A Hyperbole and a Half Halloween Costume

Allie + Fish = Super best friends Forever!!

Woo Hoo! I made a costume for Halloween this year! I haven't made a costume (for me) in just about forever. I usually only make them for my dog. I went all creative and had to reach waaaaaaaaaaay back for some residual paper mache skills leftover from the second grade!

Every year our friends Keith, Loretta and Maureen invite hubby and I to a Halloween costume party. Each year we attend but never dress up. We're pretty lame that way. This year I was even invited to a second party the same night and had big plans to attend both since I was going to make a super cute costume.

So last year shortly after Halloween I was introduced to the Hyperbole and a Half blog by my friend Katherine. It's full of the cutest, most hilariously funny, twisted and demented cartoon stories as told by the blog's author Allie. I LOVED it.

Immediately I knew I wanted to make a Hyperbole and a Half costume of Allie. So I waited, patiently, for Halloween 2011 to arrive.

I knew making her dress would be easy. I just needed two triangles of fuchsia pink felt with holes for my head, arms and legs. Even her arms and legs would be easy. Because she is a stick figure I knew I could use black tights to create stick figure'ish legs and arms.

I was torn between creating The God of Cake or "How a Fish Almost Destroyed My Childhood." I chose the latter and created a replica of her BFF fish to carry around as a prop. I knew the fish would also be easy to make but am planning on making the cake too just for fun.

My head came out a little glumpy but it worked!

The head was going to be another matter. How in the world would I make her head? Some digging online and I found a paper mache tutorial on the Instructables website. With it I set out to create the perfect hyperbolic Allie head!

I modified the design a bit to improve its user friendliness. For instance I only affixed the breathable mesh mouth along the top edge so I was able to eat and drink by lifting it up.

The big day for the party came but instead of being excited to attend in my new costume I was stricken with a migraine headache! It was bad. It started around 2:00 PM that afternoon. I thought to myself I should take some aspirin and a nap and see if I could make it go away. I got two Extra Strength Tylenol and went to pour a cup of water. That's when I discovered my water filter pitcher was empty. So I refilled it and waited for the water to filter.

I don't really recall what happened next but I fell asleep at some point. When I woke from my nap I still felt pretty bad but I thought walking the dog might clear my head. Big mistake. By the time I got back to the house I felt much worse. My head still hurt and I felt so nauseated I couldn't stand it.

Me at 7:00 PM on Friday night

I kept the lights off and flopped on the couch while chatting with my mom on the phone complaining that the Tylenol hadn't helped at all.

Eventually hubby came home from work and was freaked out a little because the house was pitch dark but he could hear me talking on the phone.

When he turned on the lights I noticed the two Tylenols I thought I'd taken hours earlier, still sitting next to the water pitcher. DOH! I'd forgotten to take them! LOL

A few hours later, loaded with Extra Strength Tylenol, I felt well enough to drag my sorry self into my costume and over to Keith, Loretta and Maureen's party. I would be two hours late and wouldn't get there until 10:30 PM  but there was simply no way I was going to sit at home all alone with my new costume while everyone else was out partying and having fun!

I spent a lot of time sitting.

I had as great of a time as you can have with a post-migraine hangover. As it turned out my mask was the perfect solution to hold my migraine at bay. The small eye holes above the mouth shielded my eyes from light and having my head completely encased in paper mache dulled the noise from the music.

I'm still bummed that of the three parties I'd planned to attend over two days I only made it to one and for less than a couple of hours. But I guess I should be grateful I made it to any at all. Sometimes I feel sick for days after having a bad migraine :(

I love my costume so much I may wear it from time to time just for fun. You know, like how sometimes you'll see a kid dressed as Batman at the grocery store in June. Yeah, if you see cartoon Allie grocery shopping or walking a dog that might just be me.

Thanks to Laura and Hubby for the party pictures. Since I didn't have fingers I wasn't able to take any :P