I Put a Spell on You
36
Tag Archives: costumes
Guavaween Then and Now
On the last Saturday in October, we celebrate Guavaween which is Tampa’s (actually Ybor City’s) Latin version of a Halloween Mardi Gras. Throughout the night, young and old parade the streets in slutty creepy outlandish costumes.
Year after year (many moons ago before marriage and children), I found myself dressed in costume and beer crawling through the crowded streets of Ybor City with thirty thousand of my closest friends.
As crazy as it sounds, Guavaween will always have a special spot in my heart.
Dressed as a Brownie on a cold Guavaween night fourteen years ago, I traded Girl Scout cookies for beer. Then, at some point during that crazy chilly night, my girlfriend and I found our way into the Green Iguana to escape the crowd and warm my cookies.
While warming up in the bar with a cold beer, I smiled at a young lad standing across the smoky room. He smiled back and proceeded to walk over to introduce himself. As he gazed upon me, my knees went weak and I knew I was looking into the eyes of my future husband.
It was truly love at first sight. He says my smile entranced him, but more than likely it was the cookies hanging out my shorts and my belted fishnets that caught his attention.
Since there were so many great costumes at Gauavaween, I always traveled with a camera to capture some of my favorite ones on film. I also happened to capture the moment I met Allan.
Although it was all too cliché and too surreal for me to process, we chatted for a while and before we parted our ways, he asked me for my phone number. Since it seemed silly to meet a decent fellow in a bar, the rational side of my brain instructed me to not wait by the phone especially for a guy who hits on your in a bar on Guavaween.
However, he did call a few days later and we arranged for our first date on November 1, which years later would be recognized as another noteworthy celebration when our first daughter was born on that same date.
Since becoming a grown-up and a mom, I’ve gotten away from Guavaween, but I still celebrate the event every year in my heart as the night I met my true love. And of course, we I still celebrate it by parading around in costumes.
There’s No Place Like Home for Halloween
When I saw this week’s I ♥ Faces Contest Halloween photo challenge, I instantly knew which picture to pick.
When Allana was five years old, she was obsessed with The Wizard of Oz and wanted to dress as Dorothy for Halloween. We borrowed the costume from a friend, stumbled upon some ruby slippers at Target and found a Toto on-line. Since her little one year old sister, Emmalynn, was too young to have an opinion about costumes, I dressed her in a pink gown to play the part of Glinda. She wore a tall silver crown and carried a sequined star wand to complete the ensemble but the crown wouldn’t stay on her head. As for the wand, well that simply tasted too good.
One evening, I posed my daughters for pictures on the bale of hay on our doorstep for a Halloween photo shoot. Each photo was better than the next, but this photo was my favorite. I love their smiley faces!
When I look at this photo from three Halloweens ago, I get a pang in my heart. The years go by way too fast!
I Go Gaga Over Halloween
This past weekend, my friend, Kelly, hosted our Annual Adult Halloween party, which was a blast of course. I love slipping away for some grown-up fun, but throw a costume party into the mix and it’s becomes a great excuse to let your hair down or in my case, my store-bought blonde hair down.
My DH, Allan, doesn’t like to dress up for Halloween, so each year I try to pick a couple’s costume that offers some freaky fun for me while allowing Allan to dress comfortably and casually with minimal Halloween garb.
This year, I dressed as Lady Gaga. My Lady Gaga look was inspired by her Just Dance music video.
With Lady’s Gaga’s latest hit, Paparazzi, our couple’s costume was a snap. Add a few cameras and a press pass and Allan’s paparazzi look was complete. Unfortunately, whenever we posed for a picture together, Allan’s arm would tug on the back of my wig and jack-up my bangs, which made my bangs look like they were trimmed with a weed-whacker.
There were so many great costumes at the party, like my friend Stacey’s Run DMT costume. Between the jazz hands, the Cheshire Cat grin and the over-the-top enthusiasm, she nailed me pretty well. How scary is it that?!
My favorite costume of the evening was Erika’s Octomom. Her hubby, John, dressed as her sperm donor.
We have another adult Halloween party at Leslie’s on the 30th. I can’t wait for some more freaky fun and to get one more use out of my Lady Gaga get-up. But next time I let my hair down, I need to remember to keep it in my eyes.
