January 24, 2005

Still working off the first flush of excitement we've managed to find a few pieces for our costumes on an out of town trip.

I've also made my list of costume items and accessories for this outfit:

1. LED clock necklace
2. gold mirrored sunglasses
3. red tank top
4. black vest - vinyl or something shiny
5. hip hugger pants - style TBD
6. fingerless gloves
7. one or two goth style studded belts
8. black jungle style combat boots
9. star patrol action rifle
10. temporary tattoos
11. makeup

And I want it all on a budget of $100 or less. That might seem like a lot for a costume, but if you think about the prices of things it will add up fast. Priced boots lately? The top, vest, pants, and belts at a local retail store would add up to that easily, without even getting into the cool little accessories. So, obviously, we're not shopping retail.

I won the auction for the red fingerless gloves. They should be here any day now. With shipping they were $6.85.

We went down to Tulsa again this weekend for a dance event, another one of my interests, and while we were there got a chance to do a lot of brainstorming with Paul and Kim, our partners in crime, and do a little shopping. Saturday we went by the flea market again and looked around. I was scoping out the leather vests, but wasn't real impressed with the quality of anything, and a lot of it was western style anyway. Before dinner we went by one of the larger military surplus stores in town and had a good look around. I actually didn't see a lot of surplus, I think most of it was new gear for the hunting and hiking crowd. Paul found some of the tactical boots he liked, but they were a tad pricey. The shop had combat boots, but not the cloth-sided jungle style I want. I spotted a pair of vintage military ski goggles for a dollar, and Paul snagged those. He's not sure what he'll do with them yet, but they make a cool accessory.

I noticed that the shop sold a lot of D and O rings, nylon straps, and buckles, so I should be able to make that black vest that I want without too much trouble. I've been searching online, and don't think I'll be able to find it, the style is discontinued.

My husband, Jay narrowed down his 'character' and made costuming decisions. He wants to dress as a Militech test pilot, with a cyberarm. Over breakfast Sunday we came up with the idea to have a couple "Militech Testing Center Company Picnic" t-shirts made up, for that casual look. He figures some camo print pants, flight goggles, and combat boots will round out the 'military jock' look. We tossed around various ideas for making the base of the cyberarm, something cheap, easy to work with, but solid. He's thinking some sort of modelling compound, I'm thinking papier mache over a duct-tape form. We'll have to experiment.

After breakfast we drove around a little bit waiting for the stores to open. There's a chain of lingerie shops in the midwest called Priscilla's. I had seen, at the show Saturday evening, a dancer with a decidedly modern punk costume which I really liked. I'm not sure where she got them but she had black jazz pants that were slashed across the thigh, leaving a big oval cut-out in the front and back. It's a really great, original look, and I want it for this outfit. I figured Priscilla's was likely to carry something like that....but they weren't open yet.

We did stumble across a thrift shop that was open before noon, so we went in to have a look around. You never know what you might find, and we had time to kill. Well, right off I found a pair of black tactical boots in Jay's size so I grabbed those and kept looking. Didn't see anything in the women's rack, not a big surprise. I have huge feet (size 10.5) and rarely find anything in my size. Went through the rest of the men's clothing, just to look, nothing said 'buy me'.

However, over in the women's department I did get lucky. I found this really cool black vinyl vest with red flame detail on the sides. It's straight out of the 80's and looks like it's never been worn. Some hair spray and a pair of leggings and I could be ready for high school again. And it's only five bucks, so that settles the vest. A couple of aisles over we found the red tank top to go with it. I did look through the belts, but everything with the studs or grommets was way too small for me, so I'll have to keep looking. The thrift shop did have a hot looking snakeskin pants set up front behind the registers, which I was eyeing, but they wanted $99 for it.

On the way out of town we hit Priscilla's, as they were open by that time. I was kind of disappointed with the selection, they didn't have the variety of clothing that I remembered seeing here in our local store.

I've been searching the internet since we got home, looking for those cut-out pants, I can't find anything like them anywhere, and I think I'm going to end up making them myself. I'm also looking for pants for Jay. We talked about getting some foreign BDUs in order to avoid the "army surplus" look, so I've been pricing Russian surplus since the camo patterns are different enough to look exotic or futuristic. They also cost more, with a set (jacket and pants) going for between $50 and $150. I don't want a set, just the pants, so I keep looking. I found the Swiss pattern, at left, and they are selling just the pants for $25, so this is a real possibility.

