On Saturday there was a Halloween event nearby so Merle got to try on and test out her costume. It was a success and you can see it above (here is my diy for the Cousin It bucket). She is all about the costumes while her sister is just more about that candy (always has been) and I guarantee by the time for bed on Halloween night she will already be thinking about what she wants to dress up for next year.
Also on Saturday night I decided that it was a most excellent idea to move the living room around. And by most excellent I obviously mean not the brightest idea. I wanted to make room for the Christmas tree and figured it was a good time to start. I ended up too tired and going bed before I finished so I had to deal with the mess on Sunday morning which totally sucked. I also ended up scratching the shit out of my knuckles when my hands got stuck moving a desk. Good times. I think the result is pretty good though. Much roomier aside from the fact that there are 4 baskets of laundry in there to be folded and put away. I so hate folding and putting away laundry.
It was so cold in my bedroom last night I had to build a tent of pillows and blankets around my face with only a breathing hole. It’s my favourite way to sleep, so I am happy it’s cold enough now. Do you like to sleep in a freezing room?
My 12 (almost 13) year old wants to read IT, but I don’t want to let her yet because of some super graphic scenes. I haven’t read much of his stuff because I scare easily, but she seems to have more of her dad’s tastes in movies and books. Is there a Stephen King book that isn’t quiet as bad as that one? What about Pet Cemetery, Kujo, or Carrie? If you have read any of those? Will it be too scary for a kid that has a pretty high tolerance for scary stuff?
Last year I bought Merle this cat Feisty Pet from Vat 19 (she loves Vat19 and watches their Youtube videos all the time). So if you are looking for an inexpensive gift for people/kids with unique tastes this may be for them. They are pretty awesome eh?
Who is going out on November 1st to buy all the mark down Halloween candy?
I am going to preface this by saying I did not come up with this idea. I copied it from someone else who is obviously way more creative than I am and you can see their video here.
I am not creative enough to come up with ideas, but I can copy fairly well…..sometimes.
Sometimes it turns out really bad. Like, pretend it never happened bad.
This inability applies to all areas of creativity with me.
In school when given creative writing papers to do I always drew a blank, but I kicked ass at research papers.
In art when told to create something I never could, but put up something on the overhead (dating myself?) and tell me to replicate it?
I’d do my best, which often wasn’t a bad imitation depending on the amount of skill needed 😉
It is what it is, and I am aware of that weakness which makes me thankful for the Internet because there are all kinds of things I can try to reproduce.
This is one.
I love Addams family costumes (especially the Addams family themed costumes) and Merle wants Wednesday Addams costume for Halloween.
While I think she is going to look super cute beacsue Wednesday Addams is like her alter ego, a Wednesday Addams kids costume is a relatively easy Halloween costume.
I think this Cousin It trick-or-treat bucket is the perfect way to make it obvious who she is.
I also am bad at photography an obviously timing because:
a) it’s pushing it for Halloween costume DIY’s, and
b) I decided to do this project on a Saturday evening on my balcony when the sun was starting to go down.
I also had to make an emergency run to Walmart to get another ball of wool* because I needed two.
*I’m going to note that I think my issue with needing another ball of yarn was because the type I bought was really thin and he looked like he was balding. If you get an average thickness of yarn you probably will be okay with one ball.
Cut the top off of the top hat but leave a small border along the edges.
Cut the plastic handle off of the bucket.
Braid a length of yarn that will be long enough to use as a handle for the bucket.
After braided feed the ends through where the handle was and knot off to make secure.
Wrap yarn looped from elbow over your hand (like you are winding rope) 50 times and set aside.
You are going to repeat this until you have 6-8 of these bunches of 50 loops. You may need a couple of extra if it seems like the hair isn’t thick enough.
Take one loop at a time and cut one end.
Then lay out the cut length flat and organize and straighten the yarn into a neat line. Take a piece of light colour duct tape long enough to lay over the ends of the row of yarn and press yarn on to it to make secure.
Take the strip of duct tape with yarn and wrap it around one side of the bucket about halfway down. Repeat that step with the second strip of duct tape and yarn, and place on the opposite side so they slightly overlap at sides to make sure bucket is covered.
Turn the bucket upside down and cover with pieces of duct tape to hide the orange so you can’t see it through the yarn.
Repeat steps 7-9 placing the yarn higher up the bucket each time so that it overlaps the previous row. I did this a 3rd time as well and placed it around the top edge of the bucket.
