Friday, October 15, 2010

Some Fabulous Halloweeniness


OK, so normally October is me signing back into the "let's take on something that I think is completely normal and unassuming and everyone else thinks is insane" mentality of my life after the (ahem) more laid back attitude of Summer. Truth be told, I don't cope well with the heat of summer and don't get much done. Then the end of summer hits and I panic and do as much as I can cram into August, then reload for September when the rest of the world (and years worth of programming from childhood) kicks into "back to school" mode. By the time October rolls around, I am planning and scheming full tilt for Halloween, my favourite time of the year next to Yule. Now that I have kids I can blame it all on them, but honestly, they roll their eyes as much as everyone else close to me does. In the same way that I take the things I missed from my childhood by NOT having a Martha disciple for a mother to an abnormal level of intensely overboard detail, my children will most likely avoid holiday planning altogether when they leave home. But alas, they have years left of "Can't we come up with something more creative than that? C'mon, let's REALLY think outside the box!" thrown at them.


In the interest of getting my eldest on board today with the costume planning bit, ("a cowboy? Really? That's what you want to be? A cowboy?") we spent a good deal of time scouring the internet for interesting ideas for me to "whip up" a costume. To be honest, it doesn't matter how much I plan, I wait till the last minute anyway because my kids are known to change their mind at least eighty times before the day of. The year Rowan turned four I made him the most elaborate and detailed Darth Vader ("Vader? That's what you want to be...?") costume any four year old could wish for, complete with a composite walkie talkie helmet with voice programming and heavy breathing on command, ordered off the internet. The morning of his daycare Halloween party, he insisted on wearing his Batman pajamas. Right. I did NOT cry. Much.


Thought I might pass some of the best on to you, since it literally took pages and pages of sifting to find any that didn't
a) look like a prostitute's excuse for a fairy, police officer, nurse, pirate, devil... or pretty much anything else for that matter...
b) need a professional Hollywood make-up artist to be hired and/or a gallon of latex (although I should mention that latex is actually really simple to use)
c) come ready made on a flat styro panel with a sprayed on six pack
or d) consist of adding a detail like a plastic-blood-covered-knife-headband to jeans and a t-shirt.

Martha is usually good for some simple and effective ideas, and you can always find instructions and supply lists on her website:




Some of the best ideas came from Flick'r...

Everything from what to wear to an uber schmancy party:



...to an uber girlie one via the land of fae:


orgXIIIorg

Steampunk is still a big deal, and this take on Iron Man is impressive:

Marvel

...and Faustish

gilfling

Rather elaborate Carnival threads, if that's your thing:




All Carnival photos above are by
Dominique Robert

Random Cuteness:

Little Wee Legos
mama_lindsay


Jason Gill

...and a mother who is insane just like me :)



Overall, the prize for most ingenious goes to...


So after all that searching, we went from a Cowboy to a Zombie Cowboy. Perhaps I can go to town on his brother's Fire Dragon costume.

...I will post pictures :)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I LOVE it all!!! Now I just need to find a good party. Are you having one?