Freaky Friday with Bob Hope!

Hello fellow Halloween lovers! Here we are again! Friday! The thoughts of weekend plans are overcoming all desire to finish my school day, but not before I get my fill of Halloween happiness first! I have the official results from Yesterdays poll and here they are!

65% agreed with me in thinking that this years must have costume for boys is going to be a Superhero.
15% Think that magic will win and Harry Potter costumes will have another year at the top
10% voted for infinity and beyond and thought Toy Story Costumes will the the hot item
and 10% thought a cartoon costumes will be filling the Trick o' Treating streets!

Thanks for Participating!

In other news, I found this really interesting article about Trick o' Treating at BOB HOPE's house. How cool would that be, not only did you get full sized candy, but also cool Bob Hope swag. what a cool man! Check it out here!

Weekly Poll Boy's Costumes

Spooktacular Spotlight Wednesday: Shan's Closet

This week for my spotlight, I chose someone who has helped me make many a costume. Please welcome
Shannon Cheek! (internet applause)

Shannon has been sewing since she was 8 years old and makes everything from beautiful wedding dresses to fun everyday wear to perfect quick and easy costumes. When I asked asked her what her favorite costume was she had a hard time choosing (don't we all) but she loves to do movie themed costumes.


Her favorite part of Halloween is the costumes and she loves to help other people make their costume dreams come true!
A couple of her favorite costumes she has made include:

The Red Queen from Alice and Wonderland

Jane Austen Costumes 

She has also made some of the cutest Disney Princess costumes I have ever seen! 

Try it on Tuesday: Princess and Superhero

This week I wanted to focus on costumes that would be very "of the moment." Popular movies and trends are a great way to pick out a costume! For this weeks Try it On I thought I would focus on one of this summers biggest superheros: Captain America and the most resent loveable Princess: Rapunzel from Tangled.

Captain America

found this picture on instructables via pintrest

When I found this picture of a homemade Captain America Costume it made my heart sing. They did a fantastic job! What a great example of how a DIY costume can turn out even better than the store bought version! 

What you need: 

• Blue pants and sweat shirt/jacket
• On the jacket you can sew or iron on ( wonder-under is great for ironing projects) red and white stripes around the bottom half and a white star on the chest. 
• You can make the shield by painting a Frisbee (or plate etc.) and attaching a handle on the back. 
• Helmet- you can find a plain helmet and paint or use a large sticker to put an A on it
• Utility Belt- you can take an old belt and sew on pouches made of cardboard or fabric
• The details are what make any costume AMAZING- the brass buttons up the side ( you can just sew on faux buttons) the gloves and matching book cuffs, and the cap/mask. 

It is hard not to love the wide eyed, long haired, fun loving Princess, which is why it makes sense that even though this movie came out last year it is still on everyone's mind for  this years Halloween costumes! 

There are a few ways you can do this, If you are a seamstress (or even know someone who is) I would recommend making it from scratch! There are a ton of halloween patterns at your local craft store so you can check that out! 

If you are not a seamstress, and let's be honest, sewing takes time, you can simplify the costume!

Here is what you will need:

• Purple dress or skirt
• Long-sleeved purple shirt- make puffy sleeves with ribbon or fabric
• Purple vest - you can add ribbon to give it the corset look
• Long blonde hair - you can buy a wig or make a yarn wig yourself (like this) or you can do the short brown hair look she has at the end of the film!
• To top it off carry around a frying pan! It will complete the look and add a bit of humor value!

For this week's poll question I want to know :
What do you think will be this years biggest Halloween costumes?

MEGA Movie Madness Monday: Harry Potter

Have you ever looked out the window, hoping to see a snowy white owl holding a envelope announcing
your acceptance into Hogwarts?

My love for Harry Potter goes back to when I was eleven and picked up the first book. Immediately I was engulfed in the world of witchcraft and wizardry, I constantly was looking out the window hoping that an owl would show up with my very own Hogwarts acceptance letter. Needless to say, with the release of the last and final movie, fans everywhere were ready to dress up and go all out! Well at least I was. These costumes would be great for Halloween this year!  

