Project Runway: Halloween Edition

Since Mikie was three, he has enjoyed Halloween "themes".  The most memorable was the Star Wars theme. . .

This year, Mikie had a very specific idea.  He wanted to be the flying pig from Seasonal Angry Birds, Valentine's Day.  And, Hannah could be the Red Angry Bird.  Since Hannah ALWAYS wants to play Angry Birds (because Mike and Mikie play Angry Birds and she wants to do whatever her buddy does), she thought this was a great idea.  Unfortunately, the Angry Birds themed costumes on the internet had a few problems:  (1) they looked lame and (2) they were sold out everywhere.  Which forced me to break out the Singer and sew some.

The statement "I didn't know you could sew" has come up frequently since I started costume construction.  Yes, I can sew.  You won't see me making my own clothes anytime soon, but I know how to thread a machine.  The bigger challenge was designing the costumes.  There weren't any "Angry Birds" patterns on the internet either, so I had to come up with something myself. 

Hannah's was inspired in combination by a picture I found on the internet from another mom who made Angry Bird costumes last year and a bubble dress I bought her for Christmas last year.  I cut a pattern for the lining by tracing a sun dress she had.  I then made a pattern with an identical top, but increased the length by 3 inches.  I added to the width as well since I was going to stuff it.  I added an extra half inch on all sides for seam allowances.  It was fairly straight forward once I had the patterns.  And, thanks to the numerous Angry Birds stuffed animals Mikie has, I scaled up the features using calculator, compass, protractor, etc. so that I could nail the features. 

Mikie's was far more complicated.  His was inspired by. . . a beach ball.  My intention was to make six petal shaped panels which, when sewn together, formed a ball.  The challenge was making a pattern for one of the petals.  But, I am an engineer who dual majored (for most of college) in mathematics.  Mikie and I measured the distance from his collar bone to a point on his upper thigh (2 ft) to determine the diameter of our pig.  From their, I calculated 1/6th of the circumference (which was easily calculated as pi*diameter) to determine the width of the petal at the widest point.  And, 1/2 the circumference for the length.  If I was artistic, I probably could have free-handed the shape from those four points.  Instead, I did a lot more complex math with a lot of interpolation between points.  Until I had my petal pattern.  Six sewn together gave me a nice sphere.  A column with arm holes through the center of my sphere for Mikie's body and some padding in between the column/lining and the exterior sphere and (ta da) I give you the Angry Pig.

Throughout, my supportive husband had to mock me with comments like, "You don't see them doing MATH on Project Runway."  Well, take a memo designers.  Maybe a little more math up front would prevent last minute adjustments. 

While the kids did not win the costume contest at our community center (Hannah lost to a store bought Minnie Mouse and Mikie lost to a store bought Pac-Man), they got a lot of compliments.  One mother asked me if she could pay me to make the same costumes for her kids next year. 

So, I can now rest assured that, if I ever need a career change, I can take up costume design.

Happy (belated) Halloween.

Love, The Trahans

Halloween 2011: When Hell Froze Over

There were a lot of appropriate titles for this post. . . White Halloween, Christmas in October, Trahan's Freezing by an Open Fire.  Yes, Halloween 2011:  the year it snowed.

Let's just say, when the weathermen are calling for 8-12 inches that could take down trees, the one thing you should never say is, "We've NEVER lost power for an extended period of time here."  It is like daring Mother Nature. 

Sure enough, on Saturday afternoon, my parents, Mike, the kids and I are snuggling in the family room, watching movies while waiting for the lasagna to finish cooking, occasionally watching the snow fall, and the power goes out. 

That first night, it was fun.  Like camping, but without the bugs.  Thankfully, the lasagna was 15 minutes from being done, so we kept the oven closed to let the heat finish cooking it.  We lit enough candles to forever imprint the smell of Crabtree & Evelyn on our house.  We toasted marshmallows over the candles, and read stories together before putting the kids to bed.  Hannah slept with Grandma Pookie (because she was scared of the dark and, her room is like an ice box when the heat IS on); Mikie moved his air mattress into our bedroom (long story why he was sleeping on an air mattress in his room. . . he said it made him cough less).  Not used to going to sleep at 9pm, Mike and I streamed episodes of "The Office" from Netflix on his phone. 

