Celebrating the Seasons

I’ve always disliked complaints about Valentine’s Day. “It’s a Hallmark Holiday! It’s manufactured!” and the like. My attitude has always been, “Well, if you’re weak enough to fall for the marketing, and can’t just enjoy the day, that’s on you!” But upon recent reflection, I think these protesters may have a point, and it’s this: obsessive marketing to sell stuff is blurring the lines between what a holiday means and what we must buy for it, leaving the innate simple pleasures of the seasons to die on the vine, while we’re systematically subjected to anxiety-inducing campaigns that are geared towards only one thing: separating us from our money. And now it’s happening for every single holiday.

The tradition of the Christmas tree used to be to put it up and decorated it as a family on Christmas Eve. Now our Christmas tree isle is back to back with the Halloween costumes, and our trees are up before Thanksgiving.

Even the marketing itself is getting earlier. The traditional big shopping day of Black Friday is now on Thanksgiving Day itself! And “smaller” holidays, like Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day, are for white sales and barbeques (sadly, most people don’t even stop to think about the significant difference between these two days, if they even stop to think about them at all).

My point here is that we are being robbed of the enjoyment of delighting in the seasons as they come, and forced through anxiety to constantly be thinking ahead instead of enjoying the moment.

As you likely know, I love “stuff”…I’m in the stuff business! But I’m nostalgic, and miss the simple things that came with the changing seasons, that thrilled me as a child, and fear these little delights are being chipped away, piece by piece, but something as petty and predictable as marketing.

On Halloween night, I let some of these feelings of dread in. When we walked through the door from a fun night of trick-or-treating and hanging out with neighbors, my first thought wasn’t to reflect on the festivities or leisurely make a cup of tea while taking it all in. My first thought was, “I need to put away all of this Halloween stuff! What do I do next? Take out the Christmas stuff? Oh Christmas! It’s just around the corner!”

If you’ve read past posts (and you have, of course, haven’t you?) You’ll know I see everyday as a chance to recalibrate (why wait till Monday, or the first of the month, or the first of the year?) so today I’m doing just that. The weather is cool, so I’ll make some spiced cider and maybe let an old movie play while I’m fixing dinner tonight…I’ll make something warm…something that smells like Autumn! I’ll focus on the joys of this season, and let the anxieties around me fall away while I revel in what I love about this season. And, just as important, I’m going to talk to my child about things I love about fall.

In the coming days we can talk about the Pilgrims, what Thanksgiving means, and maybe recreate The Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria out of construction paper and popsicle sticks, like I did when I was a kid. The push back will be hard…I have errands to run today and will see all of the Christmas stuff (and possibly even Valentine hearts; nothing would surprise me at this point!) but when I do, I’ll make an effort to not let the panic-ridden marketing in, and to look around and let in the things of this current season that I love. Join me in this little exercise? I’ll bet we’ll both be better off, mentally (and financially!).

http://www.comicsbeat.com/24-hours-of-halloween-a-saulte-to-ben-cooper-costumes/

What do I do with these Halloween costumes!?

Is it just me, or do we seem to consume more and more, and at the same time live in smaller spaces? I mean, is the fact that we consume more “stuff” indicate we must live in smaller spaces (spending on stuff prevents affording a bigger space?), or do the spaces seem smaller because we have more stuff? It’s somewhat of a chicken-and-egg argument, but I find myself looking for more of a balance to this conundrum on a daily basis.

As you may well know, I am NOT a minimalist…I love stuff! But because of space, or lack of it, I’m always trying to conjure creative display ideas so that my home still functions. One way I do this is to pinch the sentiment out of certain items, and leave the rest for donation, trade, and sale.

For our first Halloween, I purchased a big-ish shadow box for my child and pinned the hat from her first Halloween costume inside. As the years pass, I tuck in a tiny piece from each costume…the feather from her flapper costume, the glasses from her Grocho Marx costume, the flower from her Bip costume… I’ll deconstruct the costume, tuck any parts that can be possibly used again for another costume in the designated box, and get rid of the rest. (For instance, after she was Batman, I passed the bulky utility belt on, knowing she’d never want to repeat a costume, but saved the leotard after removing the bat logo). This way, I’m curating all of our Halloweens, without having to save all the taxing bits. And when I no longer want to have these things on display, I’ll tuck them into a memory box, and save them for my daughter.

An even easier way to curate is with photos. A couple snapshots from each year with some journal pages tucked in to write notes, is a keepsake you’ll love to look back on, and pass on to your kids someday. Because, do we really want to leave them with an attic full of moth-eaten costumes so they can look back on their memories for a fleeting moment before tossing them in the trash? Or do we want to create memories that are simple, heartfelt and, most importantly, compact?

Think about it…these are great ways to “Go Green this Halloween” while still getting our fill of “stuff” and memory-making. Deconstruct, donate or exchange that costume, and see if it doesn’t help build more meaningful Halloween memories, while helping keep our closets and attics clear.

Stay tuned for info on our neighborhood’s costume swap (I mentioned it in my last post…you read it, didn't you?) And look for fun, creative, and easy ideas on www.GreenHalloween.org

How do you cleverly curate Halloween? Leave a note or come in and chat!

