Halloween Fun and Adventures

 Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. The thought of what kind of monster or ghoul I could do myself up as, and all the tons of candy that I would get. Growing up in the 80's and 90's places like KMart, GemCo, Target, and Walmart would be halloween central.

You could find everything that you needed to make the most amazing costumes ever. Now days you are hard pressed to find anything. It seems like since the late 90's mid 2000's everything kinda shifted from Scary to Cute or Slutty. Halloween isnt about cute and slutty, its about creepy, scary, bloody. So this year I put my costume together.

The only thing that was store bought was my top hat. I got it at Goodwill already decked out. My costume was built around it. I had never done a voodoo witch doctor, and thought that it would be fun, because you always see "skeletons" but never anything above and beyond that. So I began working almost around the clock to get my stuff together. I had this old black vest (which I honestly have no idea where it came from...i think it might have been my dads before he passed), some random animal print, clay, a walking stick, and a paper skull. I knew that I wanted to look as authentic as possible.

So I began dusting off my old fashion design skills and got really creative. I pieced together my vest by making the animal print panels for it. I hot glued them in place so I didnt ruin the vest by sewing them on. Then I turned my attentions to my staff.

I had seen a few YouTube videos months prior showing how to make Halloween props and so I took that knowledge and made this beauty. Its just melted plastic bags, tissue, and paint. The hair is from a kids dress up headband that I got from the DollarTree and the paint I had on hand. Melting and getting it to stay in place while not burning the shit out of my hands was the "fun" part. I was using a heat gun which the lowest setting is 500 degrees and the highest is 1500.

Then it was just a matter of making the painting of it all look like old, decaying skin. I used Brown, yellow, orange, grey, and an almost mustard color to achieve the effect. Using the heat gun to dry the paint, gave it a dried out, rotting flesh color.
All night long when I was out with my friends at a local bar for their Halloween Costume party, everyone kept remarking on my staff. One lady actually tried to take it from me. I honestly didnt think that it was that "amazing" but now looking at it, it totally is LOL. The whole night out with my friends was just good times. I ended up winning Most Creative (which I was surprised) and getting a copy of Poltergeist on Bluray as my prize.

 Growing up I never won any prizes or competitions like that, so it was kind of nice to have done so. A few weeks prior to this I was suffering from crippling depression. I didnt want to even be around myself, and seriously didnt know if I was going to be able to go on much longer. So going out, and having fun with my friends was MUCH NEEDED.

Now that Halloween is over with, we are moving into Thanksgiving and then Christmas. I still have no idea what i'm doing for Christmas this year. Every year I try to make one item, buy one item. So this years make I have yet to figure out. But im sure no matter what it is, my friends and family will love it.