Halloweenie

Happy Halloween everyone! It's funny because growing up I was always more of a Thanksgiving girl (still my favorite holiday!) I can't quite narrow in on exactly why I didn't like Halloween - I always went trick or treating, knew which houses were giving out the King Size candy and my parents supported me in whatever I wanted my costume to be that year. Maybe support me a little too much... I think I hands down decided on the weirdest costumes of all time.

I thought it would be an awesome idea to paint my entire face red for my devil costume...

Lady Liberty with her rubber torch...

But over the last few years I have come to really love Halloween and making my costume has become a fun project for me. Celebrating Halloween in New Orleans is especially exciting because people get into it! Since there is such a strong connection to voodoo in this city, Halloween is not your average holiday. New Orleans has the highest concentration of voodoo practitioners outside of Haiti. It has been estimated that 15 percent of the city's residents participate in voodoo in one form or another. Signs of voodoo include simple candles to full fledged altars and can be found in various places all over the city. Halloween night is one of the most important nights of the year for voodoo because it is a time to honor spirits and ancestors. Ghost sightings and haunting stories tell of some of the creepiest places in New Orleans. Even though Halloween can be a creepy and eerie holiday - some people take it a little lighter, like this house on St. Charles Ave!

This house on St. Charles covers their lawn each year in skeleton puns!

So this year I was debating on what I wanted to be for Halloween and perhaps it was driving past the beautifully decorated house on St. Charles that made me decide to be a skeleton! I spent two weeks carefully crafting my costume - creating and cutting out the stencils, sticking them to the clothes and then painting them to perfection. When all was said and done, I was left with this:

I was so happy with how it turned out! Also when it gets dark...I glow!

My best friends: the Queen of Hearts and Bob the Builder

One of the awesome floats at the Krewe of Boo parade in the French Quarter!

Needless to say, I had a great weekend! The life and energy in this city is contagious and I definitely got swept up in it this weekend for Halloween festivities. I plan on showcasing my skeleton costume again on Halloween day this Thursday, so watch out New Orleans!

Lesson from the Journey: Candy hurts when thrown at you from a float.