The project from 2010 with which I was the least satisfied would have to be the grasshopper. It never seemed to conform to my vision of it. No matter what I tried, it just kept looking too . . . cute. It spent Halloween in my yard, where it drew comments and admiration from trick-or-treaters and assorted passers-by. Most felt it was more creepy than cute.
I remained unconvinced.
So in the days following Halloween, as I deconstructed the props and sent most into storage, I made the decision to dispose of the grasshopper. It would not live to see another Halloween. Oddly enough, it was a decision that elicited a mixture of shock and disbelief from my husband, a person who is largely oblivious to the fate of my props after Halloween night. Apparently, however, he had formed an attachment to the grasshopper while it lived in our basement in various stages of completion. And he was appalled that I would even consider its destruction.
I remained unconvinced.
Finally, unwilling to witness the grasshopper's demise, he took matters into his own hands. An elementary school teacher, he was planning a science unit for his class on invertebrates, and he felt the grasshopper prop could play a role in its introduction. But not any ordinary introduction. Instead, he stuffed the grasshopper into a large white sack and hung it upside down in a corner of his classroom. He would eventually have them "Guess the invertebrate".
But in the meantime, nothing keeps those kids in line like an unidentified corpse in a body bag hanging in the classroom.