Halloween Fun!

It had been years and years since I dressed up for Halloween.  I finally did this year and it was so much fun!  I dressesd up as a witch.  Of course, I had to get pictures.  I seem to take pictures of everything.  But, before I got a picture of my whole costume I had an idea I wanted to try first.  And, it worked!  I'm so excited about this picture...I'm flying!

Here's my whole costume.  It was hard to get it all in one picture with that tall hat.  So, I leaned over to try to get it all.  I made the broom recently.  It's made with a dried rose branch with the thorns removed, some faux flower/grass bouquets from the craft store, jute, a little left over leather for the handle, and a stone glued to the top.  Oh, and a glue gun!  My daughter had this vintage dress that worked and looked so cute for my costume.  However, clothes from those days had such tiny waists that the zipper only went part way even though the top closed.  So, we wrapped me up in black tulle to cover the open area.  It created a bit of a bustle in the back.  That was a fun little bonus.  The hat and socks are from Michael's.  And, those little witchy boots I've had for about 30 years.  I've worn them so much over the years that they've even had repairs and parts replaced.  It's fun when you can create a costume with things you have.  I love how my costume turned out!  

My daughter created hers entirely with things we had...the clothes, boots, and even the crazy wig.  She even painted the t-shirt the night before.  It was a never worn logo shirt hubby had gotten from work and thrown into the rag bin.  I'm amazed at how great she did at painting it!  She's a heavy metal rocker from the 80's.  And, of course, she had to get a pic with her harp.  She's a harpist that does amazing and surprising things with her harp.  Yes, rock, blues, Latin...all kinds of cool music.

We wanted to go somewhere wearing our costumes and decided to share the fun with my mom who is in assisted living with Alzheimer's.  She loved it!  We even brought her a sparkly witch hat.  She laughed so hard that she had tears in her eyes.

I found some Halloween craft kits at Michael's and we brought those for some crafty fun.  She struggled with tthem a bit but had a lot of fun!  She's always been a very crafty and talented person but hadn't crafted in a long time.  We weren't sure how she'd do.  This was a bit of a struggle but it worked.  We'll be doing more crafts with her around Christmas.

We each made two bats.

 

She thought they'd be fun as earrings.

 

After that we took them up to her apartment to decorate with them.  Then, we took her to the Halloween party they were having for the residents.  She had a good time and so did we.

It's been a tough year.  In a nutshell, my father had become increasingly ill and weak.  He fell in March, went on Hospice in April, and passed away in May.  Since then I've worked hard to get all of my mom's surivor benefits, and everything else straightened out for her.  It was so much more work and stress than I ever would have imagined.  I've just recently started feeling like me again.  That's due to finally finishing up on a lot of stuff, finally having some time to grieve the loss of my dad, watching some grief videos to figure it all out, and, finally, joining an Alzheimer's support group on Facebook.  I was surprised to find that was even a thing but it has helped me so much!  I don't feel alone in dealing with my mom's Alzheimer's and the things she does.  The support is amazing!  And, it feels so good to support others dealing with the same things.  And, I've gone from dealing with the mom I've been hurt by all these years and the anger of the time she robbed from me and my dad, to taking care of her with love and trying to bring joy into her life as long as we can.  It's a horrible disease!  It's nice to bring her happiness!

I composed a post several months ago about what all had happened with my dad and what we were all going through but it was tough to compose and I just couldn't bring myself to post it.  I'm not sure if I ever will. It feels good to be getting to the other side and feeling better.  It feels good to breathe deeply again and finally feel the stress start to melt away.

I hope you all had a happy Halloween!