How to Make 3 Halloween Costumes for Less than 20 Dollars

I love making Halloween costumes.  I don't know why.  I just get a kick out of it. But the challenge to me isn't how elaborate I can make a costume, but rather, how can I make them out of the cheapest materials possible. I think I did all right this year:

Behold, the Paper Doll:

We made this from scraps of fabric I had on hand,
a swatch of butcher paper
two sheets of poster board
spray adhesive
hot glue
and bias tape
and a feather from my feather duster

What I like about it:
1. Mattie designed the dress herself
2. It isn't ridiculously sexy for a young girl.

 Look out for the LegoMan:

I made this from an empty cheese ball container (from Sam's)
a foam life belt from the thrift store (99 cents)
the bottom of an oatmeal container
two plastic drink cups
lots of hot glue
Krylon spray paint for plastic
and a circular metal candle holder that I cut in half to make the curved hands.


The only problem with this costume is that he can't use his hands much.  But it turned out pretty cool.


And that brings us to Tinkerbell.

Charleigh always thinks up cool things that she wants to be for Halloween.  The other two labor over it, auditioning ideas for their cool factor ...and I have to shoot some of their ideas down, like when Vin wanted to be Neil from Dead Poet's Society. (Not an easy one to explain at a stranger's front door.)  But Chuck usually just pipes up sometime close to Halloween what she wants, typically low maintenance.   So when I was in the thrift store the other day and a pair of fairy wings brushed my arm on the half-off rack, I was all over it.  The wings turned out to be attached to a very cheap and flimsy green dress or shirt which reeked of BO.   I took it home, took the wings off, soaked it in a vinegar bath and it turned out fine.  At the thrift store, I also found a pair of camo ballerina flats, a big yardage of green felt for a dollar and a little piece of gold lame' for 25 cents.   

I'm not a great seamstress, but I tweaked the dress into a shirt and a pair of pantaloons, and the felt into a tunic, to which I sewed the wings (which worked much better since the felt has more body than the flimsy stuff).  I used a couple of scraps to make rosettes on her shoes and some more scraps for hair-bows.  I also made a little over-skirt with the gold, trying to give her some warmth in layers.  Finally, I bribed her to eat her eggs this morning by telling her she could wear some green eyeshadow.  Done.

And that, my friends, is three cute costumes on the cheap.

Here We Go Again

Charleigh is a big 2nd grader.

I told her to keep her teeth in her head. Three are hanging by strings.

Calvin is at the top of the food chain....fifth grade.

I told him to take care of his little sister. Which he would do anyway.

Mattie is a 7th grader. Which I am in denial about.

I told her to take her own preferences seriously but be kind to kids who looked like they were scared.

snapping pics in the car lane is always appreciated, right?

bye!

Love you!

I'll just be here when you get home. Looking at your baby pictures.

2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

Charleigh is Seven!

This 19 year old was there getting her ears pierced that night, and she and Chuck 

gave one another courage

can you tell you had the camera tonight?

The Spring Picture Trap

Fortunately, we escaped the trap. Thanks, Vin for being a 9 year old boy. At least we know he brushed his teeth that morning.

Look What I Just Found....

From my old, OLD camera that didn't record any sound.  This was when we first moved to Arkansas.

Some Things that Are Needful For You To Know....

I am busier than a one armed window washer right now, but because you are here, you deserve to know a few profound things: 

Charleigh cried herself to sleep a few nights ago because the orb spider in the garden went missing.  I told her it was the spider's time to go and that winter was coming and the spider wouldn't have any bugs to eat out there and next year a new spider would build a web in our garden.  She wailed, "But she won't be the saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame spider."    

In that same vein, she was excited to see the watermelon vine continuing to blossom (and fail to produce anything at all).  I told her sadly that it would not keep growing for much longer.  She replied sadly, "But I'm not ready for winter." 

And then in a moment of great philosophy, she rested her head halfway up the stairs and said, "I don't want to get old.  Because when you get old, you just die."     Moments later, she followed her interior thoughts with "And I don't want to live alone.  How can you get a boy to live with you so you don't have to be alone?"

Funny little Charleigh, serious as can be.




 And just what do these pictures have to do with any of that?  Nothing at all.  Other than the fact that I use spray paint to alleviate my feelings of mortality.   

It's the First Day of School....Again

I'm having a hard time putting into words all the reasons I wasn't ready for school to start this year.  It's been such an amazing summer...I never got the chance to get tired of the kids being home from school.  Even yesterday, whipping their rooms and dresser drawers into shape, I knew I didn't want this day to come so soon.  Last year they were all safe and snug together in elementary school, but we are now the parents of a middle schooler. So I guess that dropping her off in a strange place among strange faces...who were friendly enough but not nearly as nurturing of us poor parents as elementary teachers are...was what prompted me to an odd bit of cliche behavior.  I remember calling my Mom on Mattie's first day of Kindergarten, in tears, confessing that I always thought it was really dumb for mommies to cry when their kids went to school, but maybe it isn't so silly after all....through sobs.  She assured me then that it's not silly at all.

Looks like I'm gonna need another pep-talk, Mom.

If You Build it They Will Come (ie...how to set up a craft show booth)

So here we are a couple of days from the show, and I was in desperate need of knowing
if I had enough stuff  to fill the space.  I've never done this kind of out door show, and I had a sense that I would need to practice a bit before setting up in the 85 degree weather they are calling for on Thursday.

So I taped off a section of my garage and worked on arranging my doors.  Oh, my doors. I love them so.  Three of them came from a boy-scout sale a couple of years ago. I paid a dollar a piece.  Robb was so incredulous at the time, but not a week later, I got my first show invite and he has since learned not to mess with the ways of the Junk Ninja.   The fourth door, the one that is very distressed and white...let me tell you about that.  I was driving down highway 412, a very twisty and lovely road, on my way back from the airport about a month ago, and I spotted this lying alongside the road.  I spun the van around and shoved it in the back with no clear idea why I felt that I simply must have this item.  It was attached with hinges to the door post and pierced through with many large nails,  but they hammered out just fine.  I scraped it down, trying not to breathe too much (what's a little lead paint here and there?) and used the attached hinges to secure it to my other door. Voilia.  I'd say three bucks is a very fair price for a booth display.

The crib, you may well recognize from my Heartwood Booth.  I decided not to reinvent the wheel and just dissembled it when I got my other items.  The crib belonged to my Great Grandma and Mom brought it home some 30 years ago with ideas in her head about what might be done with it.  It then hung in the barn for about 25 years until I was home one weekend with a vehicle big enough to stow it.   Dad fussed but Mom was triumphant that somebody shared her vision.   After a low time of me growing morning glories on it, it has become one of my favorite things in the world, giving me deep satisfaction for finding such a perfect use for it.

Now just try to picture it all with a black plastic curtain behind it since they are predicting rain after all (Today I buy the Wellies...whoohooo!)   I spent the day polishing up each piece, gluing wallpaper backing to each framed piece and hanging wires, sealing the grout and adding a little flourish to some of the frames.  My voice is still gone.

And while I was working this out, my children were doing what children do.....playing in cardboard boxes.