Happy Halloween!

Hoping everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! Sad I have to wait a whole year before it comes around again.

The "Scott Pilgrim Crew" Ramona, Roxy, Scott, Knives

The rest of the crew: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Vampire boy and girl, Knives Chau, Flapper, and Goth Angel. You guys are the best! I love you all.

Halloween Costume: Roxy

This is not so much a post about a costume as it is about being a pack rat and how that is super awesome! I switched costumes half-way through this month and I only had to buy TWO things for it. A box of hair dye and one yard of super duper shiny fabric. Grand total cost: $10. That is pretty good for a costume these days. I tried it on and it looks pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

 The breakdown:

Tank top-from my closet

Skirt- old long goth skirt that I shortened and took some of the embellishment off of to create the higher waist belt. Also some left over fabric I created the pocket at the bottom of the skirt with a velcro closure (I already had the velcro).

Sweatshirt- old zip up hoodie. I cut the original zipper out and sewed the front shut. I cut it short and then sliced an asymmetrical path up to the hood. Then I reattached the zipper and let it continue up the hood farther than before. Also from the bottom bit of the sweatshirt I added a pocket up on the right shoulder for my cell phone. I heart pockets!

Choker- had a charm on it and I took it off just leaving the fabric bit.

Silvery Belt- in the movie this is a belt that Roxy takes off and uses as a knife/whip thingy. I think it turned out really  nicely see more detail below.

Not Pictured: flowered black tights, combat boots, one fingerless lace glove (all things I owned!)

 To make the belt I wanted to make it out of fabric but I still wanted it to have the metal look that was in the movie. I started with some black craft felt that I cut and sewed together in long strips so that it wrapped around me 3 times.

 I bought the shiniest fabric that they had at the fabric store. Looks like liquid metal! I bought a whole yard in case I screwed up- but I could have gotten away with half a yard.

 I cut strips of the metallic fabric and sewed them together so they were the same length as the felt and they were about 3x wider. I then sewed pleats every two inches into the fabric to give it some texture. The above picture is what it looked like on the back and front.

 

Next I sewed the felt down the middle of my metallic strip. Then I used my trusty glue gun to fold over and glue down the free edges of the belt. All this work gave the belt a nice weight and it looks way cool.

This Halloween is going to rock.

Halloween Costume: Ramona

Last year I wanted to be Ursula the Sea Witch. After I declared that to my friends EVERYONE in the group picked a Disney character. It was epic, it was awesome. This year my friend Krista declared that she wanted to be Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. And so once again many of our group has followed suit. Group costumes are just more fun. Especially since the fan base for Scott Pilgrim is really hit or miss the more members we have the more legit we will look. I am going for Roxy (I dyed my hair blond this morning! EKKK!) and we also have a Knives Chau and a Scott Pilgrim. 


Being the crafty nerd I am I volunteered to help out with Ramona's costume. I made a pair of goggles and the iconic circle-star-bag.

 The goggles were made entirely from things I had around the house. I looked at a tutorial on steampunk goggles on an old threadbanger episode and modified it to fit my needs. The basic elements are an old baseball (the leather bits), old canning lids, a plastic container, some elastic and left over black bias tape. A little bit of sewing and glue gun action later we get these bad boys. They would look silly wearing them as goggles but our Ramona tried them on on top of her head and they look super adorable.

 I bought everything for the bag. Two colors of vinyl, a nylon strap, small zipper, and bias tape.

Halloween Cookies

I was babysitting the other night and for some reason I had the brilliant idea to have the 5 kids decorate Halloween sugar cookies. Frosting in the hands of small children? Perhaps not my best moment but they did have some pretty cute cookies to show off. I baked the cookies before I went over and They had pumpkins, ghosts, and leaves to choose from.

This is a headless chocolate ghost. Can't you tell?

Weekend Thrifting

This weekend my mom and I spent a bit of time thrift store shopping. In one shop something caught my eye. I was transfixed by this most fabulous and ugly of items:

 Yes! A crab and seashell chip and dip platter! I was just thinking the other day about how silly those things are, how married people seem to collect them and no one ever uses them. And then I see this and it all makes sense. All my misconceptions about the functionality of the chip and dip bowl disappear as I examine what will soon become mine. I grab my mom and exclaim, "You have to see this!" I drag her over the shelf where it is innocently perched and she just replies, "Really?". Sigh.

Is it ugly? Yeah. Do I love it more than words can express? Yep. I can't explain it and I don't intend to try. In my rapture I took it home and cleaned it and stopped by the grocery store and bought some shrimp and cocktail sauce for our pumpkin carving party. My friends looked at me as though I were crazy and I wouldn't have it any other way.

