Halloween Post: Zombies of the Caribbean

This blog has primarily consisted of Halloween posts for the past couple of years, so I would be amiss not to back track and do a post on this year's Halloween costumes. The theme this time around was "Zombies of the Caribbean." The concept began when a friend of mine who lives in Canada and whom I met through this blog sent me a pic of an illustration in a book she was reading. The illustration was of a deadly sea siren that she thought bared a uncanny resemblance to me. Since we both share a near obsessive love for Halloween, I promised her that I would try to do a photo shoot replicating the illustration for Halloween, and from there, my imagination went wild. 

Naturally, I didn't want to be a straight-up, vanilla mermaid. I wanted to be equal parts beautiful and scary, kind of the way I am in real life, so I went for a zombie mermaid/sea siren vibe with my costume and makeup. Once I worked out my look, it was time to figure out costumes for my accessories...I mean, family members. I decided that it would be cool if we could each dress up as some sort of zombie from the sea. My first zombie recruit was my daughter. She was more than receptive to this whole zombie mermaid idea. The poor thing takes after her mother in more ways than one, and one of those ways is that she prefers her Halloween costumes to be more putrid than princess. Therefore, she became a sea siren mini me who I assure you may be smaller but is way more deadly. She even joined me for the photo shoot on the beach to capture the promised photo for my friend in Canada. It turned out to be a fun Halloween twist on a mommy/daughter photo shoot. Girlfriend has the emotionless dead face down pat. I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot more of that face. The teenager years, they are a coming.  

Here's the photos I sent my friend. I attended a wedding on this beach a few years ago, and the ceremony was preformed behind a rock very much like the one the siren is sitting on in the illustration. I went to this particular beach for the sole purpose of sitting my ass on that rock but it was no where to be found when we got there. Apparently, it just vanished into thin air. I did the best I could without the damn rock. What do you think? Are we lost sea siren sisters? 

What about the men in the family, you ask? Oh, they did not come out unscathed from my evil plans. My idea for Jerry was for him to be a zombie pirate captain who heard my siren song and got pulled into the depths with me (also pretty accurate to real life) and for my sons to be his zombie pirate shipmates. Jerry was great as always and convincingly wore every uncomfortable and ridiculous piece of his costume, and there was "a lot of look" going on with his. He had a shirt, pants, jacket, bandana, hat, eye patch, boot covers and a hook to contend with. He also had a skeleton parrot that was suppose to sit on his shoulder, but even Jerry has his limits, and Pete the Parrot proved to be one accessory too many. I spent the most time and effort on Jerry's look. The shirt was from his King Louis costume 2 years ago. The jacket and hat were from Target. I ordered shells, starfish and spooky fabric from Amazon and glued them on the jacket and hat to make them more zombie-ish. I used latex makeup to attach a gnarly looking barnacle to his face, and Jerry grew his beard out to add to his zombie sea captain mystic. All the other pieces of his costume were also from Amazon. All hail Amazon - Fulfiller of Halloween dreams...or should I say nightmares!

We didn't throw a Halloween party this year. I needed to take a year off...maybe more. I wanted to sit back and enjoy Halloween for once. Instead, we went to a party at a local club and entered a Halloween costume contest. We had a great time, and I got way too drunk...a luxury I couldn't afford when I was hostess with the mostess. I knew it was time to stop drinking when I kept trying to make fish faces and then laughing hysterically about the fact that I was a mermaid making fish faces. The best part of all, though, was that we took home 1st place for Best Couple!  

As far as my boys go, I was able to convince my oldest son to go along with my zombie pirate idea, and he even gave Pete the Parrot a much needed home on his shoulder. He attended his first teenager Halloween party, and I heard that Pete was a big hit with all of his friends. As usual, though, my "marches to the beat of his own drum" younger son had other ideas for his costume. If you remember last year, he was Kylo Ren in our Addams Family. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that his idea actually worked with mine for once. He was a Katy Perry Left Shark or as I like to think of him, the shark that killed us all (again, very accurate to real life).