Costume Challenge #7-11: Curiouser and Curiouse

Guys, I am spending a truly unhealthy amount of time on hair and makeup tutorial websites trying to figure out how to do all this crazy stuff. (Incidentally, if anyone wants to see which tutorials I used, perhaps for a costume of their own, let me know and I'd be happy to pass the info along)

Costume #7: Pirates

This was a really fun one. 

I wore a striped shirt and black slacks, then added a maroon skirt-- but I used some black yarn to tie it up in front. It didn't look quite as cool in real life as in my head, but I think it added something. The boot toppers are left over from a costume I wore in High school-- just bits of fake leather with the Jolly Roger, tied to my legs and with elastics over my shoes. 

I did a few braids in my hair of varying styles, lengths, and widths, then put it all up with a bandanna. I didn't have an eye patch, so I painted one on using black creme Halloween makeup and eyeliner. I used a dark lipstick, and overdrew my lips for a more angular look that I thought looks tougher and more aggressive. 

Time: 1 Hour, 30 minutes. It would have been faster with a simpler hair style, or if I used an actual eye patch instead of painting one.

Co-Worker Reactions: Tons of employees dressed up for this one, but I did still manage to stand out a bit with my makeup job, and I got some very nice compliments.

Customer Reactions: While most customers didn't visibly react, I did get quite a few comments. Mostly, everyone seems to love the eye patch. I just thought that was me being too cheap to buy an actual eye patch, but there were several customers who stopped me just to say how much they liked the eyepatch. I did decide that the eyepatch was a good idea because this outfit was for Labor Day-- meaning a big 50% off sale, meaning that the store was a zoo, and I needed all my depth perception to get racks of clothing from one side of the store to the other without running over anyone. Even with both eyes open, I still looked like I was wearing an eye-patch from a distance, so it was a good way to get the best of both worlds.

After work I took off to help my brother move into the student dorms at BYU. A few minutes in, my Dad asked me to wash the makeup off-- I think my parents were a little embarrassed about me dressing like this in public away from work.

Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Aye, that I would. In fact, I did, back in high school, though I did a much better job on the hair and makeup this time around. If this was my main costume, I'd add a sword and maybe a jacket, or replace the shirt with a white long-sleeved shirt and a corset. Also, one of these days I want to get a nice tri-corner hat.

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: Oh, there are SO MANY amazing pirate songs to choose from-- from The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything to Professional Pirate. But for the best Halloween Pirate song, I'd have to go with Hoist the Colors, by Hans Zimmer. (Also doubles as a great Zombie song in some circles, thanks to some very clever mind games in one year's Humans Vs Zombies event at USU)

Costume #8: Under the Sea

Going straight from Pirates to Under the Sea did make me feel like I was an extra for Alex Boye's cover of the song. 

But, anyway, my costume:

My Mom owns a pair of fish-scale leggings, which she was kind enough to let me borrow for this costume. I wore them with a fitted black undershirt and a loose blue t-shirt. I really didn't have good shoes for this so I just wore my old mission shoes. I left my hair down, but did two fish-tail braids (get it? Get it?) on either side of my face and pulled them back, which helped keep my hair out of my face.

The make-up for this one was really fun. First I did some contouring with a base made of white and black eyeshadow-- you can't really see it, but that's because the purpose of the base was to make the blue stand out more.

I then took a piece of net fabric (fishnet stockings would work, or even those mesh bags that you sometimes get fruit in at the grocery store) and held that over my skin, then colored over that with a blue pastel. That's how you get the fish-scale effect. (The tutorial I referenced used bright colored eye-shadow, so that should also work, but the pastel worked like a dream). I did my neck and upper arms as well as my face for a more dramatic effect. I did a dark lipstick and topped everything else with some blue glitter.

Some lightings look more fish-like than others.

Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Co-Worker Reactions: There was one other person dressed up-- as the crab from Moana, which came out looking like some kind of monster clown. Later on, an employee came for a different shift dressed as an octopus. Everyone seemed to be pretty impressed with my costume; I got a lot of questions about how I did my makeup.

Customer Reactions: Mostly nothing, but one woman did ask me about it and we had a long chat about why the store is having us dress up and what some of the other costumes I'm doing are. She said that having the employees dress up makes shopping here a lot more fun.

Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Yes! I was actually really sad to take this costume off, I was so pleased with how it turned out. I really want another excuse to dress like this sometime soon. 

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: Easy one: Poor Unfortunate Souls, by Alan Menken. And if you are in the need for a laugh, can I recommend to you the Google Translate Version? (I considered My Jolly Sailor Bold, but decided not to because I found the Pirates of the Caribbean take on mermaids to be disappointing. I mean, spooky singing mermaids-- cool, cool. But when the mermaids turn out to be evil they grow vampire teeth. Vampire teeth. There's an entire ocean full of fish with terrifying mouths-- sharks, angler fish, lampreys-- that would have made for awesome and terrifying mermaids. But, no, we have to make them into aquatic vampires. Probably the most boring thing they could have done with evil mermaids. That one faux documentary about mermaids had scarier mermaids than this. And obviously I'm still a little annoyed)

Costume #9: Alice In Wonderland

This costume almost threw me for a loop: they didn't include this one on the list, instead deciding to add another themed costume day and announcing it later on. The bad news for me is that they announced this in the afternoon, after I had gone home. In fact, no one thought to tell me about it-- I found out the day before when other employees started coming to me with costume questions like "How would I make a Cheshire cat tail?" and "Does this jacket work for the Mad Hatter?" This left me with just one night to put a costume together (throwing off my plans a little) --but I did manage to put together a playing card costume: the Ace of Hearts.

I had an old white shirt that had picked up some stains: I cut the sleeves off and painted a red heart. I used some red scrap fabric to make a heart-shaped patch, then sewed that onto the knee of a pair of white paints. I wore these with a black t-shirt, red socks, and my trusty knock-off converse. 

I did the heart over my eye with a mixture of lipstick and red chalk pastel, then did a few other hearts and a letter A in eyeliner (and red lipstick on my lips too). Pretty simple.

Time: 2 hours prep, 30 minutes day of

Co-Worker Reactions: Mostly my co-workers just asked me what my costume was. When I said playing card, they'd follow up with, "Oh, I get it, you're the Queen of Hearts!" So apparently writing a letter A on my forehead wasn't enough for people to actually figure out what my costume was. There were quite a few people who dressed up today-- we had an Alice, a Cheshire Cat, a White Rabbit, two Mad Hatters, and an actual Queen of Hearts. There was also one terribly confused soul who showed up dressed as Dorothy, complete with ruby slippers.

Customer Reactions: No reaction today, which isn't horribly surprising since this was a pretty tame costume.

Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Maybe? I really enjoyed this costume, even if it didn't get very good reactions. I think it would be really great for a themed group or event.

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: Thriller/Heads Will Roll by Glee (though I went with a different music video made by a fan using some Disney clips)

Costume #10: Witches

Simple but classic costume. I dressed up in black and orange clothes, and borrowed a witch hat from the store I work at (allowed so long as I leave the price tag on). I didn't have any orange/black striped socks, so I took a pair of black knee highs and some orange acrylic paint and made myself a pair the night before.

The hat was actually a royal pain. It wasn't quite large enough, so I was less wearing it and more balancing it on my head, and every little breeze sent it falling off.

I kept the makeup simple but fun. Orange eye shadow, black lipstick, some stars and moons drawn out of eye liner. I quite liked how it turned out; maybe I should do my makeup like this more often outside of costume.

Time: Forty minutes prep, 20 minutes day of.

Co-Worker Reactions: I did get several compliments on this. Also several people asking if I was a good witch or a bad witch.

