An UN-costume: The Sugar Skull

The next get-up in our UN-costume series is the sugar skull.  If you're like me and don't do the gore and fright of the holiday, this cute option is for you!  I found the adorable dress and fell in love.  It was a boutique dress with an $80 retail price tag.  The original Goodwill price was $6.98 but, because I got it 50% off, I only paid $3.49!  The details of the pleated skirting, the sequence and the gold bow charm were beautiful!

We added skeleton gloves, a sugar skull-inspired mask, and sugar skull face stickers to the crease of her mouth.  Everything was purchased from the Goodwill Halloween section and it all cost $1.99/each.  Less than $10 and the kid LOVED her costume.

We piled on the gaudy jewelry - rings and necklaces.  It's probably the only way I'd get her excited to put on a dress this frilly these days. 

In the above photo, the kid was saying, "I feel *like* so amazing.  I wish I could wear my lips like this all the time.  Mom, I think I wanna wear THIS on Halloween."

She slipped into character and served!

For the lips, I used black lip liner to outline and white liner to draw the teeth.

The sass is great with this one, Islanders.

The funny is too.  Oh, and the DAB is too!

See you tomorrow with a bonus costume!

An Un-Costume: The Lemon.

Do you recall the cute head piece we created for the pumpkin un-costume?

Do you recall the $2.98 dress we bought from Goodwill for the pineapple un-costume?

We combined the two to create a lemon costume.

Repeat the steps for the leaves that we shared yesterday.  Add a yellow dress and, if you want, you can carry a box of the lemon head candies as a purse or wallet.  I'd suggest painting your face yellow and going all in but -- well -- that would be too much effort for the UN-costume.  In our case, Munch got a lot of compliments while we were taking photos around town.

That little girl in the middle of that big mural had passersby stopping to compliment her costume.

We kept the cheeks and lip really pink and added the head piece.  If you've got time, you can glue a fake lemon to the leaves head piece.  Whatever you do,

Wear it.  

Own it.  

Be sweet...

...with a little bite!

An UN-costume: The Pineapple.

On a trip to Goodwill, Munch and I stumbled upon a yellow Ralph Lauren ruffle dress.  It cost $2.98!  Guess what!  The same dress costs $45 retail on the website:

How was I to pass up such a steal?!  I wasn't.  I didn't.  We bought it.  Munch has worn dresses like this her entire life.  It looks great with sneakers or flats or sandals... dressed up or dressed down; it's a classic.  We decided to use it in our un-costume series and we found three different ways to make it a costume.

First up?  The pineapple.

This costume is all about the topper.  Pair it with any yellow shirt or dress and you're guaranteed to look amazing with minimal effort.

To make the head piece, I used cardstock I had on hand and some green construction paper from Dollar Tree.  It took 4 pieces of paper.

1.  Cut the paper in strips (4"x 2.5"). 

2.  Cut the tops of the strips to curve like leaves.  

3.  Glue the body of the leaves around the paper roll (either toilet paper or paper towel rolls will do). 

*Tip:  If you run your nail down the center of the leaves, they'll curl to look more authentic*

For the base, glue the roll to a square piece of paper about the same size.  

Then, glue the base to a hair clip and place another piece on the underside of the hair clip.  All done!

The kid was all smiles and, as we discussed, that's a major accomplishment at this stage of life.

We captured some great pictures in front of a mural painted on the side of a smokehouse restaurant.

She insisted on rocking her flamingo purse with the costume.  Doesn't she look like she's off to a costume day party with friends... without her mom chaperone?

Good thing she wasn't.  I might've needed medical attention.  I'm not ready for that whole 'mom, just drop me off and leave me' life.  Anyhoo, Munchface loved the costume.  The bold color and headpiece is the perfect balance of fun and cute. One could replace the dress with a shirt and leggings.  OMG!  Check out this awesome idea for the pumpkin too:

Source

It would even be cute with a work-appropriate dress for the office party... or a yellow onesie or dress for a baby!

Whatever the case, I was happy with the $5 price tag and the [pine]APPLE of my eye loved the costume for its simplicity and boldness.

Stay tuned for another easy costume tomorrow!

The Un-Costume Series

I was just having a conversation with Munchface about middle school.  Pre-pre-teen status is a challenging stage of life.  I remember it quite vividly.  It was one of the hardest periods of my life.  I remember how many lies I told.

6th grade

I lied about having my period.

7th grade

I lied about kissing a boy before.

8th grade

I lied about NOT playing with Barbies.

I just -- I lied.

I remember thinking boys were cute but I also remember that nauseating pain in my stomach when any boy had a crush on me.  I remember my first kiss.  I threw up immediately following and I got in trouble for being late to class because of it.  There was spit.  I swear I could feel his thick spit in my mouth... if I think about it now, I'll gag.

Anyhoo, I remember being a kid but also swearing in front of my friends I was MORE of an adult than a kid.  It wasn't cool to be a kid kid.  Rather, everyone was striving to prove their adult-o-meter was tipping the scale.  **eye roll**

Munch is there.  As in, she's definitely in the eye of the middle school storm.  She's developing.  She's got boys who like her, she's got sports teams she's trying out for, she's got girl drama, she's got a locker she wants to decorate, and she's got so much more.  It's annoying actually... now that I'm an adult adult, it's just annoying.

One of the really annoying aspects of this stage is her lack of willingness to go all out anymore.  Case and point:  Halloween.  She has a short list of costume ideas.

To clarify, she wants to be Where's Waldo.  ** EYE ROLLS*

Islanders, my kid wants to wear jeans and a striped shirt because, "well, mommy.  I already have the glasses and shirt.  I really only need the hat."

Waldo?  Does no one else see the lack of pizzazz in that?  NO?!  Just me?  Anybody?  Moving on...

I've decided to share some thrift store ideas for affordable costumes that meet the middle schooler's requirements:  cute, creative, but not TOO much.

I actually love the ideas we came up with and I love that one could easily tweak them for any age.  All of the costumes are kid-tested, kid-approved and kid-modeled.  This week, join us for the UN-costume series using clothes you can find in your closet or at your local thrift store for cheap!

I'm getting excited :)

The Birthday Party That Never Happened

Islanders,

Did you notice it's October?  Two months after the kid's birthday and eight months after we would normally have this conversation?

*taps mic*

Helllllooooooooo?!

One of the biggest events on the island has come and gone with no word... no celebration... no annual blog parade of party planning, goodies or excitement.

My kid turned 11.  We didn't have a party.

Seriously, how does that happen on this here island dedicated to all things party planning?  How did the planner NOT have a party for her daughter's birthday?  Her final birthday before middle school at that.

Well, it's a long story and I'll start with saying that we did plan for a party.  An awesome party.  A farewell party of epic proportions too.  The kid had one request: she wanted this to be her first sleepover birthday party.  She gave me freedom to plan and freedom to do whatever I felt would make for a good time.  She finally said it.

"I trust you, mom.  Everything you do for me is great."

Now, y'all know this was epic. There was no random theme... no crazy challenges or colors... just *exhales adoringly* do whatever I wanted.  I thought about it for a long time.  With my freedom to plan and to do whatever, I had no reason to stress.  It was all on me.  I decided to proceed with a Magic of Friendship theme.  Unicorns and rainbows, stars and glitter, watercolor pastels... this was going to be an awesome party.

With the theme, I designed the invitations.

First, the overnight guests were OFFICIALLY invited as members of the Farewell Squad!  In addition to the Farewell Squad sleepover, we planned to have family and friends over for a farewell BBQ at a friend's AirBnB property.