As I’ve emerged from a long hiatus and breathed a little bit of life back into this blog, it calls for the obvious—costume updates!

Four years worth of Halloween details to be exact. Yikes! This is procrastination at its finest.

As Halloween 2020 is days away, I can’t think of anything more fitting—or more daunting—to write about!

I’d suggest grabbing your treat of choice (mine would be heavily frosted popcorn) and settling in to view the magical memories and details of Halloweens past! As many as there are, they’re some of our very favorites.

Our journey from Neverland to the Enchanted Forest commences now!

-2016-

In staying committed to our beloved Disney theme and honoring our daily determination of staying 5 year olds at heart (who never want to grow up), we thought that 2016 called for characters from Neverland! Peter and Wendy seemed too easy and we LOVED the villain/hero theme from last year's Maleficent and Prince Philip. So—with faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust (actually, a lot), Captain Hook and Tinkerbell made their venturesome debut!

The following were our reference photos :

-2016-

Captain Hook and Tinkerbell

OUTFIT AND ACCESSORY DETAILS

TINKERBELL

THE DRESS

I was a little curious where I was going to find a “Tinkerbell” dress. There were some random options online but none that I wanted to buy. I hit up a thrift store with hopes of finding something that could work, and within minutes, I found a dress made for Tinkerbell herself. It doesn't happen as often as I'd like, but I LOVE when a thrift store hunt produces just what you need! With its iridescent green fabric and formal style, I imagined that my thrifted find had been a quickly donated “ugly” bridesmaid dress! However, in my hands, it was definitely a 27 Dresses movie moment—it was meant to be shortened and worn again! "Definitely, so true," I told myself. Looking closely, I determined that I could cut the hemline myself, but I would need to add material to the top of the dress to eliminate any over-show and I knew just who to enlist for such a task!

THE WINGS

With my dress purchased, I turned my attention to finding Tinkerbell wings. Instead of trying to search for and buy fairy wings, I took upon myself the [soon-to-be overwhelming] task of creating my own from scratch. I wanted something amazing, but the more I researched, the more that I feared that it would be a lot of work to create what I was envisioning. I was right!

Thankfully, I found a fairy wing pattern and tutorial online, gathered the needed materials, and took a deep breath. I had quickly realized that I was quite in over my head. Those wings took the most time and effort out of any spent on both of our outfits combined! If you don't already know, I am crazy meticulous so I spent hours drawing the outlines onto huge pieces of thick poster board and painstakingly cut them out with my X-Acto knife. I was proud of my work and of what was taking place, but the wings were far from done. The tutorial called for heavy wire to be molded into wing shapes and for the the cutouts to be attached to iridescent cellophane which would then be wrapped and glued onto the wire shapes. By the end of the process, my eyes may have been a little bleary and my hands super sticky, but I was pretty darn proud of those fairy wings. As you can see, it all came together, but yikes, what a job!

THE EXTRAS

From the very top to the very bottom, the easiest parts of Tinkerbell's costume were the wig and the shoes! After yet another run to a thrift store and a quick run to Hobby Lobby, a pair of thrifted slip-on shoes were painted with green fabric paint, dusted with glitter, and completed with sparkly pom poms. The wig came from eBay, and while it was made for a much smaller head than mine, I had put in too much work on the rest of the outfit for it NOT to fit my head! If only I had some magical fairy dust to ensure the perfect fit!

CAPTAIN HOOK

THE COAT

As it so happened, I found the red coat that Craig would wear in the women's section of a different thrift store. Is anyone surprised? Mad Hatter memories, anyone? This time, instead of being pretty tight-fitting, this long red coat was HUGE—but perfect. Because it needed to fit Craig a bit more properly, and because I don't sew (if you know, you know), I decided to hire our alterations lady for the top of my dress and this amazing coat. I know that may seem a bit ridiculous, but not only did she alter my wedding dress in 2011, she has worked on many of our clothing items since then and she's extremely reasonable. She was happy to help and excited to be working on something not related to a dance or a wedding! Although during that time, she had apparently fallen in love with this coat! She knew we were using it for a Halloween costume, and while she was excited for our completed looks, she mentioned that she would love to have the beautiful red coat once we were done with it. I smiled and looked down at the now perfectly sized coat. It was beautiful and she would look great in it. Too bad she would most likely hate the trails of hot glued ribbon and bonded frills of lace I was about to attach to it! I smiled, thanked her, and the red coat was never to be seen by her again.

