Happy Halloween, everyone! I hope your holiday is going well. It’s just after 7pm as I sit down to write this and we have so far only had one family of trick-or-treaters (two adults with a toddler). The corgis were very excited to receive the attention, especially Daisy who is wearing her beetle wings from Target.
As for me, I’m sitting here dressed as Jessica Jones. I’m really excited about my costume! I had to buy everything except for the shirt (which I already had), but it’s all stuff I can wear again at any time. In fact I wore the boots to my massage yesterday and the scarf for my Halloween Eve adventures last night. I’ll definitely reuse this as a cosplay if I ever make it to any comic conventions, and I might even recycle it for next Halloween. I really like Jessica Jones, is what I’m saying.
As you can see from both pictures, Maggie would very much like to be involved in whatever is going on, but she is too dignified for a costume.
Anyway, last night’s adventure was driving out to the Snoqualmie Valley to hang out with my friend Lisa. The drive was GORGEOUS. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I was running late so I couldn’t stop. The sun was out and it was “the golden hour.” The leaves were incredible shades of orange and yellow. I drove over scenic railroad bridges and through farm land and small towns.
Our plan for the night was to get and carve pumpkins. Can you believe that I’d never picked or carved a pumpkin before? The first farm we went to had already plowed under all of their pumpkins (the day before Halloween!) so we went to a place called Pumpkin Brothers and picked out some gourds with character.
After a quick break for tacos, we dug in to our pumpkins! I drew a funny face on mine with Sharpie, working around the scar-like line running diagonally across the side, and a round marking that I thought looked like a wonky eye.
I decided to go for a purposefully asymmetrical face, partly because my pumpkin was asymmetrical but mostly because I don’t draw very well and it was my first time carving a pumpkin, so I wanted to set it up so that any errors were easier to incorporate into the design.
I really enjoy the opportunity to do something that I’m bad at, that doesn’t matter. I can relax, laugh at myself, and enjoy trying something new. I mean, our quartet of pumpkin buddies came out to less than $8 total, so it would be no great waste if I messed up, and in the meantime I was hanging out with a friend, chatting and drinking tea. It was a fun evening.
But look, he turned out! I’m pretty proud of myself for being able to carve the outline of the eye. He’s a jaunty looking little guy. He and his striped gourd buddy are waiting for more trick-or-treaters right now (15 mins of blogging and still no one… are we going to have to eat 120 pieces of candy by ourselves?!?).
By the way, the Dutch word for pumpkin is “pompoen.”
What are you doing or did you do for Halloween this year?
