Saturday night we hosted our annual Hollieween party. The turn out was great. Just the right amount of people. In fact if we had more people we would have had to start partying in the bathrooms - our home was pretty packed.
Since our finances are looking a bit pale this season I dressed us all in super low cost costumes. I racked my brain and realized we all have the clothing to dress as hip modern versions of Disney Characters! These were by far the laziest costumes I've ever come up with but hey, I only spent $7 for all of us.
In case you're unfamiliar with Disney movies here's a side by side comparison of the characters we're dressed as:
I'm Snow White. Costume cost - $0
My husband as hipster Peter Pan.
Cost of costume: $1 for thrifted toboggan
River as Aladdin.
Cost of costume: $1 for thrifted toboggan
And Cedar wasn't too thrilled about waking up in a green tutu.
Cost of costume: $1 for shirt, $4 for the tulle for the DIY no-sew tutu.
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Sooooo here are some pics from the night:
Get it? They're ceiling fans. HA!
So that's all for now... and here's my face.
I'm linked up for Share-in-Style: Halloween!! See ya there!
Before I get started on this post, I'd like to point out that I'm not posing in this photo. My husband took a pic of me talking and scratching the corner of my mouth at the same time. I'm just so stinking adorable that it came out looking like this. Saaaarcasm. And forgive my weird muscly Popeye the Sailor Man forearm. I'm a very um.... athletically built woman and I have to be very careful with my poses or else I'll look like - well... this.
Athletically built - I guess the sport in my case would be sumo wrestling...
Is this better? I have been told that I am rather intimating with my Samoan-esque physique. I'm 5'6, well over 200 lbs and I have the natural build of a heavyweight boxer. I can't help it! Even in my thinner days I was still a larger muscular woman. She Hulk smash!!! ROAR!! Me nice like a kitty. See?
Sooooo moving on. Here's what I wore to church this morning. Heck yeah I wear sundresses in the fall.
Outfit Under $25
Dress: Ross Dress for Less
Jacket: www.599fashion.com
Leggings: Walmart
Boots: Hand-me-downs
NEW (to me) embroidered bag - Salvation Army
NEW (to you) necklace - Ebay for $4!!
Sugar skull ring - Ebay 99 cents.
Red gem ring - FOUND!
River's outfit was pretty spectacular today. The top and bottom are from www.FabKids.com
Never heard of it? Good. Thinking about signing up? DON'T unless you've got $30 a month to waste for a "free" monthly outfit. Ugh. Dang fine print.
And here's what I'm into these days:
This LA Colors brand nail polish: $1 a bottle and it comes in pretty bangin' colors. YEAH! Er, sorry for my gross cuticles. I personally don't care that they're shredded, but I am sorry if seeing them offends you...
I'm not sorry.
Yeah I am.
No, I'm not...
Now that I'm 100% healed up from the c-section, I'm getting back into dancing to shake off the baby weight... er and the weight I gained from the first baby too. I've already lost 3 lbs in a week. YAY! Sadie Marquardt and tribal fusion belly dancer Rachel Brice have been my virtual coaches. Oh Sadie! Isn't she gorgeous!
Oh yeah. A couple of posts ago, I wrote about my buys from the faire. Well, I forgot two things: this handmade wall hanging - very appropriate for me as a dancer and drummer...
...and this gorgeous Indian umbrella. It was a steal at $15!
And lookee who's learning to smile!
She's not very good at it yet, but when she does give me a little grin I'm all butter in the knees!
Last night me and the husband and baby girl went to a lovely little performance at Texarkana College. River wasn't invited to come. His behavior is AWFUL at concerts so someone usually has to stay out in the hall with him and miss out on everything - so this time we just spared ourselves the trouble and left him with a sitter.
The concert was "Footprints in the Heart: Celebrating the Divine Soul-Mate through Dance and Music" featuring performers from India. The city I live in is very basic when it comes to entertainment. We get the usual: circuses, rodeos, plays, car shows, etc - so this kind of entertainment is RARE. We made dang sure not to miss out on this golden opportunity.
