Tina is a Professional Personal Branding and Headshot Photographer in Chesterfield, VA.
Who also loves being a boy mom and DIYing fun projects with her family, like this one below!
Oh 2020, you’ve changed every holiday for us so far this year… BUT, this Halloween actually turned out better than ever.
We made the decision that trick-or-treating was probably not the best idea this time around, so me and my quarantine pod put together some ideas and had a pretty amazing cul-de-sac party with our kids that was tons more fun than a regular Halloween day.
I think this might be our new tradition moving forward. We had games, Halloween egg hunts, a pickup truck ay ride, fire pit, cookout, music, projected a movie on the side of the house, and it was so much fun for all of us. The kids said it was their best Halloween yet! I don’t think anyone mussed trick-or-treating one bit.
Now, onto our costumes. We bought our son a Spider-Man costume for his third birthday, so he was set for Halloween early on. I’ve always waned to do a family costume, and even though I’ve been with my husband for 16 years, we have never done a couples costume! So this was the year it was going to happen. It took me a few months to decide what we would each be, knowing I had time to actually build something this year. Turns out Spider-Man characters aren’t the easiest to build costumes from. Not a lot of great options.
At first, I was going to dress myself as Dr. Olivia Octavius, the female version of Doc Ock from “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (great movie if you haven’t seen it, and the only one appropriate for a preschooler!) but was having trouble figuring out who my husband would be… Oh, by the way, if you haven’t figured it out yet based on me listing these villains and pining over character costumes, my husband and have always been into the comic book movies, and the “nerdy” stuff in general, and our son is on the same track, haha. So I was pretty excited to make this happen.
Anyway, I was watching Spider-Verse once again with my son and it dawned on my how easy it could be to do a version of Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy). I was set on making the costume with a hoodie and felt and then found a great version on Amazon, so I saved myself some time and just bought that! Along with the cute yoga socks, which are very close to the ballet shoes she wears. I was set!
Now, as for my husband’s costumer, that’s where the fun and my craftiness came in. I spent a ridiculous amount of time researching the different versions of Doc Ock. He’s had many looks over the years. It also depended n the materials and clothing I could find… The goggles I used for my Ghost Buster costume a few years back and we borrowed the leather trench coat.
Next was a trip to Lowe’s. I was wandering the aisles with no clue where to find the tubing that I wanted, only with some ideas of what I wanted it to look like. An employee asked if I needed help, and you guys, I don’t think anyone has ever made his day as much as I did right then. He was thrilled to assist once I told him what I was making! Part of me wants to find him and show him the end result, haha.
It was a fairly simple, yet time consuming process. Lots of cutting and taping basically. I do wish I took more progress photos. I bought 4 pieces of foam pipe insulation from Lowe’s. Some silver craft tape from Michael’s. Then used scissors to cut it up and coat hangers to mold the shape of the arms. I used shoelaces as straps and the belt from the jacket to secure it tightly to his back.
I had to include this last photo when my husband asked, “Can I please drink my beer now?” He was a good sport!
When I’m not creating fun memories with my son, I’m available for family photography, family films, senior portraits and personal branding photography and headshots.
Send me an email if you’d like to chat about any of the above, I’d love to hear from you! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
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