HALLOWEEN 2015

You're probably not surprised to hear I love Halloween. Even though I'm a "grown up" with no kids I absolutely love picking out a family costume and dressing up to pass out candy. I grew up in the country and no one came trick or treating to our house. On November first I would always wake up and ask my parents how many kids stopped at our house and I was always so disappointed. Now that we live in a neighbourhood in the city we get between sixty five and ninety trick or treaters and it is just so exciting.

Last year's Inspector Gadget costume was fairly difficult to make so I wanted something simple this year. My boys are good sports when it comes to Halloween. They don't put up too much of a fight when I dress them up. I had to be a little creative to incorporate Leroy into the theme this year.

The moment we've all been waiting for... Halloween costumes 2015... Dirty Dancing!!

This is Leroy. He's a watermelon.

This is me and Leroy. "I carried a watermelon."

Have fun tonight! Leroy wants everyone to stay safe. :)

COSTUMES: FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF

You know it. You love it. I get it. It's a classic.

When I made this collage all I could imagine was the scene with Ferris dancing in the parade to Twist and Shout. Maybe it's just us but we quote this movie fairly regularly. Mostly, "Bueller.....Bueller....."

This might take some extra effort (unless you happen to already own a fringe suede/leather jacket, or a men's leather sweater vest). Otherwise they're fairly easy costumes. His: white tshirt, gray dress pants (preferrably with front crease), white shoes, Ray Ban Wayfarers. Hers: blue sweater, beige or grey skirt (she actually wore floppy dress shorts in the movie but um...yeah), and tall boots.

Well, friends, this was my last Halloween idea - other than our own costumes of course. And you don't get to see that until Halloween! Stay tuned.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

COSTUMES: SCOOBY DOO

Hopefully you didn't notice the premature posting from a couple of nights ago. When I make these polyvore collages sometimes things go a little wonky and they're posted immediately. So if you already saw this post, here it is again - with text!

Scooby Doo was definitely a favourite childhood show. My brother and I watched a lot of it. We had a Christmas special on VHS that holds a special place in my heart. :) Dressing up as Fred and Daphne would be so cute. And if you have a doggie like us they would obviously be Scooby or Scrappy Doo. I love when the doggies are involved.

I included some real boots for Daphne because don't you remember wearing your snowsuit under your Halloween costume?! That was the worst. The end of October is always freezing (like today!) and Mom always ruined my costume by making me wear fifteen layers of clothes to stay warm. The year I was around eleven or twelve I was the chubbiest vampire ever.

The more I look at this collage the more I like it. It is definitely on my list for next year. Stay tuned later this week for another costume idea!

Scooby Doo

COSTUMES: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Usually I keep my Halloween costume ideas to myself and don't post until trick or treaters are arriving at the door. This year I thought I'd be a little more forthcoming with my ideas and hopefully provide you with some inspiration!

I would love to use this idea for costumes - The Grand Budapest Hotel. We won't be doing it this year because we would have to buy too many things but if you have a beige dress and peach sweater on hand you should totally do it. This was one of our favourite Oscar nominated movies last year and I keep meaning to watch Moonrise Kingdom which had the same director.

To be Agatha you have to do a fancy braid on top of your head including a piece of wheat or grain, and the brown lipstick is to draw a "birthmark" the shape of Mexico on your cheek! Zero's costume is fairly simple. You'll probably have to buy a purple blazer but the pill box hat would be easy enough to make. And the liquid eyeliner is to draw in a thin moustache. I thought Zero was the most adorable character.

There you go!

The Grand Budapest Hotel

HALLOWEEN 2014 - INSPECTOR GADGET

Happy Halloween!

We were pretty excited to announce our Halloween costumes on facebook last night. This year we were: Inspector Gadget, Penny, and Brain. I had the theme song stuck in my head all day today!

This took some serious DIY effort to make Gadget's hat and took a ton of fiddling tonight to get it to stay on hubby's head tonight. In the end we had to take one of the "go go Gadget arms" off the hat so everything would stand upright. Penny's costume is incredibly easy - a red shirt (with a white stripe if you are domestically inclined unlike myself), green pants, sneakers, pigtails, her watch to correspond with Brain (Leroy) and a grey messenger bag. And Brain - well, Leroy told me he likes years when he doesn't have to wear a costume to be part of the trio. He also helped the team remotely...from his kennel. Let's just say trick or treaters definitely weren't going to sneak up on us with Leroy/Brain around.