Decide how the hat will look best and use the glue gun to attach. Make sure that the handle is hanging out the top. My glue gun wasn’t working very well so I also used black duct tape along the inside edge of the hat to attach it firmly to the bucket and yarn.
Close the arms on the glasses and place it on the front where you want them to be. Use a pen to mark the tape where the arms are on the glasses. Cut a small hole on each side of the bucket where you marked the tape and slide the arms through the plastic.
Trim the length of the hair (I still need to do this) and he is good to go.
Cousin It Trick or Treat Bucket DIY
I think this is the perfect addition for Merle’s Wednesday Addams costume and if you are a super creative person (unlike me) you probably can come up with some other good character bucket options.
I’ll post an updated picture of her when she is in full costume with the bucket. Updated: the picture is at the top now.
So Hallelujah we finished Merle’s costume on Friday which was perfect timing for a practice run. There was a Halloween kids festival across the road on Saturday and we were able to test everything out and see if we needed to buy anything new or tweak anything in the costume. I learned that I needed to add more white and yellow coloured hairspray as a base before adding the green so it would be light enough to look more Beetlejuice and less Joker green. We also added some green accents (after I took pictures) to her make up to resemble the mold Beetlejuice has on his skin in the movie.
I actually planned on doing a costume DIY blog post since I don’t do a lot of them. I used to DYI a lot but over the years have lost the drive to do many projects so when this came up I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to add one. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way and instead of sitting down and photographing the step by step process over a weekend it became a long draw out process of passing the baton between Tom and I in the evenings. He would take the suit to work on his less busy nights and we would send each other shitty text photos of its progress.
This is the quick and easy basic breakdown:
Supplies needed:
White suit jacket/blazer (found at Value Village)
White pants
1″ painting tape
2 black Fabric markers (thick) or fabric paint
Process:
We first found some movie stills to get a good idea of stripe placement.
Pick a section to start. I suggest starting with the back so you can get used to it without messing up the front.
Lay three pieces of tape in a row touching one another, then remove the middle piece. This empty “stripe” is the piece you paint/colour.
Lay down more tape before removing the old ones because your paint stripe will be the width of the tape.
Repeat process until the section is complete. Let dry. Pick a new section.
Areas like the collar and arms took a little longer to place the tape because of the different directions the stripes angled. With the arms I suggest keeping the sleeve flat and complete the stripes on one side of the sleeve, then flip over and just match up the tape to the other sides completed stripes (if that makes sense).
Follow the same idea with the pants. Just work one leg at time, front then back.
I’m sure that totally sounds confusing but once you figure the tape placement it was easy because you just repeat the same steps over and over. It was just quite time-consuming and was often done on a flat tv tray/table while watching Netflix.
The costume was completed with a white dress shirt, black tie, and black shoes. For hair and make-up I used 3 different sprays on the hair, a white, yellow, and a lime green. That is also the order I layered them as well. Then I teased her hair and rolled up and pin the long sections in the back. Her makeup was a base of white, with dark purple around the eyes and then green smudges along the hairline, neck, ears, and mouth (added after the below picture). I’m hoping to get some better pictures on Halloween that I can add to this post.
Roo’s costume is Coraline which was actually quite simple to thrift everything (except the wig). I found her a yellow coat which technically should be a rain slicker but I found a nice yellow wool pea coat which is more weather appropriate anyway. Some leggings, rain boots, a burgundy cross body, and a blue bobbed wig were the final pieces.
I used to love dressing up for Halloween parties but haven’t for years but if I did I would want to wear something like this 🙂
*Updated to add some more pictures from Halloween night.
Excuse the shitty photo, I had to take it all ninja sneaky in my dark bedroom.
(I added some pieces to it yesterday when I got a surprise package in the mail for my sister-in-law who is a vet tech. She sent some cool things that she will be beyond excited about.)
Have you ever started Christmas shopping so early that you forget what you bought and where you hid it? I am facing this problem now. I started to buy Christmas gifts pretty much right after last Christmas. Target closed in Canada (insert crying emotionally distraught emoji) and there were some really great deals while they liquidated (I can’t believe I put the words Target and liquidated in the same sentence) I bought things and hid them. Then I slowly started adding things as I thought of them because it is ways cheaper to spread it out over a long period then to panic and by everything at the end. Continue Reading →
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