A few more mermaids

Now that I've got this handy-dandy external drive, I'm just a posting fool. I see I'm still getting some traffic from the Coney Island Mermaid Parade boards, so I thought I'd throw up a few more pics - too see them all, click on the "mermaid" label at the bottom of this post and you'll get all of my posts related to mermaids.

All Things Alice

The Husband got me a great book this weekend called All Things Alice. Its a beautiful collection of art and illustrations based on the stories, as well as quotes, recipes, and other Alice-isms, and now I can't stop thinking about Halloween. I'm in the beginning stages of planning the 2009 party and costume, and I've been sketching and jotting down notes all day. I'm hoping this book will help me nail down some guidelines so I can start making all the decorations I'm envisioning.

But back to the book, I wouldn't suggest buying it where he did (The Afternoon at Mall of America) because its significantly cheaper on Amazon here. Almost every single page would be suitable for framing, though it might be hard to chop out a page.

Thanks Honey :)

A few more 'maids...

Mermaid Sneak Preview

Ryan is amazing. In just a few hours, he has whipped up the most fantastic set of mermaids you can imagine. His is faux snakeskin with Y-suspenders and a dorsal fin. Mine is pearly blue strech vinyl with a flesh colored bustier and sequin appliques, and here is a peak at my crown. I cannot wait to get all decked out in these beauties and hit the town. I don't even care if it's trecherous getting on and off the subway, I'm so excited. Tomorrow morning we're getting up early for hair and makeup - oh yes, there will be hair (extra hair) and makeup (OMG is there anything more fun than a friend who designs costumes?!?!?!).

This was a wonderful day, I'd love it if some of the dry weather could hold out until tomorrow, but regardless, I'm bursting at the seams with excitement. Mermaid Parade, here we come!!!

The rain couldn't dampen our creative impulses yesterday, my first full day in NYC. Ry & I hit the fashion district and it was nothing like I had ever seen before - there were at least five stores that had nothing but TRIM! It was amazing. I've never seen so many sparkles and spangles in my life.

We also hit fabric stores, including the infamous "MOOD" of Project Runway fame, where we took the photo above. While there, I'm pretty sure we saw Korto Momolu of last season's final 3 shopping for fabric! Don't let the show fool you, Mood looks like a little hole in the wall where they all buy everything they need for pennies...not so much! The one fabric I looked at was $40 a yard - nope!

The forecast for tomorrow calls for storms, which is disheartening but I'm not giving up - the parade goes on rain or shine, and a little water never hurt a mermaid (though I'm a little concerned for those who come in only body paint...) It did, however, spur a change in costume decisions, and last night over Chinese take out Ry made me a new tail! It's a pearly blue with a long train and flesh colored bustier - you know pics will follow when we're done :) Today is more crafting, shopping, and local flavor. So far my feet are holding up well, knock on wood!

One week! One Week! ONE WEEK!!!!

I'm pretty excited. In a week, I'm heading off to NYC to visit two of my favorite people in the world, and cross one big-ass item off my bucket list: we're going to the Coney Island Mermaid Parade.

It's a community festival of sorts that celebrates the official beginning of summer, mermaids (and other folk) from all across the globe parade down to ceremonially open the beach for the summer season. Pull up Flickr.com and google Mermaid Parade and you'll see all manners of merriment - mermaids, of course, and drag queens, burlesque acts, a dance troupe called the "MARINE Antoinettes", and a healthy serving of pasties, body paint, hair color, and other sparkly fun. I plan to revel in it, and I'll be sure to take MANY photos.

The actual parade is Saturday the 20th, and I'm far behind in preparing my costume (when in Rome...and how could I miss a chance to dress up like a mermaid?!?!)with all the busy crap going on this week and last, but I plan to buckle down over the weekend and hopefully come up with something fabulous. As of now, I haven't done anything past the skirt panels and boning. Better get on it!

It's Official: Halloween 2009 = Welcome to Wonderland

Okay, I decided and blabbed and now I'm committed! The big theme of the 2009 Halloween Party will be: Alice in Wonderland!

This is the theme I've waffled on for a while, and I just decided to go for it. The big Tim Burton/Johnny Depp re-make will be out soon and while I'm sure it'll be fabulous, it'll definitely steal the thunder and originality as mass-produced macabre Alice stuff ends up everywhere. Plus in this unstable economy (read: I'm generally broke and only getting brok-er) who knows when the parties will come to an end?