We got there a few minutes late - so the performance had already started. Or so we thought. There was a woman singing jazz favorites accompanied by piano. I thought: hm, ok - opening act? Jazz? That's not what I'd choose for the opening act of an Indian concert but oh well. After the woman's sixth song I began to think that perhaps we were at the wrong event. But I looked around and saw all the glittering saris (another rare sight in Texarkana) and concluded we must be in the right place. What the *bleep* is going on?
Turns out the jazz singer was a last minute time-filler. The performers had been delayed by several hours, luggage lost, bad weather - the works. So when they arrived in Texarkana they had to hit the ground running. No sound check, no warmups - just go! Poor things! But they pulled it off wonderfully.
This dancer's luggage was lost at the airport so she had to scramble to borrow clothing for her performance when she arrived. You'd never be able to tell as she looked absolutely perfect in her shimmering orange sari loaner.
Little Cedar Girl slept through the whole thing, probably lulled blissfully by the amazing Hindi music.
Since we were running super duper late I didn't have the time to dress in anything spectacular. I just threw on whatever didn't need ironing... and my Krista necklace!
I did, however, get to wear my new shoes for the first time!! Brand new $6 tasty ankle boots from www.599fashion.com. I wasn't paid to pimp the website. Just sharing cheap awesomeness. You'll probably be seeing a lot of these shoes as they are one of the few pairs that fit since my feet grew a whole size over the past year.
And here's Cedar Girl in her thrifted $2 outfit picked out especially for her first concert. (She's not upset. Just stirring in her sleep.)
And then... well - yeah. That's all. Ok, I'm going to go eat some waffles now. Bye!
Welp, since I don't have the pro-pics of the faire to share today, I guess I'll just show off what I got there instead. And here's a brief rundown for the newbies to my blog: I direct an annual renaissance faire.You caught up now? Awesome sauce.
I got this massive drinking horn for myself. It's a little too manly for my taste but I really needed something large to drink from at the faire.
The rule at my faire (and every faire in the world) is you must drink from period appropriate vessels. That means no soda cans, no plastic bottles or styrofoam cups. Why? Er, it's a renaissance faire. Think about it. I ordered a small drinking horn online for the faire this year but when I took my first sip of water from it I just nearly gagged from the powerful odor coming from it. It was like taking a cow fart to the face. I was advised by the expert horn makers there to cease drinking from it immediately as it was probably not properly cleaned by the maker. I could have been drinking poo water!
None of the merchants had the style of tankard I was looking for to replace my stinky horn with, so I got this larger, prettier horn instead. It's 100% hand crafted, strap and all. Would you drink from a cows horn? What about a putrid cow horn?
Next up is a handmade lucet given to me by a merchant. A lucet was a tool used by vikings for cord-making. I haven't the slightest clue of what to do with it but I know there are lots of tutorials on YouTube and Pinterest.
This adorable tiny fluffy pettiskirt was a gift from another merchant. She just so happen to be selling tiny fairy wings as well so we dug through piles of wings and found the perfect pair that matched the skirt. I can't wait to put little Cedar girl in this!
I got a fresh new replacement for my ratty old black fan. Neat.
This sculpture is a flower made from a barbecue grate. The merchant I bought this from sold weapons and home decor made completely from scrap metals. How neato is that? I wouldn't think scrap metal crafts would do well at a renaissance faire, but the merchant said he made a killing.
And... what's this? You guessed it. YARN! Ok, well it's more than just yarn. It's a pair of hair falls.
Hair falls are a great alternative to wigs and hats. They come in all kinds of styles and materials from plastic to ribbons. On the left I'm wearing just one on a bun. On the right I'm wearing two for a fuller look. The most common way to wear them is to put your hear up in two high buns on either side of your head and place a piece on each bun. You can even mix in your own hair or dreads for a more "natural" look. Since I already had a headdress for the faire I wore these on my belt so I don't have pics of myself wearing them. Sorry to disappoint.
Here's a good example photo featuring the lady that made the ones I'm wearing.
So that's it for my faire buys. I'm going to go do... other... stuff. Bye!
