My Halloween Weekend Adventures (+ Some Words From My Heart)

Happy Halloween you guys!  Are you in full costume while you're reading this?  Eating ridiculous amounts of sugary treats?  Playing horror movies in the background?  Other than handing out candy to trick-or-treaters later on, I'm actually not doing much out of the ordinary today.  I celebrated over the weekend up in Milwaukee, where I met Robbie and the band for their Halloween run.  I explained this in Friday's post, but each year the band plays two shows the weekend before Halloween, with the second night being a mash-up themed set list and costume party.

I had the best intentions of getting all sorts of pictures of our costumes, but sometimes when you're doing something for the sole purpose of having fun, you just need to drink a beer and put down the camera already.  So alas, I didn't even get a full-length shot of my mash-up costume (Buddy Holly Golightly. Get it? Get it?), but I'm still going to share some of my photos from the evening, which ended up being an amazing time as usual.  Also, the Buddy Holly part of my ensemble didn't last very long because carrying around a guitar (even a mini one) in the middle of a packed venue isn't the easiest feat.  Audrey Hepburn is pretty much my ultimate idol anyway, so I certainly didn't mind devoting myself fully to her for the majority of the night. 

You may also notice my husband's "costume," which I made for him.  We compromised. I wanted him to wear a costume.  He felt it was too much effort.  Easy solution, seen above. That little black bar was Photoshopped in, by the way.  I'm sure you guys can figure out what it actually said.

On a completely different and much less happy note, I want to take a moment to pay tribute to my beautiful Aunt Kathy, who succumbed to her 12 year battle with cancer yesterday.  She made the decision from the beginning to treat it holistically and stuck to it, and lived far, far beyond the life expectancy she was given by doctors.  Only recently did it start to affect her quality of living, and she passed away peacefully in her own home.  Aunt Kathy was always smiling, always making serious times silly, and always bringing family together.  And although my heart hurts knowing that the world just lost someone so special, her entire family feels a sense of peace knowing that she was ready to say goodbye, and is no longer suffering.

I know many of you are in celebratory moods today because of Halloween, and that you come to this design + lifestyle blog for inspiration.  So I wanted to wish you all a happy holiday today, but I also wouldn't have felt right only talking about my adventures at a concert when something so much more important to me is going on.  I appreciate you guys letting me share this, and also appreciate any positive thoughts you can send out to Aunt Kathy's children, grandchildren, and her loving husband, my Uncle Tim.  I'd also like to thank those of you who are involved in efforts to help find a cure (and better preventative testing) for ovarian cancer.  You are true heroes in the fight against an ugly, unfair disease.