Since I know I'll be frantically scrambling around for a costume Saturday afternoon, desperately trying to come up with something for our friends' Halloween party, figured i'd get a head start on things and start collecting ideas for easy, creative costumes that can be assembled quickly (either from stuff already in the house, easily found at thrift shops/cheap department stores, or made with a minimum of time/effort).

MY favorite Halloween story. I was at a party and a guest arrived dressed as a christmas tree- he even allowed us to plug him in and he lit up all pretty and everything. After receiving much appreciation from the rest of the crowd, he mumbled- "shucks. You go to walgreens at 5:00 on Halloween and they don't have crap for halloween costumes, but they have tons of Christmas stuff."

I still love that story.

I was Disco Ming the Merciless.

The last time I dressed up I wore a beautiful green polyester halter dress, a pair of brown strappy high heeled sandals, green eye shadow and orange lipstick, and I put perm curlers in my hair for a temporary afro. Finishing off my outfit was a little barbie purse of talcum powder that I would occaisionally snort a pinch of. I had white powder smeared all over my nose and lip. I was the Coked Out Disco Queen!

Plus, togas are just amusing in and of themselves.

I have to admit that this idea stems from that ageless classic- "Animal House." My father first showed it to me when I was about 8 years old. Not a good thing to do to impressionable children.

1. wings and little red t-shirt with the word "hottie" across the front and little devil horns so I'd be a "Hell's Angel"

2. wings and lots of glitter. Then I could tell everyone I was "Angel Dust"

One person was a dead prom queen. Tiara, fake blood, some fake cuts and stuff (just get foundation that matches your skin to put on the skin part of the cuts, it's easy to do) and made a sash out of thick ribbon that said "prom queen" in that fabric decoration stuff. Tada. If you want to go the extra mile get light "death" paint for your skin, and put brownish eyeshadow under your eyes.

If you are a fashion queen and still have your old army print stuff from back when it was in style use that! This girl had her hair in braids, baggy army tech pants, a army print vest, a black tube top, an army cap, an army backpack. She had her hair in two braids and black paint under her eyes.

our "bugs life" group costume turned out really well. I was Rosie the black widow spider ... black top, black mini-skirt, black tights and shoes. I stuffed a backpack with pillows, then wrapped it up with a black velour sweatshirt to make the abdomen (i also attached a red hourglass-shaped piece of cardboard to the bottom of the abdomen). the backpack had a hipstrap, so i could then just buckle it around my waist, with the appendage basically attached to my butt. I also made extra legs using black stockings stuffed with foam from an old pillow, and with coathanger wire inside so i could bend them. the legs were then attached to the backpack abdomen -- looked quite good, and the costume was very easy to make. the best part was that i actually got my hair to look exactly like the character's (kind of sticking up and a little bit forward in a top-knot-type thing). other people in my group went as the gypsy moth (gorgeous costume, very glamorous with these beautifully spraypainted foam wings); mantid; the ants Flic (complete with rolled-leaf backpack) and Atta (with leaf/floral crown); stick insect and ladybug. the costumes looked amazingly good, considering none of us started making them till Saturday, the day of the party (and we even won best group costume)

some other great costumes:
hands-down the best was my friend barrett's "interactive plasticine demon-man": he had fashioned a playdoh mask over a wicker basket, which he slipped over his head. He then donned a big black cape and inside, stuck extra play-doh bits and tools ... all night people would come up to him and he'd reveal the contents of his cape, to let everyone add/mold his play-dough face and change the shape. Beautiful, creative and just plain fun.

alice in wonderland group costume: always a fun choice for costumes ... the mad hatter was especially impressive, absolutely spot-on perfect. the whole group got really into character; at one point the queen hit a croquet ball and the playing cards, without missing a beat, bent together immediately and touched heads to form an arch for the ball.

"fuzzy math" which won for scariest: silly but clever; she just dressed in black and hat fuzzy pipe-cleaner-fashioned numbers stuck all over her.

i love halloween. it's so fun seeing how creative people can get with their costumes.

p.s. twigs: ginsu thought about going as a sumo wrestler! we were saying what a hilarious costume that would make, but he didn't have enough time to do it properly.

Here's a couple last minute ones. I tried the superhero thing... Static Cling Man. Sew or velcro socks, washcloths to a sweatshirt and sweatpants. Make an "S" on your chest. Use a large bath or beach toel as a cape with an "S" on it also. Also sew the cape in a weird way to your back. Also, I went as Dr. Love. Get doctor scrubs from a uniform outlet, get some red iron on material from a fabric store and cut them into hearts and iron them all over your costume. Get little heart candies (Valentine) and give them out as perscription pills.

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Originally posted by Twigs:
For pure silliness value I like to go and buy those cheap kids costumes. (The ones with the plastic mask and thin plastic outfit.) They look very nice on a guy who is 6'6" and 265 ponds.
~Twigs

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It's a good onesthat boys are intruigued by and they will ask what you are...make 'em guess! I got a beau out of it once!

**WARNING TO ALL MEN****

DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT WEAR A FULL MASK OR WEAR FACE PAINT THAT COVERS YOUR WHOLE FACE! IT IS FREAKY... IF YOU HIT ON WOMEN, IT WILL SCARE US AWAY!! I PROMISE!

whew, I always wanted to make that statement public. I feel much better now.

Last year was the best though. Three friends and I were on our way to the party without costumes, so we drove through a good neighborhood and stole Bush/Cheney signs.

We got to the party and waved them.

"We just stole from the middle class! We're republicans!"

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Originally posted by GracieLaRue:
When I was in third grade and my brother in fifth, we went to school as a ham sandwich and a brownie (as in girl scout).... I give my brother alot of credit to be a ten year old cross-dresser.

my parents were called in for a conference by a "concerened" guidance counselor... Props to my Mom for encouraging us!!! hee hee

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I think one of the more fun things I have seen was a guy with a beard dressed as a Brownie. Complete with braids and badges, tassles on the socks, whole thing. The beard just made the whole thing.

I went to a party last night, and had planned on just going as a hippie, but so were a lot of other people. While in the shower beforehand, I thought, "Wow, a hippie. How can I jazz this up?" So I began to think of famous hippies and rebelious folk, and I thought of Patty Hearst. I wore my hippie stuff but on my bandana I pinned a homemade "SLA" patch, and I had handcuffs on one wrist. My friend's father is a cop and he was willing to lend my his fake semi-automatic, but I decided against carrying a fake gun around. Nobody knew who Patty Hearst was though, except for one person, so i became a "hippie prostitute." Then i got sick of that so I threw the cuffs in my friend's car and was just a plain old hippie. So the costume sucked, but the party was great! Cute boys were plentiful and the food was mighty tasty.

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Originally posted by Aylee:
A good group costume is the Addam's family.
I did this one year with some friends (I was Morticia) and it wasn't too much trouble

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Originally posted by nita:
For future years I can reuse the wings and be a teen angel, angel of the morning (could be really cute with a robe and fuzzy slippers), or an earth angel.

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Originally posted by Goddess09:
By the way: Does anyone know how to dye your hair different colors and have it wash out the next day? My hair is a light red and I'd love to dye it blue, but only for halloween.

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