Homemade Halloween Costumes and Recap

So, this year I got crafty for my Halloween costume rather than just cobble something together in a very last minute fashion.  Oh, I still did things last minute... I just MADE them this time :-)

For my first foray into simple costume making I decided to make a Brain Slug.  If you don't know the reference, a Brain Slug is from Futurama. A couple episodes that contain Brain Slugs are "A Head In The Polls" and "Raging Bender."  Netflix streaming has seasons 1-6 of Futurama available to see for free, so if you have a Netflix account and want to check "A Head In The Poles" out, click on the link and you will be brought to the appropriate episode.  Hubbie and I have pretty much watched all of seasons 1-6 recently and we absolutely love the show. 

Anyway, back to the whole crafting thing!  I decided to make my slug becuase I needed a costume for the Halloween Party with my FiberKnots last Tuesday and at that point I hadn't even gotten our Halloween stuff out of storage (I was a bit behind you see).  The night before we were having dinner with my parents and the idea to make this cute little crocheted fascinator popped into my head.  I figured, what the heck, I can crochet THAT in a day!  So, I finished him up, attached him to a headband and voila!  The Brain Slug is a free pattern on Ravelry by Kerstin Batz and you can make one of these cuties for yourself by signing up for a free account and then clicking on the project link below.

For my second and actual Halloween costume I decided (given I had a whole week of creation time) to make myself a viking hat.  I made some pretty substantial changes to the pattern such as using another knitter's pattern for the horns, adding a stripe of rivets up the front and down the back of the hat in gray and adding braids a la Brunhilda :-)  Also, this pattern was designed for 3-6 month olds, so I followed another knitter's directions for making an adult sized hat which worked out, but really was far too big for my head and ended up making the horns more floppy than I would have liked.  I just love how my braids turned out!  They are probably my favoriate part of the hat.  As an added bonus it is really really warm.  I wore it at work for a bit yesterday and was absolutely roasting!  So, if i'm brave enough to wear it on a day other than Halloween I should be very nice and toasty.  The pattern for the viking hat is by Becky Veverka and is yet another free pattern on Ravelry.  The link to it is below.

As for Halloween night itself, I would consider it a success.  We had 15-20 trick-or-treaters in total, which I consider quite a few for us since we usually have about 5. I didn't get any photos of the roving minions who knocked on our door, but I did get some of the spooky decorating I did. 

I mostly decorate the place with candles because I think they are a more classy kind of spooky and set a really nice mood.  I'm always trying to find new neat Halloween candles to burn so the trick-or-treaters have something neat to look at when I open the door.  In addition to the candles I also play some fun music like "Monster Mash," "Werewolves of London," "Thriller," and "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas.  The music geek in me includes in some spooky classical as well with Toccata and Fugue in D minor for the organ. 

The candle above is actually one I bought last year that has finally gotten interesting.  I burned it last Halloween, but it wasn't long enough to burn the wax down and get the flickering of the light to come out the eyes.  Apparently it needed to good nights of use before it got cool.  The good news is that I'll probably be able to burn this same candle for 2-3 more years before it runs out.  Talk about getting my money's worth!

So I hope everyone had a good Halloween... I certainly did!  We finished out the night by watching the episode "Hush" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv series and an episode of Castle, which unfortunately was pretty spook free.  For some reason they decided to show the Halloween episode last week instead even though this week's was a repeat or anything.   Strange....  well, I'm off to try to avaoid eating all the candy we have left over.  Seems like that trick is on me! 

Ten on Tuesday - 10 Favorite TV Shows

1) Bones - (FOX) David Boreanaz plays an FBI agent working with Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) who is a forensic anthropologist and her team at the Jeffersonian.  The two team up to solve murders.  Hilarious and science geeky.  Oh, and.... Phalanges!!!!!!

2) Castle - (ABC) Nathan Fillian is a mystery writer teamed up with a homicide cop who is reluctantly saddled with him.  Excellent chemistry between these two and Fillian, as usual is hilarious!

3) Caprica - (SyFy) Set 58 years prior to the recent Battlestar Galactica series, Caprica tells the story of the creation of the Cylons.  An excellent drama with lots of storylines that make you think.

4) Warehouse 13 - (SyFy) A funny cop buddy series set in a secret service warehouse a la Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Has some very steampunk elements if you are into that genre.

