A Happy Halloween On The Fly!

Boo!  Are you ready for the spookiest, sweetest day of the year?  I’m not the biggest fan of the scary part of Halloween (I’m a big scaredy-cat and I startle REALLY easily), but I’ll take any excuse to dress up in a costume…AND get free candy (I love all things sweet!)!  I’m all about getting creative with my costumes, either using stuff I already have with Goodwill supplements, or pulling out my poster board, markers, scissors and glue to craft something!  We’re about 24 hours out from the big night, so if you’re scrambling to come up with an easy, cheap AND unique costume, I thought I’d share some of my past hits…plus, I’ll throw in a Halloween treat that’s quick and easy to make for your kid’s classroom party!

First the costumes:

Mary Poppins.  Step in time with this classic character, which also promises to keep you warm if your Halloween plans entail time in the crisp fall air.  Here’s what you need:

• Long skirt/black tights
• White button down shirt
• Black overcoat – one that nips in at the waist
• Red ribbon – tie around shirt collar in a bow
• Scarf
• Black hat accented with flowers
• Carpet bag (I know, they don’t really sell these – so any black purse, small tote, etc.)
• Umbrella!!

Once you’ve collected everything, simply assemble!  Tuck shirt into skirt, tie the red ribbon around the shirt collar, and add the overcoat.  Mary is prim and proper, so hair should be pulled back into a bun.  Then, add the hat, loop the scarf around your neck and grab your umbrella and bag as you head out the door!  I actually found a purse at Goodwill made of some rug material - not quite a bag, but had the effect, plus I had something to carry all my stuff in all night! Here’s my version from a few years ago, compared to the real deal (and yes, that’s a Bert with me, who I randomly met while waiting for the train. Crazy!).

Me and stranger Bert - and Julie Andrews. Not bad, right?

Elf.  Christmas is my MOST favorite holiday, so I just dug out some of my decorations a little early.  Poke through your attic and collect the following:

• Santa hat
• Green or red jumper
• Tights (red or green if you have them!)
• Lots of bells

Just pull on any combination of red jumper over green shirt or green jumper over red shirt, or maybe even pull out that candy cane turtleneck your great aunt gave you one year – just get Christmasy.  Add the tights, and tie on bells to your shoes, maybe one around your neck, bell earrings, you get the picture, and top it off with the Santa hat, and maybe a little red lipstick to make rosy cheeks.  Ta-da! You’re Santa’s favorite helper.

This one is a little more involved...but you get the picture.

Time Flies. Play on words costumes are the best!  Super cheap, super easy, and super fun!  A few years back, as a poor rookie news producer, my budget was li-mi-ted!  So, my news friends and I hit the internet and came up with some costumes from familiar sayings!  I was Time Flies – cut out a big cardboard circle, drew a clock on it, hung it around my neck and strapped on some wings.  Get it?  (when people asked, I would add that I was Time Flies When You’re Having Fun – and I was the fun…maybe it was more hilarious while the cocktails were flowing.)  Anyway – here are a few other good ones, some tried, some not:

• God’s Gift to Women – wrap a big box in wrapping paper, cut out a head and arm holes and attach a large gift tag that reads “To: Women, From: God” (my friend James did this – it was a hit!)

• Lawsuit – wear a suit and pin pieces of paper with laws written on them to the suit (my other friend James did this – also a hit!)

This man is from the internet.

• Cat’s Pyjamas – Wear your PJs, and stick on some kitty ears, maybe a tail, and draw on whiskers for good measure…

• 50 Shades of Grey – my current new favorite. Hit the paint store, grab the little swatches – enough to amount to 50 paint shades of grey.  Then just stick them on to the front of your shirt. Done!

• Holy Cow – Cow costume with wings and a halo.  If you don’t have a cow costume, just use a Sharpie to draw black patches on a white t-shirt. Awesome.

You get the picture.  They’re a lot of fun to come up and make – and GREAT conversation starters at parties!

SEE how much fun we had! The clock is cut out, but you can kind of make out my wings - just hanging with my friends the Lawsuit and God's Gift to Women!

 

Now, onto the treat!  Of course, you can always just grab a bag of candy from the store, or a baked good already made – I mean, kids aren’t picky, as long as there’s sugar in it!  But, if you want to impress the other moms at the school party, collect the following ingredients:

 

• Lollypops
• Tissues
• Ribbon or string
• Sharpie marker

Wrap a lollypop in a tissue, tie the ribbon around the bottom, then dot two eyes and a mouth...Voila! It’s a Ghost Lollypop!

