Chicken-Scratch-Saturday: Good Will Halloweening

I have always hate-hate-HATED those realy cheap, flimsy, poly Halloween costumes. Not that I haven't resorted to them a few times over the years. Especially if my little one would simply not make it to his next birthday if he wasn't dressed up as some character that I could never in a million years replicate on my own, or if my little princess happened to see the prettiest princess costume EVER and would DIE if she could not have that exact one.

And even though I CAN sew, I have never had the desire to make any of my kids a costume for Halloween if sewing was involved. Never, I say.

Let's face it, those poly costumes are quick and easy, and Halloween can get super busy when your kids are little, between classroom parties, community fairs, scout parades, parties, and let's not forget the actual night of trick-or-treating. So it's very tempting to just pluck that cheap-o costume off the rack and be done with it.

But one of the things I love best about Halloween is the potential for creativity. Between decorating your house, carving the jack-o-lanterns, and helping your kids figure out what they're going to be, it's a smorgasbord of outside-the-box thinkin'.

And we all want our kids to be outside-the-box thinkers, don't we?

So. My first stop with my kids for costume shopping is not the seasonal Halloween store, and it's not WalMart. It's Goodwill.

At Goodwill, the clothing items (shirts, pants, skirts, dresses) generally run about $3.50 to $5.00. Accessories even cheaper. With a little imagination and only a few dollars, you and your child can find the perfect things to make a wide variety of costumes, such as...

pirate
hobo
prom queen, bride, bridesmaid (dead or otherwise)
clown (evil or otherwise)
cheerleader
hippie
zombie
farmer, cowboy/girl
black cat
scarecrow
goth
rock/pop star

The list is endless.

Of course, you might still need a few accessories at a Halloween store. For example, your child might find all the trappings to be a zombie, such as oversized clothing that he can rip and tear and bloody, but he'll still need the make-up. Or maybe she found just what she needed to be a cute little cowgirl, but she still needs the hat.
So get the hat at the costume section of WalMart, braid her hair into some pigtails, and add a few freckles with your eyeliner, and you've got yourself a cheap, no-sew, creative costume that your kid thought up and picked out.









Now, how to carve that jack-o-lantern this year....





Image courtesy: coolest-homemade-costumes.com
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In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday: Homestead Revival's Barn Hop, The Chicken Chick's Clever Chicks, A Cat-Like Curiosity's Monday Mantras Link-Up, and @ Home Take 2's Mom's Monday Mingle
Tuesday: Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday,   Crafty Garden Mama's Tuesday Greens, and The Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday: My Life and Kids Finding the Funny, Tilly's Nest's Down Home, and Crafty Spices Wordless Wednesday
Thursday: A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop, and Two In Diapers' Mommy Brain Mixer
Friday: Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday, Little Becky Homecky's Fantabulous Friday, and Oh So Amelia's Friday Chaos
Saturday: Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop and Country Momma Cooks Saturday Link-Up.


Since today is Saturday, that means I'm linking yesterday's post "Chick Update" with Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop and Country Momma Cooks Saturday Link-Up.




Come join the fun!