Raggedy Ann Meets Her Match

Did you think Halloween was over? Seriously??

HA.

It isn't. I have one more party to go to tomorrow, and this one is themed (boo), and it has a stupid theme (feel free to join in on the booing, anytime). The theme is...wait for it....wait for it....

1930s Country

Boooooooooooooring. Go ahead, google it. It isn't impressive, at all. The only thing that would have been interesting historically in the U.S. at that point was the Depression, and I thought of it too late to make a potato sack dress (which would have been inaccurate, anyway--historically, they were usually made of flour sacks). I might change my mind and do it anyway if I somehow find some free or really cheap burlap today, but I doubt it. Actually, my creative juices seem to be awakening right now (I just realized Orphan Annie dates to this period, too), but I don't really have time to do anything that will take me more than, say, 30 minutes to do or make. 

So what am I doing?

I'm going as a rag doll, a la Raggedy Ann, without the cap, since I don't like how it looks. Anyway, it is cheap, and I have most everything for it. The only things I am lacking is a yarn wig (which is easily fixed--I'll tell you how Monday) and an apron. I already have decent shoes, and blue skirts/shirts/dresses, so everything should take off without a glitch. 

Hey, it is either that or I adapt my Phantom of the Opera/Addams Family Member costume and go as a widow. A yarn wig sounds more fun. 

The Easiest Costume of All: The Phantom of the Opera

Happy Halloween!

My costume is simple and short, just as this post is simple and short. What am I? If you haven't figured that out, well, that's your problem.

What I'm using:
1 Black Dress
1 Pair Black Stockings
1 Pair Heels
1 Mask (trimmed to fit my face appropriately)
1 Eyeshadow Palette
Spirit Gum
Foundation
Lipstick

This costume has gone through several different variations, including a test run several years ago that is pictured above, but I finally settled on this one mainly because I didn't have the time or money to make a black velvet cloak, and I need something that can look professional again in seconds (normally, I have a class that I can't look weird for in the middle of my day, but other factors have led to that being absent today, mainly working on a project with some theater friends). Obviously, the first three items are quite intuitive in their use, as are probably the last two. However, the rest I, of course, had to mess with.

The mask is actually what I did the most with. This phantom piece was actually inspired by a friend, who commented on the fact that I never had a profile picture that included my entire face. I had mentioned it to my mother because I thought it was funny, and then forgot about it. A week later I was doing some serious shopping for my classroom, and my mother comes up to me with this silly grin on her face and something hidden behind her back. It was a Phantom mask. It was a buck and change, so I threw it in the cart, and then got out the scissors and edited it. It came down to a sharp point along the chin, which I didn't like, especially since it was too small for my jaw, so I rounded that off, and then I lowered the forehead (it was ridiculously high--there might have been a reason it was so cheap!), in the process removing the little stretch band that goes around your head. Now you know why the Spirit Gum is important!

The eyeshadow palette actually helps hollow out my cheek a bit more and give the more unearthly look. A little white powder along the cheekbone never hurt, either. I think I've yet to actually use that eyeshadow on my eyes yet. Foundation helps with blending this out, and the lipstick gives the final touch--you may or may not want to use this, since in my opinion lipstick is messy and I don't like eating it. Incidentally, the average woman consumes something like seven pounds of lipstick in her lifetime. Ew.

The Perfect Cat Face: An Index to Cats, Cat Costumes and Catiness

As I have now post pretty much all the cat costume related stuff I've written/done (but not everything I've planned), I thought it might be helpful to post links to all of the information in one place. Please do keep in mind that the majority of this information was researched and developed while I was working on a Gia the Jaguar piece, but the basic information can be adjusted to suit your individual needs and plans. As I continue developing more cat costume techniques and post pictures of work I've already done, I will update this index to include links to those posts, too.

Creating Cat Eyes
Creating Patterned Fur
Easy(ish) Cat Whiskers
Various Cat Costume Ideas

Planning Halloween

Halloween is, truth be told, actually a bit of a taboo holiday in my household. Due to my heritage, I have a heightened awareness of Halloween's darker side, and can trace it back to its roots loooong before it was enforced by little costumed children demanding candy. Thus, growing up, it was never a celebrated holiday, and I still don't quite feel comfortable with the idea. Still, I've come to attend the occasional harvest party or join my friends in wandering the campus in strange clothing. This year I happen to plan on doing both. My campus friends and I split down the middle for sweet/scary costumes (we currently have a Belle, a pin-up zombie-turned-I-forgot-what, and me), and the harvest party is themed.

I hate themed parties.

This particular party is hosted by a darling family that has a wonderful home, but the people in charge of picking the theme (not members of the host family), come up with some of the most boring ideas. There was the Old Retirees theme one year (I didn't go to that one, and no zombies were allowed anyway), the Nerd theme last year (I apparently annoyed people by thinking outside the box and doing a Alice in Wonderland Nerd costume, ie, my Mad Hatter), and this year happens to have the theme of.... Country.

Moooooooooooooooooooo.

Still working on inventive, non-farmer and non-cowgirl ideas for that. I really doubt I'll be able to find someone for the other half of a cow costume. Which I don't have.