Jay's list of stuff for his costume is:

1. Arasaka t-shirt
2. camo pants
3. tactical boots
4. temporary tattoos
5. cyberarm
6. SuperSoaker

Meanwhile, Kim is figuring out what she wants to do. I think she's going to dye her hair bright blue, or at least put a couple of good streaks into it. She talked about going for the glamor punk Rockergirl look, which I think she is well suited to do. She likes these Bobster goggles, and she's got a bid in on these really wild orange boots I found on Ebay:

I've been looking for gold lipstick to match my sunglasses. I think if I can get something really bright and reflective it will look good, although I'm not sure gold is a great look on my pale skin. I'll probably have to get some kind of red or orange under-color to make it really stand out. I'm also interested in trying the red eyeshadow look, so I'll need some of that. I don't normally wear makeup, and I have an allergic reaction to a lot of products now. I figure I'm going to spend another $10 or $12 on makeup sometime this spring, to get the look I'm going for.

I've also got some ideas for making my hair more interesting. I want to put it up into a braid or ponytail but I want to do something wild with that. What's the point in maintaining a lot of hair -- and mine is waist length -- if you aren't going to use it for something fun when the occasion warrants? We joked about doing a mohawk, but I honestly don't think my hair will support itself, and besides, it's got to be something I can do myself in a hotel room in 30 minutes. What I want to find right now is one of those plastic ponytail clamps, the cone shaped ones that hold your hair straight up on top of your head. I don't know if they even make those anymore, but I'm looking.

I picked up a couple of cheap braided hair extensions at the dollar store last fall, one in each of my hair colors. It starts out dark chocolate brown at the roots and turns redder and blonder as it gets longer, so I got different ones to cover whatever shows the most. And, hey, they were a buck!

I'm impressed by another costumer's page I've just found. She has some really original ideas for making very nice looking costumes out of any old junk and thrift store finds.

January 29

It's been a busy week. I have been to innumerable beauty supply, thrift store, import shop, dollar store and deep discount retaillers looking for the ponytail holder I want to use to put my hair up in a high topknot. I've lost track of a lot of it, but I did score some cool gear.

As I write this Family Dollar has adult size leather studded and grommeted belts for $4 and $5 each. I plan to go back in a week or two and get a couple. They also had a selection of inexpensive black pants, but nothing I liked the feel of against my skin.

The beauty suppliers were fun. I had no idea you could buy so much wild stuff in these shops, I thought it was just all combs and hair dye. Wigs are big here, and hair extensions, most of the stores had their entire outer walls covered floor to ceiling with extensions. I have seen every shape, size and color of spring loaded hair clip made on this planet. Lots and lots of ponytail holders, but not the kind I want. I was pleased to see that combs seem to be making a comeback. I think they're very pretty and elegant.

One of the stores nearest me had a nice variety of asian-themed hair accessories and I picked up a pair of $2 hairsticks wrapped with gold silk and sporting dangling red blocks painted with oriental lettering. The future world of Cyberpunk 2020 is dominated by Japanese owned businesses, so it's in keeping with the setting to have an oriental influenced costume. I also got a 99 cent red bandana that is printed with black and white asian lettering. The clerk who rang me out said it wasn't her language when I asked her if she could read it and tell me what it meant. Oh well, it will be cool anyway.

Bought a pair of black cotton-spandex pants at a thrift store. I figure for $1.98 I can experiment with my cutout design and if I screw it up I'm not out much. Looked for boots too but didn't see what I was hoping to find.

Went by Claire's this morning, just to look. I wasn't sure someplace that trendy would have accessories that apparently aren't made any more. They didn't. However, they did have these cool plastic collars with orange rubber spikes on them on the clearance rack. I got one for Kim. It should match her boots.

Finally, while cruising yet another Dollar General I locate a package of 'cylinder ponytail holders', two for a dollar. They are plastic tortiseshell, with cut-outs on the sides, but they are more or less what I've been looking for. Excited, I bring them home and immediately start combing my hair upside down to try one out. And then I discover that I have too much hair. ARGH! It won't fit into the ponytail holder. After some frustrated swearing I start thinking there must be a way to make this work. Maybe I can pull some hair off into some sort of braid on the side and put the rest up in the clippy thing. Hmmn. I'll have to work on this when I get some time.

Here's how the spending is going so far:

Item	Cost
sunglasses	$6
vest & tank top	$6.49
pants	$1.98
hair accessories	$2.99
gloves	$6.85
belts	$10
LED necklace (parts)	$52.00