Customer Reactions: Nothing from the adults, but I did hear several kids talking behind my back: "Look, it's a witch!" "Is that a witch? It's a witch!" etc

Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Yes, but only if I could find a hat that actually fit.

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: There are so many good Witch themed Halloween Songs, but I had to go with I Put A Spell On You by Bette Midler. (Actually, it was originally written in the 1950s by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and the original is pretty great too.)

Costume #11: Movie Stars

OK, so maybe you are looking at the above image and saying, 'Eh, Jennifer broke out the photoshop'. In which case I need to tell you that, 1) I use Gimp, not photoshop, because I am poor. Also, 2) My photomanipulation skills are way better than that, if I'd done this with a computer it would look waaaaay better. In fact, here's a good comparison, a photo of my Mom I edited to look like a film noir detective:

See? Way cooler. Though maybe that's just the subject making it look cool. Fun fact, both photos do contain the same hat.

Anyway. As further evidence, have a terrible video of me dancing in costume.

The clothes are an assortment of black, white, and grey items from my closet. I actually had to double up two pairs of nylon socks to keep skin color from coming through. The gloves appeared previously in my Minion costume (Costume #2). I even replaced the red lanyard that I wear my employee badge on with a black one-- though I ran out of time to include a black and white version of the name badge itself, which has a colored logo.

Do you understand now why I decided I really did need to buy some costume makeup?

I was going for Film Noir, but I keep looking at this and thinking The Spine from the band Steam Powered Giraffe.

I put my hair into a chignon (a kind of bun) then sprayed it with black hair-spray. I did a mixture of white and black creme makeups to make the grey base, then used black and white eye shadow to add some highlights and shadows. I wore black lipstick, and used mascara to color my eyebrows and touch up anywhere that my hair needed more black.

The tutorials I based this on did a much better job-- I missed a lot of spots and the results are too dark and too shiny to really look like a black and white film come to life. The cheap makeup also got kind of patchy as the day went on (when I got out of costume to take a shower later I discovered tiny flakes of grey paint all down my front). But it still manages to be pretty striking, I think, and it photographs better than it looks in real life. I'm not completely satisfied with how my makeup turned out, but I'm probably being too hard on myself.

Time: Two Hours

Co-Worker Reactions: Got a few compliments. One woman said it was "scary", which I didn't expect to hear-- but she's Korean so there might be some culture context there I'm not getting. 

Customer Reactions: I'm going to stop doing this Reaction section, I think. There's a general cycle with each of these costumes-- the other employees notice and I get lots of compliments which makes me feel good about myself, and then we open the store and the customers all ignore me and I feel disappointed. Today was more or less the same, other than a few double takes from small children.

Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Yes. This is the hardest costume I've done so far for this challenge, and if I did it again I'd want to invest in some higher quality makeup (and do a few practice runs to try and get the exact look I wanted). But I really like the idea, and for the right occasion or photo opportunity it would definitely be worth it. Sadly, I think this look was a little wasted on the thrift store shopping in September crowd.

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: I had a few ideas for this-- Safe and Sound was considered because the music video features black and white dancers stepping into the real world, but it's not very Halloween. Another idea was Build Our Machine, a song made for a horror game featuring black and white cartoon characters. But in the end, I decided to go with an era appropriate Halloween Song: The Little Man Who Wasn't There, by Mildred Bailey. 

Anyway, that's another week down-- and what a crazy week it was! I'm definitely ready to give my skin a bit of a break before diving into next weeks costumes.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy your not exactly Halloween!

Costume Challenge #4-6

In for yet another week of Jennifer wearing strange outfits in public places!

Costume Theme #4: Nerds

Not a lot to say here-- this is pretty much all stuff out of my regular wardrobe, worn a little differently than usual. 

Time: Five minutes, tops

Reaction From Co-Workers: Lots of people actually dressed up for this one-- and in comparison, my outfit looked a lot less like a costume. The consensus seemed to be that I looked "cute but not nearly nerdy enough". 

