Apparently, the Okapi Says “Meow,” Too

People seem to always think my Halloween costume is a cat.  At least this year, it was only one person.  There were a lot of interesting guesses: cat, reindeer, giraffe.  The giraffe was actually the closest.  And I’ll cut them some slack; a lot of people don’t know what an okapi is, unlike a zebra.
So yes, this year, I was an okapi.  My second-favorite animal, after a giraffe.  Okapis are actually the nearest living relative to a giraffe.  They have shorter necks, but very long tongues.  Look ‘em up; they’re pretty neat.

Here’s an okapi.

Okapi CC-BY Charles Barilleaux, available on Flickr.

And here’s me dressed like an okapi.

As is the custom, I made my own (um, custom) costume.

I ordered a brown sweater dress from Amazon, figuring at least when I’m done I’ll have a nice new sweater dress.  I wear my sweater dresses a little longer  than was suitable for okapi-making, so the first thing I did was tack the hem of the dress up quite a bit.   (Right: actual length of  PattyBoutik Women’s Cowl Neck Long Sleeve Knit Dress.)

I had ordered women’s brown tights and white leg warmers from Amazon as well, but the leg warmers were cream and the tights were dancer-leg brown, so neither of those worked.  I decided to go with an old pair of brown tights I had even though I was originally thinking I wanted something thicker.  They worked.  (Left: Okapi legs.)

For the bottom of the legs and the forearms, I used little girls’ tights.  I got size 12-14 for the legs and toddlers’ 2-4 for the arms.  I cut the feet off (and hemmed them and sent them to Munchkinhead) and cut leg lengths suitable for their purposes.  Then, I cut rings out of the rest of the leg.  It worked really well.

For the bum stripes, I used the top of the toddlers’ tights because they had the cable-knit pattern all the way up to the top, unlike the girls’ tights, which had a sort of control-top looks-like-tightie-whities thing going on.  I hand stitched the whole thing with big stitches in back so it’ll be  easy to remove without snagging the dress.  I sewed the bum stripes with the dress on my dress dummy to ensure everything would stretch correctly once on me.  First, I sewed the top down on the full piece.  Then, I cut one stripe, sewed it’s bottom and the top of the next.  Then cut the next stripe, and so-on and so-on.  (Right, above: Okapi bum stripes in progress.)

The bum needed one more thing after that, a tail.  I bought some chenille, fake fur and quilt batting at Jo-Ann’s.  I cut a wide strip of the chenille, making the stripes in the fabric vertical.   I cut a matching width of  batting and basted the two together.  I cut a piece of fake fur about two inches long and basted that to the center of the bottom of the fabric and batting.  I folded it in half, including the fur, and stitched across the bottom and up the long side.  (Right: basting and stitching tail.)

 Then, I had to turn the tail.  This was almost as difficult as turning a Barbie sleeve, and on top of that, I could hear my friends @tromboneforhire and @jackgibson laughing hysterically in my head.  Eventually, I got it fully turned and sewed it to the top of the bum.

Lastly, I needed headwear.  Mommy and I realized while looking at photos of okapis and the stuffed okapis in her zoo, that okapis have horns.  I needed horns and ears.

For the ears, I found giant brown pipe cleaners at JoAnn’s.  Who knew such things existed?!  (Probably Munchkinhead…)  They were super easy to bend into the right shape and wrap around a brown headband.  I have enough left to make a nice monkey tail if anyone ever needs one.  (Right: Ears in progress.)

For the horns, I used another  brown headband and Styrofoam cones covered in brown felt.  I tacked the felt to the cones with small pins and used scraps of felt pinned to the bottom, around the headband, to attach the cones.
 

I found out the day before Halloween that only male okapis have horns.  I wasn’t ready to give up on them because 1) they took some effort, and 2) the cones were expensive!  I had to buy a pack of 6 for $9.  One of my coworkers saved the day by declaring that it was fine, I was just a transgendered okapi.

One thing I know for sure, I was a happy okapi.

Okapi with her friends at their Halloween party.

Happy Halloween

Munchkinhead and I started planning months ago.  When was that March? April?  We knew what we were going to be for Halloween, and as fall arrived, we started working on our fabulous costumes.

I’m a half-eaten Triceratops!

 

And Munchkinhead is a T-Rex.

 

Specifically, she’s the T-Rex that’s eating me!

