(no subject)
This week I got to try out an exciting new career - booth babe! Not really, but it was fun to call myself one anyway. The story is that Shaun's employer is having an IT Symposium this week and different teams set up tables to promote their tools and projects to other employees. Shaun had mentioned to his mangager before that I like doing creative stuff, so his manager asked if I might like to design their booth. The tagline for their project is "Search, Ask & Share" and somebody came up with the idea of changing it to "Search, Ask & Scare" so they wanted to go with a Halloween theme.
So they gave me a budget and I got to go buy decorations! I set up a haunted table with Jack O'Lantern, cauldron full of candy, wine glasses with fake blood/wine, candles (not lit, unfortunately), moldy fruit bowl, and lots of webs and spiders. I got a bunch of the stuff really cheap at Goodwill and then painted it to make it more Halloweeny. We got fabric to drape the table and pin to the wall behind, and I also let them use one of my creepy Halloween lenticular portraits (picture changes based on the angle you look at it from) that I am so very fond of. And one of Shaun's team members even brought us a strobe light and light pattern projector! The table turned out really great and we've gotten zillions of compliments. Most of the other tables are just kind of boring (two computer monitors and a poster hung up behind), so ours stands out like a pink-striped zebra dancing in a tutu.
The booth!
Close up of the moldy fruit covered in spiders!
This is the super creepy lenticular portrait I bought this year. These things are creepy and bizarre and yet, I love them.
The blood/wine on the glasses is actually homemade hard candy. We got the idea from this site. It was pretty easy to do, and makes a really great effect. I definitely would do it again for a future Halloween party. It's kind of funny to see people poke it with their fingers or even put their whole hand down on it, get sticky and then look at us with a sheepish smile like they couldn't help but touch it.
The booth design is a little outlandish, but it's really been working to get people to come up and ask about the projects we're featuring. I haven't been keeping a formal count, but we definitely got a lot more walkups than the booths next to us. (The free candy probably helps too!)
Initially I was just designing the table, then I got asked to come in and set it up, and then they asked if I could come in costume and stay all day for both days (Lol I can't get over the fact that I am a booth babe now!). So Wednesday I wore a gothic vampiress sort of outfit - reused my Nefertiti dress from Halloween two years ago and changed the accessories and wore pretty intense makeup (apparently so intense that someone who saw me on Wednesday didn't recognize me Thursday!). Thursday I was rocking my pirate outfit. Not particularly scary, but it is attention-grabbing. Shaun was even more attention-grabby than me, since he decided to wear his fairy wings! So tons of people gave him grief about it, which is funny.
It's been fun to go to work with Shaun the last couple of days, plus I love Halloween so any excuse to do more decorating is fine by me! And I love getting to wear some of my costumes that I've done a lot of work on. I especially love wearing costumes unexpected places, though it takes me a bit at the beginning to get used to the attention since I'm usually a blend-in sort of person. Shaun's workplace is a particularly good place for that because people are usually pretty straight laced, so seeing a pirate and a fairy walk down the hall gets quite a range of reactions, from outright amusement to barely concealed amusement to confusion.
And today I get to wear yet another costume as Shaun and I are going to the roller derby and they are having a Hogwarts House Cup themed bout, which is super awesome. So I get to bust out my Hufflepuff uniform! Hufflepuff for the Cup!
So that's three costumes in one week and it's not even October yet! Not sure what I'm doing costume-wise for Halloween yet. Depends whether or not we're having a party. For trick or treating (sooo excited for trick or treating this year - we live in a pretty good family neighborhood so I'm hoping we'll get lots of kids), I'll probably re-wear the gothic vampiress outfit since we're decorating our house scary-like, but if we have/go to a party, I'll wear something else I think. I have a costume in mind, but I need a few more accessories.
So they gave me a budget and I got to go buy decorations! I set up a haunted table with Jack O'Lantern, cauldron full of candy, wine glasses with fake blood/wine, candles (not lit, unfortunately), moldy fruit bowl, and lots of webs and spiders. I got a bunch of the stuff really cheap at Goodwill and then painted it to make it more Halloweeny. We got fabric to drape the table and pin to the wall behind, and I also let them use one of my creepy Halloween lenticular portraits (picture changes based on the angle you look at it from) that I am so very fond of. And one of Shaun's team members even brought us a strobe light and light pattern projector! The table turned out really great and we've gotten zillions of compliments. Most of the other tables are just kind of boring (two computer monitors and a poster hung up behind), so ours stands out like a pink-striped zebra dancing in a tutu.
The booth!
Close up of the moldy fruit covered in spiders!
This is the super creepy lenticular portrait I bought this year. These things are creepy and bizarre and yet, I love them.
The blood/wine on the glasses is actually homemade hard candy. We got the idea from this site. It was pretty easy to do, and makes a really great effect. I definitely would do it again for a future Halloween party. It's kind of funny to see people poke it with their fingers or even put their whole hand down on it, get sticky and then look at us with a sheepish smile like they couldn't help but touch it.
The booth design is a little outlandish, but it's really been working to get people to come up and ask about the projects we're featuring. I haven't been keeping a formal count, but we definitely got a lot more walkups than the booths next to us. (The free candy probably helps too!)
Initially I was just designing the table, then I got asked to come in and set it up, and then they asked if I could come in costume and stay all day for both days (Lol I can't get over the fact that I am a booth babe now!). So Wednesday I wore a gothic vampiress sort of outfit - reused my Nefertiti dress from Halloween two years ago and changed the accessories and wore pretty intense makeup (apparently so intense that someone who saw me on Wednesday didn't recognize me Thursday!). Thursday I was rocking my pirate outfit. Not particularly scary, but it is attention-grabbing. Shaun was even more attention-grabby than me, since he decided to wear his fairy wings! So tons of people gave him grief about it, which is funny.
It's been fun to go to work with Shaun the last couple of days, plus I love Halloween so any excuse to do more decorating is fine by me! And I love getting to wear some of my costumes that I've done a lot of work on. I especially love wearing costumes unexpected places, though it takes me a bit at the beginning to get used to the attention since I'm usually a blend-in sort of person. Shaun's workplace is a particularly good place for that because people are usually pretty straight laced, so seeing a pirate and a fairy walk down the hall gets quite a range of reactions, from outright amusement to barely concealed amusement to confusion.
And today I get to wear yet another costume as Shaun and I are going to the roller derby and they are having a Hogwarts House Cup themed bout, which is super awesome. So I get to bust out my Hufflepuff uniform! Hufflepuff for the Cup!
So that's three costumes in one week and it's not even October yet! Not sure what I'm doing costume-wise for Halloween yet. Depends whether or not we're having a party. For trick or treating (sooo excited for trick or treating this year - we live in a pretty good family neighborhood so I'm hoping we'll get lots of kids), I'll probably re-wear the gothic vampiress outfit since we're decorating our house scary-like, but if we have/go to a party, I'll wear something else I think. I have a costume in mind, but I need a few more accessories.