Until Next Year...

Annnd, that's the end of the countdown. :( Technically we ended up with a lot more than 31 posts, even though we missed quite a few days by the end there. Thanks to all who read and commented (or read and didn't--I feel ya, lurkers). Hope you all had a great Halloween. Can't wait until next year's countdown!

A few pics from our Halloween party decor after the jump (along with the great E.T. pumpkin Laura carved, pictured above.)

Costume Closet 21: The joke's on you--I'm not even a real blond!

I was doing a makeup test for a possible Harley Quinn costume and thought it might fit here, not-blond hair and all.

The proportions are kind of off. I think next time I would make the mask bigger, especially under the eyes and a little above the brow.

I also want to apologize for the MySpace type of pictures here (and the overuse of the contrast function, haha). Laura's normally the photographer for all of the pictures on this blog, and she always makes me look good. This is what happens when I'm lent the camera!

A few more pics after the jump, as always.

Costume Closet 20: Little Red All Growed Up

My mom thought I looked more like a vampiress than a Red Riding Hood type of character...oh well. I pulled this one out of the bottom of the closet, where I had completly forgotten about the red bodice and skirt someone gave me to use as scrap fabric. I never did, since it was polyester, but with a few size adjustments I think it could actually be pretty useful for a costume.

The gorgeous lace hooded cape was also a gift, but one I'd picked out myself from an Ebay store a long time ago. I've never really found the best use for it.

Pumpkin Life 16

Temporarily taking over the pumpkins for Laura, here. She's bogged down with schoolwork this week, but we still have a few blank pumpkins waiting for designs so I thought I'd try my hand. As you can see, I come from the school of sloppy detail, so my work isn't as polished-looking as Laura's!

This design was based off of Maleficent from Disney's The Sleeping Beauty, during the sequence in which she becomes a dragon. The neck part of the body simply wraps around the back in a bunch of spiral arm-looking things.

Costume Closet 19: All Washed Up

Here is a second type of pirate, this time using my own costume. Originally, I wanted it too look like I'd been in some sort of gunfight or shipwrecked. I did some degree of distressing on the clothes to make them look worn, although I'd probably do a bit more now for a stronger effect.

This costume was made at the same time as the other pirate outfit for a Renaissance faire. It was definitely one of the worst sewing projects ever, since I had to make 3 costumes in a fairly short period of time (and made some hilariously bad mistakes at the last minute. My personal favorite was me altering the trouser pattern to better fit a female body, then forgetting to change the pattern back when I had to make one for a guy. Haha oops.)

Pumpkin Life: 15

I do have a special affection for the Tim Burton stripes. Not in the current Hot Topic sort of way, but what can you do? So I did this simple pumpkin, but I think it does make a statement. The pumpkin I used was white too so it was nice and easy for me.

The pumpkins all together look kind of cool with all the different sizes and colors. I should try and take a photo of the whole group just to show.

Tacking up the decorations--finally!

In this house we always end up miraculously broke around Halloween time, so recently we started going for more "budget" type of decorations. Really budget, like made-of-construction-paper budget. This is one of my favorites, a silhouette pantry I made last year. It didn't quite go back together exactly the same this time, but I think it does a decent job of dressing up a plain white refrigerator.

Costume Closet 18: Talkin' 'Bout Coraline

Today I tried to do a version of Coraline...you know, if she were old. I had been looking for something to do with the blue wig that wasn't its original use (Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury cosplay from a looooong time ago). It kind of looks like Coraline if she got a really bad haircut...or was starring in a 90s Nickelodeon show.

The hat is from the 90s and awesome, but has never been seen the light of day before. :( I love hats, but nobody here wears them!

Closeup after the jump.

Costume Closet 17: Old Hollywood

(This is what the hair looked like when I took the pins and wave clips out--after nine hours, ha!)

So here we have a bit of old Hollywood glamor that's a little more 1920s than anything else. The dress came from Windsor, I think, and I bought it for a costume party a while back (did not do such awesome hair and makeup then, though.) The makeup is really quite heavy--lots of eyeliner and gray/green shadow, baby pink blush, thin eyebrows, and a Cupid's bow mouth that exaggerates the poutiness.

Closeup of the makeup and hair after the jump, along with some hilarious pictures of the hair brushed out (for the look of a few decades later...)

Costume Closet 16: Grandma's goin' out, dears

Sorry for the delay, all (three days?? Yikes.) Definitely failing at the daily post thing this week!

I was setting my hair to do the next costume and couldn't resist using the hair set itself for a costume. So what do you think--someone's crazy grandma, a flapper hanging out in her skivvies, or Ms. Hannigan?

