Friday, September 23, 2016

Dear Halloween, I love you.

A bit of background on the title of my blog. Of course I love Halloween, always have. What kid doesn't? As I grew up my love of Halloween led to a love of all things scary and horror movies were one of those things, naturally. My interests have changed a bit over the years but Halloween has stuck around in the circle of things I absolutely love and have a passion for. These things give me solace, comfort, inspiration, hope. That seems like it could be hyperbole. It's not.

When I was 19, I was severely overweight and depressed. I was in a very destructive, abusive relationship. I did have a small, loyal group of friends and I'm thankful for that. However, when I was feeling alone I would always gravitate towards Halloween, Autumn, memories of past Halloweens and how happy I felt as a child. Somehow I stumbled upon Halloween the movie and then discovered it had been filmed in the city I was born in, and the city I was raised near. I watched the film and was drawn into Laurie Strode's lonely life. I felt like I walked the street with her, in a way. I knew those streets. I just fell in love with the soundtrack, the characters, the film. That love trickled into vintage Halloween decor (which I have collected for quite some time now) and all things Autumnal.

The following year after really pulling myself out of that dark place, I was so inspired by the Country Living magazine that came out that month. October 2000. I devoured it, page by page. Coincidentally (or not) I have a late October birthday and I wanted my 21st birthday party to look just like this:




And it did.

Hah! Just kidding. We tried. REALLY HARD. It didn't turn out exactly like that, but this image and this issue of Country Living lives on as my favorite. I made all of my guests bring pumpkins to carve and we served warm soups out of hollowed out pumpkin tureens and we even had a special pumpkin ice cream served with warm from-the-oven brownies. I spent hours, months planning details and really enjoyed escaping into the magic of Halloween that season.

Ever since that party, I have eagerly awaited Halloween as an adult. It's a true source of joy for me. I was lucky enough to briefly live in a smaller midwestern town that really celebrated the holiday and I was lucky enough to walk up and down those leave-covered streets in a neighborhood where EVERY house was elaborately decorated. I am lucky enough to now live where I was born and raised and although not as many people decorate, I can easily transport myself into the Halloween movie by walking the streets of South Pasadena. That particular neighborhood (and many others nearby) go all out for Halloween and lovingly decorate their homes.

When pondering the origin of my true love for this Holiday, I dug through bins of my stored, personal effects to find that Country Living magazine. To my horror, I couldn't. I immediately hopped on Amazon and ordered a used copy. Phew! So now I own the same copy again and am really loving pouring over the pages once more. A few more images from this issue:


Those cookies look so yummy! In fact I wanted to use the recipe for my party but a friend who was helping me wisely suggested I do pumpkin ice cream and warm brownies. 


Oh I adored these jackos on pedastools! I wanted to reproduce the effect so badly in my back yard. I tried but it didn't turn out just so. A for effort, right? I also replicated the jacko paper lanterns and those came out pretty good. Now if only I could have had a trellis to put those lanterns on!


I loved this jacko hidden away behind the gorgeous Fall foilage! Sigh! Be still my heart. Imagine stumbling upon such a sight?

These images are so inspiring to me. I just love it all. 





2 comments:

  1. What a great post! And love your new blog!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awe, thanks for your kind words WC!! I was actually shocked to see a comment in my inbox lol!

      Thanks for stopping by.:)

      Delete