DIY costumes

For N@W FB group thread: share your DIY halloween costumes

Here are some of the costumes we made for Addy's various activities. Not so nice ha, but we always tried to do our best hehehe :)


Jungle Girl - 2004 Trick or Treat, White Plains

two animal print scarves

Chicken bone hair tie from real chicken leg bone :)

Scarf was sewn onto Addy's bikini top to keep it in place

Angel wings and halo/ headdress - 

Casa de Bambini Christmas program 2006

made from wire, sheer cloth, boa

Little Miss Switzerland - 

UN / Prayer Rally at St. Paul Pasig, October 2007

The inner blouse and black dress were Addy's clothes. 

Design on bodice was made from hanky, satin ribbon, lace and buttons 

I made the bonnet from scratch. Followed instructions from a how-to website then used satin ribbon and lace that matches the lace from the bodice

Apron was sewn by our "in-house" mananahi, kasambahay Ate Anna 

Switzerland sash printed on bond paper then taped on 2" ribbon

Buggy Witch - 2008 Trick or Treat, 

Las Villas de Valle Verde

Rubber spiders and other creepy crawly toys were sewn all over an off-the-rack witch costume

LED tea light in the mini-cauldron necklace

English Lit dressup activity

St. Paul Pasig, 2010

Nurse Matilda aka Nanny McPhee

Black skirt and blouse were mine;  cape was a piece of cloth from Saizen, tied with black satin ribbon

Headdress was Addy's fedora hat wrapped in a bonnet that was recycled from her 2007 Switzerland costume, minus the lace and ribbon. Feathers came from a clip-on fascinator from 168.   

Tooth was from a horror plastic teeth toy. We cut the other teeth so that one sticks out. Cane came from a guava branch which was used as prop in the TV show Batibot 2010,

Design/ make your own superhero activity

St. Paul Pasig 2010

Addy designed a superhero who is a protector of the environment and shoots flowers as a weapon, among many powers. We found it difficult to look for the exact costume with the materials and design that she had in mind. I had to convince her that she has to revise it a bit and as a compromise, she agreed to buy a shirt from SM with peace signs (since in her drawings, the flowers had a peace sign in the middle). We used an old skirt to match it.  The "logo" on her chest was made from CD. The center peace sign had a blinker (I think used for bikes) under the sticker.

The cape was reused from Nanny McPhee's outfit. We cut letters from craft foam (printed using Bell Bottom font on paper then traced on the craft foam). Flower was made from felt cloth.

Her belt was made from felt cloth. Buckle was made from a Pringles can cover, cut and spray-painted with silver. Flowers on boots were made from felt cloth as well. Addy's mask was made from a fabric headband. Gloves bought from Saizen.

Annie 

Addy's 8th birthday, September 2010

We used Addy's red shirt dress and added ribbons for the collar, sleeves and belt.

 She was supposed to wear a curly wig, but decided otherwise.

Trick or Treat

Las Villas de Valle Verde 2012

 Not exactly DIY, but her white dress was previously an angel's costume that she used for that year's Flores de Mayo. 

Bone on Aly's head was made using two toilet paper cardboard tube, then covered with newspapers then painted with acrylic. It was attached to a headband. 

No special make up; just black eyeshadow, eyeliner, false eyelashes and red nailpolish for the wound.

The Wish Notebook part 2

For sure Addy won't be pleased to see this published, but I'm posting it just the same, maybe for a limited time hehe Baka mahuli ako!

We don't have magazines on hand to cut pictures from. So she made drawings instead.

Here are her wishes so far:

I wish we have 1 billion pesos.

The square is for ticking granted wishes.

I wish that I won't cough anymore

I wish the money was made of fake paper even the kids can make

(Addy likes to make her own play money, including coins that were drawn on paper and cut into tiny circles.)

The Food Holder and The Broken Pencil

I wish my invention was true

I wish I have a magic TV.

1st you put a CD...

2nd you wait for it

3rd you go in it

4th you're in

The magic TV has been her wish since she was 4 years  old

I asked her why she didn't draw a house. She told me that it's included in the One Billion peso-wish.

Sabi ko sa sarili ko, ay, better if separate pa 'yon! hahaha abusado.

More wishes to come. (True.)

The Wish Notebook

Since typhoon "Ondoy", we've camped at my Tita's house at cutesy Ayala Ferndale Homes in Quezon City.  One night as I lay in bed with Addy, I asked her a question.

Me:  Addy do you miss our room at Provident Village?

Addy: [thinks] But there are spiders in the house....  and water splatters on my face because the faucet is not fixed...

Me: So you don't miss it?

Addy: Umm...can we have a house here at Ferndale?

Me: Haha, it's so expensive here! We can't afford it! Why don't you wish for one na lang?

Addy: But wishes don't come true!