We were inspired by the Milwaukee Public Museum dinosaur diorama. (re-enacted here)

We bought some very cheap sweats on sale at Target – actually, they were kinda free because I used a gift card I won at a State Bar of Wisconsin program.  Munchkinhead dyed hers to be the proper shade of red-brown.  Mine were good dark grey.  Both of our tails are made from an extra pant leg. 

Munchkinhead’s tail and back have a spine quilted in by Mommy.  My guts are also courtesy Mommy’s quilting.  They’re part of a down comforter that was lying around in her sewing closet.  Mommy also stitched Munchkinhead’s sleeves for her little arms.  Mommy originally said she wasn’t going to help us, but she got pretty into it with lots of great ideas.  She watched Dr. Who has half a triceratops so I could hand stitch the frill onto my costume.

My frill is made of fabric a scarp of stabilizer, which Cathy at JoAnn’s suggested.  She also suggested pleating it for the circular effect.  Mommy did the pleats; I cut the zig zag.  My top two horns are foam and my nose horn is felt, molded on Mommy’s felt carrot scissors keeper that I got her in Texas.  It’s held on with a strap of clear stretchy jewelry line.

Munchkinhead and I both have cardboard feet.  Hers aren’t on in the picture, but she has three front talons and one back talon on each foot.  I just have giant plodding triceratops feet, and I do have to plod in them because they make it very difficult to walk.  Our costumes are also both stuffed with pillows, which makes them quite warm.  They’d’ve been perfect for your standard put-your-costume-over-your-snowsuit Wisconsin Halloween, but it was 67 on Trick or Treat this year.  We felt like we really were in the late Crustaceous period!

Trick or treat was fun.  Have you ever seen a T-rex try to hand out candy?  Tiny arms!  The kids would have to get up really close and Munkchinhead would still need some oomf to throw the candy bar into their bag.  Several kids had to pick up the candy.

After trick or treat, we had fun running around Mommy and Daddy’s house taking pictures of “T-rex attempts to do” this and “Triceratops attempts to do” that.  It was really funny.  T-rex could hardly do anything.  She fell headfirst into a laundry basket attempting to get clothes out of it!  I kept getting stuck in doorways and other narrow areas around the house.

Tonight, we’re going to ballet.  It’s Don Quixote, and they said we could wear costumes since it’s Halloween.  I’ll have to take my top half off so the frill doesn’t block anyone’s view.  Hopefully the colored contacts we got won’t obstruct ours.

We’re also going to – and this was a surprise to us; we found out about it after we’d started our costumes – the museum!  It’s a members costume party night.  Should be great fun.  I wonder if anyone will recognize us.

(Since Mommy and Daddy weren’t home, we went across the street to one of the neighbors’ and asked them to take our photo together.)

The Zebra says “Meow”

Apparently, the See and Says sold in Oakland are a little out of wack. 

On Halloween, I dressed as a Zebra (or Zebula in Zambian English).  All day at the Raiders game and at the BART station in Oakland, I kept getting meowed at.  It didn’t help that there was a Batman in our group at the game.  That prompted quite a number of cat woman comments.  The most unbelievable comment came from an elderly gentleman at the Coliseum BART station who told me I looked like Halle Berry.  In his defense – I guess – he was smoking pot at the time.

Mr. Trizzle, Batman and me at the game.

 

 

 

A cat? Really?  A cat?!  How many cats with zebra stripes have you ever seen?  Me, I’ve seen one.  And he was wearing a zebra striped jacket.  Maybe I should save my outfit and go as Cat next year.  (By the way, I saw a Raiders jersey at the game that said “Lister” on the back.)

Anyway, despite the not-so-bright people at the game, I really liked my costume.  It was soft and fuzzy and warm.  I’m still a little bit stuck in Wisconsin mentality.  I think Halloween costume and I think “ok, either needs to be really warm or needs to fit over a snow suit.”  So my costume was really warm.  A full-length, fuzzy, turtleneck body suit.  It even had a beige bodysuit underneath it for an extra layer.  It was in the mid 70s the entire day at the Raiders game, sitting out in the sun.  Whoops!

Sewing Time

Making the costume was a bit of an adventure.  As usual, I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like and had to go on a bit of a hunt to find the right materials.

First task, the pattern.  It took a bit of online searching, but I finally found something that looked like it would work, KwikSew Pattern 3052.  Unfortunately, the pattern is discontinued, so it took a bit more searching to find one actually available for purchase.

