“Let’s turn up the juice and see what shakes loose.” – Beetlejuice
So this year for Halloween I asked by husband if he wanted to be the Beetlejuice to my Lydia. And he didn’t answer me. So I went ahead and decided I was not going to let Lydia haunt Halloween without a Beetlejuice, and Riley graciously agreed to play my dead ghost.
In true fashion for me, I made Riley’s costume again. I found some black and white striped pillowcases on Amazon that I could cut to make a blazer out of and set to work! I dug out my pattern box and found the dog jacket patterns that I had used in the past (Simplicity Pattern S8861) and laid our the strips I needed on the pillowcase. Cut them out and set to work with my needle and thread. All the while, taking measure tapes to Riley to ensure the pieces are going to fit…he was not thrilled with this process at all.
I had sewn the main front and back of the jacket together when my husband came home and started to laugh at me. You see, instead of servicing my sewing machine which would have meant this blazer would be done in an hour, I was sitting on my couch hand stitching each and every piece of this jacket together. And I was cursing myself. I stabbed my fingers, I dropped needles an pins, I tangled thread in my hair, it was just a mess. But I kept at it! It took me 4 days to do all those pieces.
Piece by piece the blazer came together to make a Beetlejuice out of my sweet boy! Now for my costume. I must say, growing up I got to see the cartoon Beetlejuice and just loved Lydia’s spider web poncho. I didn’t want to dress up in the overdone red wedding attire, and Lydia’s all black ensemble just didn’t excite me, so I decided the cartoon was the way to go for me. A little nostalgia is always a good idea on Halloween! I ordered a red glitter web poncho from amazon back in September and picked up a cheap wig at Value Village (I am blonde, black hair is hard to do for me without a wig or permanent dye!). I had some leather look pants floating around in my closet already and a pair of old combat boots to finish my looks.
Our Halloween was pretty tame this year being a Sunday night. We went over to our friend’s place and haunted her street! Set up a couple tents, put out the food and played the tunes around the fire put while trick or treaters came round for their candy. An easy Halloween, and very surprising to me…Riley didn’t balk too much with the fireworks this year! There were a couple that were set off quite close that he startled at but he calmed pretty quickly and settled without too much intervention.
Isn’t he a handsome spirit? Just what the Handbook for the Recently Deceased ordered!
We put out the charcuterie board (these are so fun and easy to make if you have never done one!), made up some jello shots and a punch for the adults. Set out some Monster Munch (always a major hit), and our friend B brought her famous meatballs for some meatball subs!
Who did you haunt this Halloween? We would love to hear from you! Tell us your stories of Halloween adventure and we may just feature you in our next fall Halloween series!
ASR Adventures 