Medusa in the making

1 Nov

Medusa in the making

Posted November 1, 2009 by veronicagoldbach in costumes, Medusa, Nanowrimo. 1 Comment

I have spent months preparing for Halloween/Storybook day. Getting a Medusa costume just right takes lots of shopping around and experimenting. Making Medusa elementary school appropriate is even harder. Can’t be too scary for the little bitty ones, but has to be authentic enough for the older ones (who have read the Lightning Thief and are full of questions about Medusa’s relationship with Poseidon). So I ended up with some sort of Medusa/bad fairy that didn’t scare anyone. The hair was the hardest part. After many experiments I found that setting hair in pin curls got it the fullest and most wild (the best for pinning snakes in). So Thursday night my mom helped me set it. I don’t know how women used to do this all the time. It takes forever and kind of hurts. Here’s what I looked like:

my hair in pin curls around 11pm

This was really hard to sleep on

I got up around 5am to start working on my hair. I undid the curls.

I liked the curls so much I nixed the wild scary Medusa and went the cuter route. The kids loved it.

Kid Friendly Medusa

Those snakes were painfully anchored into my scalp and that crown dug into my head all day. You can’t see in the picture but I’m wearing 4 inch heels to make me seem more mythical (and my costume was way too long). After teaching all day and walking in a parade I decided to go shopping and attend a party in that outfit. The next day my scalp was sore and I wanted to chop off my own feet. But it was Halloween so I had to go through the whole process all over again. We were better at it. The snakes weren’t nearly so painful or heavy. And I kept switching out my shoes. I ended up having a lot of fun.

The finished product

I’m already working on next year’s costume. This one will not hurt. But it does involve a lot of sequins.

It’s November so that means it’s National Novel Writing Month. I’ve got to stop obsessing about next year’s costume and start working. I’m really going to do it this year. 50K words by midnight Nov 30th or die trying!