I'm planning to go all out on this one (is that even worth saying? would you expect anything less?) and I've already reserved a super secret form of "entertainment" to be revealed at a later date. Since Halloween is on a Saturday this year (meaning my party is on the actual Halloween) there will be much more competition for resources and guests, which is why I'm thinking ahead as much as possible.

Costume-wise I'm still pretty uncertain - the easy choice would be Alice, but that's just kind of boring. I'm leaning Red Queen - I already quite enjoy running about ordering people's head's off, and I see a lot of possibilities for something dark & interesting....have to give it more thought.

Countdown: 144 days to go!

Leprechauns on Halloween

Halloween 2006 we continued the mythical creatures trend by dressing up as leprechauns. These costumes weren't so much made as gathered - the green dress was on clearance at Deb for $7, the wig was on sale at the Spirit Store, Hub's suit jacket was a goodwill castoff, and a sheet of shamrock stickers were the minimal embellishments. My "purse" was a pot of gold - a small witch's cauldron filled with Hershey's nuggets, the mardi gras beads were just laying around the house, and hub's hat came from M&N International. There were a few minor craft projects - my shrug was originally white, I used rit dye and a rubbermade tub and it came out this perfect bright orange, and my hat was a black paper top hat from the craft store that I sprayed with green glitter. Voila! bright, recognizable, easy costumes. Not my favorite, but it worked, and all the pieces could be re-purposed for St. Patty's Day.

Toothfairy Costume

This is still one of my favorite costumes ever, worn Halloween 2005. The dress was a bridesmaid dress from ragstock that I hacked off and hemmed up. I ordered plastic tooth necklaces meant to hold children's lost teeth from Oriental Trading Company and hung them from blue satin ribbons all around the hem, and I bedazzled the outline of a tooth on the bust. The foam tooth for the wand came from eBay, it is apparently meant for some magic trick I didn't understand, I spray painted a dowel and glued it on, with some more of the necklaces to be my wand. The wings are also from Oriental trading company, though I put two pairs together because they only have feathers on one side (cheaply made, but they hot glued together fine). I painted the crinoline with spray on fabric paint.

The blue hair and eye lashes really make the biggest statement, in my opinion. I think it just elevates the character and makes the dressing up more fun to go to extremes. I wore this two nights, so for the first I went to get my hair done and the second I did it myself. I'm not sure which day this was. The time I got it done I asked for a beehive and ended up with a rat nest underneath- I lost a lot of hair combing that out, and wouldn't make that mistake again. I was able to accomplish a similar style but with less damage just by curling and pinning. The blue is just the typical can of colored hair spray - and if your hair is any darker than mine, I'd advise strongly AGAINST its use. It was tough to get out, and we had a blue bathroom forever, not to mention it destroyed my brush and towels. Oops.

There are more of the little tooth necklaces attached to bobby pins and stuck in my hair, and I topped it off with a little crown and big necklace(fairies like sparkly things, I've decided), blue fishnets, and long blue gloves. It was really fun to wear, and I was more than disappointed when someone dressed as Carrie won the costume contest...

I sold this costume at a yard sale that next summer, but if you see it around, you'll know where it came from :) Also, just FYI:Hubs was the Easter Bunny that year :) What a good sport!

My not-so-little mermaid

I've had a completely crap day (week) comprised of unlucky breaks and compounded by lousy customer service, so in an attempt to cheer myself up before I dream of murder and mayhem, I'm posting this picture - this, ladies and gentlemen, is my back.

She may look familiar as she is based on the painting in my header by Pixie's Whimsy, and she was done in about 10 hours (3 separate sessions) by Megan Hoogland at Steady Tattoo. Clearly we changed and adapted a few things, i.e. I dislike extraneous fins on my mermaids, and I wanted the tail to be much more prominent, and I think the end product is pretty impressive. Megan was excellent, had great ideas when I was at a loss, and was FAST, which I put right up near sainthood after this experience. I would highly recommend her if you are crazy enough to follow this path (Q: did it hurt? A: why yes, I'd say it was pretty darned near unbearable, especially the last session where she colored in all that lovely tail curling down my SPINE). Megan currently splits her time between Steady (on the U of MN Campus) and Cactus (in Mankato) and she seems to do a ton of shows and conventions all over the world too. If you google her, you'll find her in the leagues of Kim Saigh and Hannah Atchinson (formerly of LA Ink!), and she seems pretty universally regarded.