5) Sanctuary - (SyFy) Starring Amanda Tapping from the original Stargate series, Dr. Helen Magnus runs one of many sanctuaries for abnormals (people/creatures with special powers) in order to help protect them from people who can and will exploit them.

6) Flash Forward - (ABC) A mysterious event causes almost everyone on the planet to black out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds.  During the blackout people see a flash forward of April 29, 2010.  Two FBI agents investigate the blackout and try to figure out how it happened and if it will happen again.  This show has tons of suspense similar to LOST.

7) Food Network Challenge - (Food Network) This show is basically a series of competitions between different chefs and covers every topic from burgers to cakes.  Really fun and tends to have some entertaining disasters.

8) Ninja Warrior (Sasuke) - (G4) A Japanese obstacle course game show that is a cult classic.  A handful of contestants are serious athletes who put their skills to the test when attempting this incredible 4 stage course.  However, many contestants normal folks just for comic relief and end up falling into the cold waters of Mt. Midoriyama full of failure.

9) Glee - (FOX) A show centered around a teacher and group of unlikely high school kids who belong to the glee club.  There is lots of high school drama both between the kids and the teachers, not to mention some damn amazing music which can then be downloaded from iTunes.

10) Adventures with Ruth - (PBS) I have only seen one episode of this show, but I absolutely adored it.  Ruth is the editor in chief for Gourmet Magazine and she travels to different countries to learn about local cuisine and culture.

Ladies and Gentlemen... I am READY for Christmas!

All cookies have been baked, all knitting projects finished, all presents wrapped, now time to relax and enjoy Christmas.  Here are some pictures to help put you in the Christmas spirit.

Our tree, finally with some presents under it.

Pretty pretty bows and paper.

A fine example of the cat humoring me.  I'm amazed I made it out of that one with my skin intact.

I am Meowcutus of Borg.  You will be assimilated.  Resistance is futile. 

This man is not afraid of anything!

I was finally able to give my first ever Jayne Cobb hat to it's owner, my friend, John. As you can probably see, he seemed a little happy about receiving it! I can't blame him, because after making his in exactly one day, I made one for myself two day later (couldn't have him showing me up now could I?

For those of you who don't know this reference, first of all watch the fist season of firefly.... you can get it at Netflix here. The show rocks and it is less than a season long (so sad). However, if you want the quick reference, see the video below:



Now, I know it's not an exact replica (see images below) but it's not too bad and I'm very proud of it. If you want to make one yourself, you just have to check out Dryope's blog here. Now John and I will be all prepared for Can't Stop the Serenity 2010! Although, with the warmth of these hats and the distinct lack of A/C in that theatre, we better come prepare for heat stroke!

Can't Stop the Serenity

This past Saturday three of my friends and I took part in a really interesting event at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline. Can't Stop the Serenity is a yearly event that goes all across the country showing screenings of the movie Serenity, which is based in the wonderful but very short lived Firefly series by Joss Whedon. Whedon is also responsible for such great shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, two of my favorite shows of all time. Can't Stop the Serenity tours benefit Equality Now, which is global non-profit that,

"...works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through the mobilization of public pressure"
-Equality Now Website

In addition to seeing Serenity again on the big screen, this tour was treated to seeing Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, another of Whedon's creations. What's so special about this showing is that Dr. Horrible has never been on the big screen. It is a video blog musical starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Dr. Horrible as an evil scientist (with a PHD in horribleness) aspiring to join the Evil League of Evil. It is an absolutely hilarious 45 minute musical and on Saturday they turned on the captioning and let all of us Whedon geeks sing along with his creation. It was glorious!

So, if you are interested at all in Firefly, Serenity, Joss Whedon or The New England Browncoats (who sponsored the night) make sure you go to this event next year. It is well worth the late showing time of midnight, plus you can say you stayed out until 3 in the morning! It certainly made me feel like I was back in college rather than being -cough- 30 -cough, cough-.

our newest toy: world of goo

So Brian picked ordered this the other day and it looks fabulous! It is similar to a free online game we have played called Fantastic Contraption which is a physics game (yes, we are geeks). I haven't really gotten a chance to play but Brian was messing around with it late last night after we watched the Battlestar Galactica webisodes. I think he got it for like $9 so it might be something you want to check out.