THE EXTRAS

With the coat being the main attraction, I searched through Craig's side of the closet for what he would wear underneath. I knew it wouldn't matter much because no one would be able to see past the massive swath of red material and lace frills, but I found a maroon shirt and pair of pants that would work nicely.

Most of his accessories such as his ridiculous and hilarious wig, mustache, boot covers, and hook (spray painted silver) all came from either eBay, Amazon, or the Halloween store. His fancy lace accessories were just cut fabric from Hobby Lobby, and as always, either safety pinned, hot glued, or attached with Heat Bond! That night, he was the captain with the most frills and ruffles seen in all the land—of Neverland, that is!

FUN FACT

In the story of Peter Pan, did you know that the children's dog (and canine nanny), "Nana", was a Newfoundland breed? It’s also one of our very favorite breeds! So, it was only fitting that while Captain Hook and Tinkerbell were passing out candy, a neighborhood family walked up the driveway with their Newfoundland in tow! She was such a beautiful dog and when we asked what her name was, they mentioned that they had named her "Nana" due to the story of Peter Pan! You can imagine that our 5 year old hearts skipped a beat!

How fun is that?!

-2017-

After three years of going full force with our costumes, I was ready to take some of the self-induced pressure off of myself. It was silly, but I felt a little bit guilty—now that this fun hobby of ours had started to become what people expected on Halloween night, I felt like we were letting everyone down or I wasn’t being as creative as I could be! But I knew that we could still come up with a great costume idea without so much work involved and that the creativity would still shine through! We had done it before and we would do it again!

When thinking of dare I say "easy" costumes, the Disney movie, Tangled, came to mind. It has long since been one of our favorites. It's adorable and who can resist floating lanterns? Plus, being a hairstylist at the time, I was hooked with figuring out a way to make that hair happen!

The following were our reference photos :

-2017-

Rapunzel and Flynn

OUTFIT AND ACCESSORY DETAILS

RAPUNZEL

When thinking over my costume, my mind immediately zeroed in on the fact that I wouldn't have to find shoes! Rapunzel goes barefoot and so would I! If that wasn’t “easy”, I didn’t know what was! The next simple step was nixing multiple trips to the thrift store and instead purchasing my dress on eBay. The dress arrived in it’s simple form of cheap fabric and that was good enough for me! I decided I didn’t want to embellish it or add to it in any way! If any solid amount of time was to be spent on anything being created or embellished this year, I wanted Rapunzel’s hair to be the main and crafted focal point—as it should be!

THE HAIR

Rapunzel wore her long and beautiful hair in many ways (even the short shaggy style that saved her), but the most beloved look is her long and beautiful braid with flowers. I knew I would never find a proper (and cheap) wig that would show that depth of detail, but I knew I could create it myself! I decided to buy a blond wig that was long enough to be braided itself but that I could also attach extra hair to as well. Now where to find this extra hair. Thankfully, I found the best local beauty shop with cheap hair pieces galore. I ran to the back of the shop, stared at my options, grabbed 3 packages of synthetic, jumbo braided hair, and ran to the cash register. Spending less than $12 in 10 minutes, I knew I could create something magical with my purchase and I was excited!

The jumbo braids were ever so slightly darker than my wig, but it wouldn’t matter for the plans I had. I carefully laid each one flat and started to unweave them. Handling them carefully, I loosely wove them into each other, creating one huge braid. Using heavy duty bobby pins, I gathered an end of the jumbo braid and secured it by weaving and pinning it into the wig and its base braid I had created. Working my way down the weave, I pinned any loose wig pieces into the jumbo braid and secured the bottom of the tail with a couple of big rubber bands. I was so pleased it was starting to take form and actually look like Rapunzel’s hair! However, it was missing the main attraction of flowers! Hobby Lobby’s 50% off floral sale to the rescue!

