arrival when I was attacked by a vengeful bush!

Well, it wasn't that dramatic until I started my caterwauling. . .

I was showing Arthur which offending branches of the over-grown bushes needed to be trimmed away from the Costume Porch. I turned my head to look at him to ask a questions and when I turned back toward the bushes a sharp twig on a leafless branch inserted itself behind my glasses and raked across my unsuspecting left eyeball.

It dropped me like a knock-out punch to a glass jaw. I didn't pass out, but I did make a scene. It felt like my eyeball had popped.

Fortunately Arthur is an EMT and never looses his cool, even when his mother is loosing hers. He got me into the house to flush my eye with luke warm water. By then my husband was home. Once calmed down I was able to put my glasses on and briefly check out the damage through my bifocal. The good news was that I could see it. The bad news is that I could see it - the big gouge in my cornea - nauseating, if you ask me. So at 5:21 in the afternoon I called the clinic to see if I needed to go to urgent care or the ER.

In exactly 52 minutes 37 seconds, plus two additional calls on my cell phone to make sure they were, indeed, answering calls in the order in which they were received, a very apologetic triage nurse got on the phone to answer my questions. She kept apologizing for the wait, and when she learned that I wasn't calling with Swine Flu suspicions, apparently the cause for the eternal wait, she actually said, "Oh, for Pete's sake!" Which prompted me to apologize saying that I felt really stupid for poking myself in the eye with a stick, and I wouldn't have called except it really hurt!

"Oh no no," she corrected, "you need to be seen. Eye injuries are painful and you need to come in. I'm just sorry it had to happen today. You should have called the eye clinic. They would have brought you in right away."

"I tried," I replied, "but they were already closed and routing calls to your desk."

Touche'. She directed me to ER and promised they would be expecting me. I dispatched Dale back to the Costume Shop to repair the water pipes and get the furnace running. Arthur drove me to town, roles reversed from many previous journeys with the two of us in the car headed for ER!

They numbed my eye (thanks be to God!), irrigated it, used dye to look at the abrasion, "Wow, Mom. You scraped it good!", squirted antibiotic ointment all over it and sent me home with a patch and instructions to use Ibuprofen and Tylenol 3 and see the eye doc in the morning if it didn't feel better.

DAY TWO
I didn't sleep well last night. In fact, I confess to more than one episode of crying like a baby. There were moments when I wished I was in labor and delivery rather than feeling like someone was twisting a rusty fork in my eyeball. It was bad. And I didn't look good this morning, nor did I feel good. I took more pain-killers at 5 am and finally got my best sleep between 5:30 and 10 am.

Oops. The Costume Shop was supposed to open at 10 today. Oh well. I dragged my sorry ass out to the shop and changed the outgoing message on the phone and put a pathetic note on the door:
CLOSED - due to family medical emergency. Will reopen on Saturday, October 10. Sorry for the inconvenience. Sigh.

Dale had already gone to work and Arthur had a class at noon. I needed a ride to the eye doctor by 11:30 am. No way I could drive myself, too many tears and extremely light sensitive.

My hero of the day, Barb, moth-balled her tomato juice manufacturing operation for the afternoon and came to my rescue. I protected her from walking into the potentially flu-infested clinic and sent her off on her own errands as I ventured into the clinic. I kept my hands in my pockets, gave the people wearing ominous blue masks a wide berth, and used my own pen to write my co-pay check. Blah blah blah . . . . .

After two doctors, $115 in co-pays, one pharmacist, and $32 in eye ointment, I rest assured that my eye will be fine. In fact they think it will be fine by Sunday, because eyes heal very quickly.

Yes, the shop will be open on Saturday, finally.

Thanks be to God. and Thanks be to Barb!

Anyone wanna play Dress Up for Halloween?

It Is Finished!

I offer thanks to all 97 of you who rented costumes this Halloween season. And I give thanks to those of you who checked us out and left empty handed. I hope we can help you find a fun and satisfactory costume for Halloween next year if you'll give us the chance.

Tonight I closed the shop for the season. I have new duties at work that require more of my time and attention and simply can't keep up with off-season appointments any longer. But the sewing bug always bites me in the summer time, and I will faithfully construct some more creative costumes with some of my vacation time in 2009.

Several of you reported costume contest wins. Congratulations! My crew that dressed up and went out Halloween night didn't win anything this year - but in our bar hopping we missed all the contests, too.

I offer special thanks to my entire amazing staff; Katie, Linda, Kathy, Beth, Phyllis, Janet, Peg, Barb, Mary and Danika. Without these dedicated, generous, and creative women I wouldn't even be able to open for Halloween.

Ladies, you have my deepest gratitude. One month to Galena and counting!

Community Halloween Party

Tonight was the annual Youth First/YMCA Community Halloween party. I know this particular gathering for costumed kids in Hastings has been going on for at least 14 years because this is my 13th season in the costume business and I know my predecessor, Judy, helped with costumes for at least a year before I purchased Dress Me Up from her.

Youth First is a wonderful organization that works toward building assets with young people in the Hastings area. The YMCA is a far more recent organization that Youth First has collaborated with on efforts like this particular party and others.

Because my costume business is so seasonal, and really more of a hobby than a business, rather than writing a check to support the party, I offer free costumes to the volunteers who help put on the party. In 13 years I have only visited the Community Halloween Party once with my own children. I recall it being a very crowded and over-whelming affair for my elementary aged country boys.

