This was a fairly easy costume to pull off! I made the flower crown around the hat and just assembled all the other pieces from the thrift store or online. To be on character, I learned how to play at least 2 songs on the harmonica I was carrying around with me. The crazy part about this particular year was that it was at the end of February in 2020! It was the last large scale event in the city before the whole world closed down!

I remember being on the bus to the event and talking to my mom on the phone saying “I wonder if anyone here is going to have that weird disease folks are talking about.” Oooooo little did we know. Two weeks after, I would be packing up my dorm and moving back home. It was my senior year so after that spring, I never saw most of my classmates or teachers again. That C2E2 and this costume hold a very odd place in my mind because of that. It was like there I was standing at the precipice of this huge world event, naive to what was to come…dressed as a garden gnome.

It was a fun time regardless of all that! Moomin had gained a small resurgence the year before when the new animated Moominvalley series came out so I found 3 or 4 other Snufkins walking around that year.