(Oops! What did we *not* give her that made her think that way? Ayan na naman, na-guilty ang mother hehe)

Me: Well, some wishes do. Only it takes some time before they come true.

(Addy looks far and thinks. I continue...)

Me: Some people paste pictures of the things they like on a notebook...

Addy:  ...and the wish fairy takes a look at them?

Me:  Yup! But like I said, the fairy can't grant all of them at once.

Addy: I know! It's because the wish fairy is just training and learning to use her wand so it takes a long time before she can give some wishes.

Me: [to myself:  whew. hay salamat!]

Addy: Okay Mama, can you buy me a notebook at National Bookstore? I want to make my own wish notebook!

And here it is:

Wiped Out

Typhoon "Ondoy" wiped out my video files, pictures, memorabilia last Sept 26 :(

I am still hoping I'd be able to recover some of them. I know, it's going to be a desperate attempt to retrieve archival stuff, especially if you saw for yourself the creamy mud that the disaster left behind. It didn't spare cracks, spaces and even seals!

The day after the flood, I told myself I'd have to delete this blog and remove "nostalgia" from my vocabulary. There were just so many things that I've kept all these years that I had to throw away. My journals, yearbooks, photo albums, Betsy Clark stationery, grade school Hello Kitty trinkets that I got from Book Stop Greenhills in the 70s, cards, letters, concert tickets, video tapes, and a whole lot more. Wala ng senti-senti, nosta-nostalgia. It will only prevent me from detaching and will leave a pile of muddy, moldy, smelly things at that I probably won't touch anyway. It eats up bag ladies like me and fills up storage space with collections that I might just have to painfully throw again when the next disaster comes (knock on wood). Ayoko na.

Now, almost two months later, here I am trying to connect to the past and looking for souvenirs... or things that I was supposed to have scanned or video captured and posted on this inactive blog. Of course, aside from all my precious homevideo files, there's this footage of Janice de Belen saying God was with her and Aga, the Nailclippers singing Billie Jean on Discorama, grade school photos of my classmates at the canteen and dusty kickball field at St. Paul Pasig, . Most are gone, or there at Provident, rinsed post-Ondoy but probably being eaten up by mold and moisture by now.

What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch? | MNN - Mother Nature Network

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/what-is-the-great-pacific-ocean-garbage-patch
kawawa talaga si mother earth!

Irreplaceable

"Addy, I have a question."

"Yes Mama?"

"If I die now, what will you do?"

"I'll go with Papa."

"Will you let him get another mama for you?"

"Yes." [aray!]

"Who will choose, Papa or you?"

"Papa."






"What will you tell him, what kind of a mama do you want?"

"Like you!"

"Ah, you know Addy, that Mama would be really hard to find!"

Doctor, Doctor, Shall I Dye?

Ok I admit it. I cannot let a month pass without a trip to the salon or a DIY session at home to color my hair. Yes it's vanity. And yes, it's a necessity.  I don't deny my age but if I leave the grays alone, mukha na akong lola, I swear!

I remember the time when my mom started having her hair dyed (must be around my age now I guess). She told me of  this tale about a woman who had to undergo head surgery. When the doctors opened up and lifted her scalp, they saw that it's all black underneath! Black. From years of dyeing! Yikes.

I've heard a lot of horror medical stories (of cockroaches slipping into the ear, of basins of pus being squeezed out from a boil, kuto under the eyebrows, larvae in the eye...hehe) but this black scalp story just left a big *imprint* on my head ;) I don't know how bad that woman's head looked like, but I just imagined ink-black layer of skin beneath a mass of black and gray and white hair roots. Parang pusit. Eeek.

My mom said "Nakakatakot, di ba?"  Despite that story,  up to now,  at 71 years old, she still dyes her hair. Wala kasing choice eh!

How does a dye work, anyway? I'm writing here without even bothering to research. But I know Hydrogen Peroxide in the chemical dye sort of strips the hair of its natural color first before coloring. Correct me if I'm wrong. So does this mean that with regular dyeing, we will eventually lose the natural color because of regular "stripping" ?  Kaya ba sinasabi ng mga matatanda, na once you dye, the hair becomes whiter? Hmm...

Dry and brittle hair as a result of long-term dyeing is another issue. This is why salons always sell hair treatment packages for an after-color session, of course aside from the fact that they make a lot of money with those French-sounding "professional" hair products.

Oh and let me add. Does hair color eventually make your hair fall?  This is an even scarier thought. Images of a bald customer after Fefita Fofonggay or Facifica Falayfay poured some chemical over her head are still vivid in my memory. Though that scene was for a perm, still, I get bothered with the thought of getting bald because of a monthly dose of hair chemicals.


So... what's my choice now? I think I'd rather risk with that pusit story. Until someone invents a really safe and natural hair coloring that will cover the grays. Not make it orange-y like henna.

Dye na lang until I die.