Halloween

The Most Interesting Man in the World and a Black Cat, to go with...

A witch and Buzz Lightyear (or, as he used to call him: Bud Light Beer. HAHAHA!)
Pop Quiz: Can you guess who's costume was the most expensive? Hint: It looks *so* real! :-)

A Green Halloween

I wrote earlier about how ecstatic I was to be able to buy a used costume for Drake as part of my Buy Nothing (New) Month for October. That left me with two costumes to make: a Nature Fairy (Gracie) and a black widow spider (me).

Since I could only purchase used items, I went to a thrift store and bought a green dress, a piece of brown felt, a small wreath of twigs, a black shirt, and several pairs of black pantyhose. I used the felt to make a loose poncho and sewed several leaves onto it. I also sewed leaves onto the fairy wings, which she already had. I used the wreath to make a crown and attached pine cones and sycamore gumballs. Unfortunately, the crown was deemed too "poky" and wasn't worn for trick-or-treating. I have to say: out of all the costume choices, Nature Fairy was probably one of the most conducive to a Buy Nothing (New) month.

Robin and the Nature Fairy ready for a night of
trick-or-treating. My little cherubs...

On the day of Halloween, our friends came over with their daughter and we all worked on the remaining Halloween costumes, while a nice big pot of chili simmered on the stove all day. The kids' costumes were done; we just needed to work on the adults' costumes. For my spider costume, I cut the waist part off the pantyhose and stuffed them, to make legs (I already had the stuffing). The legs were then tied together with black yarn, which I already had. I sewed the top of the waist together to make a little beanie hat and glued squiggly eyes onto it. And then I sewed a red piece of foam onto the shirt for the identifying mark of a black widow. (Disclaimer: My friend provided the squiggly eyes and red foam. So even though I didn't buy it, it was still "bought," and I therefore count it against my "Buy Nothing (New) Month.")

Two creepy-crawly *poisonous* spiders. Bleh.
I did like all my extra arms though!

Meanwhile, the guys were working on their
costumes: Abe Drinkin' and John Wilkes
Vermouth. We crack ourselves up...

Even our dachshund got into the spirit with a
costume that we had from previous years. The
funniest part, aside from the devil eyes (the one
time I actually appreciate the red eyes!), was that
he was *rooted* to the spot after we put this
costume on him! It was as if we'd draped a lead
curtain over him!

Buy Nothing (New) Challenge: Halloween

I admit it: I'm one of those moms who kind of likes making her kids costumes. Not that I'm a "seamstress" or even "a passable sewer." I really don't know what comes over me. Any normal person would 1) Ask the child what he/she wants to be for Halloween and 2) Buy it. End of story.

But not me. In years past, I have 1) Seen a clever "easy-to-make" or "no-sew" costume idea in a magazine, 2) Somehow convinced my child that that is what she wants to be (optional), 3) Driven to two or three stores to buy the items needed to make the costume, 4) Puzzled over the directions ("Easy, my ass!") and 5) Stayed up hours to make the costume. The result is something vaguely resembling the picture in the magazine and twice as expensive as what a costume at Target would have cost. But it's handmade. Right.

Halloween 2007: Drake was a pirate, Gracie was the Little Mermaid, and I, because I wanted to be obtuse, was pirated software. That's a hardware key around my neck and a picture of the software pinned to my jeans. I thought I was just so clever...

Both kids have adored this donkey costume. In fact, Drake calls all sweaters & jackets "donkeys" because of this costume.

So here we are: another Halloween. On top of everything, I had this brilliant idea not to buy anything new. Apparently, I just love making my life more difficult. I can't even buy the makings for a costume. But hallelujah! I'm saved! Drake's daycare is having a fundraiser where people donate old costumes and then you get a credit towards buying one. Or, in our case, since we didn't donate a costume, you can just buy one outright. Which is what we did.

One morning, I was dropping him off. He saw the costumes. I found his size. He picked one out. I paid for it. DONE. Even better, it was handmade! Some sort of super hero. I think it's Robin. It made my entire day. Now I just need to work on two costumes: a Nature Fairy (Gracie) and a Black Widow Spider (me).

How about you? Are you "Buy" or "Make" when it comes to costumes? What do your kids prefer?