Reaction From Customers: Bizarrely, this was the first costume that got a reaction. One of our regular customers asked me why I was dressed up.

Would I Actually Wear this for Halloween: Honestly, this costume turned out as kind of a dud. If I really wanted to make this work, adding a bowtie, suspenders, and a pair of glasses would probably do it. But truth be told, I've never seen the point of "nerd" as a Halloween costume. Costumes are about pretending to be something you are not. This costume is taking something about myself that actually exists, and trying to blow it to a ludicrous extreme for comedic effect. Which maybe says more about me than about the idea of "nerd" as a costume, that the real issue is that I'm still learning to laugh at myself. Wow, this got way more philosophical than I think any of us expected this section to get... but the answer is still No. 

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: Let's go with She Blinded Me With Science, by Thomas Dolby

Costume Theme #5: Doctors and Nurses Haha nope

So I had every intention of doing this costume-- it's a pretty easy one, all in all, which worked out because Thursday was a very busy day for my music therapy business and I really didn't want to spend a lot of time on getting out of my costume. I knew my Mom had a set of scrubs, a white lab coat, and a stethoscope in the costume bins, so I didn't even worry about getting anything ready until the last minute.

Except, it turns out that my Dad had borrowed the costume for the previous Pack Meeting and it wasn't in the bin after all.

I really didn't have time to go hunting for it, so I decided to just throw together a costume of my own that was out of theme. Hence, my old aviator costume:

That's my aviator goggles (seen before in Costume #2), a white scarf, and an aviator cap. I got the goggles and cap online for a costume back when I was in college. I put on the leather jacket for this photo and your benefit, but there was no way I was wearing that thing during work-- I'd have melted-- so I just wore the headware and scarf over a t-shirt and khaki pants.

Even so, I had to take the costume off a few times to recover because I was overheating enough to get a bit of a headache. Not fun. This is causing me to rethink some details on other costumes coming up.

Time: Five minutes tops

Reaction from Co-Workers: Generally positive. People are starting to notice the fact that I am dressing up very regularly, to the point where they consult me to ask which themes are coming up instead of the managers. Lots of people showed up in scrubs today-- and one guy from Donations wore skeleton jewelry, a top hat with bones and feathers, and a fancy vest. In other words, he was a witch doctor. I thoroughly approved.

Reaction from Customers: One guy told me that he liked my hat. We are already leaps and bounds ahead of last week.

Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Oh, sure, I have before. It's a great last minute costume if you get the stuff in advance. I recommend this one if you're going to be spending the night outside, whether trick-or-treating or at an outdoor party. This is one of the few cases where your Mom making you put on a warm coat before you go outside for the night makes your costume better instead of worse.

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: I drew a blank on this and went to Google, but the best I could find was Scary Flying Shark, by Little Red Car. So... that's a song that exists, it turns out.

Honorable Mention: Witch Doctor, by David Seville

Costume #6: Inside Out

I actually saw this movie for the first time two days before dressing up for it-- I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I expected to. A few of my co-workers were confused when they saw that in the list of themes.

"Isn't that a bit... gruesome?" Someone asked me.

"The kids movie?" I asked.

A few explanations later, I found out he thought the costume was supposed to be having your insides on your outsides (like, covering yourself with organs) so that you were inside out. 

Only four people dressed up for this one, but at least that made for a pretty good group photo. Here we've got Joy, Sadness, Anger, and myself as Disgust.

Turns out I'm not very good at looking nice and grossed out at the same time.

The garbage bins in the back room are legitimately disgusting, though. We're smack dab between a restaurant and some horses so we attract a truly shocking number of flies.

I didn't have time to put together anything close to what the character wears in the movie, but I borrowed a green skirt and wore a green shirt, pink shoes, and a pink bandanna around my neck.

I colored my hair green using pastel chalk and some green glitter. This took an enormous amount of time and work for rather tame results-- my hair is dark enough that it doesn't show the chalk very easily so I had to use a lot. 

