How to be "Glitter"

I didn't grow up celebrating Halloween. Now that I'm an adult, I feel like I'm scrambling trying to come up with clever costume ideas when I didn't have a lifetime of practice.

Last year, I was invited to my first Halloween Party so the pressure was on to come up with an amazing costume. The panic set in – especially when I learned that there’s a competition for best and funniest costume.

I felt like I was in grade school and about to be last pick for the dodge ball team. How could I come up with the best or funniest costume when I didn’t have any costume skills at all?

What made matters worse was bumping into the hostess on a Friday night and being informed that the party was the next day . . . not the next week like I had mistakenly written down in my planner.



Halloween 2010

I had to come up with a costume lickity split. The next morning I opened my closet, looked for inspiration . . . and found it in a tea length dress. I grabbed a set of pearls, red pumps, a red apron, curled my hair and *poof* became a 1950's housewife, (something I've always wanted to be anyway).

This year I was better prepared! Not only did I have the correct party date, but I’ve been thinking about my costume for months.

Glitter

I confess that my co-worker has been dying to be glitter for Halloween and actually gave me the idea. But since she hadn't done it yet, I asked permission to use her dream and started planning. You'd be surprised at how hard this costume could actually be . . .

Do you be a glitter princess or just one speck of giltter? Dress up as a piece of white paper with a mess of glitter on it, or put the mess of glitter on you directly? One false move and you could go from classy to trashy.

I started with my top and went from there. I wore it last year when I was one of Charlie's Angels for a Halloween Bash in town. The shirt was still hanging in my closet and I’ve been looking for an excuse to wear it again. I had glittery sandals already, so I bought a pair of spandex and all sort of glittery things I could find. Glitter paint, glitter hair/body spray, glitter nail polish, glitter eyelashes, and a package of glitter for good measure.

My first attempt at my pants ended up looking like I had the night sky shooting out of my thighs. Not so good. My second attempt turned out much better, though I ended up spraying half of my room with glitter, not just my pants.

The day of the party arrived and I was so excited to show off my shiny self . . . and then it snowed.

I HATE SNOW!

But I wasn't going to let that damper my party spirit or take away all the joy from my costume. I was going to act like the US Postal Service and brave the winter weather.

I curled my hair, put on my costume and covered myself (and all of upstairs) with glitter. Then trudged out in the snow to my car, knowing the snow was wrecking my hair and I would have to drive all the way to Goshen in that sloppy mess.

What was supposed to take me 30 minutes took me an hour and 10. It was the most stressful drive of my life - especially knowing I couldn't turn around even if I wanted to because I would get stuck for sure.

I got to Kristen's and 10 minutes later, the power went out. She was depressed because all these people were coming and we would be hanging out in the dark. I was depressed because it's kind of hard to be glitter when nobody can see you sparkle.

Every now and then, someone would feel sorry for me and shine the flashlight my way. Truth be told, I still felt glitter-ful despite the darkness. Maybe the secret to a good Halloween costume is about how you feel on the inside, not who you're pretending to be on the outside.

Must have worked . . . I won best costume this year and I’m still picking pieces of glitter out of my hair.