Halloween

Being the giant costume nerd that I am, you might imagine that Halloween is like my #1 favorite holiday. You might envision that each year I whip up some elaborate, period accurate costume and party in my bustle like its 1889. But alas, that is not the case. While I certainly wouldn't mind if someone made me an amazing costume every year, and I don't have anything against Halloween, I tend to put in minimal effort. If it can be done with no wig, no makeup, and clothes I already in my closet, then I'm in. But with those criteria, I've actually been able to do pretty well. For example, last year I went as Leslie Knope from Parks & Recreation:

In fact, this was the second time I leveraged my blonde hair and Amy Poehler's awesomeness into a costume. One of my all time favorites was the year that Olivia and I went as the characters from Baby Mama. 

(I did, however, have to buy that terry cloth tube top. Thankfully, I did not already own one of those)

The other best pairs costume I've done is the easy yet instantly recognizable Wayne and Garth:

EXCELLENT

My closet does, in fact, have some pretty weird things in in. I also have my "historical underwear" costume which I have pulled out a few times. It consists of a 1970s white blouse from my mother, a tan JC Penney skirt from when "peasant skirts" were in, and a corset I made a few years ago.  It is basically my 19th century twist on a "slutty" Halloween costume in which I am still covered from wrist to ankle. 

(Pictured here with a wonderful grad school classmate of mine who does sew her own historically accurate costumes)

This year my friend Angie and I were brainstorming pairs costume ideas and someone suggested that we go as Little Bo Peep and her lost sheep. It was this weird moment where it dawned on us that 1) we knew exactly who would play who and 2) it would be shockingly easy. She liked the idea of playing a sheep and had various fuzzy, wooly things to wear, and I had an appalling number of things that would work for Bo Peep. The result was one of the easiest costumes I have ever done, while looking like I had spent a lot of time on it. 

Seriously. The only thing I didn't already own was the crook. 

Labor Day Roundup of Things

First up, if you live in the Seattle area you should come down to MOHAI on Thursday and enjoy all the free fashion-related stuff we've got going on. Read about it here. And vote for your favorite shoe here. (Those two thoughts relate, I promise)

Last Saturday my friends Curt and Jong had a housewarming party for their new place, and asked people to dress up in something with a hot or cold theme. After much closet-related soul searching, Olivia and I came up with the very abstract idea of "The cooling down of tensions at the end of the Cold War"--which basically meant that Olivia dressed up like someone young in the 1980s and I dressed vaguely like an old Russian lady. In other words: we killed it.

We couldn't decide which of us was Glasnost and which was Perestroika 

On Monday we had an all staff retreat (which technically wasn't a retreat because we just met in the conference rooms at the museum) which kicked off with the facilitators asking us to write our name on a big piece of paper and then decorate the paper with non-work things that we were passionate about. I had a hard time with this assignment because 1) Many of my passions are work related, 2) those that aren't work related sound lame when summarized on paper, and 3) I don't appreciate mandatory craft time at 8:30 in the morning.

(A note about #2: Just about everyone in Seattle is "outdoorsy." They go camping, hiking, canoeing, biking, skiing, and probably hybrids like canoe camping and ski biking. So most people decorated their vision boards with mountains and water and sporting equipment. And while I am totally comfortable with my current life choices to spend most of my downtime watching old DVDs of Law and Order: Criminal Intent with my roommate, it is difficult to draw that on a poster and not look like the saddest person.)

Nobody Understands

I ended up writing three things on my paper, accompanied by half-assed drawings: singing, spending time with friends (illustrated with a TV and a beer), and the slightly work-related but totally honest "Shopping for clothes/ wearing clothes/ thinking about clothes."

In my mind, the prize for the best poster went to my friend Amanda who didn't totally hear the whole assignment and just wrote her name and drew an arrow pointing to it. I saw it and I thought, Yes, Awesome. You know what I'm passionate about? Me. Because me doesn't force me to make cheesy posters.