Ducky Shincrackers

5618 E Thomas Rd #110

Phoenix, AZ 85018

Remembering the Homemade Halloween Costume

Gurley Candles from habershamsales on ebay. Item number 321866355810

Remember when the only costumes in the stores were those thin cotton or plastic sheaths with a Ben Cooper mask? They were displayed in drugstores in cellophane fronted boxes, or on cardboard hangers in the Halloween section of the store. The same isle with the Gurley Company candles, and the Brach’s cardboard Halloween Display (Just a whiff of cinnamon and black licorice sends me back to this bewitching isle!)

While we never purchased these costumes, their existence in the stores helped set the mood for the season. Like everyone else we knew, we made our costumes. 

Sure, some friends had mothers and grandmothers who were brilliant seamstresses, whipping up long-tailed dinosaurs, and curly-headed clowns, but the majority of us had costumes  put together with things out of the rag-bag and attic. Cardboard box robots, and bed-sheet ghosts were what we trick-or-treated in, and a good deal of the fun was putting it all together.

When I first became a parent, I was admittedly seduced by the puffy pumpkin and fuzzy chick get-ups from places like Pottery Barn Kids. I think I was looking to put my finger on that “bewitching” feeling from childhood, and the warm atmosphere of such stores were doing a fine job of dangling a proverbial pocket watch before my eyes, subtly suggesting I needed to spend $85 on my tiny tot in order to give the best Halloween experience.

Luckily, I snapped awake in time to DIY the costume for my barely-able-to-walk Trick-or-Treater, making her an easy crepe-paper flower hat and dressing her in a green top and bottom she already had. She was perfectly charming in this costume, and the experience was a good reminder of how Halloween should be.

The next year, I grabbed an old tank top of mine, sewed a long length of cheap fringe from top to bottom, tucked the top of a peacock feather into a headband, and voila! Little Flapper Girl. I’ve “made” (read: cobbled together) every costume since. With a tiny bit of planning ahead, and a little creativity, making the costume is part of our Halloween tradition, and is a great memory builder.

While chatting with the owner of Perennials Boutique recently, she was contemplating whether or not she’d carry kids costumes, as the bulk of store bought costumes could be overwhelming and take up too much rack space in her store. I told her how succumbing to the high expense of mainstream “Halloweening” is easy to do, but that I was very old-fashioned about it. This inspired the put-together of some easy costumes in her front window. A fancy dress with ice-blue snowflake cape and little tiara: Frozen Costume! A secondhand flower-girl dress with inexpensive wire wings: Fairy Princess! Even a black shirt and pants with lone-ranger style mask and DIY cape could be the base for a Super Hero costume.

For those times we don’t feel particularly creative, or have zero time left in this last quarter of the year, look for a costume exchange. We have one here in our Arcadia neighborhood with a bring-a-costume-leave-a-costume rule. Costumes are in gently used condition, and allow your Trick-or-Treater to trade in his Tigger costume from last year for the Spiderman he wants to be this year, without being cash-out-of-pocket.

Whichever way you go when choosing a costume, make the experience part of your tradition. After all, Halloween lasts for an average of 12 years for your little goblin, and is only a few hours long, from sunset to bedtime. Make those precious hours count! 

Stay tuned for an easy way to memorialize Halloween costumes without having to save every one of them. 

National Animal Crackers Day!

Today is National Animal Crackers Day! Celebrate with an iconic red circus box of these yummy treats…maybe while watching the Marx Bros movie…or listening to the famous Shirley Temple song? Then wash up with Philosophy's best bubble bath "Animal Cracker"! 

Ducky's is celebrating, too! Vintage style, circus posters are only $10

Ducky’s 10 Best!

New Year’s Resolutions

Less Red: meat, wine, punch

Less White: bread, rice, cake

More Green: Salad, Recycling, Money!

More Reading

More Sleeping

Smaller Portions

Shopping Small

Stretching More (literally and figuratively)

Stressing Less

Living in the Moment!

Small Change

I’m reconsidering small, lately, and applying it to 2015. While planning my New Year’s Resolutions, I’m thinking I’ll make them small. And by that I mean approaching them in small steps.

I love the New Year…starting fresh and putting the best foot forward. It’s exhilarating! Yet, the statistic is, most of us have forgotten our resolutions by February, and so I make it a point to at least reread them, quarterly. While I haven’t become a brilliant chess player, or learned all of the foreign swear words I’d planned to, I would revisit these things in the drag of summer, or beginning of fall to remind myself what I want to accomplish. I’d start my practice, but inevitably, they would fade into the background again. I think the real trick is to practice small, and daily.

Weight loss, for example, (the number one resolution); Why do we discuss this in terms of “when”? We say, “I’ll start my diet on the first” or “on Monday”. And whenever we fall off the wagon, we choose another start date or day. Why not right this minute? If we over-ate at breakfast, why do we consider it’s a loss and throw the baby out with the bathwater? Resolve that at lunchtime, you will have a healthy meal in smaller portions, every meal an opportunity to make positive decisions and to be proud of yourself, and when you’re proud of yourself, you’re empowered!  Daily, we can resolve to reset, then each night we can celebrate our awesomeness with, say, an earlier bedtime, or good book (more sleep and more reading…both excellent resolutions!). There’s a reason “One Day At A Time” is such a popular saying…it’s really the only way to live, because it’s simply what we have…right now! And our biggest anxieties occur when we are dwelling on the past, or fretting about the future.

Come in to Ducky Shincrackers and post your resolutions on Ducky’s 10 Best board, and Make & Take a little “Messages in a Bottle”, courtesy of the shop.

Welcome, sweet Baby New Year! Let’s be kind to each other!