I used more of the pastel chalk to do my face, mixed with an alarming amount of green glitter and a little green eye shadow. I did my lips pink, like the character, and I sprinkled glitter on my eyelashes right after adding mascara to copy the huge sparkly eyelashes Disgust has in the movie. I thought it worked out pretty well, but had the odd side effect of making me see dancing lights out of the corner of my eyes all day.

Now, there was another dimension to this costume. You see, my aunt and uncle were having their 50th wedding anniversary up in Logan, and I just had time to clean off the worst of the makeup before hitting the road to make it on time. Which meant I showed up to the family party looking like I'd just escaped from Emerald City.

Eh. Totally worth it.

Some of that glitter got stuck in my pores, though, and I'm pretty sure that in a day or two I'm going to break out into a bad case of glitter pimples.

Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes. I would have saved a lot of time by getting a wig instead of trying to color my hair with chalk.

Reaction from Co-Workers: Pretty good reaction: I got a lot of laughs and comments. A few people who still hadn't gotten the Inside Out Memo had to ask me later what my costume was.

Reaction from Customers: For a while, nothing. I was starting to feel discouraged-- does nothing impress Savers Shoppers? But then one woman, when I asked her if I could help her find something, froze-- then burst out laughing-- then needed a minute to recover before she could even remember what she was looking for. Another man asked me if I was an employee, a customer, or a heart attack. A few kids gave me double takes. And one woman even recognized what I was supposed to be dressed up as (admittedly after talking to the cashier dressed up as Sadness). Finally, I am getting noticed!

Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Maybe. If I wanted to do this properly, I'd try to come up with a more figure-flattering and movie accurate dress, not to mention some leggings. A wig would also be a must. I think it would be worth it if I had a group to go out with that were dressing up as the other characters, but I'm not sure I'd do it as a solo act otherwise.

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: It's not really a Halloween song, but I had to go with Bein' Green, by Joe Raposo

That's week two! I thought this would be kind of a boring week, costume wise, but it wasn't too bad. I'm really excited for week three-- there's some really awesome costumes coming up this next week (if they turn out how I want them to, anyway). Though I really hope the weather is a little cooler next Saturday, or else I am going to be miserable. (What's the costume? That's a surprise, you'll find out soon enough, but I'll give you a hint and say that it might be the single most make-up intensive costume of the entire challenge. That's actually a really terrible hint but oh well.) Anyway, happy Pre-Halloween!

Axle Existence Failure

I really do like my bike.

My bicycle was purchased for my mission, and it was sort of unique there. You see, most of the missionaries I knew got big, bulky mountain bikes, as a defense against the many spiky, thorny plants native to Texas. My little road bike, on the other hand, is a graceful elegant thing that did not fit right on bike racks-- leading more than one bemused elder to look at my bike, hung on the back of the car at an angle suggestive of a wounded deer, and ask whether or not it was physically possible to ride the thing.

But let me tell you, I got less flat tires than any missionary I knew that brought a big dirt bike.

And the trend has continued; my bike has managed to get through a mission, college, the Boise Greenbelt, and a new daily commute to and from the thrift store with hardly any problems!

Well, OK, there was that one flat tire. And that other flat tire. And the time I needed to replace the derailleur. And the time an elder hopped on my bike and a pedal came off. And then the time when I had to disassemble the bike to fit it in a box to ship home and the pedal (reattached with a special glue that would hold until I applied "a bit of force" to break the bond) stuck, and the "bit of force" necessary turned out to be roughly 250 lbs of Tongan muscle...

OK, fine, my bike has had problems, like all vehicles.

But the problem on my way home from work the other day was a new one.

I was cutting through the park on the way home, just cruising along, when I went over a curb--and my bike just sort of collapsed.

I wasn't hurt or anything, just a bit confused. I stepped off my bike to see what had happened-- and discovered that the axle for the front wheel had disappeared. Without it, the wheel had popped right out of place.

