45-49 Days of Halloween

Those of you who know me well know that I love Halloween. It is, hands down, my favorite holiday.

I love the ghost stories, the monster movies, the cute and scary decorations, the haunted tours. I love candy and the costumes and the novelty music and seeing Rapunzel, the Grim Reaper, David Bowie, and Cleopatra hanging out in the same place. Halloween has this powerful sense of possibility, of magic, of anything might happen.

Thrift stores, it turns out, also love Halloween, though for a more materialistic reason. You see, for most retail stores, Christmas is the big sale season--with everyone getting each other gifts. But for thrift stores, prime sales time is Halloween. Half our annual sales are for Halloween  costumes. So Halloween starts early and runs hard.

How early?

We put up the Halloween stock on Saturday. In. August.

How hard?

Well, somebody figured out that when the employees dress up in costume, sales go up.

So they are having us wear costumes to work several times a week until Halloween. Starting tomorrow.

You might have thought I'd be ecstatic, but at first I was overwhelmed. I mean, between running a business and getting ready to teach two orchestra classes, I've got a lot on my plate. Getting up early to dress up 49 days over 2.5 months (I'm actually not sure if it's 45 or 49, there's still a little confusion on whether my schedule changes in October) adds a significant burden to that. And I'd have to bike in costume, and work in costume, and then get cleaned up in time for my other jobs.

And, while we can wear any (appropriate) costume we like, they're encouraging us to wear particular themes, different  ones every time.

So I approached the list of themes with some trepidation, and figuring that I'd reuse a few simple costumes and insist on my regular work uniform other days.

But, reading the list... I... Look, I have a problem. I truly cannot resist the chance to dress up in weird costumes. .I blame my mother.

Not to mention, to encourage the costumes, everytime we come to work in costume we are entered into a prize drawing.

And I had to skip Halloween last year entirely because I was busy losing my job and moving across state lines. Which made me really sad. And that cinched it.

So I decided to do all of them. Every last one. All 49. (45?)
And, because I am pretty much broke, I am adding a self imposed challenge-- no spending money. Everything I wear has to be something I own, borrow, or make myself.

This challenge is lessened somewhat by my aforementioned mother, who spent years cultivating  a reputation as "that crazy scouting lady who always comes in costume" so I have some resources. But this is still going to take a lot of creativity, planning, and eyeliner. Lots and lots of eyeliner.

Anyway, I'll be posting photos and cosmetics information here. If you are unpleasantly surprised by this sudden foray into fashion blogging, rest assured it's just until Halloween. Or until I go completely insane, whichever comes first. I'm thinking to post with costumes once a week instead of putting them all up at once or spamming your feeds with 49 separate entries. (45?)

So, yeah. Happy Halloween?