Halloween Horrors
I know, I know. Halloween is over and done. But I am one of the world’s greatest procrastinators and so here is my Halloween post – only 9 days late…that’s almost a record for me 
I have often procrastinated on getting a costume, or if I did manage to scheme up ‘the perfect costume’ in my mind, I would go off in search of what I needed only to be disappointed by what I could find at the thrift stores and call the whole thing off only to end up with the world’s lamest costume. You know those ones that everyone does, oooh, a black cape and some dark lipstick, I mean, how creative is that?!
But this year we decided to plan ahead to make sure we looked good. 
First off, there were 3 activities to go to the weekend of Halloween fun so I didn’t want to disappoint. The first stop was the Parade of Lost Souls, second was Marie-Genevieve’s 27th birthday party which had a rockers theme (based upon the 27 Club) and third was my pal Harry’s party. Since one party had a theme we had to do something that would work for that but would also be more than just a general ‘rocker’ look. We racked our brains and finally came up with this. My sweetheart and I were going to do our first couples costumes, and become The Knife. They are an ‘electronic’ brother/sister duo from Sweden (seriously check them out, they are so good) They get stage fright and wear these raven masks, so even if anyone didn’t get the reference, it would still be a cool and scary look.
I have a friend who is a crafting genius and so we got together one weekend and she showed me the art of mask-making. This means that it is made right on one’s face and so you get a mask that is perfectly formed to fit you and you can get as creative with it as need be. Part of me wanted to adorn it with feathers and glitter and all that fun stuff, but for authenticity sake we just made it all-black. I forgot my camera while at her place so there are no shots of my mask being made, but then I had to take my new skills and make Dave’s mask for him. 
You start off by covering all places where plaster may touch with vaseline (a pretty gross feeling, but if keeps the plaster from taking off your eyebrows!) Then you use the magical Rigid-Wrap which we picked up at our local Michael’s. It’s basically a roll of mesh that has plaster already on it, you cut it in to smaller strips and start laying it upon your canvas, er, face. It can be as simple or extravagant as you make it.
And finally, our creations! 
The beaks are made of newspaper, we just took a chunk and crumpled it into the right shape, then covered it in masking tape (ha, no pun intended!) You can’t miss that step if adding any pieces like that, otherwise the plaster will sog up the newspaper and that just won’t do! We put many layers of paint on these babies so they would stay black if they got nicked. I also glued a little piece of soft fabric to the dip where our noses sat to make it more comfortable. They actually were too! The only downfall is that not being used to having such a large ‘nose’ in normal life we often bumped our beaks when trying to clap or wave and made for sore nose-bridges the next day. It also meant we had to drink with straws all night - but that just meant the booze went down quite smoothly!
Then here’s me at a payphone just after the parade, probably frightening any children around - but isn’t that what Halloween is all about? Bringing life’s horrors to reality so we can face our demons and walk away unscathed.