I feel like I should've had a cigarette here. :( Curse you, healthy habits.

Pumpkin Life: Day 14

This pumpkin/gourd had a few people helping with the ideas. I was going to make a pac man ghost with the pumpkin at first, but my mother insisted that it had to be Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean (though she couldn't actually remember his name). I still wasn't completely sold, but Michelle agreed that it could be cool and so I did it. It's all done with acrylics, and took me a bit of getting used to the technique.

The hat was totally my idea. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. Davy Jones needed a hat and I didn't really know how I could make a hat like from the movies. So I went all old school and did a newspaper pirate hat instead. I think the result is pretty hilarious.

Pumpkin Life: Day 13

I kind of like my bird theme. I like the silhouette on the interesting green pumpkin on this one. I saw this pumpkin at the store and really dug the colors and patterns. The stem is pretty cool too. I guess I don't have a whole lot to say about this one, since it's pretty simple.

Costume Closet 15: Retro Pro

This costume is supposed to resemble a 1940s/50s professional woman, and was based a little off the Bruce Timm designs for Harley Quinn when she's a doctor. If only I could make my hair temporarily blond...

The makeup here is the same as the previous shoot, only I swapped out the pink lippy for this amazing bright red 80's Revlon color (they sure do not make lipstick that creamy anymore) and darkened up the eyebrows for a sharper look.

A picture without the glasses after the jump (as they were makin' me blind.)

Costume Closet 14: Mad Women

This costume is inspired by all the lovely 1960s fashions worn by Betty Draper on Mad Men, one of my regular shows that I always seem to have to defend to people. I tried to keep the makeup simple like on the show; it's just black liquid eyeliner on the top lid only, mascara and a horrible pink lipstick that can only come in handy for retro shoots. The dress came from a thrift shop and was a really lucky find for a production of Grease when I was young.

Pumpkin Life: Day 12

I did another funny pumpkin. This is the "logo" I guess of the British comedy show The Mighty Boosh that also gets shown on Cartoon Network (at like 1 AM on Sunday or something). It's a crazy show, but pretty funny if you can understand their accents. I think I did a decent rendering of it, but it's not like it was all that hard to do or anything. I'm trying to catch back up on my days here. It's difficult because I am extremely lazy!

Costume Closet 13: Back From Davy Jones's Locker

(Am I getting close to being on schedule yet? No?)

Here we are back with the Rennie costumes again, this time as a creepy, possibly dead pirate. I made this one for Laura a while ago to replace a crummy older version of it that had gotten wrecked by the rain. The patterns for this costume came from Reconstructing History. The boots and excellent Jack Sparrow hat came from online stores I can't remember, and the sword came from a faire vendor.

Costume Closet 12: The Ghost With the Most Makeup

This pale Victorian spectre was mainly an excuse for me to test out the Ben Nye clown white makeup, which actually gives pretty good coverage without using too much of it. The texture is decent, too, although I haven't quite got the hang of making it look smooth. This was just one layer, intended to give a slightly ghostly cast. (Why no, I wasn't too lazy to cover the rest of my skin...)

The dress is a Victorian bodice, skirt and petticoat I made a few years ago using historically accurate patterns from Truly Victorian (the gothy burgundy and black polyester I used is not so historically accurate.) I also have made corsets from their excellent patterns, but can't wear 'em anymore so I tried to fake the shape a little here.

Picture of the rest of the dress after the jump.

Pumpkin Life: Day 11

I absolutely love blue pumpkins. Or are they gourds? Whatever, they're awesome, and naturally I didn't want to cover a lot of the pumpkin color up. So this is my Cinderella pumpkin. In a creepy way, I hope. I had fun doing the mouse/rat silhouette. I'm not sure if you can tell that on the right is a voodoo doll/pincushion. It's kind of my take on the mice sewing Cinderella the dress (in the Disney version). Honestly, I'm not completely sold on this pumpkin myself, but I guess doing 31 pumpkins I'm going to run into this problem sometimes.

Costume Closet 11: Not Slytherin?

Back in the day when I was a fan of Harry Potter and had yet to be disappointed by the direction the series took, I was admittedly more into the Slytherin students/alums. I'm fond of a lot of random characters now, but I kind of miss the old days of speculation.

Half of this costume, too, came out of Laura's stuff, but since I made it...

Costume Closet 10: Breathe in Through Your Eyeballs...

...and out through your diaphragm, says eccentric fortune teller based on the past life therapist from Roseanne episode "Pampered to a Pulp."

This costume is pretty basic, and most of it comes from Laura's closet. Just a bunch of silver jewelry, scarves, a sparkly gypsy skirt (not pictured, since the closeups were funnier), and some slightly batty makeup.