Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween. Today is the traditional Beggar's Night, but in our community the actually Trick or Treat Beggar's night is tomorrow. All this moving around of the holidays from one community to another makes my head spin. When I was a little girls in California, we always went out Trick or Treating on October 31, Halloween night. We'd got out as soon as the Sun set with pillow cases running from house to house seeing who could collect the most candy. Then after getting exhausted and tired, we'd head home & my Mother would have us all dump our pillow cases full onto a sheet and there she would sort it all out. Most of it we would be allowed to keep, but she would throw away that candy she didn't feel was safe for us to eat. She's also take her "percentage". Then when we moved to Ohio, Beggar's night was Halloween Eve (October 30th). Once again, we'd go out until we couldn't put one step in front of the other and probably have enough candy to last through the holidays. One year, I think it was one of my sisters who hid their candy & was eating on their hoard until Easter. Now, the only way you can figure out when Beggar's night is is if you read it in the newspaper or hear the schedule on the local news. Also to keep the children safe, Beggar's night starts when it is still light outside & only until 7pm. Where is the fun in that? I'm glad I was a child back when Halloween was made so safe & also so boring. But then we did call it Halloween back then & had parties in schools. I don't think Columbus schools even have Halloween parties anymore. Last I heard, Halloween celebrations were called Fall Harvest celebration with cute little animals and scarecrows...where are the witches? the vampires? the zombies? the monsters? Probably soon there won't be Halloween at all just so we can all be politically correct and SAFE!


Well, I decided to do a few Halloween inspired dolls. First off is a piece I made for the Hospital Halloween pumpkin decorating challenge. You could not cut into the pumpkin & yes, that red blood cell with the spigot on it is a real pumpkin. They vampire is from Ute Vasnia's Ooggie pattern.


This is from a pattern I've had for many years. It is "Autumn and her Pet Crow". I doctored it up a little bit and made the crow larger.



This is called "Pumpkin Pie, anyone?" I used the doll body sitting on my work table that was headless for so long that I forget which original pattern it was from. I used the pattern from "Autumn's" head, but shrunk it down. Then I made even smaller heads for the pumpkin king's two children. For me the biggest challenge was coming up with the clothes for the Pumpkin King. I made all the clothes from scraps. His nose is a blister pearl and his yellowish teeth are ultra suede scraps. French knots for spots, and a velvet hat to finish him off.




Have a frightfully fun Halloween. I am thinking this would be a great night to make some Starbucks hot chocolate and pull out some old scary movies to watch.