I'm the kind of person that has to have "themes" to parties. It helps me plan, decorate, and have specific ideas. Last year, for example, the theme was "Mad Hatter."
Tea pots (filled with hot chocolate), flowers in vases of different sizes, funky chandelier, fabrics of many colors, playing cards, and other crazy trinkets. This included a marshmallow tree I made for the hot chocolate being served!
This year the extravagant decorations would have to be saved for only one holiday, and I'm saving it for Christmas. Plus, the party was at Kristin's so I was liberated from decorating. But for soooome reason, I STILL waited until the day before the Halloween party to come up with a costume for the theme I selected this year: Masks.
I debated just buying a cute mask and wearing regular clothes. Then Jose brought up the idea to "interpret" mask. I raised my eyebrow. Interpret? Yeah -- like you can dress up as an air freshener and say that you are "masking" odor. I married a smart man my friends. While I wasn't interested in dressing like an air freshener, we brainstormed the theme: masculine. Mask-culine. Just go with it!
Originally I was going to wear some slacks, a fitted vest, a tie, slick my hair back in a bun, and a mustache. Jose said that didn't sound masculine and was more chic, if anything. I argued that masculine didn't have to be ugly either! And what about Jose's costume you ask? He clearly wasn't going for masculine. His was going to be a FACIAL mask. You know, the kind you get at a spa.
Men crack me up. I was thinking out loud about what Jose could wear on his face as a "face mask" and with the most confused look he asks: why don't I just wear one of YOUR face mask things? To which I inform: Because, love, those things aren't meant to be worn for *four* hours. Unless you want your skin to peel off at the end of the night, we're going to have to come up with something that your skin can tolerate for that long. This is coming from the guy who said to just use vanilla yogurt as a substitution for vanilla EXTRACT. I love him. A lot :)
So here we were at the Halloween store, the night before the party. Luckily I was only responsible for planning the entertainment (and some food) and not decorating or I'd be running around like a crazy woman. We hit the jack pot at this store! There were SO many masks and little accessories so you didn't have to buy a $40-80 costume. And then I stumbled on the hat section and saw... a MATADOR HAT! Translation: bull fighter's hat.
(One of my Spain photos.)
YES!!! You can't get anymore masculine than THIS!
So there he was. My costume. I bought my $7 hat, and a $3 mustache and the rest of the outfit I'd make at home (free!). I like to work the cheap way! All I needed was: tight pants (jeggings!), red fabric (check!), red ribbon to embellish the pants (check!), and a ruffly top (check!).
Thank goodness for Arizona hot weather! I would definitely not have had any warm tops for this costume.
SO, I cut a strip of the red fabric to create a handkerchief for my neck. Then, I took this thick red ribbon and taped it down the side-seam of my jeggings. Don't you love when you get a lot of use from just one thing?!
After using the strong, double-sided tape, I sewed a VERY lose seam on the ribbon for easy removal.
Tada!
And of course, I didn't get any formal pictures of me in it, but DO have some that our friend Seth took of me.
I swear, I almost wore my red heels. But then that would have really been pushing masculine:
(those who attempted to dress up)
Here I am playing minute-to-win it and am sad to not be sporting the mustache. It didn't come with adhesive (?!) and no tape was strong enough to hold it.
And I didn't forget my husband! As I was sewing my jeggings, he asked me for some thread and I wondered what on earth he needed to sew.
Ahem. Clearly, to sew the cucumbers on to his glasses.
At least we found green make up at the Halloween store. Or else I don't know how he would have re-invented or reinterpreted that one.
Hope you had a cheap and fun Halloween too :)
0 comments:
Post a Comment