If you have a flair for the dramatic, and love a little craziness in your life then perhaps you are a Bellatrix. This costume can be done so many ways and can wow the crowd.

What you need:

• v  Black, black and more black
• v  Long black skirt
• v  Lace or fish net shirt
• v  Corset or vest
• v  Crazy wild hair
• v  Wand
• v  Dark mark

The key to this costume is your attitude. Walk around like you are the world’s best death eater and people will crumble before  your feet.

Maybe  you are not the crazy type but like to take control, and love the color pink, in this case Professor Dolores Umbridge is who you want to be.

What you need:

•  Pink suit--preferably tweed. You can find one at your local thrift store. You will be surprised how many pink suits exist. I sure was!
• A broach--steal one from your grandma if you don’t have one!
• Cat collar ( this was easy to make- we took a sleeve of an old pink sweater and filled it will batting, added some ears and  eyes and voila! Insta-cat)
• Wand- once again twigs are great
• Locket necklace- Once again ask your grandma if she has one you can use!
• Sickly sweet smirk and a hatred for young wizards

• 
  

If you aren’t feeling evil this Halloween you could be the nicest wizard around. Luna Lovegood. Everyone loves her quirkiness and you will have the most adored costume for sure.

What you need:

• v  The Hogwarts Uniform- Black or Grey Skirt, White shirt, Grey/blue sweater, Blue and silver tie
• v  Go the extra mile and wear a Black cloak or scarf
• v  Radish earing – you can make them out of fun foam clay or buy a pair from etsy 
• v  Butterbeer Cork necklace- This is a piece of cake to make: take a cork drill a hole through it
• v  Spectrespecs- I found this great tutorial here 
• v  Missmatched shoes
• v  Fun loving quirky personality

Tune in next movie monday for a cast of Harry Potter costumes just for boys!

Freaky Friday!

Happy Friday!

Isn't there something fantastic about Friday. I love the energy and excitement you feel as the weekend sneaks up on you.  This week I asked you guys how early you start getting ready for Halloween! Here are the results (drum roll please..)

15% of you said that you prepare starting Nov. 1- for the next year! I was so happy to hear this. I always have a running list of what I want to be next year too!

15% of you get Spring  Fever and start planning about 6 months in advance!

50% start planning when the weather starts to cool off, about 1-2 months before Halloween

and 20% are procrastinators and put off the planning until the night before!


Thanks guys for all of your awesome feed back and I was glad to see that a lot of you are planning RIGHT NOW! hopefully I can help!

Planning can cause the munchies so here is a fun Halloween treat to virtually snack on!

Poisoned apples!
These are so easy to make:

• Take your favorite kind of apple and throw in a stick from your back yard

• Cover some in chocolate by melting both milk and white chocolate and drizzling it onto the apple

• Candy the rest by melting Redhots, water and corn syrup (recipe here) and dipping the apples in! 

Happy Haunts!

Throw it on Thursday: Pirate Fever

Arrggg Matey. Pirates of the Caribbean movies have taken the art of being a pirate to the next level,  and you never would guess, but pirate costumes are one of the easiest things to put together.




Here is what you need.

• Black brown red or blue pants. PJ’s and sweat pants work great. You either want to tuck them into boots or cut them to be mid-calf length. (the more jagged cut the better)
• Striped socks. If you have ever been on the Pirates ride at Disneyland you know that stripped socks are the latest pirate fashion.
• Flowy blouse. Many of you or your parents/friends/girlfriends may have one of these in their closet, if not try DI or use a large white button up.
• Belt- you can even use a long strip of fabric around your waist to help sinch the look together.
• Bandana or hat- A pirates dirty hair needs something to keep it in place. Use a colorful scarf or bandana to complete the look
• Unkempt hair- I am pretty positive that pirates invented the "just rolled out of bed" look, and boy did Capt. Jack make it work for him!   
• Accessorize- this is where you can have fun! Do you want a hook, sword or gun? Maybe an eye patch or beard? Make your pirate unique by adding your own personal touches!