Looking at it makes me feel pretty darned tough, and puts all the other pain and upset in my life in perspective - once you've endured this, you can take about anything the world throws at you :)

Another previous mermaid costume...

Halloween 2003 I purchased this mermaid suit off Ebay from a costume shop going out of business. It was one of a kind and hand made, but extremely durable since it was repeatedly rented and worn. The tail was a pair of tight pants out of a stretchy material completely covered in sequins, with a zipper in front and back to bind the legs together. The fin was built on a pair of slippers and had completely rubber bottoms like a pair of shoes.

Originally the top was a flesh colored mesh with the gold sequins appliqued, but it didn't fit right so I chopped it off and re-created my own top using the pieces and a flesh colored halter top I got at DEB for under $10.

The hair was a cheap hippie wig.

I loved it at the time, but looking back the pictures are pretty hideous :)

Other Mermaids - 2

Here's another mass produced mermaid costume, but one I actually kind of like. Let's face it, they're never going to be super flattering to shapely women, but this one has more coverage than most being a full dress (and not a bikini top). looks mighty low on the hips on some sites, but you could hike that up. I like the effect of the "scales". It's strangely expensive on most sites I've seen.

Alice charm bracelet

My dad surprised me with this bracelet after I admired it in a store on our recent San Francisco trip. I lost him in the sea of tourists down at Fisherman's Wharf and when I found him again, he handed me a tiny purple bag. This was inside!

I've always loved charm bracelets, ever since my mom wouldn't let me wear hers as a child (I'll get that in the will, I've declared it - us kids divied up our claims all the good stuff years ago). In the meantime, however, I have started to collect charms from my travels though I haven't kept them in a consistent spot and the Statue of Liberty has gone missing. I believe I do have Texas (from way back in my high school science fair days), the Golden Gate Bridge from this most recent trip, a Mickey from Disneyworld, and the Duluth bridge as well. I want to say I had something from DC, but that might be lost along with Lady Liberty. I've had visions of building it on my Tiffany bracelet, but never quite got around to getting the sterling silver findings and setting down to it.

Anyways, since I love both charm bracelets AND Alice in Wonderland, you'll see why this one caught my eye. In fact, on this very trip I had picked up a copy of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass for my book club (which disbanded before we discussed it, but it was still interesting). The charms are taken straight from Tenniel's original woodcut illustrations of the stories and they are ADORABLE!

Previous mermaid costume - about 1998

I don't exactly remember when this was taken, but it's in my Bailey Hall dorm room, so 98 or 99. I have no memory of where I was going or even making this mermaid costume, though I do remember the fabric. Maybe I wore it to a debate tournament? Ahh, the ignorance of youth :) I remember feeling back then like I was overweight and unattractive - what I wouldn't do to have that body back now!

Mermaid Tail, the Fabric

This is a close up of the fabric I'm using for the mermaid costume - I couldn't resist it. Jewels, silver studs, and that swirly pattern of blues and greens - LOVE!

Rainbow Hair

I consider this an art project of sorts, it just happened to be wearable :) I'd been itching for a change for a long time but my traditional salon just didn't offer a lot of options for fun colors. I came across this photo on a flickr search and fell in love - RAINBOW HAIR?!?! WHO WOULDN'T BE HAPPY?!?! I've never been much for home dyed hair - I did Ryan's pink muppet 'do for a while and some bad bleach jobs in college, but even though I was going a little outside the box I still wanted it done well and professionally. So I sought out Moxie in St. Paul, and I was way happy with the results.

Nancy was my stylist (I since found out she's no longer there...of course, just when I get comfortable with a new person!) But I'm sure the rest of the staff is capable. They use Paul Mitchell inks, and the process is called "ink burning" - they bleached the hair first, then Nancy mixed up all my custom colors (she was SO NICE about it!) and painted them in, sealing with a flat iron. She then added some subtle layers so the color peeked out the back all around. I LOVED IT! The colors were so bright, I thought it looked like feathers. When I had it down the color was unobtrusive but unique, and if I really wanted to make a more drastic statement, I could pull the top back and the pink & red were very bright.

