Lots of activity lately

Zoidberg mask: I ran out of yarn and had to order more. I'm only up to the top of the forehead (my "five-head" as my brother-in-law likes to call the family cranium) and I still have to make the hanging tendrily things on his mouth. That yarn better hurry up and arrive soon. I'm sure it'll get here well before Halloween. I was in a quandary about what to do about the eyes, big white globes (like all the characters on Futurama) but Adam came up with a great idea - take the lenses out of a pair of big sunglasses and paint them white, all but a round spot in the middle (to see out of). So I got some at Target and that's the plan. I'm not sure how well they will attach but I have some strong fabric glue, and I hope that will last at least long enough for the party we are going to.

Futurama, part 2 - Adam's costume: Adam decided he wanted to go as Zapp Brannigan, a Captain Kirk take-off who wears a tight red velour, well, minidress, basically that ends at the bottom of his ass. This meant me sewing the thing for him, which I was totally up for doing. I had all the stuff for it - the velour, the gold lame, the zipper, the interfacing, the NEW SEWING MACHINE:



... and as soon as I used up all the yarn I had for Zoidberg and was thus at a stopping point on that project I broke out the Zapp materials. I had to read the sewing machine user's manual just to start work on this, because I had yet to use it since I bought it. I was a little afraid of it, to tell the truth. So I carefully read all the stuff about the various electronic parts of it and how to make a bobbin and how to thread the machine, and cautiously at first (then enthusiastically) worked my way through the Zapp costume. I love the machine! It's wonderful. It's really high quality. It feels nimble and fleet, compared to the old 1960s machine of my mom's that I've depended on all these years. Because I was working on velour (kind of a pain due to the nap) I basted most of the seams but was able to relax when I sewed them on the machine. I still fucked up the zipper, because I didn't feel like basting it really carefully, and I put it in a bit crooked.



Adam said he didn't care - it's just a Halloween costume, for one night's wear only - so I didn't pull it out and fix it. But hey, live and learn.

He tried it on and it's really large on him, so I am going to do a couple of quick fixes to make it more fitted. Here's the nearly finished product:



Gourd help us: I now officially (according to Adam) have too many pumpkins, gourds, and autumn flora. Or at least (according to me) I have enough. I have two huge pumpkins for carving and five sugar pumpkins for pies. Those keep well so I can put them in the basement and we can use them over the fall/winter. I got a white pumpkin and a very cool greenish-red one, six or seven gourds of gnarly shapes, and three little white pumpkins. Not to mention the single pumpkin we grew, plus one of the two spaghetti squash we grew (we ate the other one and will probably eat the other one tonight), plus ten spaghetti squash I got at the store to keep in the basement to last us through the fall/winter as well. This is what happens when you move out to the suburbs and have a basement for the first time in 22 years.



Today we are going apple picking! I haven't ever done this. I'm not sure how long I will last out there; it's chilly! I'm excited though. Plus we are going up to a farm in New York State, about an hour or more north of us, which means we will see some lovely fall foliage. Another thing I've meant to do forever and never gotten around to doing.

We are going to carve the pumpkins tonight, I hope, and bake the seeds as we did when we made pies. Those seeds are righteous! We scarfed down the last batch in a hurry. We might also make a pumpkin pie or an apple pie. And have some more spaghetti squash with the last of the homemade spaghetti sauce we made using our homegrown tomatoes and peppers...