A practically perfect Halloween costume

For my entire adult life I wanted to be Mary Poppins for Halloween. In 2005, I mentioned it on this blog and variations on “Mary Poppins costume” dominated my incoming search results for months and months. Which was sad for the searchers because I didn’t follow through. I was a pirate that year.

My big concern in 2005 was that I wouldn’t be recognizable. But thanks to the musical stage show, Miss Poppins has seen a resurgence. So this year, I did it.

And it was easy!

The blouse, black hat and bag are from Goodwill. The gray blazer is mine. The skirt is from JCPenney’s old lady suiting section. The bow tie is from Walmart – $8. Tights and shoes are mine. I had my winter coat and an orange scarf (made by mom) on deck as well but it was far too warm for me to wear them.

Disney sells an “official” Mary Poppins umbrella for $41. Uh, no. I give them enough money and I really don’t want to walk around with one the rest of the year. Other more talented people did paper-mache or used sculpy. Uh, no. I didn’t want to ruin the umbrella. I decided to improvise.

I found the parrot head print on Fan Pop. It took me a while to find out the actual artist – Jessica Slater. I sent her a note asking if I could use the parrot and she said yes. So I printed out two copies, taped them together around the umbrella base and stuffed it with cotton fluff.

To decorate the hat, I used some artificial daisies from a bouquet I already had and I bought a small spray of red berries at Jo-Ann. I used a hot glue gun to get it all to stick.

I kept my makeup natural (meaning I’m wearing 10x more than I wear when I’m actually “natural”) with extra rosy cheeks and red lips. Movie Mary has peachy cheeks and lips, but the red looked so nice with the red berries and peach is not my color anymore. The hair’s in a low bun, but my hat covers it.

Given all of the above, you can guess that there is a costume contest at work today. Judging is at 1pm. Our party last year was canceled due to Sandy. I would have recycled last year’s costume — Paula Deen — but yeah, no.

An additional benefit to dressing up for work was that I got to be the weird person on the train! I made sure I picked the most dour looking businessman to sit next to. But I didn’t sing or talk to him. I couldn’t be that cruel. Besides, as soon as I sat down next to him, he whipped out his cellphone and began furiously texting someone.

Happy Halloween!