The Round-Up Gang

In the past, we weren't huge Halloween enthusiasts. Although we usually came up with some kind of costume to wear to parties or dances, we didn't go really big. Last year was a bit out of the ordinary. We spent most of October building our costumes from scratch, and we really enjoyed the results. Buoyed by this previous success, we tried to go big again this year.

We started preparing a little bit late, but we finally settled on an idea:


In case you couldn't tell, we dressed up as Woody and Jessie from Toy Story 2. It was a lot of work -- more work than I would have expected. Dressing up as a cowboy is easy. You just throw on some jeans and a cowboy hat. Trying to dress up as a the computer-generated toy cowboy that you saw in a movie is quite a bit more involved... especially if you decide you are going to make your own cowboy boots. You end up having to spraypaint and/or modify everything first.

Finding the cowprint chaps and vest was a challenge -- even with two Value Village stores in range. I found a child-size vest with a fur-like lining that I could colour with a marker and wear inside-out. R bought a dalmation dog costume for a child that she turned into some chaps and modified with a black marker. The results were surprisingly good. I am proud to say that I made her belt buckle -- out of a brass candle-holder that I found at Value Village.

If you've seen the movie, you'll know that Woody and Jessie have a pull-ring on their back which you can pull to make them say various quotes. I was pretty proud of this one. I put a grommet in the back of our shirts with a retracting clip for an identity card, which was attached to an embroidery hoop. It was pulled many times when we went out, and each time I dutifully informed the puller that there was a snake in my boot. R mainly just yodelled, because the movie never showed what her character was supposed to say.

We found some low-cut cowboy boots for R, but there isn't much available in size 12 in a second-hand store, so I was out of luck. Being the over-confident buffoon that I am, I convinced myself that I could make a pair of boots from some leather-looking material. What a mistake. We don't even have a sewing machine. Mostly, I used an eyelet clamp to fasten bits of fabric together. It almost worked. Actually, it worked pretty well for the upper part of the boot. The bottom became problematic. In the end, the best solution was just to wear some brown shoes. I'm particularly proud of the spurs. I made those out of fasteners used for linking drainspouts together. Who needs a sewing machine when you've got a rivet gun, an eyelet clamp and a grommet punch?

We thought we'd done pretty well until we got to a party thrown by my recently-hitched cohorts E and L at their fashionable house in Riverside South (the latest and greatest Ottawa suburbian housing development). Apparently, they had started planning in the summer, and starting decorating in September. It's hard to describe. It was unbelievable. Here's Sheriff Woody after he was spooked by the head suspended in an eerie globe: