Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Halloween, A Puppet Opera Style

It's no secret that we LOVE Halloween here at A Puppet Opera. And this year, like last year, we had a frightfully fun party with ghosts and witches, and a family of spook-tacular birds.

Our scary Edwardian fireplace is very frightening even without the jack-o'-lanterns, but we like a good spooky squash so this year, we had eight of them. Plus a whole bunch of candles and some creepy books. Perfect atmosphere for reading The Raven next to. 

Miss Lady wanted to go as an owl this year, and let me tell you, she looked adorable in her calico feathers and owl mask by Aunt Susan. We added purple striped tights and a spooky little "too whit too whoo" and she was the belle of the ball. I secretly love that Isabelle has not yet asked to be a princess for Halloween, and am even more grateful that she still lets me have some influence over her Halloween costumes. She was the neighborhood's cutest little trick-or-treater in a sea of shop-bought witches. 

On the other hand, Billy's costume really gave me the opportunity to stretch my design muscles. He decided he wanted to be a peacock, and among all the ideas for a peacock costume on the web, there wasn't a single one for little boys. Lots of girls in be-feathered ballet tutus, but nothing for boys. Again, this one really hangs on the mask (another Not Your Old Socks) production, but the rest of the costume came together easily, once I decided what to do. I will post a full tutorial in a day or so, so the next mom who needs help designing a peacock will have some help. 

Okay, so here's where it goes totally off the rails. You can't host a party without a costume yourself, so I made Jules and myself some crepe paper bird masks, following the tutorial on Martha Stewart. He looked dapper as a bird of indeterminate origin... I think my cardinal costume was less successful, mainly because the mask with a short nose didn't quite look very bird-y once it was finished. Who cares? Not me. 

Spooky window ghosts.

Party buffet table (minus the creepy pizzas but plus the 23 orange pinwheels).

Creepy party candy bags. We gave away craft kits as favors. So fun! 

Dad's painting with follow-you-everywhere googly eyes blue-tacked on. 

And finally, to cap our crazy Halloween celebration off, once the kids were in bed Jules and I enjoyed an "eyeball highball"-- a delicious dirty martini with an eyeball ice cube--while we watched The Woman In Black. Since watching that scary movie, I have not slept a single night through. Eurgh... Creepy.

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