Second task, the fabric.  I wanted fuzzy.  Obviously, it had to be zebra print.  And it had to be at least somewhat stretchy.  I found something that worked at the Jo-Ann across the BART station from my house.  Soft, fuzzy, zebra, some horizontal stretch.  I could work with that.

The beige under-body suit was easy and came out pretty good, after I lengthened the legs about 5”.  It was a little bit baggy in some areas, but the fabric was so thin, I figured it would work fine underneath the zebra suit.

Whoops!

Then I set to task on the zebra suit.  I took the pattern in a bit where it had been baggy on the under-body suit but didn’t adjust anything else.  Fail.  Major, absolute fail.  I forgot to take into account that the zebra fabric didn’t stretch at all vertically and had only about half the horizontal stretch that the pattern called for.  The result would fit Munchkinhead.  (I asked her if she wanted a zebra costume, but she was already going as a ‘40s pin-up girl for Halloween.)

Back to the fabric store.  I bought all the rest of that zebra fabric that they had.  Nearly twice what the pattern called for.  Then I resized the pattern for my actual measurements, compensating for the lack of stretch.  I had to add another 6” to the inseam, lengthen the sleeves about 4 inches and the upper body a good 2 or 3”.  By the time I was done, the pattern didn’t fit on my kitchen table.  Which, I guess makes sense since it’s a neck to ankle pattern and I’m longer than the kitchen table.  I almost didn’t have enough fabric!

Success!

This time, the zebra fit!  It was actually a bit big in the mid-section, but that was easily solved by taking in the center back seam. I had a fabulous zebra-suit.  Final touches: some black gloves, black socks and black heels for my hooves, and some banana clips to make a mane.

Me as a fabulously cute zebra

My First NFL Game

Last Sunday, I got to go to my first ever live NFL game. It wasn’t a Packer game, but hey, we can’t all be Mommy.

I missed the tailgating, because the bell choir was playing in church.  We played Phantom of the Opera for the end of the service since it was Halloween.  I love that music!

Anyway, I got to the parking lot just as Mr. Trizzle and his friends were packing up to head into the stadium; perfect timing.  Our seats were way, way, way up top near the goal line.  It would have been perfect for watching marching band.  Wasn’t too bad for watching football either.  I had a lot of fun watching the game with Mr. Trizzle and his friends.

I was surprised how few Raiders fans were in costumes.  On tv, it looks like the fans always come dressed up, and this was Halloween!  There certainly were a lot of people in Raider’s jerseys, even old Jamarcus Russell jerseys.  The oddest thing to me, being from Wisconsin, was that there were open seats, and lots of them, in nearly every section.  Now that’s something you’ll never see at Packer game.

It was the Raiders vs. the Seahawks and the Raiders were playing really well.  Not as well as the week before when they set a scoring record and completely creamed Denver, but good enough that it wasn’t a very close game.

But the game wasn’t the most interesting thing to watch.  The most interesting thing was the birds, filthy birds.  Seagulls had swarmed over the parking lot as the tailgaters left their vehicles.  By the middle of the third quarter, the seagulls were starting to migrate to the field.

They perched on the scoreboard at the end of the field.  They swarmed around the outer edges of the field.  And then, they began to swoop down into the stands.  Soon, there were flocks of seagulls everywhere you looked.  Worst of all, they were exactly where you didn’t want to look.  Up.

By the fourth quarter, the seagulls had lost all fear.  They came low, they came often.  They were landing and resting on empty seats not far from people.  And they had started dropping presents.

Mr. Trizzle got a small present on his trouser leg.  Being the big, tough man he is, he got a napkin and took care of it.  The people four rows in front of us fled after one guy got two presents.  Then more people started to flee.  I was getting scared.  Cleaning goo out of long hair is not as easy as wiping it off a pant leg.  But  I was sticking it out.  More people fled.  We fled.

The game wasn’t over.  There was a minute and half or something like that left.  We traipsed down the long, winding ramps to a lower level and ducked under a covered area with open seats.  The Raiders got another touch down, right before we ducked into the viewing area.  We did get to see the extra point, though. 

The Seahawks may have lost, but the seagulls sure won.

Hallo Weeeeeeee Een

I wasn’t expecting to have a very fun or exciting Halloween.  After all, Mr. Trizzle was moving away that weekend, and there’s nothing fun about that.  But life is always full of surprises, and Halloween weekend turned out to be pretty great. …even with the depressing move.

