Do you love costumes?
I love Halloween parties and dressing in creative costumes when I go to school (as a teacher-librarian). Here are five of my favorite costumes:
Animal Costumes
- Panda. When pandas came from China to the Toronto Zoo, I wanted to dress up in their honour. The fun part of this costume is suggesting a panda face with elegant makeup, rather than making it too literal. I found glittery black sequined panda ears and decided to go with a sleek top and heels rather than stuff my belly with pillows. Who can dance with a pillow on their stomach?
- Lady Bug. This costume idea was inspired the year biting ladybugs came to Toronto. The costume version doesn’t bite, unless you want it to. You can buy red wings and antennae at any costume shop. The fun part is dressing up like a ‘lady’ in heels, black lace and your choice of exciting decollete.
Character Costumes
- Tooth Fairy. For this I wore fairy wings, a blue checkered lumberjack shirt, work boots, jeans, and carried a big set of pliers for pulling teeth. Who says the Tooth Fairy can’t be baddass? The ghoulish detail to this costume was a string of teeth I wore around my neck: large molars with red roots still attached that I made out of white and blood-red modeling material.
- Conan the Librarian is the disguise my co-workers remember best. I wrapped fake fur around my shins and body, donned a horned helmet and made myself a shield and war hammer covered with book posters. There’s a primitive warrior trapped in the heart of every meek-mannered librarian, and when you let it out the kids bring back their books on time!
- Showgirl. I had just outfitted 8 Klondike can-can girls for a school play in pink bridesmaid’s dresses with big crinolines and headpieces. Why should the students have all the fun? The headpiece is carboard, mounted on a headband and then covered in black velvet and decorated with a fan of feathers. I wore a puffy crinoline under a metallic blue underskirt that just peeped out from the lacy yellow overskirt. Accessories included heels, fishnet stockings, and a gold-trimmed black velvet bustier from a lingerie shop.
- Poison Ivy. I spray-dyed my hair comic book red, added extensions in the same colour and festooned myself with leafy boas and garlands. The makeup was dramatic too. I felt a bit like a drag queen until my brother said: “You look really good in makeup.” His costume was even better at that party. He showed up as a zombie pizza delivery guy, with a pizza in a box he baked himself!
Halloween ‘Frenzy’ Update:
What a nice Halloween present! Feeding Frenzy is listed #46 in Mystery/Thriller with over 48 000 Wattpad reads. The question now is how to celebrate when it hits 50 000 reads?
