Well. I loved making Baby B's Halloween costume so much last year that I was really excited to make both of my kids' this year - I was all geared up to make them Pebbles and BamBamm - I had the hippy blonde boy and cute little toddler with the full thighs - I thought it would be soooo cute! Well. Mr. E-Man nixed that plan. He was adamant that he wanted to be Captain America. And he was adamant he wanted the Captain America costume that was at Costco.... My husband reminded me that Halloween was for the kids and, so be it, my little monster will be Captain America for Halloween 2014. As a little side bar: It was the end of August when Costco brought the costumes out so the boy and I had a serious discussion about how he had to be 100% sure he wanted to be Captain America because after the costume was bought, there would be no changing his mind. He was sure and confident he would not change his mind and was sooooo excited for the costume.
Until a month later when Costco brought in Transformer Bumblebee costumes - Then he desperately wanted to be bumblebee. I reminded him he wasn't allowed to change his mind and he sat in the cart with a big suck on his face and everyday since he he reminded me he really wants a bumblebee costume for Christmas. (note: he gets a bumblebee Halloween costume for Christmas) - What a boy.
OK. Back to the Halloween costume. I was going to shove her back in the #ohsocute Cabbage Patch costume I made her last year, but then realized that I only have a few more years before she can adamantly fight me on her Halloween costume choices too, so I best take advantage now if I want to use Halloween as an excuse to be crafty for a while longer. My cousin (same cousin who sent me the Cabbage Patch costume to copy last year) sent me a little old lady costume to copy for her this year.. See below.
I thought this was totally cute!! But when I realized that our son would be leaving her in his dust running from door to door and how nice it was last year to build wheels into the costume, and how handy it was, I decided to do the same this year. We have a push and ride buggy that we use constantly in lieu of a stroller and thought I'd utilize that and instead of B being an old lady with a walker, she'd be an old lady driving a car.
In the spirit of making the halloween costume from scratch I opted to make her wig. Since our winters are #ohsofuckingcold I chose to use a toque as the wig base. For bonus points, the toque has strings to tie on - so helpful since the Miss B is NOT a fan of the wig. HA. Solution: tying on her wig, and placing thumbless mittens on her hands so she can't pull it off - ha ha - Mommy: 1. Baby: 0.
The wig was insanely easy to make (as was the rest of this costume) I just pulled and stretched a schwack of cotton balls, then I did a light spray painting job (grey paint) over the cotton balls (just on one side) and then glue gunned them to the toque until it was fully covered.
Because my girl hated the wig, I used Ev as my helper so that I could determine where to place the bun. Again, I just glue gunned the cotton into a a bun shaped pile, and then put a ribbon around the base and glued it in place.
Next came decorating the car. I thought it would be fun to make an Alberta licence plate for her ride. I used google images to find some Alberta licence plates and resized the writing of 'Alberta' and 'Wildrose Country' on microsoft word. I also used Word to make the lettering for the licence plate numbers and to create the registration stickers. I printed them off, then cut them out, and glued them to a white piece of card stock that I had cut to size. I used my cricut for the screw holes, and did a layer of modepodge for good measure. I then used glue dots to mount it to the car.
I used the cricut to make the front bumper sticker entirely, and again - modepodge + glue dots.
The poor car was looking pretty sad and weathered from spending the past 4 years outside year around and most of the stickers had faded or pealed off. So I went to the dollarstore and got a couple closet push lights and stuck them on. They were perfect size!! They only had clear, so I used red acrylic paint to paint the break lights. Resourceful, right?
It paid off that we haven't taken care of the car and lost the hood... We filled the open hood area with old lady swag: Bingocards (oops, missed mentioning I made those too - I used word to make the bingo squares and the cricut to spell out BINGO and then glued it all onto some cardstock), ball of yarn and knitting needles, and of course a stuffed kitty for good measure.
Next came the challenging part: Dressing the Missy in all of this... I did it in stages so not to overwhelm her and send her into the throws of a meltdown (again). Luckily, daughter like mother and the girl just LOVES food, so I distracted her with goldfish crackers along the way and in no time she was far too preoccupied with begging like a dog for another goldfish that she forgot she was wearing glasses and a wig. HA: Mommy: 2: Baby: Full of goldfishes!!
And here it is! The final product! On real Halloween I will stuff a kleenex in her sleeve and add a teacup to sit in her cup holder. I still can't get over how easy this one was to make! - Maybe took 2 hours in total to put together and was super cheap to make! (I had most of the supplies kicking around the house already (minus the push lights). I love that it will keep our girl nice and warm on the big night and that the car will help us keep up a good pace on our candy retrieving mission.