Though it's technically "permanent", it doesn't last very long. Water is the enemy, so with dyes you want to wash as little as possible and when you do, with as cold of water as possible. This was fine the first couple weeks - every other day I'd strap on my chic shower cap and warm up under a hot shower, flip it to cold to wash my hair as fast as possible, and then man was I awake! But as soon as I started my tattoo I needed to wash my back in hot water and it all fell apart...3-4 weeks it started to look pretty faded, I did have it re-done once (which wasn't that much - only $30 for the ink burn, cheaper to maintain than blond for sure) but now it's pretty much all gone. I was thinking of keeping it through the summer but who am I kidding - I'm lazy and cheap :) It was fun while it lasted though!

Bjork Swan Dress

Halloween = LOVE
Not suprising for a crafter and costume lover and enjoyer of themed parties. I'll have a lot of Halloween stuff to post on here, and since I happen to have last year's party photos on my computer right now, I'm starting with this one.

The theme for my Halloween party last year was "A Hollywood Halloween" and I encouraged people to come as celebs, movie characters, classic Universal monsters, etc. I had tossed around a few ideas and finally came up with one outlandish enough to be worthy - BJORK! Her iconic Oscar's dress is instantly recognizable, infamous, and hillarious. It was even fun to make, if a bit costly.

Feathers are expensive. In most any form. I went with feather boas in an attempt to make it somewhat reasonable time wise to feather the majority of the dress, but boas are $3-8 each, even on sale. Let's not count how many are on the dress :) I tried to nab them on sale or with coupons, meaning I was in Joanns & Michaels almost daily and cleaned them out several times, but it was worth it.

The base of the dress was a button down white cotton dress by Target that I picked up at Goodwill for under $6. I'm not much for building things from scratch when its cheap and quick to come up with a shell, so this was perfect. I opened a few buttons and created a v-neck, and then got to work hand sewing the boas to the waist. The top is covered in maribou for a slightly different look and less bulk. If I had to do it over again, I would have hung the boas slightly lower - they created a lot of bulk around the middle, probably not that flattering, though it still felt flouncy and fun. And I would have flared it out with a square dance crinoline to give it more shape.

I made my own template for the swan's head pieces - basically a circle with a triangle beak, and a rectangle neck. I made the base of it out of white cotton (just one of those "fat quarters" sections Joanns sells for $1 on sale). The black and orange are felt, also just the cheap 8 1/2" x 11" sheets they sell at all craft stores, and the eye was a silver plastic button.

I think it came together really well! It did shed feathers all night, but that's probably to be expected, and it was fun to wear. I topped it off with a cheap pageboy wig I found on clearance for $7 = PERFECT!

I didn't go for total authenticity with this, but more in terms of capturing the iconic nature of the image. Bjork's original dress was on flesh mesh, with a lace braw showing through. I thought that looked tacky and unflattering, so I improvised, and I really liked the result.

If you're interested, the costume is now in my etsy shop - fits up to a size 14, or take it in/belt it for a smaller size. It's pretty versatile.

Mermaid Costume - Starting the Tail

It's been on my bucket list to see the Coney Island Mermaid Parade before I die. A festival involving mermaids, costumes, burlesque, drag, pin ups, an amusement park, and a trip to NYC? Who could resist? I'd been waffling for a long time, but decided to go for it while I still have friends living in the city, friends who appreciate the same sparkly dress up fun and know how to navigate the crazy transit system :)

I went round and round on what to wear, and was set on an octopus dress until I saw this fabric in Joanns. TO DIE FOR. It actually really matches my mermaid's tail in colors, and it has sparkles and studs to boot. I had to have it. I scooped up the 3 yards that were left along with a pattern for a mermaid style skirt - and it's actually coming together! This weekend I cut out and stitched together all of the panels and reinforced the seams. After this picture was taken I added boning all around the bottom and rolled the hem around it - it's a start at flaring out the "fin" but not quite right yet. I'm saving the zipper & waistband for Ryan since that boggles my mind, but I did start on a fascinator and I'm still deciding on a top. I definitely want an open back to show off my full back mermaid tattoo - when in Rome, right? :)