Portraits of the Birthday Girl in All Her Splendour

Yep, the big day has rolled around once again. Wonder what I should wear for the occasion - would any of these get-ups work? Oh all right, guess a pirate might look a little out of place having a birthday dinner in an Ethiopian restaurant. But I do love a costume...

Here is my tribute to Dolores O'Riordan & The Cranberries (posing with Sis, aka Gwen Stefani). On a disc somewhere I must have a full body shot, showing my red Doc Marten boots. You will just have to imagine them in all their loveliness:


Ah yes, a ghost of the Wild West (posing with Bro - who was being a good sport in the costume department that year...it does happen sometimes). I remember being very busy & stressed around that time, and so I coped with it by spending a week making this costume (my famous "Ignore Reality & Conquer Other Trivial Projects Instead" strategy, the IRCOTPI):


In 2008, the adolescent clients where I worked chose a princess theme for our costume day (mostly girls on the unit at the time, but a couple of the guys were good sports about it, too)! Managed to wear my wedding dress all day as "The Princess Bride", despite a little, ah, breathing restriction & discomfort sitting down...10 years after wearing it the first time. This pic does not include my sword & the novel (a recommended read, for sure, by the way):


So sad in 2009 that I couldn't wear a costume to work, since it might be less appropriate showing up to see adult clients in their homes as a pirate (but then again, I think some of them might really appreciate it). Guess I wasn't working October 31 anyway. Still managed to come up with a few costume excuses, though!

#1 - Hard-core (and comfy) for handing out candy to our few trick-or-treaters (my bat tattoo doesn't look like it was faring too well at that point):


#2 - Fulfilling a dream for our "When I Grow Up" party. And no, it wasn't really that difficult or painful wearing skates for a few hours:


#3 - Low-key costume for shopping with my mom:


And just one more pirate pic for good measure. Never can go overboard when it comes to pirates (uh oh, truly no pun intended).


And with that, I end my birthday post. Off to do some cleaning, then to sew the afternoon away while salivating for my Ethiopian dinner. Happy February 24 everyone!

P.S. Trying not to think too hard about the fact that I was 12 when my mom was my new, current age...still prefer to credit those pesky renovations & that never-ending master's degree (which ended, surprisingly) for this late-start-to-family scenario (you know, rather than accepting any personal responsibility for putting things off)...blaming those things, plus a couple of closed adoption programs & a bankruptcy adding further delay. But, at least I don't need to wait until there are kids around to play dress-up - I would be in a much worse predicament if that were the case!