Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Best Of-Halloween Costumes Edition

As Halloween approaches I thought it might be fun to take a trip down memory lane.

The beatnik costume was the result of us being broke, and Danny being too young to care about a costume. The bongo drums are made from empty Neocate containers. Since the stuff was costing us more than caviar (and although medically needed, wasn't covered by insurance) I wanted to get my money out of it by re-using the canisters. Hey kid, quit teething on my City Lights editions.
Why don't you ask my log?
When I needed them to custom cut the log for me at the garden centre I had to explain the Log Lady to a kid that never saw Twin Peaks. Mostly, he just looked at me like I was mad.
The waiter from The Meaning of Life. That's some very expensive fake vomit in the bucket. Still haven't thought of anything else to do with it.
I'm sure even Mother Goose wanted to throttle that bloody fowl once in a while.
The Penguin and Lola Lasagne
Frank the Combine from Cars.
Gorgon Slayer! I had so much fun pinning rubber snakes to a Styrofoam head. Oh look, the old kitchen on the farm!
Uncle Pennybags. What's scarier than a banker? You can see the cattle pen behind Danny in the photo. I do NOT miss the flies. I don't really miss the farm either.
I saved this engineer costume (it was already vintage when I bought it) for Danny's children someday (maybe)? That was the first year we took him out to ring doorbells, and probably the costume I remember best.
 That was the year Danny wanted to be a Rainbow Trout. I made the costume from posterboard overlaid with pink, green, and silver cellophane. What better place to take him for photos than the aquarium?
That was the best costume I ever made. Danny's personal favourite was the combine.
As Woody Woodpecker. We took him to the comic book store for photos.
This vintage Creature From the Black Lagoon costume was great, but it was my crochet hat everyone kept asking about. And, no, you can't have it.

Danny isn't interested in dressing up this year. I knew it would happen eventually. He's too old for trick-or-treating, and too young to go out to parties, so the holiday isn't as much fun. Hopefully I can convince him to wear something fun just to open our door and give out candy. I'll be dressing up but every day is Halloween in my world.

Are you going to be doing a costume this year?




14 comments:

Bobbi said...

Love the little beatnik! You guys made some great and unique costumes. I've only made a couple for mine - a little Dorothy dress for the year my daughter was obsessed with the Wizard of Oz and a Greek (not) toga (can't remember the right word) for my son in his Percy Jackson days. I will be handing out candy at work and can only think to get some kitty ears to wear with a furry coat - it's gonna be cold.

Sue said...

Halloween is really taking off down here these days. When my lads were small it was very new to NZ. I took them trick or treating twice, that was enough for this mother!! The only one to go with a bunch of kids. We have Guy Fawkes about a week later so it is all go down here. Bugger me, then it is XMAS!!! Loved all the costumes and that you got into it too.

Vix said...

There's some incredible costumes there especially The Log Lady and The Rainbow Trout.
Hallowe'en passes me by, I'm just not into it. xxx

Bibi Maizoon said...

My faves are the Log Lady & the L'il Engineer.
Is that a crocheted Cthulthu on your head? Er mah gawd my 1st husband was an HP Lovecraft fan.
No costumes & candy here in Nepal. No pumpkins either. WAH.
Y'all have a Happy Halloween!

Beth Waltz said...

"That was the year Danny wanted to be a rainbow trout." The costume is peculiarly touching, and so is the cutline.

Whatever happened to the Gorgon head? I do decorate for the season, and she'd loom splendidly on the corner pedestal in the dining room.
(Post currently occupied by a papier-mâché bust of a bedizened witch.)

As is customary, I'll appear as Great-aunt Euthanasia, wearing velvet and a vintage opera cape with jet beading, and rather too much eye liner. Someday I'll find a lorgnette and the costume will be complete. Happy Hallowe'en!

Polyester Princess said...

My favourite, obviously, is the Log Lady, and I was laughing out loud when I read your comment about having log custom cut at the garden centre. I got a lot of stares, as I was on the bus! My favourite of Danny's must be the rainbow trout. And look at his face there, which reminds me of someone, can't remember her name now ... xxx

Vronni's Style Meanderings said...

