Halloween Party Recap

Happy Halloween!!

Over the weekend, my friends and I had our annual Halloween shin-dig. We usually rotate houses and this year we ended up having it outside since this house was surrounded by woods and had a great backyard area with a bonfire barrel. So, my lack of pictures is unfortunate...but due to the low lighting pretty much all night. Luckily for y'all, the 4 of us that hosted the party arrived early enough to get some photos in before we lost daylight.

No one told anyone in our group what their costumes were. So imagine our surprise when 2 of the 4 showed up in a jelly costume!!

This year I decided to be punny (of course) so I dressed as a bee and wore the letters "YONCE" on a necklace. So I was...Bee-Yonce. Or Beyonce. 

Thank you, thank you. You're too kind. 

I modeled my makeup after the bee snapchat filter (which I love). I purchased a simple yellow dress from Amazon and had my sister-in-law add the vinyl stripes to the front. I made some wings and antenna and the "YONCE" necklace is cut out of cardboard, painted and attached to some string. 

My friend Jill, easily had the best costume of the night because she MADE this amazing hot dog costume! Isn't it awesome?!

M was a good sport and decided to dress in blue and wear an ivy headdress I made him. He was...yep...Blue Ivy. (Beyonce's daughter) He must really love me to wear that! :)

I hope you all have a great Halloween and stay safe! 

My Halloween Costumes: A Brief History

I'm fairly known for my...weird funny eccentric Halloween costumes.

Growing up in the South, we didn't really do a whole lot for Halloween. Sure, my sister and I dressed up and went trick-or-treating, but we had rules...no scary costumes and to let my parents inspect our candy before we ate it. (this was post poison Tylenol scare).

So over the years, I kept one of my Halloween "rules" and added my own: No skanky costumes and at least 80% homemade. Because anyone can go out and buy a slutty ghost costume. Making your unique costume is way better!

When I started getting old enough to make my own costumes, I went as a variety of things like an Arabian woman/Gypsy, a Native American, Helen Keller, Jane Goodall and Charlie Chaplin. Then there was Marilyn Monroe, Baby Spice, Catwoman and that one time I broke my parents rule and went with the absolute scariest costume ever...

Yep. Scariest crap ever. 

Moving on. 

My last few years of costumes included people, animals and inanimate objects, with the latter two being my personal favorites to dress up as. 

Clockwise from top left: A loofah, Paula Deen (prior to her media scandal), a doe and Grumpy Cat.

This year's costume is another inanimate object. I'm not quite as jazzed about it...simply because I love doing animal-related makeup, but I hope it will be a hit! Stay tuned for pics next week or follow me on instagram to see. 

Come back on Thursday for a Halloween-themed Thursday Thoughts! 

2014 Halloween Costume

This weekend I went to a Halloween party at a friend's house. This year I had a hard time coming up with a costume. I don't like to spend a lot of money and I don't want to be something basic like a witch or a vampire. I like being costumes that make people laugh, smile or both! In the past, I've enjoyed being inanimate objects, double entendrees, animals and a celebrity. This year I was pretty set on this one costume idea and even went as far as borrowing the outfit for it. But on Thursday afternoon, I thought about it and wasn't really feeling it. I browsed around on Pinterest, my favorite inspiration source for Halloween costume ideas, and was inspired to be...

 

GRUMPY CAT!

 

Here's a side-by-side comparison of me with the actual Grumpy Cat "aka" Tardar Sauce.

 

 

Like last year's costume, this one was more about the makeup than anything else. I just wore a black shirt, jeans and a faux fur vest that I had that just happened to be sort of Grumpy Cat colored. I bought the cat ears and a cat tail from a party store. So, for less than $20, I had a great costume!

 

The makeup was inspired by this picture on Pinterest. The makeup is some white costume/Halloween makeup plus lots and lot of bronzer and brown eyeshadows. The pink on the nose and the accentuation of the frown were all done with a little blush. The whiskers were the white makeup drawn on with a thin liner makeup brush. At the last minute, I decided to add a little sign to emphasize the grumpiness of my costume and I think it went over well. It says "I Hate Halloween. And you."

I loved being Grumpy Cat. But it was hard to try and stay grumpy or frown the whole night...so I just did it for pictures. HA!

After a doe last year and Grumpy Cat this year, who knows what sort of animal I'll decide on for next year! :)

Happy Halloween!

diy halloween: top 5 tuesday

Today's DIY Halloween post is tied into a Top 5 Tuesday post about costumes. In the last few years I've basically been known for my famous Halloween costumes, and because I'm cheap, all of them have been done for under $25. So today, I share with you my Top 5 favorite Halloween costumes that I've made and a brief explanation on how I made it.

In random order:

1) Swine Flu. You will learn that I'm a fan of the double entendree costumes. In this one, I simply found a very cheap light pink sweatsuit and a pair of angel wings from Walmart. I had some scrap pink felt that I cut and sewed into pig ear shapes, stuffed them with plastic grocery bags and sewed them to the hood of the sweatshirt. I had a pig nose already (long story...and it sort of inspired the costume.) Oh, and this was the year of the H1N1 epidemic so it was very timely.

(the powdered sugar on my eye/nose is from a game...it's not...you know)

2) Charlie Chaplin. A black blazer and white dress shirt with a black bowtie. Slick your hair back and wear a black bowler hat. Also, I drew a moustache with black eyeliner. Another accessory I had was a quasi-pageant mother making me "do the walk!" for the costume contest judges. The walk? The classic Charlie Chaplin jovial swagger.

3) Deviled Egg. I bought a white fitted sheet from Walmart and cut a large yellow circle out of construction paper. I folded the sheet in half and cut a slit for my head then stapled the yellow "yolk" to the center of the sheet. I wore devil horns and carried a pitchfork. I also had red wig. All the devil costume stuff was borrowed from a friend.

4) Loofah. Probably the easiest costume ever. I bought what was left of a bolt of purple tulle fabric from Hobby Lobby (about $10 worth) and proceeded to loop and safety pin the loops of it onto an old black tank top I had. I just kept bunching and pinning until it formed a loofah shape. I made a smaller poof and glued it to a headband and added some white yarn to make the hanging cord of the loofah. It was a hit once people figured out what I was.

5) Paula Deen. Okay, well this one hasn't actually happened yet, but it's a sure bet for this year. All I need to actually purchase is a gray wig and I'll wear some bright colored, looser clothing, lots and lots of rings and makeup and I'll walk around handing out sticks of butter and greeting people by saying "Love and best dishes from my kitchen to y'alls!"

What are some of your best homemade or mostly homemade costumes?

diy halloween: a modern costume take

Hiya blog tastic readers!!

I'm going to be doing a few Halloween inspired blog posts this week to get you in the mood for the howliday...I mean holiday. But these posts won't just be your run-of-the-mill Halloween post, these will all have a do-it-yourself (diy) feel to them so that you can not only celebrate this holiday but do it cheaply!

For today's post, I've done a few outfits that will give you the look of a costume without all the of commitment. So maybe your office does a Halloween dress-up party, and you want to find a healthy medium between 3-hole punch Jim and Andy at a cat from Cats, try something like this...

You know how most adult women costumes are ridiculously, um, trashy looking? They show lots 'o' chest and lots 'o' leg and quite frankly, look ridiculous. These ideas will help you look freshly festive without resorting to the old cowgirl or witch standby.

oh, the possibilities!

Halloween is quickly approaching and I want to dress up my dog, Hewitt, in a costume this year. I'm going to give a few options and you tell me what you like best.

First, for reference, here is Hewitt.

Now, here are the options...