I spent a minute feeling kind of stunned, looking around to see if the axle had fallen out somewhere nearby. No sign of it. Was it stolen? Did it just fall out? I honestly have no idea-- I don't even know how long I was biking without it.

This left me in a bit of a pickle, but luckily a kind woman driving by saw me and gave me and my wounded bike a ride home. Also lucky, the replacement axle was quite inexpensive.

But, still-- that might be the weirdest bike problem I've ever had.

Costume Challenge #1-3: Boding Well?

Welcome to week one of the Thrift Store Costume Challenge. I've included notes on how I put each costume together and how people reacted, but if you're not in the mood to read all that feel free to just scroll through and look at the pictures.

Costume Theme #1: Tacky Tourist

First costume out of the gate, and it's a pretty easy one. I already had a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of baggy cargo shorts, not to mention sunglasses. I borrowed some leis from my Mom's costume bins, then wore some long socks with crocs (she said as if she didn't perpetrate that crime against fashion on a regular basis). I would've worn socks with sandals, but company policy requires close-toed shoes for safety reasons. I guess losing my toes would make my day a little less pleasant. The pasty ugly tourist knees are 100% natural.

My brother, who has been working at the same thrift store as a summer job until school starts up again, also dressed up, though I think he pulled the look off better than I did. He even adopted a Minnesotan accent for the entire day, which was pretty funny.

We used some white creme makeup (the kind that always hits stores around Halloween) to do the sunscreen on our noses. Which came with an unfortunate surprise for me-- the "creme" was very runny and watery, more so than you'd expect. And it smelled kind of funny. That was when I realized that the bottle I'd managed to dig up was over ten years old. So... ew? And a bit of a problem-- while the runny texture was perfect for imitating sunblock (I had a manager ask me if it really was sunblock), I've got some more makeup intensive costumes later on that need better than this. (Also, who knew what kind of bacteria had grown in there). So, on day one of the challenge, I broke the rules and spent a few bucks on costume makeup. I know, I know, I feel bad, but I kept it under $10 so it's at least close to my original plan. Still, it didn't exactly bode well for the challenge that I found myself breaking the rules on the very first day.

Time: 10 minutes, but only because I was trying something new with my hair

Reaction from co-workers: Other than my brother and I, only two employees dressed up. And, other than the one manager who asked about the sunblock (mainly because the makeup she used on her nose peeled off by 9am), no one said anything about it

Reaction from customers: Nothing. I might as well have been wearing my regular uniform. My brother, on the other hand, got several comments and a few odd looks-- again, he wore the look way better than I did.

Would I actually wear this for Halloween: Nah, it's kind of boring. Even if I'm in a hurry, I can do better than this.

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: Tiki God, by Presidents of the United States of America (contains a little bad language, sorry)

Costume Theme #2: Despicable Me

I wasn't looking forward to this one. I genuinely loved Despicable Me (haven't seen the sequels yet), but minions have been overused to the point of being driven into the ground-- but that was the only costume for the theme I really could do with what I had and so little time to prepare.

That being said, I actually really enjoyed this one. It was a fun costume to wear.

Pretty simple costume--blue jeans, a yellow t-shirt, my old air-walks (the poor woman's converse), and a pair of black gloves. The goggles are aviator goggles that I got on ebay for a costume several years ago. 

Time: 5 minutes, if that

Reaction from co-workers: Well, a few people started laughing and pointing when they saw me, which I'm choosing to take as a good reaction. There were five or six people dressed up-- mostly as minions, but there were a couple of other characters (and stuffed animals) represented.

Reaction from customers: Nothing. Obviously it takes more than a set of goggles to impress customers, because no one acted like I was dressed like anything out of the ordinary.

Would I actually wear this for Halloween: Not for my main costume, probably, but this could be fun if I was going to a party with a group of friends dressed in the same theme. It's definitely a good last minute costume. If I did do this again, I would add a pair of suspenders.