Mr. Trizzle’s friend, The L E G E N ol (who, for sake of typing ease I’m just calling The Legend) needed help with his Halloween costume.  At the suggestion of Mr. Trizzle (who’s too good/lazy/busy for Halloween costumes), The Legend was dressing up as Rick Ross.

This is Rick Ross –> 

He’s a rapper from Miami. 

As you can see, The Legend needed a giant chain of his/Rick Ross’s face.  Enter goldenrail and a trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics.  (You know I’m always looking for excuses to go there.)

Several days and two bags of rhinestones later, Rick Ross appeared in our apartment.

As it turned out, Mr. Trizzle and I got to be Rick  Ross’s entourage for an exclusive party Friday night.  Neither of us had costumes, but that didn’t matter.  Mr. Trizzle just claimed Recession Halloween and my cute owls were festive enough.

But Halloween weekend didn’t just involve parties and moving boxes; it also included that staple of all Halloweens: pumpkin carving!!!!

On Saturday afternoon, my new friend came over to carve pumpkins.  He’s from Nigeria, so he’d never carved a pumpkin before.  (Pumpkins are food over there, not decorations.  Interestingly enough, that’s two years in a row I’ve had a Nigerian pumpkin carving day.)

He did one, and I did two, one for me and one for Daddy Bunny.  Daddy Bunny’s Grandma suggested he join in, but then remembered pumpkin carving is very messy and he doesn’t bath well.  So, Daddy Bunny designed his vampire bunny pumpkin, and I helped him out by carving it for him.  Here are our finished pumpkins.  (Unfortunately, since it was day time, you can’t tell they’re lit up.)

Sunday was moving day all day.  That wasn’t bad.  Though it was sad to say goodbye to Mr. Trizzle, I got to drive his car (with his awesome stereo) the two hours to Merced while he drove the moving truck.  Woo hoo for subwoofers!  Mr. Trizzle’s getting settled in now and we’re all excited for him and his new job.

 

 

photo credits: Rick Ross cc-by adroed availble at:  http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/g4Pn-KiGXT8h_0rxmZ47Kg)

The Legend as Rick Ross and Carved Pumpkins cc-by goldenrail

Group picture courtesy of The Legend’s facebook.

 

Happy Couple Days After All Hallow's Day?

Dara, Feyi and I carved our pumpkin on Saturday.  And we finally got to light it tonight!  Their mom liked it so much she brought out her camera and took pictures of the girls with it after they had their baths!

Dara and Feyi each drew an eye, and luckily, they both wanted the same type of mouth.  I did the nose because that part of the pumpkin was bad and had to come out.

The pumpkins here are shaped a little differently than back home, so we actually did it sideways.  That gave the pumpkin the best base to stand on its own.  It's also more of a peachy color than orange, but that doesn't surprise me.  None of the food here is the same color as at home.  Makes me wonder what we do to our fruits and veggies! 

The girls had more fun playing with the insides of the pumpkin than anything else.  But that's probably because I wouldn't let them do any of the cutting.  (And I only had a big knife, which made those circles in the eyes rather difficult.)  Dara mashed a whole bunch of pumpkin guts into a ball and was playing catch with it.  Luckily, we were carving the pumpkin outside.

So far it hasn't melted, but we're in the dry season here, so that might have something to do with it.

It's Halloween - please visit Where's the Bubbler and Fartwood Manor today as I'm sure they are chocked full of great spooky fun!  And for the best Haunted House story ever, please stay tuned.

Here, you'll have to settle for something a little more mundane.  No special Halloween fun for me this year, being in Nigeria and all.  No beautiful red and orange fall leaves.  No snow.  Even if our Celsius temperatures were in Fahrenheit, it'd be too warm to snow!  (Average lately has been 37.)  No candy corn, no vampire teeth, no jack o'lanterns.  But the season still makes me think of all these wonderful things and fondly recall my previous Halloweens.

My favorite part is not the candy.  Don't think it ever was.  My favorite part has always been the costumes!  Lovingly made by Mommy, and inspired by who-knows-what.  I can't remember every thing I ever was, but I'm going to recap a few of them.  I wish I had pictures to post, but they're at home in photo albums or on my external hard drive.  You'll have to settle for pictures of what the costumes were of, and random shots of Katrina.  Sorry.