One Halloween, Two Costume Changes
When choosing her costume this year, Emmalynn decided to be Ariel again. Any other parent would simply let their child wear the same costume again two years in a row, but not this Kodak capturing moment slightly OCD momma. Besides, last year the poor thing kept tripping on her fins and shredded the bottom, which is a perfectly good reason excuse to buy my little princess a new costume anyway.
Given that my Emmalynn is the messiest mermaid in the sea, I suppose it wouldn’t matter if she wore a torn costume because she would just stain it and rip it regardless. However, this fashion savvy momma simply couldn’t allow her child to repeat the same costume, despite how funny it would be years from now. So, a trip to the Disney store to purchase the 2008 Ariel would be inevitable.
Last Halloween, Emmalynn wore an Ariel costume from Target because it was much cheaper, I knew she would destroy it and I didn’t like the look of the Disney Store’s 2007 Ariel costume. Ariel costumes should have pretty sparkly fins not tied-dyed hippie trim. Besides, Emmalynn loves Ariel, therefore a mermaid costume that resembles Ariel was a must and the costume selection was winner with Emmalynn. She continually displayed her affection for it as she jumped about pretending to be Ariel breaking the ocean’s surface and saying “Splash! Splash!”
Each year on Halloween morning, Allana’s school hosts a literacy parade. The idea is to have the children dress as storybook characters and carry a book which matches their costume. Since Allana loves fairies, I tried to encourage her to dress as a fairy from one of her favorite Rainbow Magic books. I explained to Allana that she could simply pick one color, like red, and pretend to be Ruby the Red Fairy. It would be a lot cheaper, easy to do and demonstrate some real creativity, but alas, she wasn’t enthused by my ingenious idea. With that, we searched catalogs and strolled through the costume aisle at Target, but nothing seemed to catch Allana’s interest until our little trip to the Disney store.
All the glitzy merchandise of the Disney Store enticed my oldest daughter on our visit to purchase Emmlaynn’s 2008 Ariel costume. Although I tried to only purchase one costume that day, we left the store with two: one Ariel and one Tinkerbell costume complete with battery operated twinkling wings, of course. Fortunately, with the release of Tinkerbell’s new movie, there are plenty of books on the shelf to pair with her costume for the literacy parade.
A couple weeks later, as Halloween (and Allana’s Scooby Doo Birthday Party) drew nearer, Allana changed her mind and decided she wanted to dress as Daphne for Halloween and her birthday.
“But what about your Tinkerbell costume?”
“I”ll be Daphne for the Moms on the Go Halloweeen party and the school parade, because I have lots of Scooby Doo books. Then, I’ll be Tinkerbell for Halloween night and I’ll be Daphne for my birthday.”
“Um…no. I don’t think so, dear. Pick one costume. It’s either Daphne or Tinkerbell.”
“I want to be Daphne.”
So, I returned the $40 Tinkerbell get-up and bought her a $20 Daphne costume from Target. Both girls looked adorable for the party.
After Halloween, I buy Halloween costumes 50-75% off as Christmas presents to add to my girl’s dress-up boxes. Last year, I bought Emmalynn a Scooby Doo costume for $3, which she never played with until last week. A few days before Halloween, Emmalynn pulled out the Scooby Doo costume and demanded to be Scooby Doo for Halloween. Though it was too late to return her Ariel costume to the Disney Store, it’s never too late for eBay.
Luckily, the weather cooled down in time for Halloween and Emmalynn’s Scooby costume fit her like a pair of cozy pajamas. Seeing Emmalynn in that snuggly Scooby Doo costume materialized images of me wearing a plastic Scooby Doo mask and costume as a young child.
Years from now, when my girls are flipping through our photo albums, Emmalynn will ask why she was forced to dress as Scooby Doo when her sister dressed as Daphne. At least the money I save on Halloween costumes can be used for therapy.
A Scary Thought
Halloween is only 49 days away and counting.
I love Halloween!
Is it too early to decorate my yard to look as if my house puked pumpkins and gravestones?
But it’s never too early to plan our costumes and I don’t mean the kids’ costumes, either. I am speaking of our fabulous couple costumefor the highly anticipated Annual Adult Halloween Party. Last year, I dressed as a Christmas tree and Allan was a present, a.k.a D.I.A.B.
If you’re not familiar with D.I.A.B, here’s the SNL video to jog your memory. Please note that this video is not for young children or for the faint of heart.
Speaking of costimes, have you ever noticed how wholesome costumes become slutty once the word sexy is added to it?
Sexy Nun
Sexy Nurse
Sexy Librarian
