After having such amazing times together at the New York Ren Faire in both 2017 and 2018, Avian Firefly and I bought our tickets for 2019 before even deciding which weekend to go (which was a thing you could do at the time.) Since our first trip out had been standard Faire, and our second trip had been Time Traveler, I wanted to give Pirates' Weekend a try, especially since I wanted to cosplay a character from my favorite pirate book, Branded Ann.

Trying to create a costume from a book description is both good and bad as it allows you a lot more creative freedom, but it also requires you to make a lot more executive decisions. I knew Ann had silvery, wavy hair, so I found a metal rocker wig on Amazon that mostly matched what I saw in my mind's eye. I also bought a fairly standard men's pirate shirt and a scarlet sash that came with a matching kerchief from there (which is why the kerchief doesn't match; it should be calico.) I already had gold hoop earrings, blue contacts, black breeches, a pirate sword from a previous Halloween pirate costume from when I was a kid, and for God knows what reason, a skull ring that my father had in *his* costume stuff from his own "pirate days" (don't ask.) Her boots are never really described, but I found what looked like the archetype of all pirate boots on Amazon, and bought them even though they are men's shoes and a good three sizes too big. Most important was the cross shaped scar under her left eye, which I did a fairly decent job recreating with liquid latex (which I still had in the house from my ex-husband's previous Halloween costumes) and varying shades of pencil lip liner.