Armed with a variety of pink, purple, and white flowers that matched my dress, I carefully trimmed the stems to be the perfect size to weave into and glue onto the wig. I carefully laid the braid flat and started to arrange flowers as I thought Rapunzel would have had them. Weaving the smaller flowers into the braids worked well enough and I was able to use hot glue and bobby pins to keep the larger stems in place!

I had made quick work of such pretty details, and while it looked so beautiful, the wig was incredibly heavy! Despite trying to pin it tightly to my own head, I literally had to carry the bottom of the braid like a baby most of the night so it wouldn’t slip entirely off of my head! Haha! I can’t say I minded too much as I had so much fun working on it and I loved that it was truly the perfect accessory!

FLYNN

Thankfully, Flynn's outfit didn’t need too much work. I searched once again through Craig's side of the closet and was pleased to find a shirt, pants, a belt, and his “man bag” he used for our past trip to Europe. For shoes, I knew he could use boot covers from a past costume (thank you, Prince Philip) so the only thing he was still in need of was a vest. Still lacking a sewing skill set, I knew I would have to strike luck at the thrift store to find that turquoise hue. And strike luck I did! It was the perfect shade, and although it was a long sleeve button down, I didn't have another option and it would have to do! Using a rotary cutter, I removed the long sleeves, hot glued studs around the shoulders, and added metal clasps to the front buttons. When you don't sew, there are ways to make it look like you do!

To complete the look, my husband unfortunately had to shave and remove most of his scruff (which I love), but all in the name of cosplay, right? Although neither of us were fans of keeping Flynn's goatee—that was shaved off shortly after the night had ended!

THE EXTRAS

As for our props, we nixed Maximus, the horse, left the heavy cast iron pan on our stove, and decided that the chameleon, Pascal, would be our main side kick attraction! We found a cheap version of him on Amazon and had fun posing with him as we took our annual selfies!

FUN FACT

Remember the lanterns I talked about? We had purchased a couple and had plans to float them off the roof of our reception venue on the night of our wedding, but due to fire code regulations, we were told we couldn't. We kept them for future use, and over the next few years, we floated one with friends and continued to keep the last one. This particular Halloween night seemed perfect for it, so there we were—in the middle of the street, dressed up with no one around, lighting our last lantern and watching it float away. It didn’t fill the sky like the plethora of lanterns that were around Rapunzel and Flynn, but it was still just as beautiful to watch. Craig singing a few lines from “I See the Light” only made it more perfect. He’s the best.

-2018-

Oh boy! It took a bit more time this year to figure out a do-able costume idea that we both found interesting! Having finally agreed upon our decision, I like to think that the Blue Fairy waved her wand and this monstrous whale of a REAL tale began!

The following were our reference photos :

-2018-

Pinocchio and Geppetto

OUTFIT AND ACCESSORY DETAILS

PINOCCHIO

THE NOSE

I wish I could tell you it was easy to apply, but truthfully, that would be quite the little lie!

This was my first time applying latex to my face! I have watched multiple YouTube videos over the years and while familiar with watching the process, actually doing it myself was a whole other challenge! I bought the nose piece from Amazon, also making sure that it had holes underneath for breathing purposes (a little important), and stuffed the long hollow space with cotton to give it structure. I applied my makeup to my face (and to the latex nose to match my skin tone) before using Spirit Gum to attach the piece. It definitely took a few tries to get it to stay! It wasn't entirely straight, and I know I could've done a much better job at remembering to trim the extra latex to fit a bit more seamlessly, but there was no way I was about to remove it and try again!

THE EXTRAS

It was another one of those thrifting trips where I had a stroke of luck and found the main components that I needed. That ketchup colored denim and the mustard yellow shirt are a sight, aren't they? Total McDonald's vibes. The jeans would be turned into cut-off shorts and "hemmed" with Heat Bond with ribbon applied to the sides, the shirt would be tucked in, and the fitted blazer vest would also be completed with gold ribbon trim—hot glued of course! My hat would be made of felt and a feather following this tutorial and would sit perfectly atop my short black wig—which made me want to cut my hair off into a cute pixie again!

