Halloween/Dia de los Muertos

A co-worker had a Halloween costume party last night, which I wasn't prepared for. So I decided go as a skeleton bride ala Day of the Dead. I didn't need to buy anything for it except for flowers, I just used clothes and makeup that I already had from previous costumes. Here's a photo of the finished look, followed by some step by step shots.

People seemed overly impressed by the makeup, in my opinion, but it was pretty easy, if a bit time consuming to do. So because people were interested, here's how I did it (apologies for the odd expression, it's hard to take self portraits with a crappy camera-phone!). First I started by applying a white base of regular theater makeup, using my fingers (a sponge would have probably been better), including lips but avoiding the eye area. This was followed by white powder to help set the base.

Next I used liquid black eyeliner to outline my eyes and to define the edge of where my eye sockets were going to be. I used a black eyeliner pencil to color in my eyebrows and black eyeshadow to fill in the area.

Next were the flower petals around the eyes. I just drew them in using my back eyeliner pencil and a red lip lining pencil. The black had a hard time staying down over the white makeup; I think next time I need to use face paint or have someone else draw them on using the liquid liner (I don't think my hand would be steady enough to do it on myself). I then used the liquid liner to draw the shape of a spade over my nose and filled it in with black eye shadow.

The spider web on my forehead was drawn with the liquid liner, then I used the black eyeshadow to, well, shadow it and give it a little depth. I also added some dots above my eyes to give a little interest.

Then came the mouth, which consisted of using - yep, you guessed it - liquid eyeliner! I used the pencil on the inside of my lips, since I figured it would smear a bit less. I also used a white makeup pencil to try and color in my lips just a bit more.

Lastly I drew in another spade on my chin with the liquid liner/eyeshadow fill. And more dots! It doesn't quite match the shape of the spade on my nose, but eh, I was starting to get in a hurry. I used the black eyeshadow lightly along the hollows of my cheeks and around my jawline to get a little more depth. At the last minute before we left, I did add little hearts on either side of the spade (black outline, red fill) to add a little something extra, but I didn't get a picture with them in it.

That's it for the makeup. All that was left was to change, pin on a veil and fresh flowers, and voila!

This was a really fun, inexpensive costume! I think I'll be doing it again and trying out more makeup techniques. Happy Halloween!

Blessingway Blanket Update

The deadline is drawing near, and I'm not done yet. However I might still make it. I'm on the last section, then I just need to block and stitch the sections up. Here's the latest pic of all the sections:

Here's one of the end knot pieces:

Here's the center work-in-progress piece:

Just a few more weeks until the baby is due; I can totally finish it by then! Heh.

Mushrooms!

Last weekend I went mushroom hunting with two friends up on Mt. Hood. We were primarily looking for Chantrelles, but were excited to just get out and tromp in the woods. We ended up finding quite a few Chantrelles, as well as Lobster mushrooms and lots of others that we left alone. Here's our joint haul:

Naturally I've been sworn to secrecy as to the exact spot where we found our mushrooms, but that just adds to the fun!

Processing them was tedious; I did a combination of drying, freezing, and of course cooking! Here's the ones I dried, and the finished product (doesn't look like much):

I'd love to go out again. A good mushrooming reference is the book "All that the Rain Promises, and More..." by David Arora, found here. I think Oyster mushrooms will be popping up soon. In the meantime, I think I need to find a good mushroom ravioli recipe!