What did you do to make your pirate stand out?

Spooktacular Spotlight Wednesday: Star Wars Style

Have you ever been to a Halloween party and seen a costume that is above and beyond anything you have ever seen before?  People with unbelievable costumes are part of what make Halloween so much fun! I stumbled upon this link and couldn’t believe the amount of work this man put into his costume. This is dedication to the max.  He built his own Tauntaun. If you are not as geeky as I am or haven’t seen Star Wars a million times, you probably have no idea what a Tauntaun is. Don’t worry it is nothing to be ashamed of.  A Tauntaun is the large furry animal, Luke and Han ride during the opening scenes of The Empire Strikes Back. Remember it’s the one Han slices open to keep Luke warm. Well Scott Holden decided to make a Tuantaun one year for Halloween. Check out his story here! It is by far one of the coolest costumes I have ever seen!

What is the coolest costume you have seen?

Try it on Tuesday: Muppet Vision

Have you seen this movie trailer yet? It looks so funny!

The Muppets are making a come back, and I can't wait. I started thinking about how fun it would be to dress up as a muppet for Halloween. One of the easiest ways to have a terrific costume is to think outside of the box, or ahead of the game. If you are wearing something unique you will definitely stand out!

Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are two of the most popular Muppets, and would make for spectacular costumes. Why not try it out!

Kermit the Frog

What you need:

• Green sweats or jumpsuit, preferably with a hood.
• Lighter green felt or fun foam  to create a frog collar (to do this measure the neck and cut a peice of ribbon that will fit around with a little room. Cut out long skinny triangles of felt or foam and sew/glue these peices around the ribbon to look like a collar- easy as pie!)
• Frog eyes -you can either buy big googly-eyes at the craft store or make your own out of funfoam or fabric or even peices of an old egg carton! Attach these eyes to the top of the hood so they sit on top of your head. 
• green gloves and if you are going all out green shoes! 
• You can even paint your face green 

*The key to making this costume a success is making sure all of your greens match, especially your sweatshirt and pants. 

Want to take the costmue to the next level? Create the sweatshirt with eyes, put on the glove and wear it with a suit and bow tie! Now Kermit is ready for any classy event. Kermit is only fully complete when accompanied by his loving girlfriend Miss Piggy! 

Miss Piggy

What you need:

• Pink/ or red dress- you can have a lot of fun with this, you can either get something ridiculous that screams costume, or something you have been dying to wear but haven't had any reason to wear it! 
• Feather Boa- Nothing says miss piggy more!
• Sparkly jewelry- Miss Piggy is a Diva and she needs her bling
• Matching Gloves
• Pig ears and nose- You can find both of these at the store (try craft or costume stores) Or you can make your own (try this tutorial) 

How would you dress like your favorite Muppet?

Welcome ghosts, ghouls, witches and wizards!

I have often wished for Halloween to come two or even three times a year. I love gathering pieces and assembling an outfit, putting it on and becoming something new and exciting. For me Halloween is all about the process of creating something. I hope through this blog you will find your own joy in creating a costume that will wow the crowd  this Halloween.

image from Bing Images

Throughout the next few weeks I will show you some of my favorite costumes as well as this Halloweens hottest looks. Join me on this journey and find a costume that fits your dreams.

• Monday’s are Movie Madness day. I will show you how to create a costume from some of the most popular movies.
• Try it on Tuesdays are all about how to make costumes capable of winning any costume contest.
• Wednesday’s Spooktacular Spotlight will showcase someone who makes their own “wow worthy” costumes.
• Throw it together Thursday’s are quick and simple costumes with easy to find material, for those moments when you need a costume in a hurry.
• Freaky Fridays will be all about you. I want to see what costumes you are making, or hear funny stories about costume disasters.  I will also show you some of my favorite Halloween activities and foods.

I hope that this blog will help make Halloween a more creative and exciting holiday for all!

Have a costume you would like help on? Or do you have an awesome costume you want showcased? Email me: iloveoctober31@gmail.com or follow me on twitter @iloveoctober31