twin costume idea: milk and cookie

I'm pretty sure there's a rule somewhere which states that cute twin babies are required to match for Halloween. In fact, I'm going to make them match for as many Halloweens as I can without inciting a rebellion. We'll see how many years I can make it. (Wouldn't it be cute if they were Luke and Leia toddlers next Halloween?!)

So here's our little milk and cookie.

Since the twins are little and love to be in their carriers, we wanted to build their costume around their front packs. We thought of lots of cute easy-to-make combinations (salt and pepper! two peas in a pod! hamburger and french fries!) but ultimately went with milk and cookie. 99% of the credit for the manual labor goes to my amazingly creative sister-in-law, Ellie.

A quick tutorial, in case you're also thinking about a baby carrier costume:

MATERIALS
semi-structured front baby carrier (we love these)
cardboard
heavy duty scissors
fabric in whatever colors the costume requires
colored felt for smaller details
fabric or heavy duty glue

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut out the cardboard in the shapes you want. For the cookie, we did a simple circle, but the milk was a little more complex because we made it 3D and added a straw opening. (The straw is a paper towel tube.)
2. Wrap the fabric around the cardboard and glue to the back.
3. Cut out felt and glue onto fabric to add details to the costume. (This is what our chocolate chips are made of, as well as the stripes on the milk straw and the milk lettering.)
4. Cut 2 or 3 fabric strips (about one inch times 14 inches) and glue the middle of each strip to the back of the costume.
5. Attach the costume to the carrier by threading the fabric through the holes of the carrier and tying the ends of the fabric securely together. We like to tie the fabric knots to the side they're not digging into the baby's back.
6. Done!

The side views (you can see the fabric strips attaching the costume to the carrier, and you can see the 3D milk carton):

Good news, people. It only took me 26 years to actually be excited about Halloween. Between these costumes and my toddler who has carried her Halloween bucket around the house for days, trick or treating to her teddy bear, I just might be overcoming my major Halloween grinch tendencies. Finally. This candy corn popcorn snack helps too. ;)

Happy Halloween! 

a thrift-or-treat blogger Halloween

Really what I wanted was an excuse to get together with a few blogger friends and chat for a bit. I also wanted a way to ease into Halloween. (I have major Halloween grinch tendencies, and most days I think Halloween is the holiday you have to get through before the real holidays can begin.) A Halloween blogger party was the perfect way to combine the two.

I prefer my Halloween more classy than tacky, and heaven knows I got enough of black + bright orange in the four years I spent at Beaverton High (go Beavs). So I chose a simple black and silver color scheme, and Savers sponsored a fun, spooky, classy Halloween tablescape for my blogger party.

Here's how I put this table together using only my insanely affordable thrifting supplies and some help from my amazing crafty sister-in-law Ellie.

We started with a black tablecloth (Savers, $5) and added accents by wrapping around some silver pillowcases (Savers, $3) and a black feather boa (Savers, $1). This candy dish was one of our main inspiration pieces - it was silver, tarnished, and beautiful. And you guessed it, we got it at Savers for only a few dollars.

 The skulls ($2 each) were one of our favorite touches. You can also see the little mirror squares that reflected the silver and contrasted with the black. We got the mirror squares by peeling them off a masquerade mask (Savers, $3).

 This pumpkin was our center piece and a lot of fun to make! When we picked it up at Savers ($6) it was bright orange, but one quick coat of spray paint totally changed the way it looked.

Sticking out of the pumpkin were fake corn stalks that we spray painted black - except for a few, which we spray painted silver to be accent pieces. It made for a great center piece. In fact, it's still on display at my house.

 Homemade bats! You can find a simple tutorial here.

 Our host, Janssen, happened to have a gorgeous chandelier that fit perfectly with the feel we were going for.

 A huge thank you to Emily, Janssen, Jen and Camille for taking time from their crazy lives to come chat. It was so great seeing them, and even if lots of the time was spent wrangling our children, it's nice to chat and sympathize with each other during all the wrangling. :)

 Black roses in vases ($0.99 each) and old tarnished candlesticks finished off our look. A huge thank you goes to Savers for sponsoring our party decor. Savers has aisles and aisles of new and used Halloween costumes to help you find your perfect #thriftortreat ensemble.

Happy spooky Halloween! 

PS - Local bloggers, if I put together a little Christmas tablescape, who would want to come and enjoy it with me and take pictures? Any volunteers?