What’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys?!
Me.
Or at least I was for Halloween this year. This, dear friends, was my costume:
The idea came to me with the help of my roommate. A few months ago, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be (Halloween costumes are like the only thing I plan more than a few days in advance). I wasn’t really coming up with much and I was getting nervous. I had won costume contests two years running, and I was going for the turkey. The only thing I had so far was to be Sorry by recreating the lid of the board game and placing myself strategically inside. I thought the concept was alright, but it wasn’t quite there; it didn’t tickle my fancy. And I figured this costume was going to have to do some fierce tickling to Complete the Threepeat ™. So I threw the idea out to my roomie and we proceeded to back-and-forth a couple of ideas. Sticking with the childhood games theme, he suggested, “How ‘bout a barrel of monkeys?” And then, thought I, Why not more fun than a barrel of monkeys?
It wasn’t as epic as that narration made it sound, but I thought it was A.) clever and B.) theoretically not too hard to make, though that’s always a dangerous underestimation of mine. Being a perfectionist who likes to make their own costume causes the days leading up to Halloween to be bizzy. But make it I did. The barrel at least. Let’s get crafty!
Ingredients:
2 Salad Bowls
A bunch of strips of cardboard
Aluminum Foil
Tape
Brown spraypaint
Plastic bags or some other creative stuffing
A bunch of monkeys
I started off by foraging for a bunch of cardboard boxes in the dumpster behind my work and then carrying them home along a busy street at rush hour as any normal person would. Then, I cut them into ~4 inch strips. Next was a trip to the dollar store. I found a couple of salad bowls that actually ended up being more perfectly shaped than I could have imagined and I managed to get out of there having spent less than $20. Success! This made things much simpler. Kind of. I taped the cardboard strips securely to the insides of one bowl so they were sticking straight up, kind of like this. I then cut the bottom out of the second bowl (which is surprisingly hard and dangerous when using leather cutting scissors) and placed it on top of the standy cardboards. Then I taped the crap out of it. The structure was a little flimsy, so I stuffed it with a small portion of the hoard of grocery bags we have under our sink. It came out looking full and voluptuous, as any barrel should.
Me.
Or at least I was for Halloween this year. This, dear friends, was my costume:
The idea came to me with the help of my roommate. A few months ago, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be (Halloween costumes are like the only thing I plan more than a few days in advance). I wasn’t really coming up with much and I was getting nervous. I had won costume contests two years running, and I was going for the turkey. The only thing I had so far was to be Sorry by recreating the lid of the board game and placing myself strategically inside. I thought the concept was alright, but it wasn’t quite there; it didn’t tickle my fancy. And I figured this costume was going to have to do some fierce tickling to Complete the Threepeat ™. So I threw the idea out to my roomie and we proceeded to back-and-forth a couple of ideas. Sticking with the childhood games theme, he suggested, “How ‘bout a barrel of monkeys?” And then, thought I, Why not more fun than a barrel of monkeys?
It wasn’t as epic as that narration made it sound, but I thought it was A.) clever and B.) theoretically not too hard to make, though that’s always a dangerous underestimation of mine. Being a perfectionist who likes to make their own costume causes the days leading up to Halloween to be bizzy. But make it I did. The barrel at least. Let’s get crafty!
Ingredients:
2 Salad Bowls
A bunch of strips of cardboard
Aluminum Foil
Tape
Brown spraypaint
Plastic bags or some other creative stuffing
A bunch of monkeys
I started off by foraging for a bunch of cardboard boxes in the dumpster behind my work and then carrying them home along a busy street at rush hour as any normal person would. Then, I cut them into ~4 inch strips. Next was a trip to the dollar store. I found a couple of salad bowls that actually ended up being more perfectly shaped than I could have imagined and I managed to get out of there having spent less than $20. Success! This made things much simpler. Kind of. I taped the cardboard strips securely to the insides of one bowl so they were sticking straight up, kind of like this. I then cut the bottom out of the second bowl (which is surprisingly hard and dangerous when using leather cutting scissors) and placed it on top of the standy cardboards. Then I taped the crap out of it. The structure was a little flimsy, so I stuffed it with a small portion of the hoard of grocery bags we have under our sink. It came out looking full and voluptuous, as any barrel should.
Next came the spray paint. I spray painted it. I then tooksome aluminum foil and tore it off in long sheets. After folding them into long thin strips, I wrapped them around the barrel at its respective subtropics. The finishing touch was filling the barrel with monkeys.
The rest of my costume was monkey/fun themed, making sure to point out that I was more fun than the copiously crowded barrel which accompanied me throughout the evening. Behold:
PS I love the shirt. DI. $2. Although I in no way condone tobacco use in animals. Especially animals under 18.
I’ve always thought it’d be cool to have my own arts n crafts show. Thanks for joining me today. Now you know how I made my costume. Did you care? Either way you know now. And knowledge is power.
who won?
ReplyDeleteA girl who dressed up as Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus.
ReplyDelete