#78: Birthday Week, Costumes, and Halloween Surprises!

Celebrate good times, come on! :)

This has been a fun and busy week for me. Last Wednesday was my dating anniversary, which we celebrated at a Masquerade Murder Mystery dinner.

Masquerade Murder Mystery Dinner

 And I won best costume!

Best Dressed!

I also had a Harvest Festival at my work at which I buzzed about! I found all the materials at a thrift store and the 99 Cents Only Store totaling less than $7.

Bzzzzzz...

A lovely bee!

This Wednesday was also my BIRTHDAY! For that, my husband surprised me with dinner and some time at miniature golf where the original Karate Kid was filmed, and a video game arcade!

Golf 'n Stuff

Birthday girl!

I didn't have enough power behind my swing...

He had too much power behind his swing!

 

Queen and King of the castle!

Mario Kart!

Super fun arcade!

We had lots of fun. I felt like we were teenagers again!


Last in this busy, fun week was Halloween! I decided to make my costume again, and had it in mind all year. I'd be going as the Batman villain Poison Ivy.

Original comic Poison Ivy

Modern Poison Ivy

I decided to go with Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy look from the Batman and Robin (1997) film.

Batman and Robin (1997)

Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy

I bought the materials throughout the month, and began by gathering artificial leaves.

Leaves galore!

I took a leotard I owned, and hand-stitched/glued the leaves on individually. If I could change anything in this process, I would have adjusted this, maybe by hot-gluing them directly onto the leotard, or getting a green leotard so I could use fewer leaves. This was WAY too labor-intensive and time-consuming.

Sewing on the leaves

For the hair, I found a matted up red mermaid wig at a thrift store for $2.

Matted mermaid wig

I painstakingly used conditioner, detanglizer, and a comb to straighten out the wig, then pin-curled the bottoms. This was also very labor-intensive, and I would have been better off spraying my own hair red, but my husband didn't want it to rub off in our car.

Straight and smooth

Poison Ivy wears 2 distinct outfits in the movie, and each outfit has a corresponding hairstyle.

Long and twisted top

Long with hair-horns

I thought the leaf bodice was more iconic of Poison Ivy, but the (what I call) hair-horns look is also more iconic. So I decided to mix and match. To make the hair horns, I took paper cups and painted them red.

Trying 2 sizes

I went with the smaller cups. I bought 2 hairbands from the Dollar Tree which had light red and dark red hair attached, sewed them together, and sewed the cups on top. I carefully spiraled the hair around the cups, using bobby pins to pierce through the cups and hair spray to keep it slick.

Makeshift hair horns

I also added some extensions to make it longer.

Poison Ivy has some interesting leaf-things over her eyes, and I found a magnificent mask at the 99 Cents Only Store which I thought would suit the job.

Leaf eyes

Elaborate mask

I carefully and strategically cut out pieces of the mask and painted it green.

(Painting my husband's claws in the background)

I also wanted to make a cape like the one she wears in the picture.

Red/green cape

I found a green crinkled curtain at a thrift store, and I cut off the rings, shaped and sewed the neckline, and dyed the bottom with red dye in the stove top method.

Dying the bottom of the curtain red

Lastly, I bought a pair of short heels and painted them green too.

Paired with dark green tights, my look was complete!

Here's Uma Thruman's Poison Ivy look:

Poison Ivy's hair-horns

Poison Ivy

And here's my Halloween costume!

Poison Ivy costume

From behind

Closer up

Closer up

I enjoyed walking around Hollywood Boulevard, but was overwhelmed with the masses of people. I must have seen 10+ Poison Ivys out there! It's not a creative costume, but I think I did well in the details.

And my husband went as the Wolf who ate Red Riding Hood :)

The week has been so busy, that I'm ready for a vacation from the fun!

I hope you had a safe, fun Halloween. 

Until next time, blessings :)