Time To Rock, Rock On!

After much deliberation, I decided to choose Shaun for this year's Halloween costume. It was indeed a daunting task of sorts because while certain items such as fake blood, white collared shirt, black pants/shoes/belt and a red pen are easy to come by, certain things like the authentic red-striped tie, "Foree Electric" name badge and the gorram cricket bat, are not.

So far, I've actually done fairly well improvising.

Let's start with the basics:

White collared shirt - Check.
Black pants, shoes, belt and socks - Check.
Fake blood - Check.
Two Red Pens (one for display, one to break so that ink flows majestically in the shirt pocket) - Check.
Orangish fake hair colour (the kind that'll brush/wash out) for a light hair colour adjustment - Check.

So far, so good.

Now, the tie is fairly hard to come by in keeping with the exact style, however I found one that in my opinion is close enough for disco. I can dig it, yo.

For the nametag, I started scouring office supply stores for blank, red, hard plastic name badges. The kind that are real hard plastic, not the flimsy see through "nametag holder" or the plain "Hello, my Name Is" sticker variety.

No dice.

So, I executed Plan 01A:

Behold!

Some judicious DVD pausing here and a little photoshopping there and here is the result. One faux nametag, complete with the British spelling of "Adviser" instead of "Advisor." I'm actually pretty proud of that handiwork. Yaay, me.

I printed out a copy on a 4x5 label, then trimmed around the edge of the nametag. Afterwards, I sprayed the sucker with some photo protectant and let it dry.

Next, I peeled off the label and placed it on top of one of those flimsy see through nametag holders, the ones that allow you to pin the finished badge to your shirt. I positioned the label centered horizontally and vertically to just flush right below the top plastic strip so that I could bend the small plastic strip behind the badge so that I can attach a safety pin to my shirt without having it visible.

Once I had the label in place, I trimmed off the excess label and nametag holder (except for the top plastic strip) so that it was even all the way around. I then fed a flat sided safety pin through the plastic strip with the clasp facing outward. I next hot glued the rest of the strip in place so that the badge wouldn't bend unnaturally.

I'm going to let the nametag dry overnight. Actually, I made two of them in case there is a spillage of beer. The layer of photo protectant will help keep things clean in cases of the occasional drop, but it is far from being a miracle worker against a torrent of liquid.

With that done, I am now faced with a final dilemma: the cricket bat.

I tried to get an authentic bat, but since cricket is not very common here in the states, let alone in Tejas, I wasn't having a ton of luck. After surveying a ton of options, I came up empty-handed. Realizing a bit too late, I supposed that my last effort would have been to search e-bay, but getting one in time? Yeeeeeahhh, right.

So, I was a bit discouraged last night. I just went out and bought a gorram pansy-assed wooden t-ball bat (ever TRIED to find a man-sized wooden bat in friggin' October?) and prepared to just accept it.

Then...

I found this.

This fellow seemed to have it figured out. Cardboard, a stick, some contact paper, a shitload of hot glue and some gaffer's tape. The idea is brilliant.

I'm all about creating the homemade costume and I do believe I can go the distance and gin one of these up this evening, if all goes well. It'll be a daunting task, but I could use a challenge so we shall see how it goes!

Beyond that, I have to bloody up the shirt and squirt a handsome amount of red ink into the shirt pocket tonight. Possibly bloody the bad up a bit if I can manage.

Either way, tomorrow night should be enlightening and hopefully a picture or three will ensue!