A Halloween Circus

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls...Welcome, to the Miller Family Halloween Circus!

Get your Tickets here!

Our ticket taker is rather grim...

Incredible and Delicious Refreshments!

Music and Laughter!

A Daring Sabre Dance!

The Amazing Floating Lady!

The Incredible Talking, Singing Head of the Wizard Schmockoff!

The Horrible Harpy!

The Tall Man!

Every year for the past 5 year our family has thrown a big Halloween party. We actually did a big party the first year we moved here too. It was a harvest themed party and we invited all our new neighbors. We had been told that it had been a tradition in the neighborhood to have a harvest party on Halloween so we thought it would be fun to host it. It was fun, and a great way to gather with new friends. But the following two years, we were so overwhelmed with remodeling our home and then recovering from that, I just couldn't do a big party. Another neighbor did one...but we were busy and didn't attend. Finally, we decided it was time to bring it back. We set a theme - based on the Keats poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci", made a Haunted Forest amongst our fruit trees, cooked tons of good food, and invited everyone we knew. It was greatly successful and so much fun! We decided that it would become a tradition, and have stuck to it ever since.

Our Halloween party theme this year was inspired by the circus in the movie Mirrormask, with a little bit of Mommy Fortuna's Travelling Carnival from The Last Unicorn thrown in. We began planning it several months ago, and I think it all came together to be our most magical party yet. We scoured vintage clothing stores and thrift stores for the bits and pieces of costumes and decorations, made plaster masks and sewed stripey tablecloths, re-purposed tacky Halloween decorations into awesome sideshow characters, and hung tons of paper lanterns and colored lights. There were only two things we fell short on - although we had our little white pony all brushed out and glittered, she never got her unicorn horn and never made it out to the main circus area, and....the harpy was supposed to have water balloon er...chests...and we just didn't get to it. She was nice and squalky though, and was quite entertaining until she felt she had enough attention and turned and pouted in her corner for the rest of the night.

We had beautiful weather, and it was a truly lovely evening for all of us. It is such a joy to share with our family and friends this way every year.

Will You Walk Into My Parlour...(Halloween 2010)

...said the Spider to the Fly,

'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;

The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,

And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there."

"Oh, no, no," said the little Fly, to ask me is in vain,

For who goes up your winding stair, can ne'er come down again."

"I'm sure you must be weary, dear, with soaring up so high;
Will you rest upon my little bed?" said the Spider to the Fly.
..."Oh, no, no," said the little Fly, "for I've often heard it said,
They never, never wake again, who sleep upon your bed."


..."I have within my pantry, good store of all that's nice;
I'm sure you're very welcome--will you please to take a slice?"
"Oh, no, no," said the little Fly, "kind Sir, that cannot be,
I've heard what's in your pantry, and I do not wish to see!"

Our Halloween Party this year was a Spider theme...it was as creepy as we get around here! I didn't take pictures of the mummified (fake) owl and skeleton - eek!
The very weird big spider was made by Lucy out of a large, standing ghost we have. She took it apart, made spider legs out of wire and fake fur, gave it a big beach ball under it's cloak for an abdomen - ugh! I don't like spiders much!
Our entire orchard was wrapped in spider web to make a spooky den for the kids to explore. It was complete with a big web tunnel entrance, a foggy graveyard, spider eggsacks, and the web-wrapped mummies. All the kids loved it!

Click on the top picture of Lucy to see the amazing spider coat she made! She designed and sewed it herself, spun blue wool for the decorative stitching, added angora fur cuffs and netting collar, peacock feather epaulettes, and a pair of spider legs coming out the back.


The little girl cousins divided and swapped candy for hours!

Our party was on Saturday night, so on Halloween itself we had another celebration at Gramie's house. The teenagers and Robin all coordinated with Steampunk inspired costumes. They made quite an impression on the neighborhood! Apparently Barry was proposed to several times by admiring neighbor girls...he's sure it was just the vintage tailcoat :)

The Mad Hatter Was Here...

Here we see Lewis Carroll as he imagines some of the characters in his new story....

Alice meets the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and two darling doormice.

The Cheshire Cat wasn't all there...

I had to take a few pictures the next morning when the light was nice. It was such a fun party! Friends, family, and neighbors joined us, and many of them had gotten into the spirit and dressed to match the theme.

We ate pumpkin soup, homemade bread and homemade crackers; a variety of cheeses including brie, gouda, white farm cheddar, and my own goat cheese with raspberries and black grapes; cupcakes of course and cookies printed with instructions for Alice; Gramie's traditional homemade donuts; Jill's favorite winter squash dip; October Ale (a mix of spiced apple cider and ginger ale) and our own made from scratch rootbeer.

The setting was so magical with paper lanterns, thrifted tea pots on all the tables (filled with dry ice and warm water for effect!) and all set out under our big pine trees.

Here are some details of the Alice dress I made for Lucy. I finally found a purpose for the antique apron I found 15 years ago!

Every year we put up our "Family Graveyard" for Halloween. I had to laugh when I was able to snap this picture of one of our black cats walking through.


I have to say a little about the Mad Hatter costume. It was AMAZING!!! Jill found the purple velvet Ralph Lauren suit at Savers (thrift store) for $15, added a crazy purple and gold silk tie which she tied into a very fancy knot, my old silk shirt, some awesome shoes also from the thrift store, and of course, the HAT, made by Lucy. She also wore a little silver thimble and had a giant needle threaded with silk ribbon in her coat pocket. She was a most elegant Mad Hatter!

Thank you to everyone who came and helped make our party so fun! It was a truly enchanting evening!