We had 56 trick or treaters tonight (down from >70 a couple of years ago) and a few definitely knew who we were. And some definitely didn't. My favourite costumes besides our own? A dead Hawaiian girl and a homemade Stitch costume. Poor homemade Stitch. He told us I was the only one to recognize his costume. It's hard not being appreciated in your own time. I'd give anything not to be appreciated in my own time. ;)

So here it is - Inspector Gadget, Penny, and Brain 2014!

A FEW THINGS

Hello! Nothing too exciting around these parts at the moment - just looking forward to Thanksgiving long weekend! (And I'm taking Tuesday off to give me an extra long weekend with my boys.) I'm waiting to receive a couple of parcels in the mail that will be big blog contributors in the next week. Hopefully they come soon!

In the meantime, here are a couple of photos I snapped last week!

1. My birthday card from hubby. It's no secret I love princesses - of the Disney and real life variety. And this princess card talks. So cool. When I read it a little closer I had to laugh. I think someone might be hinting I'm a bit of a diva? Or princess if you will? ;)

2. Halloween washi tape I put on cards for my family!

3. The last hydrangea of the season from the abandoned house next door. They're especially pretty when they turn pink! (Our bridesmaids carried white hydrangea in our wedding so I have a soft spot for it.)

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! See you  next week.

TWO TRICKS AND A TREAT

Happy Halloween!

We were sitting in the living room last night, pumpkins aglow, and invited our little friend Leroy (you might have heard of him) in to visit.  Normally he isn't allowed into the living or dining rooms but we felt bad with him laying in the doorway watching us.  He spent all of three minutes with us before he decided it wasn't so interesting in there after all.  He went back into the kitchen and stayed there all night without trying to sneak in once!  I guess it's sort of the forbidden fruit phenomenon.

I ain't afraid a no ghosts.

The caped crusader himself.

It's the bat signal!

Some last minute baking found here.

GALAXY DEFENDERS

Here come the Men in Black... Galaxy defenders. (MIBs.)

Costumes extraordinaire 2011.  Hubby and I were Men in Black and Leroy was an alien!  I actually had never seen the movie which became very apparent as people kept making reference to a flash thing that erases your memory?  I had no idea what they were talking about and hubby had to sadly explain I had never seen the movie and just watched the music video for Will Smith's song "Men in Black" as we were getting ready for the party.  Oh well.

I must say Leroy made a very good alien.  It was a bit of an experiment taking him to a setting with 60 people but he did very well!  He didn't even mind his costume (a feather boa, wire necklace from the dollar store and two styrofoam balls as extra 'eyes'.  I think because it wrapped around his neck he just thought it was his collar.  Apparently the feathers got stuck in his mouth sometimes but I didn't actually witness this myself.  He was a hit, I think.  What a good boy. :)

Our little alien.

MIBs.

Trying to determine what to do with the extra-terrestrial threat to our city.

HALLOWEEN APPROACHES

I love dressing up for Halloween because there just aren't enough occasions in life to wear a costume.  This year I've been trying to think of theme costumes for the three of us and it's a little harder than I expected.  I can come up with all kinds of ideas but most of them were too difficult (like Dorothy, Toto, and the Tin Man/Scarecrow/Lion).  Finally I've decided on our Halloween trio for 2011 but you'll have to wait till after Friday's Halloween potluck to see it!

On another note, we let Leroy sleep out of his kennel last night which we have been attempting on occasion recently.  He's in his crate all day so it would be nice if he could have some freedom at night.  Things went okay until I felt him land on me after a running leap at 4 am.  Ha!  Then he snuggled in between us and hubby seemed to think it was me crowding him off the bed (until he reached over and felt Leroy's fur, that is).  Then it was back to the kennel for him!  What a cutie.

Back to Halloween, here are a couple of super easy costumes I found from What I Wore - links here and here.  The last picture is my costume from 2009.

Carmen Sandiego

Dorothy.

Rosie the Riveter.