Halloween 2011: In the Flesh

No, we did not go as Jesus and Mary for Halloween this year.  However, we felt pretty cool dressing up as two characters from our new favorite show . . .

MAD MEN!




For anyone who actually read last week’s post on the possible people we would be dressing up as, if you guessed we would be going as Don Draper and Joan Holloway, you were correct!

Initially, I was going to cop out and dress up as an old cat lady, since I knew I could find the necessary items at Goodwill.  However, when I was at a store that had old prom dresses for cheap, I looked through and found the perfect Joan dress.  And, it was only $12!  It was a little big but I decided to make do because I absolutely love Joan, I already have the red hair, and I’m obsessed with the 60’s.

Here was the dress before I altered or ironed it:



As you can see, it’s very low cut, so I used some safety pins under the flaps of the collar to make the plunge a little less deep.  Joan definitely has more prominent “assets” than I do, if you know what I mean, and mine cannot pull off a deep neckline, nor can hold up a dress the way hers can.



The dress was extremely well made.  It had an inner lining, an outer lining, and then the outside of the dress, all with boning to keep it streamlined and tight (although not tight initially on me because it wasn’t my size).  I opened both sides completely and brought the dress in about an inch on each side.  I could have spent a lot of time making the dress look as beautiful on the inside as it does on the out by sewing the lining back the way they had it, but I took the easy way out, since it’s a one-time-wear costume and sewed all the layers together with the dress inside out.  Somehow, without pinning (because it’s really hard to pin a dress yourself while you are wearing it), it turned out to fit me perfectly!

Mr. Converse Sneakers used clothes he already owned.  He doesn’t have a suit, nor would I let him wear one for Halloween if he did have one in fear of it getting destroyed, so he wore a jacket and some pants that didn’t match, but went together enough to work for Halloween.

Here we are:



Mr. CS didn’t have shoes on in the photo, which explains why I am taller than him.  Normally we are the same height.



I am definitely far from a stylist, so the hair gave me problems, even though it was fairly simple.  I am no good at teasing my hair since I never do it, and thank goodness for that because I swear I lost half of my hair while brushing it out at the end of the night!  The hair clip is one I had from our senior prom.





He’s my stud!  I’ve always loved him with a side part, which he hates normally, so this was the one day of my life I got to see him for a few hours with his hair combed like that.  He looked incredibly handsome!



What do you think – did we pull it off?  What did you dress up as or are going to dress up as tonight?

Happy Halloween!

The Marital Pumpkin Carving Contest

I never thought carving pumpkins for the first time with my husband (his first time ever) would turn into a mini contest.  It didn’t really feel that way at the time, but there was definitely a winner, and I wasn’t it.

We were going to carve all four pumpkins we bought (one when we went to the pumpkin patch and three from the grocery store for cheaper), but I hate the scoop/scrape process of making the insides hollow, so we only did two.

All I could find were Disney carving kits, which the mister was very thrilled about, see?

We carved the pumpkins on Sunday, when I was pretty sick (I’m still getting over it coughcough Ugh), so Mr. Converse Sneakers printed out a picture that I described of an S, and found one with hearts.  Score!

He is pretty obsessed with skulls for some reason (you wouldn’t know it by his sweet personality), and he is a good artist, so he draw them a lot.  However, he used a print out to base his drawing on and then sketched it out.  Fitting for Halloween, unlike my girly love-stricken idea.

I guess I don’t care too much for carving pumpkins, so it took me only about 10 minutes to carve mine.  It wasn’t the best either.  My husband, however, spent a lot longer getting his perfect.  It must be the cutting motion that makes men weak in the knees.  I will never understand.

Here they are finished:

We put lemon juice on the cuts to keep them from browning.

 

He read somewhere you should spray cooking spray on them to lock in the moisture, and we thought it couldn’t hurt, so we did it.

I’m loving doing all these things for the first time as a married couple.  Honestly, though, I think traditions are even more fun with kids involved, but I’m happy to start some traditions the years before we have any little ones running around.

What Halloween traditions do you partake in?

Halloween for Redheads (or Redhead-Lovers)

One of my best friends, Megan, who was the maid of honor at our wedding, has a birthday/Halloween party every year since her birthday is the 29th.  Normally, I would have no reason to get dressed up for Halloween since I’ve never been a big partier or bar-goer, but since I couldn’t miss her party, I have a reason to dress up.

Although I’m only twenty two and many girls my age love to dress up in the more scandalous outfits, I have never been one for showing off my body, even for Halloween.  Plus, those costumes are EXPENSIVE, think $50+ for one itty-bitty costume that isn’t even very well made and tons of other people are wearing.  Instead, I try to play off my own interests and assets (if you will).  What assets am I talking about?

Here’s a clue, last year Mr. Converse Sneakers and I went as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo:





Let me rephrase that.  I went as Lucy and my hubby (then fiance) went as the dead-and-come-back-to-life-as-a-zombie Ricky Ricardo.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned his love for zombies (sometimes I swear he actually believes in them, to which he replies, “Well it doesn’t hurt to be prepared, justincase”), so I told him he could zombify himself as long as he still fit with my costume.

I bought the polka dot dress nearly a year before Halloween 2010 when I spotted it at a garage sale for about $8.  It was too big, so I took in the sides and added a belt.  I bought the wig even though I have the classic red hair naturally (though not as bright), but I had no time to style it the Lucy way because we had our engagement photos just before the party (and my hair in the photo below from that shoot was definitely not from the 50s era although the similar blue polka dot dress could have been straight out of Lucy’s closet):





Sorry, I love our engagement photos so much that I have to include them whenever I can. :)

If you haven’t guessed by now, I love going as a redhead for Halloween.  Bonus points if Mr. Converse Sneakers can dress up as someone in relation to the redhead I dress up as.  Although he is Asian, he has similar coloring as Desi Arnaz, so it worked out.  However, Mr. CS likes to go as redheads too (I think I inspired a love for all redheads in him when we started dating).

The year before I went as June Cleaver, wearing a pencil skirt, lacey top and cardigan and an apron (all of which I already had on hand.  My hair was cut into a cute bob at the time, so it fit with the time period.  I tend to have a huge love for the 50s and 60s.

This year, I wanted to keep with my normal theme, but again, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money.  Can you guess which costumes we went with?  I’ll reveal it next week, probably on Halloween, once I have the costumes perfect and get all dressed up on Friday for the party.

Fred and Wilma Flintstone from The Flintstones

George and Judy Jetson from The Jetsons

Joan Holloway/Harris and Don Draper from Mad Men

Chuckie Finster and Didi Pickles from Rugrats

Ariel and Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid

And here is one last clue: I only spent $12 on the costume!  10 million brownie points to whoever guesses correctly. 

What/who are you dressing up as for Halloween?