Dinglehoppers, Bubbly & Halloween in NYC!

Halloween is absolutely my favorite holiday out of the entire year. Every year I get super excited to pick out my costume and try to make it as detailed and intricate as possible.

I have never experienced a Halloween in New York City, so I was very anxious and excited to celebrate this super-fun holiday in my favorite city.

My challenge? How does one wear sexy Halloween costumes in this cold NYC weather? This is definitely NOT Miami, where it’s HOT and barely-there costumes are not only acceptable, but basically expected.

I decided a long time ago I really wanted to be Ariel, from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. She is my favorite Disney Princess for MANY reasons.

Lets talk about the obvious, such as the fact that I absolutely LOVE the ocean, I have an obsession with mermaids and a fascination with the mythology that they could have perhaps existed. Aside from the fact that my heart is happy anywhere near the ocean, Ariel is fascinating to me as she is curious, adventurous, rebellious & and stubborn.

Her inquisitiveness lead her to yearn for something more than the life her peers had, she longed for something beyond what her family envisioned for her and she ultimately, followed her heart to leave the world she knew, for the risk of getting to experience something she only dreamt of, and never thought was possible. Sounds familiar? Ariel is ME.

I searched for costumes left and right, and I was pretty disappointed as I was not liking any of the mermaid costumes I had seen. But, nonetheless, I was determined to really create a unique costume, even if I had to piece it together to make it really distinctive.

And so the planning began. I wanted to make sure that my shells were as authentic as Ariel’s as possible. As for the skirt I really wanted a beautiful teal skirt, but I wanted to make sure that it would have the element of the fins. So I ordered an entire costume online simply because I loved the skirt even though I really hated the top. I had the shells handmade and ordered them from Etsy. Truth is, I could have made them myself, for a fraction of the cost, but I’m not that crafty. I have the vision, but I’m pretty sure I’d screw up the vision, since I lack the “crafty”- skills. Plus, I’m a busy girl, so that’s why Etsy was invented! The shells were hand-painted and handmade, with very detailed pearls, two tones of purple paint and meticulous and purple glitter sparkles. It was as close to Ariel’s seashells as I was going to get without blowing a lot of money.

Of course, no costume is complete without accessories. In fact, accessories MAKE the costume. I made sure that my costume was complete with la beautiful, long, wavy red wig hand, an intricate hand painted starfish hairclip, my dinglehopper and of course Ariel’s BFF, Flounder. Lastly, Ariel is not complete without Prince Eric.

Now that my costume was in place, I had to figure out where to go! Earlier on in the month I got invited to the Blood Ball. This took place on the Thursday before Halloween and is sponsored by the Delete Blood Cancer organization. The Halloween-themed Blood Ball, was a fundraising event supporting the organizations' work in the fight against blood cancers, at The Box in New York City.

The Box, is a unique & exclusive club that features nightly shows that combine music, theater, burlesque & erotica. With more than 300 guests in attendance, the costume ball featured an aerialist, acrobat, contortionist, sword swallower and many more "dark circus" acts with dance music provided by MICK, a noted celebrity DJ. We got to rub elbows with Kyle Anderson (Marie Claire editor), Patina Miller (actress, The Hunger Games), Farrah Krenek (actress, Orange is the New Black), Malan Breton (fashion designer), Mamé Adjei (America's Next Top Model contestant), Amy Hargreaves (actress, Homeland), Jillian Tapper (Miss New York 2014), Catherine Curtin (actress, Orange is the New Black), Dmitry Sholokov (Project Runway winner), Justin Kim (America' Next Top Model contestant), Evander Holyfield Jr. (model and bone marrow donor) and Rain Dove (model) among others. The event featured open bar and my favorite sponsor, Veuve Cliquot. There were tasty treats and an amazing gift bag to take home.

On Saturday, the actual day of Halloween, I decided I really wanted to check out the Halloween parade in the West Village. As with many massive New York things, the parade is absolutely one of those things you do once, and never again. Unless of course you know someone who lives in the West Village and has a beautiful balcony view of the parade.

I can't tell you what a cluster of people were on the streets. You literally had to get their hours before the parade to camp out, to even try and get a decent view of the floats.

This is pretty much all I could get a glimpse of:

Streets were closed down, cops were chaotic, people were crowded and infiltrated into the streets. It was honestly such an awful experience for me. I felt like I couldn't breathe. There were people pushing and shoving and I had major anxiety just trying to get from one side of the block to the other.

And on top of that, because of the street closures, traffic was awful and we ended up taking the subway get to our next stop. Lets just say Ariel wasn’t too happy about having to take the very unglamorous subway in her beautiful attire.

We eventually made our way out of there and headed over to one of my favorite places in NYC, Employees Only.

They had excellent music- a mix of 80’s, 90’s and old-school hip-hop with modern day pop. The cocktails are delicious, the bartenders are fun and it's one of my favorite speakeasies, as it's a cover-up for a Psychic shop on the outside.

The doorman is strict and if you don't have reservations it will be tough, unless you're a good-looking guy with two good looking girls.

After a couple of cocktails, we headed over to Tijuana Picnic for some more dancing and cocktails.

After a few hours, Flounder was drowning in Tequila, and we ended the night the best way possible, with Joe’s Pizza.

Halloween was full of Spooktacular surprises, but if I learned anything, it’s that next year will be better planned, the parade and anywhere near it will be avoided at all costs and of course, subways and mermaid stilettos do NOT make for easy swimming.