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: Well, Happy by Pharrell Williams is the obvious choice, but it's not really a Halloween song. Hm... supervillains with minions... Gotta be Skullcrusher Mountain, by Jonathan Coultran. 

Costume Theme #3: Biker/Rocker

NOW we're talking.

My airwalks make another appearance, along with jeans and a black t-shirt. The vest came from my Mom's costume bin, I'm pretty sure she made it, though I added some pins as extra decoration. I borrowed a guitar hero controller from the toy section for the photo. Oh, and I'm wearing a bunch of those wrist bands that were really popular when I was in High School. Knew I kept those for a reason. (They'd probably look less rebellious if you looked close enough to see that half of them have some kind of scripture reference on them...) Add a bandanna and you've got an outfit, though the clothes are only half the costume.

I used some teasing and hair spray to try to get my hair bigger for that rockstar look, but it didn't really take. Partly that's probably an issue of skill and not enough hair products, but partly it's just the fact that my hair is so very long and heavy. Still, this is about as floofy as my hair gets.

I put on a base of sparkly white eye-shadow (though that wore off pretty quick over the course of the day), then drew in the shapes with eyeliner. I used black eye-shadow and purple lipstick to fill in the shapes, did purple eye-shadow on my other eye, and then did plenty of eyeliner and mascara. I finished off with some black lipstick-- which, it looks OK, but I kind of wish I'd sprung for some quality black lipstick from Hot Topic or something. The costume black lipstick we sell at the thrift store is kind of weak, and the tube barely has enough lipstick to get me through to Halloween. Oh well, it was cheap, and you get what you pay for. 

Time: An hour and a half, but it would take much less time for someone with shorter hair

Reactions from co-workers: Only one other person dressed up, and nothing so elaborate, so I got a lot of attention and compliments. One guy kept shouting "Freebird!" every-time I walked past the production line. A couple of people said that they didn't recognize me until they saw my name badge. One woman told me that this look on me is pretty sexy (??? um... thanks?). My coworkers questionable taste aside, I think it went over pretty well.

Reaction from Customers: Maaaaybe I got a couple of extra smiles? Maybe? Sheesh, this is a tough crowd. I guess for the average thrift store shopper, you get to the point where you've seen everything and getting directions on where to find men's ties from someone who looks like a cheap KISS knockoff doesn't rate as much as a raised eyebrow. (My dad pointed out that just because people aren't visibly reacting doesn't mean they aren't noticing my costumes. True-- but I'm an attention seeker, I want to notice them noticing!) I am not dissuaded, however; maybe it'll take a few weeks, but I will come up with a costume that can't be so easily ignored. Mua-ha-ha.

Would I actually wear this for Halloween: Heck yeah, I had a blast with this outfit. The only downside was that it got really warm (that vest doesn't breathe well and floofy hair means hair that's always getting in your face), so I'd prefer to wear this when the weather is a little cooler. 

Most Appropriate Halloween Song: Toughie, but I think I'll go with Black Magic Woman, by Carlos Santana

So there's the first week down. 

I have to say I'm a little disappointed-- the managers hyped this up so much in advance that I thought more people would be dressing up, but it's been kind of pitiful so far. My brother has reminded me that I shouldn't complain since less costumes on other employees improves my chances of winning something in the drawing, but I still think this would be more fun if everyone was coming in costume. Oh, well, I'm sure more people will dress up as we get closer to Halloween.

Here's hoping, in the meantime, to some cooler weather this fall so I can survive wearing long sleeves as part of my upcoming costumes. 

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?

Stranger Things You See in a Thrift Store

Originally I was going to wait a couple of months before doing another Thrift Store post, but it turns out that today is National Thrift Store Day, so this seemed like an appropriate way to celebrate. 

So, once again, let's dive into the strange world of things you can find in a thrift store.

