Friday, October 19, 2007

Costumes

Last night I spent a few hours wandering down memory lane with shoeboxes of old photographs and a half-bottle of pinot noir. I was collecting pictures for a scrapbook I'm making for my best friend from college, a soul sister and fellow seeker of good times who shall be known here as M. This autumn, M and I celebrated 10 years of being friends, and she came up with the idea of making each other scrapbooks as an anniversary gift.

Anyhow, I ran across some photos of my old Halloween costumes. Since it's October, and this magical day of make-believe will soon be upon us, I thought I'd share:

1999: Saloon girl


I rented this lacy, mint-green dress from a costume shop. The day of the party -- which I hosted at my very first apartment, in Bakersfield, Calif. -- I went to a cheap hair salon, where they made my mop into a mountain of ringlets and pinned them up with a white feather comb. For my shoes, I removed the rollers from some old skates purchased at goodwill.


2000: Blind mouse


I was one of two blind mice that evening, and guess what? You know the other mouse! We donned dark grey sweatsuits and hot-glued big pink felt ovals onto our bellies. We made mousy ears using plastic headbands, styrofoam and more pink felt, and then we popped on some dark sunglasses.

2003: Roxie Hart


M and I, obsessed with "Chicago," decided to celebrate as Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart at San Francisco's Ruby Skye. We even watched the movie on pay-per-view in our hotel room while we dressed and did our makeup. Both costumes were handmade -- M did her own, while I relied on a talented seamstress friend to sew mine. We wore wigs and carried silver cap guns. We were hot.

2004: Miss California


Another holiday with M, and this time we celebrated in Santa Fe, N.M., at a nightclub called Swig. I wore an old bridesmaid gown made of blue satin, and created the beauty-queen banner with wide plastic ribbon and sticky letters. A tiara, long white gloves and a 12-dollar bouquet of roses completed the costume. (P.S. Miss California only smokes when she drinks. Really!)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a glorious trip down memory lane! I had forgotten about watching Chicago that night. BTW, I can't take credit for sewing my own costume. I had a very talented seamstress in my hometown do that for me.

Robyn said...

Remember when I hot-glued those ears to your hair? You freaked out much more than I did.
I remember feeling very sexy in my pot belly and whiskers.

Unknown said...

Screw the lingerie on your wedding night...you should have rented that sweet little "doe-see-doe" number for your first nuptial romp! Hubba Hubba!