I am astonished at what a huge celebration Halloween is in the States. It's growing here year on year and I don't understand it - it's all just plastic tat wherever you look...

You have shown us some amazing and unique outfits and how good you are at making them!I am rubbish at that sort of thing so I'm glad I didn't have to do anything for Halloween when my children were young.

I hope your Halloween goes with a bang (how could it not?)!

Goody said...

@Bobbi
Now that your kids are grown they should be making YOU a costume. Send them out looking for the ears ;)

@Sue
I LOVE Guy Fawkes night-baked potatoes and Parkin at our house. Do NOT mention X-Mas! I don't even want to think about it this year (though Danny made two Christmas cakes back in August and sent one to the Fair-so at least that's done.

@Vix
I can see not being into it. Used to be a children's holiday but increasingly it is more adults celebrating making it a profit generating business. Once things go commercial, well you know.

@Bibi
Can you decorate a butternut squash for a modernist-looking jack-o-lantern? Yep, that's my sci-fi hat. I didn't have a pattern so I improvised. Danny used to be embarrassed to be seen with me wearing it.

@Beth
The head disappeared at some point-probably in the move or possibly the tornado-I can't remember. I was impressed by how many people knew he was a rainbow trout, but fishing is a big deal around here.

I would love to see your costume-post it on your page after Halloween.

@Ann
Looks just like his Dad ;)
I love how he's standing there dressed as a fish reading the facts about spawning.

@Veronica
We were always too broke when Danny was small to buy a proper costume, so I had motivation to come up with something good. As things got better post recession, he never wanted a store-bought costume except for the creature one.

I guess it is an outgrowth of Samhain? How it got so popular in the US I'll never know, but we probably have more people celebrating it than Christmas.

Mim said...

I'm an oddity over here as I love Halloween. Danny's rainbow trout costume is my favourite as it's so unique. I can't imagine anyone else ever coming up with that idea. Though he made the cutest little engineer!

No costume for me, though I am making a cake for work. Planning to make a chocolate cake with salted caramel sauce in the filling, then decorating it to look like a canister of biohazardous waste. The idea is for the caramel to ooze when the cake it cut. I'll probably muff up and leave a hole in the 'sealing' icing so the caramel sinks in and we'll end up with soggy cake...

Melanie Folly Bird said...

What fabulous costumes! I love Danny's costume choices, great kid you have there.

I was thinking about an early Halloween costume of mine just yesterday. Aged seventeen, I went to the pub party dressed as a lion tamer, with fishnets, bullwhip, lots of diamante and a tail shirt over a swimming costume. I only went as this because I could borrow a huge toy lion! (I really don't approve of such things). Anyway, I got a fair bit of male attention and was asked by this guy to go to his gig, presumably based on what I was wearing, as the lion was in the corner and he must have thought I always went around like that! He was most disappointed when I turned up in my usual clothes.

Propagatrix said...

I start a new job on Halloween and will not be dressing up officially, but I’ll tell everybody I’m Edna Mode from THE INCREDIBLES because she is my doppelganger. My favorite childhood costume was the decapitated Anne Boleyn, which involved a Barbie styling head and a huge cape.

Radostin said...

What a great selection of costumes. Here costumes happen at Purim not Halloween; the kids actually go to school in costume so no getting out of it! Of course there are many costumes for sale, but I think they should really be made so there's always a bit of bartering and some end up getting bought, some made. My fave was a wood-fairy made for my second: a dress made of a silk skirt I'd outgrown, and a green corduroy play cape that we already had (thrifted!) with vines and leaves gathered from the garden sewn all over it.

Goody said...

@Radostin
Those sound like wonderful costumes. Somewhere I have photos of myself at a Purim carnival dressed as Queen Esther-I'll look for them to post.

Goody said...

@Mim
I'll bet that cake was a huge hit.

@Melanie
That's hilarious!

@Propagatrix
Good luck with the new job!