When it is not being used for food perhaps I will find a place for it on my dresser for jewelry. I feel like Ariel just having it in my life.

Pumpkin Carving!

My friend Ellen grew an amazing crop of pumpkins this year so we gathered last night for food, friends, and epic pumpkin carving!!!

 The group

 Giant pumpkin eating baby pumpkin!

 This was mine: Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. Took me forever and yes I have blisters from carving pumpkins!

Just in case you are not aware of how awesome/awful Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus is...

Are you ready?

victorian bat costume
Originally uploaded by carbonated

Have you got your Halloween costume done yet? Do you at least have an idea? There is still time! Get creative and make sure you celebrate the best holiday around.

Roxy Richter #4- New Halloween Costume

Roxy Richter #4
Originally uploaded by Edgar Wright

First I flip-flopped on my zombie costume for Zombie Pub Crawl and now I am switching my main Halloween costume from Hit Girl to Roxy Richter. Do you know who Roxy is? Also known as Evil Ex #4 she is the kick-ass girl from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World that is a little pint-sized punk ready to END YOU. See? The theme hasn't changed (kick-ass girl from a 2010 movie) but just the character. Yes I already bought a purple wig and a plaid skirt for the other outfit but at least I didn't start working on the utility belt yet
: )

My friend Krista decided she wanted to go as Ramona Flowers (awesome!) so after an afternoon of thinking about it I thought it only made sense for me to be Roxy. Both costumes will be awesome by themselves but combined? Super AWESOME!!!! Now I am trying to convince all of my 'last-minute-costume' friends to be a part of our group. They are appealing costumes because they are comfy, easily layerable (for changing temps), and fairly low-cost/low-maintenance.

Now I have to start this costume! And I need to get a little blonder. Hmm. Box? Or should I go have someone who knows what they are doing deal with it?

Weddings

Another wedding this past weekend. Busy busy! This time it was one of my best friends in the world. I am so happy for her and I wish her and her new husband many happy years! (P.S. Please have babies-they will be so adorable.)

Crafting where no one has crafted before!

Check out the Etsy Blog to see this amazing contest they are doing with NASA!!!

Let them eat BRAINS!!!!

 So all was well. A good time was had by all. Zombie Pub Crawl WIN!!!!

Oh the frustration...

So forgive the pictures. Apparently they are all blurry because I am shaking I am so upset. Why you ask? Well I am a responsible person so when I hear 'Zombie pub crawl in October' I think "Hmm. I will need something creative and warm because it will be chilly out". Now we are having a heat wave. Like record temps heat wave. So my completely awesome idea is being shot down out of the sky by GOOD WEATHER. Yes I know I am whining but I can't help it. I have spent a solid week on my costume. Lots of time and some money has gone into this and now it is all falling apart. Here is what I got done:

 

Shirt (thrifted),

Coat (thrifted and 'adjusted')

Skirt (whipped up about an hour ago)

Hat (made w/cardboard, felt, and hot glue)

Bag (thrifted with body parts from dollar store)

Boots (borrowed from lil sis)

Umbrella (bought and then pimped out with handmade parrot head)

 The plan was to rig up the umbrella so it looked like it was impaling me but I don't know if I will even mess with it if I am not going to wear it. Grr. FRUSTRATION.

I guess I will be going as a plan old boring zombie.

Found

I found my stupid glue gun. It was quite the process. Mostly I am an idiot.  But now back to crafting!

lost glue gun

hot glue gun
Originally uploaded by Emma Ratz Photography

grrrrrr. I can't find my trusty glue gun. I don't even know if it was lost in the move or if it is here in the house. Worst case scenario- I might have accidentally thrown it away during my recent epic cleaning purges. Sigh.

Zombie Mary- The Coat

 

So this is what we are going for. Except zombiefied. I bought this coat at a thrift store:

Not exactly right but for 2 bucks we can work with it. I will say it many times throughout this process but when it comes to zombies...YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT BECAUSE YOU WILL BE DISHEVELED AND BLOODY WHEN YOU ARE UNDEAD. So even though Mary might be practically perfect in every way her zombie counterpart does not have to be. 

The skirt I bought for this project is a bit shorter than I would like so the coat was a bit long. I took off the 'brass' buttons, cut it shorter, took out the shoulder pads (shudder) and cinched it in the back a bit to make it more fitted.

I am leaving the edges undone and frayed. Like I said...we are not going for 'put together'. 

This is all I have for now. Next up- crafting a hat out of things I have around the house!