The witching hour is near

After 364 days of anticipation, All Hallows Eve has returned at long last and I'm bubbling like a witch's cauldron with joy and merriment over this fact. I'd hoped to get in a pre-Halloween shoot of my costume, but haven’t feeling well enough lately for that, so hopefully we'll get some snaps later today and I can share my festive ensemble with you all in the very near future.

Like much of North America right now, though we're on the west coast, not the east, and thus haven't felt Hurricane Sandy's terrible wrath firsthand, we've had fairly rough weather all week. The rain that's been present since last Friday continues this morning, as I curl up in a corner of the living room couch and silently ask the The Great Pumpkin to send a little sunshine our way.

No matter what the weather has up its sleeve today, and even though I'm feeling less than stellar on the health front, nothing can dampen my spirits - or the spirits that may very well be lurking amongst us on this spooky holiday - in the slightest!

Though we don't have tons of Halloween decorations (no room in our past homes to store much in the way of seasonal decor), we do have a beloved little handful (certain items of which, such as the candles pictured here, have been with me since childhood), and I took snaps recently of some of our collection - as well as most of the pumpkins we picked up at Bear's fruit stand - to share with all of you today.

However you celebrate today, I really hope that you have a frighteningly marvelous Halloween (and if you don't observe Halloween, I hope that you have a beautiful last day of October). I look forward to sharing my costume with you very soon, and can't wait to see blog posts about what you sported on this fabulously haunted eve as as well.

Happiest, sweet-as-candy, eerily awesome Halloween wishes, everyone!

Picking Halloween pumpkins in the freezing rain

...While wearing a festive jack-o-lantern covered cardigan and trying not to get knocked off my feet by the nearly gale force winds!

 


































Outfit details

Prescription eyeglasses: (frames) Venus Eye Design V-12
Black and white polka dot hair flower: Arden
Grey pearl earrings: Claire's
Halloween cardigan sweater: eBay
Vintage black shirtwaist dress: eBay or etsy
Black patent skinny belt: eBay
Black crinoline/pettiskirt: Pettiskirt Style
Carved black resin bangle bracelet: Ten Thousand Villages
Orange and green bangles: Forever 21
Vintage black gloves: a gift from a dear online friend (and fellow vintage loving gal)
Vintage Saks Fifth Avenue black patent purse: etsy seller MK Retro
Black and white Swiss dot tights: eBay (I've had these for years, worn them dozens of times, and they're still holding up - knock wood!)
Black faux suede bow adorned heels: Wal-Mart
Lip colour: MAC Russian Red
Photography by Antonio Cangiano

♥ ♥ ♥

Murphy's Law, of course, a day finally comes along where I feel well enough to embark on an outing to the nearby community of Keremeos (which just happens to be where the wonderful petting zoo we visited last summer is located) to spend time at one of the Okanagan’s best known and most loved fruit stands while their fantastic annual fall display is underway, and the weather was nothing short of awful!

Sleet that looked dangerously close to snow started pelting our car a few minutes outside of town (I should mention, it was sunny when we left Penticton), then turned into rain and partnered up with some rather hefty winds (that kept wanting to blow the skirt of my dress and my pettiskirt up over my head!), but knowing that this might be the one shot we'd get to visit Bear's this year, we ploughed on.

My outfit, though a bit bulky (the black shirtwaist dress is very blousy on top, plus I had a cami under it for warmth, and a flouncy black crinoline underneath), was intentionally chosen for this day and shoot, as I wanted to share this darling jack-o-lantern covered cardigan with all of you. The cut of the cardigan, including the wide round neckline, isn't necessarily one of the best for me, and white as a top layer is anything but flattering on a curvy figure like mine, but I don't mind at all. This sweater is too cute and filled with the playfully spooky spirit Halloween not to wear come late October.

It's not a vintage piece, but the grinning Jacks all over it have, I think, classic faces that help lend it a bit of a yesteryear feel. As I made a point of mentioning to my parents when we saw them later in the day, this isn't my Halloween costume this year, it's my Halloween outfit (which is just as fun and seasonal as a costume, in my books).

Though our trip to Bear's Farm fruit stand was cut shorter than we'd planned due to the nasty weather, we were able to pick up a few pumpkins (including a grey one - which is something I'd always wanted, but never been able to find in Canada before, and indeed, the lady behind the checkout counter said this was the first year they'd ever carried grey pumpkins there) and some delicious dark purple (nearly black) bell peppers that we've been enjoying throughout this past week.



{Speaking of The Great Pumpkin, I recently spotted this incredibly lovely, delightfully vintage looking poster for it, and bookmarked it to share here for Halloween. Poster created by strongstuff (Tom Whalen) on deviantART.}



Naturally, being at a pumpkin display with pumpkin patches all around the area, my mind instantly flashed to It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which is my all-time favourite Halloween cartoon. Later that night my mom came over to our place and we watched it, as well as my favourite Halloween movie, Hocus Pocus, both of which are huge seasonal musts for me every year (I pretty much know them both by heart at this point, but that just makes me love them even more).

