Story Time: Who’s Afraid of the Dark?

It was a dark and stormy night.  A cliché I know, but true.  No one in the apartment but me and the baby, my 5 month old niece.  She was supposed to be asleep in the room at the back of our home.  Nope, she was crying instead, wailing more like it.  It was different however, which is why I walked down the hall a little faster than normal.  People who have spent some time around a baby tend to know what’s wrong by the way they cry.  I’ve spent enough time with her to know that wasn’t a cry because she just wanted her teddy.  It was a cry of absolute terror.

I got to her and tried to calm her down, but she continued to cry.  This was confusing, there wasn’t anything in the room, at least not that I could see.  That’s when I noticed the room itself appeared to be shaking.  Why I didn’t immediately notice this I’m not sure, but it did appear to tremble.  Then I realized it wasn’t the room.  It was the lights flickering, quite violently in fact.  I decided to quickly move the baby to the living room, not that there was any real danger to her, right?

From the living room I could see the light from the back room continue to flicker and then start to fade.  It faded into complete darkness.  This flickering and fading traveled pass the bathroom and down the hall, spreading to all the lamps in each room of the formally well-lit apartment.  The darkness was spreading quickly, and coming toward us.  As the darkness drew closer, her screams grew louder.

It came closer and closer…

…she got louder and louder…

…Closer and Closer…

…Louder and Louder…

…Closer…

…Louder…

…Closer…

…Louder…

…and then…

 

 

 

…Silence.

Happy Halloween!

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Over the Rainbow

All right!  Finally posting something other than a LinkUp.  I have actually made several things over the past few weeks that I just haven’t gotten around to posting.  Sadly none have anything to do with my pink pants.

Anyway, Halloween is tomorrow as we all know, so I thought I should show off what I did for a costume. 

I found this Dorothy costume at a yard sale for $2.  It had several problems.  Too big, too open in back, crooked buttons, frumpy skirt and sleeves, stains, crooked ric-rac, etc., and did I mention that it was too big?  Time to work a little Halloween magic.  So here’s the before…

…And after.  The skirt was an easy fix.  I just had to shorten it by about 4 inches and move the button in the back to cinch the waist.  The top was a different story.  I literarily had to take it apart, chop off a few inches everywhere, and sew it back together.  I also added a zipper to the back so my entire back wasn’t exposed.  Now it fits me almost perfectly.  All done?  Nope.  It takes more than a blue dress to make a Dorothy costume, so time for the accessories.

I found this basket at another yard sale for only 25 cents.  Best deal.  I used some scraps from the costume to make bows.  I just cut strips using my pinking shears and tied them to the sides of the basket.  Easy and cute.  The little doggie was a birthday present from some reaally good friends of mine.  Yep, my birthday was yesterday. 

Moving on,  what’s a Dorothy costume without ruby slippers?  For these I started out trying to make shoe covers.  I’d seen some in stores, but didn’t like the price or the quality.  Anyway, I cut up an old Christmas stocking and used my shoes as a guide to make a pattern.  It was easy enough, but I was having trouble getting a good fit until I realized it would be easier to just sew the fabric right to the shoes.  Luckily I had an old pair of ballet flats that would have otherwise been tossed.  Several minutes of sewing (and one broken needle) later, I had my slippers.  Now I have one complete Dorothy costume that cost less than $5 to make.  Yay!

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