l'halloween!

We can't disappoint. Not now. Not after 6 years of blood-sweat-and-hot-glue costume-making.

My mother says she knew Alex was "the one" when he agreed to be hauled half way across town to a costume party. In May. Several months yet until Halloween. After only 2 months of dating. Surely a boy with this much enthusiasm for playing dress-up was meant for me. Match! Made! In! Heaven!

We even discovered that we had both painstakingly (and separately) recreated separate characters from The Royal Tenenbaums on the same Halloween BEFORE WE EVEN MET (ahem, the second/adult time). That year I cut seven whole inches off my (then blonde) hair mere minutes before a party and smoked half a pack of cigarettes (I was a non-smoker) so as to be unfailingly Margot.

He already had the hair. And the sad eyes. A perfect Richie. Or so I'm led to believe. Without proper photographic evidence, I can only speculate.

Knowing his dedication to Halloween (he's a purist), I'd betcha he was spot on.

Maybe we'd have (re)met this way, instead of via a fated newspaper photo:

Perfect.

But ever since we did meet (against not quite as heartbreaking a soundtrack) we planned out our costumes each summer, scouring thrift shops, trimming wigs, sewing faux fur, and hot-gluing 1000s of sequins late into the fall. We earned ourselves a nice little reputation for our costumes. A retrospective:

2006: Black & White (yep, this is a full-colour un-touched photo!) 

2007 Pan + Hook

2008 Mr. Tumnus + The White Witch

2009 - Fisherman + Lunch

2010 Katy + Russell

This year, however, we somehow lost our spirit. It was just days before the big day when I decided: NO, we can't skip Halloween. What? Us? No. So we decided on a costume that would be simple, require no sewing, gluing, or epic shopping trips. Our costumes cost $15 each and only required a little planning and painting. Cheap, yes. Simple, sure.

But yeah, 2 days of straight painting due to the unexpected transparency of the cheap craft acrylic. Sigh.

We have a penchant for self-torture. How very appropriate. I think, in the end, we were glad we didn't snub best-day-of-the-year. The result was pretty cool:

 

 

Maybe next year we'll just buy big gorilla masks.

Yeah... no. I may or may not have a few ideas up my sleeve for next year. Easy this time. Really.