Costuming for Nerds, Part 7
Jun. 9th, 2016 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilI've been rather remiss in blogging lately, both here and on my other blog, for a number of reasons. The first and most dramatic is that the frequency of Luke's aggressive episodes has spiked so abruptly that he went from perhaps one or two meltdowns a week to once or twice daily. It's exhausting, somewhat terrifying, and occupying a lot of my mental space even when he's at school. We're taking a number of measures to try to improve the situation, but as with most things in life, none of them are instantaneous. So, there's that.
Meanwhile, when I do have Luke-free time, I tend to bury myself in my Les Starwarbles hobby. Whether that's a healthy coping mechanism or not, I have no idea, but I'm almost done in any case. Episode VI should be finished in just a few days! Then, I don't know. I'm sure another time-sucking obsession will present itself. ;) Finally, as far as the other blog is concerned, I haven't had a topic grab me enough to write a whole entry about it, though I'm well aware that I've barely scratched the surface of exploring women in speculative fiction. When my brain's a little less fuzzed out, I assume more ideas will come.
But my Halloween costume ideas are ready-made, so here's a nice easy entry to write: the Halloween when Mark and I went thrift-store shopping to become Dwight and Angela from The Office.
I was a teensy bit burned out from the elaborate sewing project of the previous year, so we looked up "easy, do-it-yourself couples costumes" online. The Dwight and Angela suggestion appealed to us since we were pretty intense fans of The Office at the time, and that particular couple was so much fun to love/hate. All we needed was a button-down shirt in some shade of mustard, a hideous tie, fake glasses (too bad I'm the one who actually needs glasses rather than the reverse), a frilly shirt and cardigan, and expressions of shared contempt. (Note the drawn-on sideburns, since Mark didn't have time to actually grow them.)
We got the clothing, but I'm not sure I ever quite mastered the contemptuous expression. This and other Halloween pictures has me fearing that my range of facial acting is about the same as Kathy Ireland's. I'm going for eye-rolling annoyance; it ends up looking like....dull surprise! I'm attempting a fierce warrior visage; it comes across as....dull surprise! Oh well. Here's a shot that showcases the frilly sleeves a little better.
The kids (well, Emma) wanted to do animals again, this time an elephant, a duck (conveniently recycled from Luke's first Halloween) and a spider.
Emma had a useful gray sweat shirt/pants combo, so I just had to sew a trunk and ears and stuff the trunk. Luke wasn't interested in posing, so you can't see the little spider legs I sewed on the tunic, but they were there, trust me. Halloween has always been a rather bemusing holiday for Luke, but he humors our crazy costuming without complaint. As always, when he's difficult he's very, very, very, difficult, but when he's easy, he's our easiest kid by far.
Meanwhile, when I do have Luke-free time, I tend to bury myself in my Les Starwarbles hobby. Whether that's a healthy coping mechanism or not, I have no idea, but I'm almost done in any case. Episode VI should be finished in just a few days! Then, I don't know. I'm sure another time-sucking obsession will present itself. ;) Finally, as far as the other blog is concerned, I haven't had a topic grab me enough to write a whole entry about it, though I'm well aware that I've barely scratched the surface of exploring women in speculative fiction. When my brain's a little less fuzzed out, I assume more ideas will come.
But my Halloween costume ideas are ready-made, so here's a nice easy entry to write: the Halloween when Mark and I went thrift-store shopping to become Dwight and Angela from The Office.
I was a teensy bit burned out from the elaborate sewing project of the previous year, so we looked up "easy, do-it-yourself couples costumes" online. The Dwight and Angela suggestion appealed to us since we were pretty intense fans of The Office at the time, and that particular couple was so much fun to love/hate. All we needed was a button-down shirt in some shade of mustard, a hideous tie, fake glasses (too bad I'm the one who actually needs glasses rather than the reverse), a frilly shirt and cardigan, and expressions of shared contempt. (Note the drawn-on sideburns, since Mark didn't have time to actually grow them.)
We got the clothing, but I'm not sure I ever quite mastered the contemptuous expression. This and other Halloween pictures has me fearing that my range of facial acting is about the same as Kathy Ireland's. I'm going for eye-rolling annoyance; it ends up looking like....dull surprise! I'm attempting a fierce warrior visage; it comes across as....dull surprise! Oh well. Here's a shot that showcases the frilly sleeves a little better.
The kids (well, Emma) wanted to do animals again, this time an elephant, a duck (conveniently recycled from Luke's first Halloween) and a spider.
Emma had a useful gray sweat shirt/pants combo, so I just had to sew a trunk and ears and stuff the trunk. Luke wasn't interested in posing, so you can't see the little spider legs I sewed on the tunic, but they were there, trust me. Halloween has always been a rather bemusing holiday for Luke, but he humors our crazy costuming without complaint. As always, when he's difficult he's very, very, very, difficult, but when he's easy, he's our easiest kid by far.
