I Am So Late!
Guys, I’m definitely running late on this one!
The title of this post describes how I have felt for the past couple of weeks. Coach’s soccer season wrapped up toward the end of October, and they fared pretty well. We’re thankful for that, and for the free time he has now. I could not have gotten through all the tasks of the last few weeks without Coach, Pooh, and Tigger.
My big craft show was this past weekend, so I spent the majority of the week in panic mode (I’ll tell you all about it next Monday). I was very busy in the salon last week, thankfully, and had several things left to do before the show, along with putting together mine, Pooh’s and Tigger’s costumes before Thursday night. It all fell into place, as always, and we got done with the costumes, only to have our Halloween rained out. Instead of trick-or-treating, we spent the evening indoors, eating spaghetti and watching The Addams Family on television. Our area was at risk for severe storms, and we were under a wind advisory for the entire night…sort of appropriate for Halloween what with the whistling winds and barking doofuses dogs.
Missing trick-or-treating was a bummer, and the girls were feeling a little sad about it. Thank goodness for Girl Scouts! Pooh and Tigger both belong to wonderful Scout troops, and a pair of sisters, who are the same ages as my girls and in the same troops, hosted a combined-troop Halloween party! They were so jazzed to have somewhere to dress up for, and had an absolute blast!
We celebrated Halloween at the salon on Thursday, so I wasn’t in costume.
Which brings me to the real topic of today’s post…my owl costume. 
My love for owls began this past March, when I lost my Papa. Papa was my stepfather for 33 years, and in my life for 35. He was an amazing man, full of talents, and had a huge admiration for birds of prey. He was especially partial to hawks, but had quite a fondness for owls, as well.
One evening he and Madre were hanging out on the front porch, enjoying the setting of the sun and the stillness of the earth. They heard a hoot owl in the distance, and Papa responded with a pretty impressive owl-hoot. The owl called again, only closer. The two of them, Papa and the owl, spoke back and forth, the owl getting ever closer, until it was in a big maple in the front yard. Papa looked at Madre and said, “We’d better go on in. I don’t have any idea what I’m saying to that owl!”
He was the owl whisperer.
I wanted my owl costume to be something Papa would have been impressed with. A man with his talents and artist’s mind wasn’t easy to impress.
So, I started by cutting out two pieces of fabric from an old bed sheet, measured to go from my waist to my shoulder, and from my shoulder to my wrist, and I cut it in a semicircle from wrist to waist. 
Then I cut out feathers, using fabrics that looked owlish to me.
The rotary cutter really sped things up. I cut out several different sizes, and started with big ones on the bottom, working my way up to some smaller ones.
I hot-glued all of the feathers in place, then sewed the wings to an old white cardigan. I only sewed at the wrist, at the elbow, and at the shoulder. It started to sag a little, so I ended up hot-gluing the wings to the sweater from the middle of my shoulder blades to the sleeve of the sweater.
What a fun costume! It was pretty comfy, until I got busy with the blow-dryer…it was warm on this rainy Halloween! I know Papa would have loved it and been proud of my creativity. He always was, and he always told me so.
What did you dress up as this year?
On Wednesday, I’ll talk a little bit about my makeup…and those eyelashes! Plus, I’ll share the rest of the costumes from the salon, so don’t miss it!
X,O,X,O,
Martie