several years back friends had a halloween party every year that was top of the line. everyone came dressed to the hilt and the prizes were just excellent - not to mention the food and atmosphere. they went all out - moved furniture out of the house, turned it into a total thrill house. i miss those parties, but most of all i miss my friend. every year everybody tried to top their costume from the year before. a few times i won a certain category, but my best costume was a decomposing bride, which one me three prizes that year. i got an old wedding dress (it so ugly to begin with) from a thrift store and kind of made it worse with more ri[ps and tears and what not, stained it a little to make it faded and older looking. my make-up was amazing - total death face - my arms and hands all veiny and just gross. my hair was a tangled mess and teased in places with a few fake bugs thrown in and the veil, which was really just an odd piece of tulle with one of those kiddie tiaras, was in sad shape. i wore these funky shoes which were at one time white, but i muddied them, and then tied to the back of one of them, i dragged another one which made it look like my foot was dragging, and limped around throughtout the night. i carried a bride's purse stuffed with old cards - the envelopes that were yellowed and (fake) torn money. even my wrist corsage was pathetic. maryanne

ROTFLOL...OMG...this is way too funny...DH burst into tears as well. Sarah's costumes were cute, but this is just downright hilarious. Baxter and Zoey just declared they don't want you to ever visit us at Halloween. Halloween may get canceled this year cause of Sandy, Frankiestorm (changed it to female). The Fed Gov't offices shut down, State of MD offices shut down, local county gov't offices shut down, but the City of Baltimore is open for business tomorrow! Not sure I'll be joining my fellow workers!

The best costume I ever had was last October for FSD's carnival, I was Marie Antoinette's head on a plate. All it cost was a wig, a plastic serving tray (looked like silver) and a plastic tablecloth. First we cut out one side of a large box we had, leaving 5 sides in tact; then we cut out a horseshoe shape in the top of the box and glued the tablecloth around it and slightly over it; then we cut a horseshoe shape out of the plate and glued it to the top of the box. I put TONS of makeup over my white grease makeup so I looked very made-up, but had a bluish-grayish tint to my skin, painted a mole above my lip and put on the wig I had bought (from a Marie Antoinette costume set). I sat a stool inside the box and placed my head all the way in the circular part of the plate and box. FDH put a feather boa around my neck so no one could see where my neck met the plate. It was so hillarious! I'd close my eyes and the girls would come all the way up and start poking me in the face to see if I was real. I would open my eyes and they would almost pee their pants! I even scared most of the adults! The best thing about it is that it wasn't gory at all. No blood. Very tasteful. And I just wore a t-shirt and jeans since no one could see the rest of my body.

LOL, no-no-no, I'm too old for it. Did you see the one of the dragons as in "How to Train Your Dragon" animated movie? Those costumes showed a lot of talent. The father/parent had 4 kids and 3 of them with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. He said that he couldn't do anything about the disease but he certainly could help to brighten the kids Halloween. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6EiIKsSzzg (2015 costumes) Your trip sounds like a lot of fun. I used to have a friend from Louisiana. They seems to have lots of festivals that we don't have elsewhere. One such was the Rice Festival. You have a safe one Raven.