To complete Pinocchio's outfit, I bought a cheap white choir collar from Amazon, suspenders from a local Halloween store, and shopped my costume stash for the rest of my accessories : I found that I could reuse the blue material leftover from Ariel's blue bow to fashion a new bow, Mary Poppins' white gloves, and those comfy shoes previously worn by Alice. It was a total team effort from the ladies!

And it's a simple item that I don't wear often, but I wore pantyhose to give my legs a tanned and seamless look. I had thought about drawing on the pantyhose themselves to give them some depth to look like "wooden" legs, but I wasn't sold on the idea and figured most people wouldn't be looking at my legs anyway! My wonkily placed latex nose would distract them for sure!

GEPPETTO

Oh Geppetto. A creative old man with simple clothes. Thank you, Walt Disney.

Because of Geppetto's one outfit, another trip to Craig's closet provided exactly what we needed! The only thing he was missing was a maroon vest and an apron. Sadly, as cute as it is, I knew my Little Mermaid kitchen apron wouldn't cut it. I ended up finding the perfect apron on Amazon and I was excited to reuse it as my personal artist apron—or for any messy home projects!

I drove to a nearby thrift store in hopes of finding a maroon vest. Luckily, I found it staring me in the face, and even though it looked like it might have been a bit of a sad home-ec project, it was perfect for Geppetto. And if you guessed that I found it in the women’s section, you would be correct. When looking for Craig’s costume items, that’s just what happens anymore!

THE EXTRAS

It was mid-way through October and we were on vacation, but that didn't stop me from researching where I could find accessories for Geppetto! It sounds sketchy as I type this, but I was happy to find a supply warehouse in a random parking lot that wasn’t far from where we were staying. After entering and wandering down the hallways, I found the store room that housed many unique items for Halloween! As I perused the aisles stuffed to the brim, I was intrigued as I saw people coming in to pick up their fancy (and rented) costumes. After enough spying, I had found what I was looking for and placed my simple souvenirs next to the register—a mustache and glasses for Geppetto! I was happy with my experience and my finds and knew that if I lived nearby, it would be a unique spot I would frequent every Halloween!

Geppetto’s wig came from Amazon and was in perfectly curled disarray. I loved it! His makeup being a last minute decision, I applied blush to Craig’s nose to make it a bit more pink like Geppetto’s and used an eyeliner pencil to white out his eyebrows. It was subtle, and we could’ve put more effort into it, but it still lent to Geppetto’s overall look.

As for the rest of the “crew”, you can see that we nixed Geppetto’s goldfish, Cleo. I thought it would’ve been so fun to purchase a real goldfish, and although Jiminy Cricket also wasn’t making an appearance, I let my conscience be my guide—I knew the goldfish would see the toilet pipes soon after we were through using it for photos and I thought it not the best use of its life, my time, or our money. It just wasn’t family friendly. However, you can view the lone crew member, Figaro the Cat, atop Geppetto’s shoulder in one of the photos above!

FUN FACT

Several years ago, Craig was working at his high school job and one of his co-workers randomly said to him, "One day, you'll make a cute old man". Oddly enough, she wasn't that much older than him and he wasn’t quite sure why she handed him such a random compliment, but it's something he shared with me and that we remember and laugh about to this day. By the way, I do think he’ll make a very cute old man. As you can see in the photos above, he already has the best eye crinkles around! Dressing him up as Geppetto was our poor attempt at giving him a glimpse into his physical future, but it was fun to try!

-2019-

This year took us to the land of the Enchanted Forest! To be honest, I had an idea of what costumes we would wear for the following year (Halloween 2020), and they would require some extra effort, so I knew another go of the "simple" route was calling! Be sure to scroll all the way down to the fun fact as to why this character choosing coincided so perfectly with our present season!