I think my favorite ever was the year I went as Jafar.    Mommy worked so hard on that costume!  (Is Halloween a fair use for making a derivative work?)  Mommy was very creative, getting the shoulder things to stand-up like that.  I had to walk side-ways through the doors at school.  We made the staff out of paper towel and wrapping paper tubes.  And the shoes were covered in red duct tape.  I had a stuffed parrot on my shoulder to be Iago.  The best part was taking my little sister trick or treating.  She was in 1st grade, I was in 9th, so she was (and still is!) much shorter than me.  And she was Jasmine. hee hee  I even ran into someone from school who didn't recognize me, but recognized my sister.

Another favorite costume of mine that Mommy made was my pumpkin costume!  It was actually a jack o lantern.  It was a big round ball with arm holes and filled with tulle to make it puffy.  Wendy had a similar apple costume, but I think she wore that a different year.  I think she was a vampire when I was a pumpkin... Mommy would know.

Everyone has at least one costume sometime in their life with some sort of functional problem, eye holes you can't see out of, shoes you can't walk in, etc.  Mine was the year I was a birch tree.  Couldn't sit down.  I remember going to the gymnastics open house at Midwest Twisters and basically having to take off my costume, which was made out of poster board, in order to do any of the activities.  But I really liked birch trees.  We had one in the back yard... .

  There's also that one costume in everyone's repertoire that nobody else knows what it is.  Mine was in 4th or 5th grade, I can't remember if we'd moved yet.  I went as Daddy.  People kept thinking I was Albert Einstein.  I wore a suit, had a big poofy white curly-haired wig that we sprayed with paint to add a bit of black and grey, an old pair of glasses frames and I carried our backgammon game as a briefcase.  It's not fair, I go as Daddy and people don't get it.  When Wendy went as me, everyone at school got it, and they told her that her skirt wasn't short enough!

As I got older, I either got lazier or less creative.  I still did Halloween costumes late in high school and in college, but not for trick or treating.   For the late night double feature picture show!  Midnight showing of Rocky Horror at the Oriental.

(Doesn't Katrina make a great Frank 'n Furter!)
One year I went as a baton twirler and wore, gee, my actual baton twirling costume and carried my real baton.  Another year, I went as a cat, in my catsuit that I wore nearly every week anyway.  I just added a little cat-eared bonnet.   Pretty much the black cat equivalent of the pink bunny rabbit I was at 2.  Then I wore my footed pajamas and a pink knit ski-mask-hat with bunny ears on it.  I was so cute with those little drawn on whiskers!  (both times)

I got more creative again in Zambia.  We weren't dressing up for Halloween then, we just had themed costume parties every time we were all together.  For the Heaven and Hell party, I was Adolf Hitler.  It was simple and I had everything I needed.  Eyeliner to draw a moustache.  Black leotard, and a red bandana folded over and tied around my arm with an electrical tape swastika on it.  Boy did my BOMA-buddy (nearest neighbor and thus usual partner for various activities) and I start laughing when we saw each other.  He was a Rabbi!  For the Circus party, I went as the little girl that goes to the circus.

And for the Texas Man-Fest party, I went as Texas Trash.  I made a mini skirt out of a pair of jeans I had bought at the market.  Paired it with a silver shirt tied at the chest and plastered with two big blue stars.  Flared it up a bit with a garter skirt and fishnet stockings, and topped it all off with red white and blue 7" stripper shoes.  My friend Nikki commented that I was probably the only person she knows who would have 7" stripper shoes in Africa. ;)  I think that was the party where Mary tried putting stripper poles in the backyard.  Set them in cement, but they were bamboo, so when Anna was trying to spin upside-down down the pole, it bent over.  She got a sliver. :(

And last year at Halloween, I finally got to be something I'd always dreamed of being.  What I'd always wanted to be when I grew up.  My idol.  Jessica Rabbit.  And Daddy Bunny was Roger.  It was great, until another Jessica walked into the party.  But my dress was better, more authentic.  Hers had straps and no slit.  And she had a wig.  I grew my hair out for the costume and dyed it bright red.  This one I actually have a picture of:

 

Hmmm... I seem to remember carrying the Birthday star wand around, maybe I was a princess or fairy one year.  We definitely had pink wings that Wendy and I wore with poofy skirts at some point.  I seem to be missing a lot of my life; I can only remember one other costume.  I think it was from sophomore year of high school, though it could have been late middle school.  I was Alice from Alice in Wonderland.  Mommy made a big blue basically mumu-styled dress and then I put my white daisy-kingdom pinafore over it.  Mommy must have liked that costume; it was probably one of the simplest ones I ever had.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

SLEEP TIGHT, DON'T LET THE VAMPIRES BITE