So ended Saturday.  When we woke up to a world of white, still without power, we were still optimistic.  After Mike shoveled snow from the top of the driveway, we headed out in search of coffee and donuts, since the kids (specifically Mikie) didn't like any of the breakfast options that could be made without electricity.  Then reality started to set in.  Driving down the main road out to the highway, we couldn't believe the number of trees that were down.  And, not young trees.  Mature trees.  And, when I say mature, I mean REALLY OLD TREES.  The adjacent town just celebrated it's third centennial recently.  There is a house that John Adams stayed at less than a mile from our home.  Really old trees were down left and right along the road, allowing one zig-zagging lane of traffic to progress.  Provided you didn't care about your paint job.  One poor tree was clearly holding on for dear life, it's root system rising out of the ground on the right side of the road while its branches curved across, touching on the left side, forming a tunnel.  The picture below was taken walking distance from our development:

Since life in our town was canceled, we spent the day in Rhode Island with the in-laws, who were spared the majority of the storm's wrath.  We checked in with National Grid frequently, only to hear "due to the severity of the outage in your area, we are still assessing the damage to determine a time to restore power." 

Sunday evening left us in need of a good laugh.  So, Mike put his brand new work laptop with fully charged battery to good use:  we had a "BYOB" (bring your own blanket) party in the family room to watch "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". 

Halloween morning truly was a horror.  The temperature in the house dropped to 54 degrees.  Thanks to extra firewood we had from summer campfires, and a lot of paper we wanted to shred, we succeeded in lighting a fire in the fireplace without "kindling".  That kept the house at 54 degrees through lunch time, when we all decided to abandon house.  Trick-or-treating was canceled.  My parents had headed south, with my dad promising to return with a generator if we didn't have power still by the end of the week.  After packing all the clean clothes we could find, plus Rhino (our guinea pig), we headed to McDonald's.  Armed with my dad's AAA guide, I called every hotel in a 40 mile radius, with no luck.  Every hotel was either without power or without vacancies.  I was starting to appreciate what the Holy Family went through that first Christmas.  Mike, armed with the Raytheon travel agent, succeeded in landing us one night in a hotel in Burlington, Massachusetts. 

After driving 90 minutes with two kids and a pet, and smuggling Rhino into the hotel, things started to look up.  First, we were warm.  Second, the Burlington Mall is home to one of the only Chick-Fil-A's in Massachusetts.  So, we got to enjoy one of our favorite fast food chains for dinner, something we haven't eaten since my sister got married over a year ago.  Third, we took the kids to see "Puss in Boots", which was excellent.  Lastly, and most importantly, we got a text message from our neighbor that the power came back on. 

A few days later, power was restored to Hannah's daycare, completing the return to normalcy from a routine standpoint.  Over a week later, we still have snow in the yard.  Mike removed the oak tree limb from our shed, only to find a nice big hole in the roof for us to repair before the next big snowstorm.  And, we have one damaged ornamental pear tree, one severely damaged dogwood tree, and an unknown tree/shrub that hurricane Irene knocked over to still remove.  At this rate, I'm praying for more snow to cover our front yard and make it look "pretty" again. 

I do want to thank some people:  first, thanks to my parents for suffering through with us as long as they did. I don't think we could have kept the kids entertained as long as we did without you.  Second, thanks to Mike's family for letting us prey on their utilities and hospitality by feeding, bathing, and entertaining us for the day on Sunday.  Lastly, I would like to thank all of the line workers from North Carolina and Michigan who we saw working tirelessly alongside National Grid to restore our power as quickly as they did.  Knowing many people in Connecticut who are still without power, we were very lucky. 

But, all things considered, you will never hear me say "we NEVER ________" ever again. . .

Love, The Trahans