Tonight Mary and I dressed as pirates with "left-overs" from the shop and went to town with laundry baskets to collect the donated costumes so we could clean them and prep them for rental on Halloween. The party was held at the Senior high School Commons. What a great venue. There was plenty of room for a large crowd. All the kids and many of their parents looked fantastic. I love a good Halloween party.

THANK YOU to all the volunteers for taking the time to offer this event to the children in the Hastings area. And THANK YOU Ann of Youth First and Mike of the YMCA for continuing and improving upon this community tradition.

I'll try and post pictures as soon as I can. Have a Happy Halloween!

Yes, we Dress Up, Too.

My friend Linda, who works in the shop Mondays with her daughter Katie, brought a bunch of photos out this week. A lot of our customers ask us what we do for Halloween. Here are the photos of several of us from 2007. We wore our own Renaissance Festival costumes. Some of the pictured costumes are available for rent, some are our private belongings as we work on building more and more elaborate RenFest costumes each year.

Some years we create costumes for our group. We've been a Harem of Belly Dancers with an Oil Sheik for our husband and Arab Bouncers to keep us secure. We've been a gaggle of fairies with various themes; Fairy Goth Mother, Tooth Fairy, Cleaning Fairy, Gardening Fairy, etc. We even went as a Dead Wedding Party one year. That idea was born out of our plan to wear the costume left-overs on Halloween night. Kathy tried on a wedding dress that had been decorated with spiders and webbing. It was a beautiful fit so we decided to put all the hideous orange, salmon, and peach bride's maid dresses and prom dresses to good use. We had a great time dancing at The Point. Barb, our Grandmother of the Bride, won a prize that night (she usually does. She always plays her part to the hilt!). We also made enough money on our Dollar Dance to buy a round for the group.

We have tons of costumes left. It's really up to you to use your imagination and then play the part once you've got your costume on. Dress Up and have a blast this Friday night!

Pumpkin Carving

Sunday marked the home stretch week for the Halloween season and the Costume Shop. I'm opening each day at noon this week and staying open until 9 p.m. I may or may not attempt to sew costumes for my faithful friends. We've had a tough time finding the pattern style we wanted. But I'll make one more attempt today. We have tons of fantastic costumes still available and about 10 premium pumpkins left for sale.

Last night after we closed the Costume Shop for the evening we had a grand old party. Both of our sons invited their female friends over to carve pumpkins.

We love carving pumpkins. It's a time honored tradition that helps more chronologically mature folks recall their childhood. It presents challenges of strength and coordination for all. We are well beyond the years of asking the children to draw on their pumpkins so that mommy and daddy can carve for them. Last night the six of us swapped sharp objects, including every size and shape of finely honed knife that resides in my kitchen. (Yes, Luke, we used the new Cutco knives - they performed admirably, as did my trusty old Chicago Cutlery.)

I purchased some gimmicky pumpkin carving power tools at the grocery store. We used them but quickly determined that there really is no substitute for an honest to goodness sharp knife. Only one injury was recorded for the evening. Dale, the oldest amongst us, and perhaps the strongest, (although I bet Arthur can give him a run for his money these days) managed to slice his finger. It was the sort of cut that demanded a Band aid but didn't require pressure or stitches.

Dale always creates very unconventional pumpkins. This year his specimen includes applique of carefully carved pumpkin guts to affect a single-nostril, nose bulge and a tongue sticking out. He completed his work of art by piercing it with an arrow.

Joscey carved a delightfully traditional and cheerful Jack-O-Lantern. The toothy smile makes you grin with the sheer pleasure of it. She took the most time, carefully executing her masterpiece with thoughtful precision and care.

Arthur carved what initially look like an alien pumpkin. It turned our to be a Frankensteinian creation complete with skin scars and protruding electrodes. He even left the bottom covered with mud for effect.

Joren and Kristin shared a pumpkin. Joren had already been carving in the afternoon with the youth group and opted for collaboration with his girlfriend. They came up with a mischievous face that appears to be cheerfully winking and suspiciously sneering all at the same time.

I attempted a sort of gremlin face; angular and asymetric, with dimples and a cleft in the chin. I like the results. Gazing upon all five of them last night caused me to smile with glee. The wind caused their candles to gutter, making their eerie glow even more other-worldly.

I love the mystery of All Hallow's Eve and the Christian assurance that follows in our November 1 celebration of All Saint's Day. I hope you carve a pumpkin this year. I also hope you'll commemorate those who have gone before us and celebrate the abundance in your life.

Wanna play dress up for Halloween? I DO! JOIN US!!!

Conehead

We had a great time in the shop on Saturday. It's so much fun when couples come in with a spirit of creativity and imagination, ready to have some fun.



One of our customers early in the day found an outrageous orange and white polyester jump-suit straight out of 1974. As she was giggling at her find and admiring how well it fit her, comfortable in the costume and contemplating accessories, her husband was digging around trying to find an Austin Powers sort of get-up. Failing that we offered him a great alternative.



"Would you consider going as a Conehead from Saturday Night Live? We have the head, the silver cape, and several hideous polyester leisure suits in a rainbow of colors and patterns."



"Let's try it!" he enthused.




We think he looks awesome. Sorry for the soft focus - it's tough to catch aliens in a clear and discernible shot. Besides, he didn't really want to be caught without his infamous six-pack!



Thanks, Folks! We'll see you in a couple weeks.



So, what's your costume going to be? Come on out and play Dress Up - we're sure we can help you find a creative and comfortable costume for your Halloween party this year.