Bring on HallowThanksMas!!!

I'm stoked about the holidays! Normally I'm their #1 fan, but this year (and beyond) they seem even more cool. Getting to have those little flashbacks of what Halloween, Christmas, and Thanksgiving felt like as kid...just getting to see them through Joseph's eyes is going to be super fun! I’m not trying to oversell this…I get that Joseph is just an infant, and he won’t really get what’s going on, but I see the excitement in his eyes from regular things every day, so I’m sure that fun costumes, lots of family, tasty new foods, and sparkly Christmas ornaments won’t disappoint him (or me)!

I think I started looking for Joseph's Halloween costume sometime around mid-August (I'm seriously that kind of excited)! I had been trying to come up with the perfect 1st costume. I narrowed it down to a few choices, was going to order one pretty early just to make sure it fit (my kid is still in the 5th percentile, so normal sizes don’t always apply). As I logged onto the internet to place the order, I did one last google search- just to see if there was anything that I liked better. Big, big mistake.

A cute little turtle costume turned up on the 3rd page of the search…a cute little homemade costume. That gave me a great idea. What better tradition to start? I could make Joseph’s Halloween costume! After all, every costume that I can remember wearing as a kid was homemade. How hard could it be?

If you all aren’t wondering “What was she thinking?” yet, just keep reading.

Since I only had a picture and absolutely no instructions on how to actually make this costume, I set out to make a plan.

“Hmm...perhaps this part could be a onesie…maybe I could attach this with Velcro…just a little spray paint...some glue…maybe a button here…a little stuffing…and of course, paper mache!"

Looking back on this now, I can see the many flaws of this plan (none of which really trump the paper mache idea). I can barely find time to accommodate a daily shower, and I was setting out to sew and paper mache a Halloween costume for a 7 month old. At least common sense told me to start this process early (in the off chance it didn’t work out and we needed to go buy a costume).

I settled on the crockpot lid to use as my turtle shell cast...perfect oval shape. Joseph and I spent a Saturday afternoon in early September ripping up old magazines and newspapers for the paper mache. He did rip a few pieces, but he mainly just rolled around in the paper laughing and adding his own special touches of drool and spit up to the pile.

I haven't paper mache'd anything since 7th grade Spanish class. Tammy Pittman and I made a Big Mac piñata for our final project. When we presented it during class, people asked us what it was...and if I wasn't the one who made it, I probably wouldn't have known what it was either. It wasn't so good, and neither was our grade.

I forgot how gross paper mache glue is, but I was reminded how easy it is to make, and excited that it didn't require any trips to the grocery store. Determined to involve Joseph in as much of this project as possible, he assisted me in dipping the paper into the glue.  But, after a few times of deflecting him from eating the flour mixture, I decided to finish this part up on my own. 

After about the 10th layer of paper strips, my hands were goo covered and pruned from the paste, and I think I had the first flash of "what the heck was I thinking?" Four days later, I had a 25 layer newsprint covered crock pot lid. And a week after that, I plopped out a perfectly shaped and sturdy "turtle shell."

Time to paint. I spray painted a few base coats of green. It wasn't really that simple. The first spray of the paint went directly in my face because I didn't pay attention to the direction the nozzle was pointed. I had to loofah the paint off of my cheeks in the shower that night. The second coat of green ended up spraying the cat as he chased a butterfly right through my work zone. I didn't bother to clean that, figuring it would eventually come off of him. After the third coat, I lost motivation, and my little project sat unattended for about three weeks.

This brings us to Halloween morning. I had a solid green cast of a crock pot lid. That's it. It was a Sunday, and it had been two weeks since Matt and I had been to church. I was suddenly feeling motivated (or maybe just super guilty from my procrastination) to get this turtle finished. My reasoning behind not wanting to go to church probably didn't fit into the valid excuses category, but nevertheless, I did try to convince Matt that it was a good reason. He proceeded to give me the whole "if you're not committed to going, then why did we join...blah, blah, blah" speech. On top of feeling guilty about my kid not having a Halloween costume, I now had church guilt eating at me (it didn't help that someone from the congregation stopped by later in the afternoon to give us a bulletin from the service, and make sure we were ok). I read our church newsletter while I was drinking my morning coffee, hoping that would count for something, and spent the next 2 hours working on the costume. A little more painting, some hot gluing, fabric and velcro application, and finally I had a finished shell!

Fast forward to Halloween night. Joseph was in that darn costume for about 25 minutes (if that). He kept pulling the shell off and playing with it. And when he did wear it, he repeatedly tried to roll over and continually got stuck. Luckily, the shell was pretty strong, and never caved in (which was my fear). Eventually I just had to wait for him to get in a good pose, drop the shell on his back real quick, and snap the pictures. But I did get some good ones!

So, the moral of the story...was it a pain in the butt to make? A little. Would I do it again next year? Of course.

Now bring on Thanksgiving and those hand-traced turkeys!