Warm-up Costume: Dr Seuss
This one wasn't actually a Halloween costume; on Earth day, the store decided to do a Lorax-themed promotion, and encouraged us to dress up as Dr Seuss characters. Originally I was going to keep it simple, but then I found some cast photos from a production of Seussical the Musical that I couldn't help but play around with. Thus, my Thing 2 costume.
For the clothes, I dressed all in red, then printed and cut out a "Thing 2" circle to safety-pin to my shirt. I put my hair in a faux bob and used half a can of blue hairspray my mom had leftover from something, plus a bunch of blue glitter, to do my hair. White eyeshadow on the face, blue eyeshadow on the eyebrows, nose, and mouth, and a few lines in black eyeliner to try to look a little more "hand drawn".
Costume #1: Sports
I decided after this one to ignore most of the suggested themes-- many of them are this boring, after all, and if I'm only doing this for a month I'm going to do costumes I actually enjoy. But I did find a way to make this more fun than just wearing a basketball jersey:
I went as a Quidditch player!
I also wore my aviator goggles, and carried a snitch made out of an ornament, gold paint, and some feathers.
The "leather armor" is actually fun foam with some fake aging and para-cord laces. A little uncomfortable to wear for long but it looked pretty good.
If I did this for a main Halloween costume I think I'd make some proper Quidditch robes with less safety-pin tailoring, but overall it was a pretty fun costume to wear.
Costume #2: Mime
This one was pretty fun. I wore a black and white striped shirt with a black skirt, and added a red bandanna, red suspenders, and a black hat. I used white eyeshadow to make my face pale, added red lipstick, then did all the eye markings with black eyeliner.
While I liked how it all looked, the real fun part? Not talking all day. It was kind of fun to try to figure out how to communicate everything just using gestures and facial expressions. And it was funny how many people would ask me a few questions, then kind of give me a confused look, then laugh and say, "Oh! I get it! You aren't talking because you're a mime!"
I'm not sure I'm going to bother with theme songs this year (if I change my mind I'll update this post later), but I think an appropriate one for this costume would be Simon and Garfunkle's "The Sound of Silence".
Costume #3: Magician
You know, I went through a stage as a kid where I really wanted to be a magician. I ended up giving it up because it turns out I'm really bad at magic tricks, but no reason for me not to dress the part. I wore a black skirt, a black cumberbund I found in the costume bin, a white polo shirt, my red bowtie from last year, and a black coat with tails I borrowed from my Dad. Add a top hat, a homemade wand (made in roughly five minutes out of paper and an unsharpened pencil), and a trick deck of cards and I was all set.
Of course, the theme song here would be "That Old Black Magic" by Frank Sinatra.
Costume #4: Cracked Doll
The dress is actually my Mom's old gunnysack dress. Funny story; in middle school we had a "decades week" where we dressed up like different decades. My mom lent me this dress to wear on 70s day; all my classmates got after me for dressing up like the 1870s instead of the 1970s-- but the adults started waxing nostalgic about having their own gunnysack dresses. I guess it just goes to show that what we think people wore in a particular time period tends to be a little innacurate.
The makeup was a lot of fun to do, though I could have used some practice. I started out with some more natural looking makeup, then added some fake eyelids to try to make my eyes look bigger. The cracks are all in eyeliner (this was my first time using liquid eyeliner and it's kind of weird) with a little bit of white eyeshadow on some of the edges to try to look more realistic.
Curiously, my costumes this year have been getting a lot more comments from customers than last year's costumes-- which you might remember is kind of exceptional because thrift store shoppers are jaded and hard to impress. This costume I had several people call out as a favorite; lots of people told me I looked cute. I'd been going more for creepy, but I guess whatever floats your boat.
The theme song for this would have to be Kanon Wakashima's "Still Doll", even if it was a runner up last year.
Costume #5: Flight Attendant
This one was quick and easy because I needed to leave right after working at the thrift store for a music therapy appointment. I wore a blue 1940s-style dress (which you'll see a better shot of next week) with a silk scarf and my hair in a bun, and I printed out a photo of those wings they hand out to kids on airplanes to cut out and pin to the front. Normal makeup and I was good to go. I sort of expected to get flack on this one the way I did on my Star Trek costume last year since this was so easy. But I guess this outfit was different enough from normal that it passed as a costume.
Costume #6: Fortune Teller
So basically my strategy here was: lots of layers, lots of jewelry, lots of scarves. and a general aura of mystery. Pretty straightforward. We've actually got a crystal ball I could have used, but it would've been too much of a hassle to lug that around at work.
Costume #7: They said to do cowboys, I did Indiana Jones instead
This one was fun. I wore brown slacks, brown boots, a brown belt, a white polo, and a leather jacket. I borrowed the hat from my Mom's collection, and did my hair in a tight braid.
The hat is actually an official "Indiana Jones hat" that I got Mom for Christmas years ago. It's pretty cheaply made and a little small, but it did OK for a costume. If I had more time, I'd have come up with a whip and with some kind of artifact that belongs in a museum to carry around.
You don't need me to give you the theme song, do you?
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