So while the weather was anything but ideal, I'm thrilled that I got sport this Halloween cardigan on camera, hand select our pumpkins, and enjoy a terrific afternoon down in Keremeos with Tony before winter - which, some days at least, doesn't appear to be very far off any more - moseys back into town.

Wishing you all an awesome Halloween countdown - and much better weather than we ran into if you're out gathering pumpkins or setting up your yard in preparation for the 31st!

Halloween 2012 edition of Flickr Favourites

{Ann Savage witch ~ carbonated}

{Cute jack-o-lantern cupcakes ~ *CQ*}

{Excitement ~ carbonated}

{Skeleton and witch ~ superbomba}

{June Lang Halloween ~ carbonated}

{Harvest moon dinner ~ Skip Hansen}

{Nice cloak ~ carbonated}

{Black kitten ~ mourner}

{Vintage Halloween card ~ joe&peta}

{Full harvest moon ~ Elle-Epp}

♥ ♥ ♥

The twinge of excitement that’s been building since the stroke of midnight when August ushered in September, has grown to near peak capacity, as Halloween looms just four days away now.

My most favourite and beloved holiday (and, aside from my wedding anniversary, day of the year, period) since I was the size of a mini pumpkin, Halloween is an event that I wait for with more enthusiasm than a vampire pouncing on an unsuspecting victim in the shadows.

To me it is a night of magic and enchantment, heightened senses, mysteries, fun, games, scrumptious treats, treasured decorations, taking on a new persona (through my costume), recounting October 31st's past, and delighting in every single second of this unique, endlessly awesome day.

One can never have too many Halloween decorations, in my books, nor pieces of candy, costumes, friends to celebrate it with, or eerie, hauntingly beautiful, or playful All Hallow's Eve themed images to look at.

To that end, I knew that I wanted this edition of Flickr Favourites to be devoted to a day that has brought me more merriment over the years than I could ever shake a witch's broomstick at, and which I know is also a treasured, deeply beloved celebration for many of you, too.

I hope you enjoy and garner inspiration from these hair-raisingly marvelous October 31st themed images of past and present, and am wishing you each the happiest countdown to Halloween, my dearest ghouls, hobgoblins, sorceresses, werewolves, and ghosties!

20 vintage Hollywood starlets get in the Halloween spirit

Are you abuzz with excitement over Halloween's impending arrival next week like I am? If the festively themed posts that have been filling the vintage blogosphere already as of late are anything to go, then I highly suspect many of you are are as well.

Whether you're practically living in your costume, bowl of candy all set to hand out to trick-or-treaters, already or haven't yet had a chance to even figure out what you're going to wear this All Hallow's Eve, I thought it would be an inspiration filled blast to take a look at twenty photographs of classic Hollywood starlets decked out on some seriously wonderful vintage Halloween garb.

Whether you want to take a page from one of these looks for your costume, or just adore looking at these snaps and further getting in the spirit of October 31st, I hope you all enjoy these delightfully spooky photos of yesteryear actresses as much as I did!

~*~ Lillian Wells ~*~

~*~ Etchika Choureau ~*~

~*~  Peggy Ryan ~*~

~*~  Paulette Goddard ~*~

~*~  Virginia Welles ~*~

~*~ Cyd Charisse  ~*~

~*~ Colleen Moore ~*~

~*~ Ida Lupino ~*~

  

~*~  Ann Miller ~*~

~*~  Kim Novak ~*~

~*~ Dusty Anderson  ~*~

~*~ Myrna Loy ~*~

~*~ Nan Grey ~*~

~*~  Lucia Carroll ~*~

~*~ Yvonne De Carlo ~*~

~*~ Ruth Roman ~*~

~*~ Anne Nagel ~*~

~*~  Veronica Lake ~*~

~*~ Betty Grabble ~*~

~*~ Ava Gardner ~*~

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

♥ ♥ ♥

Oh-la-la! What a bevy of stunning vintage beauties! Do you have a favourite photo from amongst these immensely talented, Halloween costume clad actresses?

A chance encounter with a certain type of vintage hat early on this year instantly morphed into the idea for what I wanted my Halloween costume to be this October, and in the ensuing months, I've tried to find other pieces to go with it, so that I could have a complete costume. Was I successful? Well, you'll just have to wait until Halloween to find out!

Luckily though, with just six more days to go, you wont' be waiting long, and in the meantime we can all set about putting the finishing touches on our home decor, candy stashes, costumes, and party decorations, so that when the awesomeness that is Halloween finally rolls around, we'll be as ready and rearing to go as a witch at a buy one get one free cauldron sale when the big night arrives!