Today, was the Book Character Day at my son's school. So me having all the time in the world, went along with my baby daughter.
After MUCH deliberation and three trips to three different shops, we had decided that he wanted to be a magician. He had the book too. Costume had to be made. THere was only one tiny bit of a problem, the book was not a story book, it was a Book of 101 Magic Tricks. My husband, ever the literal person, said, they didnt say story book, they just asked for a book character.
Anyhow, last night, I stayed up late to put his costume together. Made a cape, put stars on it, spelled his initials on it too with star stickers. The hat we got for him was blue with a silver band, but it didnt look nice so I took out black paint to paint it black.
The hat was made of such a material that neither of poster paint, fabric paint (coz it was dried solid), glass paint, and black permanent marker worked on it, means it was down to plain old paper.
I got some craft paper out, in black color, but it was more brown than black. Then I found a blacker version of craft paper, so I cut and marked and marked and cut and then glued it all together.
Then I found some silver spray paint, so I said why not spray it all silver. I did the top of the hat silver and it looked BAD. I showed it to my husband for comments, and he said take it away from my nose, the paint fumes are not good. My son was more of, what does this smell remind me of. The good part was that my daughter was asleep, otherwise, she would have put in her two cents (read teeth) in this matter.
Now was the time to cover the round portion of the hat. And I remembered that I had some carbon paper. It was shiny too and just the right shade of black!
(YES, black comes is a whole range of shades, if you dont agree, visit an abaya shop and you will be taken aback with all the choices of black only, and Im not talking about material)
So I took off the previously done hat rim, which was already peeling off, as the glue I had used wasnt strong enough. So got another craft glue out and marked and cut the black paper to size, my son was telling me a joke there, so i cut a little bit out wrong (too much over confidence from finding the right shade of black), still I glued it all up and got my son to model for my husband and he said he looks like Willy Wonka (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
(Note: He is a Jhonny Depp fan and had done all he could to make him a pirate instead, as I already had the costume from last year, the hat, the eye-patch, the moustache, and the black face color for the scar on the face), but the book of pirates was too expensive, and the other books we found, like Treasure Island, well, it wasnt my son's favorite.) Hence, the resemblance to Willy Wonka, actually more so as the hat was like Willy Wonka's hat.
Put my son to bed, oh yeah, the first thing I had made was a wand. The balsa wood was from the leftover stick I had used to make a kite (which was huge and had to be left behind in the previous country, as I didnt have anything as large to pack it in). Covered it in foil, and secured the ends with silver tape.
Then I found a star (from IKEA) which could be used as you use a lemon slice on a cocktail glass. The star was for the wand.
Then I went to bed.
Woke up early morning, got myself and my daughter ready, got my son ready, as he suddenly didnt want to go as a magician. Instead of the plastic cape, I found my teacher's gown while looked for a black scarf big enough to be used as a cape. The gown was way too long. The scarf was perfect, but my son started to sulk and say the costume doesnt go with my red face (the face was red as he was about to cry).
Told him plenty of times that he looks great, while my husband threatened by saying I leave in 5 minutes. He took my daughter down and I told my son to wear socks and shoes. (Everyday he wears black socks to school, which arent part of his uniform and today, for his black costume he chose white socks)
Ready and out the door. The moment my son used the wand to get the lift for us, I knew everything will be just fine! And it was. Read about it later...