I was trying to come up with a caption guessing what the presidents might be listening to that would result in a Hamilton joke, but then I realized that I already knew exactly what these guys would be rocking out to:

Nothing to see here; just Darth Vader, riding a bike and walking his AT-AT

OK, maybe a little less humorous, but here's a tip for shoppers from the employees: if you decide you don't want to buy the clothes you've been lugging around in your cart, the best place to put it is next to the dressing room, so we can find it and put it away for other people to buy. Hiding your entire shopping cart under the furniture where we find it two weeks later is possibly the worst place you can leave it.

This would be the Hawaiian shirt for the sailor who never managed to pass all his knots in boy scouts.

Up for debate.

For all the scouters reading this

"One of these drawers is not like the others, one of these drawers just doesn't belong"

I thought at first this was some kind of canopic jar, but my brother pointed out to me that this is a drinks mixer. Kind of takes all the fun out of it.

I'm not sure if this is Santa Cow, or if the cow is failing to cosplay Over the Garden Wall

I didn't know we were hosting the annual Elmo Convention this year...

These shoes are actually my size and I am more tempted than my budget should allow

OK, seriously, where do people find these t-shirts???

Good advice.

That's it for tonight. Happy National Thrift Shop Day!

Strange 'Things You See In a Thrift Store

So, working in a thrift store, you see a lot of... bizarre things.

Unlike working other retail jobs, all of your product is other people's leftovers. Sometimes this can mean amazing treasures-- designer labels, practically unused. A scrapbook from 1909. Cute shoes that actually fit ladies' size 10 wide width.

But it also means you get whatever garbage people don't want anymore.

A lot of the strangest stuff never makes it to the sales floor; there's a whole production line that looks over everything and makes sure that things which are obviously broken or unsellable go into the appropriate trash or recycling bins. I mostly work on the sales floor, making sure items are in the right place and that things are organized and neat, but I hear stories-- like the time someone donated an entire rack of clothes. And I mean rack; they just took the bar right out of their closet and put it in the box with all the clothes still hanging from the rack on their hangars.

But even so, there are some truly strange things that make it onto the sales floor, and I can't resist sharing. So sit back and enjoy some photos that truly demonstrate that one man's trash is another man's entertainment.

Just in case you've never seen a naked Anakin doll riding an appaloosa

This t-shirt shows what I can only assume is the mighty cat-taur

Sometimes it's less the item itself, and more the location that the pricers and rollers determine. For example: yes, I do consider a murder mystery dinner party to be an essential accessory for any kitchen

For those formal spiderman themed events

*sigh* Look, customers, maybe you are always right, but that doesn't mean you can just hang up the clothes you decide not to buy on the support bars in between the racks. (I found twelve shirts, eight necklaces, three pairs of pants, and four pairs of women's size eight shoes all hung up in that little cluster, and not nearly enough hangars to support them all either)

Hey There Delilah, it's the invasion of the Plain White T's! (Seriously, someone donated 30 identical plain white xl men's t-shirts at the same time, and I got the job of making them fit on the racks. It was a weird day.)

The shirt that I decided *not* to get my dad for father's day

I could easily do an entire post on the weird Star Wars t-shirts we get

That feeling when you sense soulless eyes glaring at you from the bathroom accessories section, and you look over to see a severed head

For those days when you need to wear close-toed shoes but you really don't want to

You see what I mean about the Star Wars shirts?

This would probably have changed the plot of the movie, just a little bit

Did I say "strange things you see in a thrift store" because obviously I meant THE BEST things you see in a thrift store! (and before you ask, these were two sizes two small for me, otherwise I would have bought them, shoe-string budget be darned, and waited impatiently for the next rainy day)

Dear customers, you might always be right, but that is not how you hangar. The collar goes on the top, not the side, and both of those little holes your arms go through are supposed to be hanging on the plastic. 

Apparently the support column is not worthy to rule Asguard

That's it for now, but I'm sure I'll have some more for you soon enough!