Cowboy Chicken! "He's a chicken who is a cowboy guy"

Halloween, maybe my favourite holiday. costumes+candy=funtimes.
Want to see how we rolled, costume wise?
WELLL! First we went to "Big Boy School" (the PFLC playgroup at our local school) Like this:

He's Biggles Bear, Flying Ace. And here's a tiny admission. There was no planning for that "costume" at all. The flight jacket and hat are just what he wears. And I grabbed a white "scarf" from my fabric stash and fringed the ends. But you guys. I love it. Love love. See, both my Grandpas (his great grandpas) were pilots. And my dad IS a pilot. (My mum has her  P.P.L. and I have about 17 hours of a Private Pilots Licence too; we're an aeronautical family)

So yep, my kid is Biggles. I might have put on my outfit with Amelia Earheart in mind. Maybe. but I'm admitting nothing. (and it's a brutally unflattering shot, gah).
So that was the morning, and a thrown together outfit so Teddy wouldn't BOIL in the overheated school.
This is the real deal:

He is a "COWBOY CHICKEN! BWOCKKK!"
Which... OK?
I have no idea how he came up with it but he asked to be a "chicken who is a cowboy guy".
For the last couple of weeks the whole "what to be" conversation has been a source of superfuntimes, and there was some talk of a Space Robot, a zookeeper, or a "RacingCarDriverVRooom". But on Wednesday he declared for Cowboy Chicken and stuck with it when asked three times.
So off we went to the Dolla' Stor'. We scored the hat, the orange "feet", some craft foam and (my favourite part) a handful off-brand swiffer-type dusters.
I pulled those suckers apart and tacked them on to the sleeve of a white hoodie. And voila, softie chicken wings. I could have used a feather boa but I'm monstrous allergic.
I chopped the toes off the orange sockies and tacked on felt chicken feet.
The vest/waistcoat we had.
The chicken mask I made because the chicken masks at the costume shop across the road were kind of... sinister looking? and too big. I did manage to hot-glue a chicken nosehole to my hand. Not cool you guys. Not cool.
Anyway, it came together, it looked like this and it was a hit when we went trick or treating last night. So I'm calling it a win.

grrr arrgh - zombie attack

You guys! it was Toronto's Zombie walk this weekend! And this was my 4th year of lurching and groaning along with the massed undead. As always it was a butt-load of fun. Kind of sticky, gross, fake-skin, candy-blood, hair-catastrophe fun; but fun all the same. Want to see my zombie outfit? It's pretty gory...

See? I'm a spa day zombie? From the Bates Hotel and Spa see? (because I like to mix it up, genre-wise).

It turns out that making a dressing gown out of two dollar store sheets is a Thing I Can Do. (Which is nice to know).

I used one of my super-precious pieces of Printable Iron On transfer paper to make the logo's (back and front) And the cucumber patches. 

The face mask is not actually real, which in retrospect seems a missed importunity, as I could use both soothing AND firming, also possibly pore minimizing? But no. It was just green face paint. 

It was COLD on saturday, so I have a bunch of layers on under my dressing gown.The first layer of gore on the 'gown is paint, the later, still-wet stuff is candy blood; but you guys, candy blood is pretty deeply umpleasant when you throw it all over yourself. It was like a symphony of cold-sticky-grossness all up in my hair and nack. Not cool.

If I was doing this again I would plump for the REAL fake blood instead of the candy sort, and I would have remembered to paint my dressing gown belt, and I would maybe make the eyeholes on my 'cumbers smaller, (But with a 5 k lurch and that many people, visability was an issue). But all in all, 4 dolla well spent I think.

I went with these two, a zombie 60's housewife and a zom-BEE (geddit?!)

And ran into a few other chums along the way, 

HEY Dragon!

You guys! Halloween! Firstly of all, the cute:


It was Teddy's first time trick or treating (And mine too; we didn't do it when I was growing up in London) So YAY for vicarious candy scoring and dressing up.
He's a Dragon, and I'm The Paper Bag Princess.
This is my "Seriously? You burnt my castle AND stole my man?" pose:

I layered up later, so as not to freeze to death.

We wandered around Cabbagetown, and it was pretty much perfect! (at the risk of sounding like an UberNerd, it looked JUST like that episode of Buffy where they become their costumes. But without the killing and rampaging.)
Teddy scored big, and now we have enough sugar in the house to make a whole preschool hysterical and to put a hole in my willpower.
And hey, the whole weekend was another post's worth of brill. How was YOURS?

I Heart the Weekend

This weekend = SO. MUCH. FUN.
Friday was a gig by the boys (The Black Devils Brigade, their button is on the left there, see? You should click through if you're into awesomeness at all). Our chum Ian was home from Big Kid School (Queens), my sweetie and I got to go out AT THE SAME TIME(!), a whole gang of our chums were out and there was dancing, hollering and hi-jinx. And maybe a few drinkies.

Saturday morning was breakfast at my new favorite greasy spoon, and YAY for the restorative powers of bacon. And also for Teddy ditching the booster seat like a big boy.
Saturday night there were TWO parties, (which is a big deal for a person who doesn't get out a lot!) And I got to dress up; I hadn't really planned to, but I decided to at the last minute and reprised my outfit from 2006 (I was mostly just happy I could get it done up!) I completely neglected to get pictures but this is it then:

(I'm NOT an air hostess - I got that a lot. It's a vintage RCAF uniform. )
The first soiree was at our friend Mike's and it was maybe the most sequined party I've ever been to. Fun. The second was a little less sequiny and ALSO fun.
Sunday was drip-fed coffee, racing to Walmart for paper lawn bags, whipping up a super-quick costume, and scoring CANDY! I hope your weekend was as awesome!

Halloweened

Ta-DAH! I'm all halloweenied! (heh, "weenie")
Pretty excited about the we'en this year (most years actually, but this year particularly) and here's why:



My friend Sarah's mama, Judy, scored Teddy the dragon suit, and I love it so much I can't barely stand it. He just happens to love it too (he's already asked to wear it twice) but I would be putting him in it even if he hated it.
Because I love it THAT much.
He's a dragon and that means I get to be... A PRINCESS!!! or a KNIGHT!!! I'm cool with either (I'm using "cool" very loosely here, I actually mean "the nerdiest ever").
And the whole-dressing-to-match-your-kid thing? I'm doing that until homeboy is old enough to set the bear trap to stop me leaving the house with him!
Last year was a bust for various reasons but here's a quick retrospective of Teddy's costumes so far:

2007

See, he's a pumpkin. A vomit-inducing pumpkin. Might not seem so scary to you, but being pregnant scared the crap out of me. Spooky for sure. And...

2008

Teddy is a chimp. And I am famed primatologist Jane Goodall. (See? I have a safari shirt and a hello my name is Jane Goodall badge.) Which I thought was HI-larious. But literally NOBODY else found funny.
Now, I'm going to need some pale pink tulle, a traffic cone and a BUNCH of candy corn. We're on a deadline here people!