The following were our reference photos :

-2019-

Snow White and Prince Charming

Costume Pictures

OUTFIT AND ACCESSORY DETAILS

SNOW WHITE

Taking a cue from Rapunzel and Flynn, our most recent costumes featuring simplicity, I immediately ordered my dress on eBay. Although unlike Rapunzel's dress, I figured the eBay pictures weren't as truthful as they appeared to be and I would most likely be doing some embellishing to the material. Sure enough, the shoulders lacked puffiness, the collar didn't want to stay upright, and the cheap material just accentuated what was wrong. However, the coolest part of the dress was that it came with Snow White's red cape attached! Shortly following the arrival of the dress, my wig was dropped off on our front door step. While I loved the perfect length and its curls, it came with a headband accessory featuring a floppy red bow. My list of problems had grown, and if I didn't do anything about them, Snow White was going to be frumpy, dumpy—and grumpy.

Doing what I always like to do with any costume preparation, to the Halloween stash I went! I would check there first for any solutions. I pulled out some spools of gold ribbon, my trusty hot glue gun, and big safety pins. Those items would help a lot, but I knew the rest of my problems called for a Hobby Lobby run!

The biggest problem was my puff sleeve dilemma. Those droopy dress shoulders oddly reminded me Deb from Napoleon Dynamite. What Would Deb Do? Deb would buy Poly-Fil and stuff those shoulders to the heavens, that's what! Thankfully, Poly-Fil is super cheap, especially on sale! To complete my checklist of items, I found a couple of buttons that I could glue together and make work as a brooch and added a package of interfacing for the collar to have a bit more rigidity to it. Unrelated to the dress, but necessary, the last items on my list were found in Hobby Lobby's wreath section : a cute little bluebird and a non-poisonous apple—the perfect finishing touches!

Bringing everything home, I got right to work. I wrangled my bow into place with a safety pin and hot glued my “brooch” to where the cape gathered in the front of the dress. Applying the interfacing was a bit tricky, and the collar didn’t become as rigid and upright as I thought it would be, but it was better than how I had received it! As always, I wouldn’t look at that kind of work of mine too closely, lol. The ribbon was then hot glued down the middle of the dress, around the brooch, and around the sleeve cuffs. Saving the best task for last, I slipped into the dress the night of Halloween and stuffed the shoulders with Poly-Fil. It was so fun and worked like a charm! How much was too much?

No matter, Deb would have been so proud.

PRINCE CHARMING

It was time for another raid of Craig's side of the closet! I easily found the main components of his outfit and was excited to reuse the cape I made for him that he wore as Prince Philip in 2015.

His shirt was a peasant style shirt found on Amazon and you know I used my non-sewing skill set to create his blue overlay tunic! If you click the link above, you can also read about how I created a similar tunic for Prince Philip! It’s quite alright, I laughed at my “tunic process” then too. We’ll loosely label it a “pattern”, but on the bright side, I was able to use the basic idea and said “pattern” for Prince Charming’s tunic and remembered to make the neck hole bigger and not bond the sides together! Using leftover gold trim from my reliable Halloween stash, I hot glued it around the edges of the overlay and safety pinned gold cord to the inside. No-sew progress, I’d say! ;)

His simple accessory, the short sword, came from the Halloween store and I was able to apply some leftover reflective tape to the blade.

FUN FACT

Choosing characters that lived in a magical place surrounded by talkative and kind critters galore seemed a bit fitting as Craig and I were actually surrounded by a few critters ourselves that Fall! The unfortunate difference being that our critters turned out to be unkind squirrels in our backyard who then became unwelcome guests as they decided to incessantly chew their way into the side of our chimney as well as chew through the front levers to get into our attic!

: : w h a t a n o r d e a l : :

Trust me, our squirrels were not as cute and as sweet as the ones from the Enchanted Forest! Gosh, did I wish I could talk to them like Snow White could and have them understand what was acceptable behavior on our property! No harm was done to our unwanted guests, but let's just say that our squirrels [probably] lived happily ever after as they were transported out of our attic and to a land far away! I know WE did!

And they ALL lived happily ever after!

THE END

I may have caught you up on our last 4 years of Halloween, but in case you’re interested, our entire collection of Halloween costumes (2009-2020) has been updated and is now available for viewing!

I hope every picture, detail, and story brings a smile to your face and encourages and inspires your own ideas!