I remember my Mom making these for our treat bags for school!

Share your costume and treat ideas!  I’m more than happy to keep celebrating well into November…did I mention I love sweets?  Happy Halloween!

Cuddleshrub Nuptials, Part 2: Organization! Checklist, anyone?

I don’t know about you, but once that ring went on my finger, it was game ON!  We jumped right into guest lists, venues, photographers, DJs…the list goes on, and it quickly becomes A LOT to keep track of!  So, while some may call this a “nerd” move, I just call it smart – as the thoughts, ideas and decisions piled up, I immediately began to organize myself in hopes of this process moving smoothly right up until the walk down the aisle.  So, here are the 3 things that I’ve relied on so far to stay sane and (hopefully) not become a bridezilla:

1.   Get yourself a wedding binder.  Get your "back to school" on and hit up the stationary section of your Walmart, arming yourself with at least a heavy duty binder (it's got to make it at least a year!), dividers with tabs and labels and a hole punch (er?), if you don’t already have one (check out mine – it was $4. It can only punch 1 page at a time, but this isn’t a legal deposition you’re binding, so it will work!).  Within this binder you will keep track of anything and everything related to planning your wedding: contracts, receipts, emails, ideas, information, guest lists, addresses, etc.)  Important sections to “divide” out in your binder include, but are not limited to:

• Guest List
• Venue
• DJ
• Photographer
• Flowers
• Dress
• Hair/Makeup
• Groomswear (if you're leery about handing this duty over to the dudes...)
• Marriage License info
• Rings
• Honeymoon

            Those are just a handful – it’s your wedding, and your binder, so whatever is important to 

            you, that’s what goes in the binder! 

Yup, I even crafted a fun cover page. Like I said - NERD.

2.   Checklist!  I Pinterested the hell out of this until I found one I liked – and then I STILL adapted it to fit my needs!  I needed something to tell me where in my wedding planning I should be when – as in, what should I do right away?  What should be done 9 months out?  6 months out?  And so on… Here are some links to the checklist I settled on, plus some others I liked:

• OvenLovinBlog.com checklist
• DesignedByBH.com checklist
• DocStoc.com checklist

I finally settled on this one I pinned from Pinterest - even though I couldn't seem to get it to come up by clicking to the link.  SO, I actually ended up using it as a template to create my own.  Check it out:

My attempt at uploading a printable doc - closest I got was JPEG of it.

I kept the basics, but switched out things I wasn’t having in my wedding for other things I thought was important.  Some of these, the ones that get closer to the wedding, I still don't know if we'll do, but figured I'd leave them on here so I don't forget to at least think of them and decided if they're important! Again, your wedding, your checklist!  I basically just retyped it in Microsoft Word into a few different columns, using a square bullet point (in our wedding color purple, of course!) as my “check box.”  It’s ridiculous how good it feels to check off each box!

3.     Microsoft Excel – Guest Lists & Addresses.  I’m a self-taught Excel user, but I managed to come up with an Excel chart to keep track of my guests and their addresses.  I separated into several different columns, so that I can check off when I’ve sent their Save The Date, their invitation and then later, their RSVP responses.  Keep this saved on your computer, as you will likely update it a few times as you add more people… You can also program it to tally up your guest list total, and your “yays” and “nays”.  I also made a corresponding chart with everyone’s addresses, so they’re all in one spot.  Plus, when I printed labels for our STDs, I could just copy and paste the address from the chart to the label templates! 

Hoping I get lots of "ready to party"s!

 

4.    Bonus Tip – when in doubt, take a sec to remember this is supposed to be fun!  I think us     brides can forget that sometimes.  Enjoy this ride, it’s the only time you’re going to do it!

 

That’s it!  I mean, there’s obbbbbviously more, like countless phone calls to Mom and my bridesmaids to bounce off ideas, and glasses of wine to calm my frayed nerves after a 2 hour internet search for photographers…but I sort of feel like these are givens, as in things I do while just getting through life.  With these 3 resources in place, I’m feeling really good about our progress… I have so many checked boxes on my checklist so far! :)  Anything special YOU’RE doing to stay organized and avoid the deep, dark hole of crazy??  Share with me!!  I mean, I still have to get through a little over 6 more months of planning, I’ll take any help I can get!