Last Minute Slackers


So it's Halloween and you have completely blown off getting a costume.  Now what?  You have a party to attend and there's nothing left at the store but some elephant ears, clown shoes and a Harry Potter wand.  What are you going to do?

Don't worry, I've got you covered.




All you need is a candle, a wine cork and some fire.




With this burnt cork, you now have a million possibilities.




You can be pig-pen from Charlie Brown...just carry a dirty blanket and suck your thumb.




You could be an angry pirate...get out a bandanna and an eye patch from your last bout with pink eye.




You could be a spooky ghost with a beard, just cut a face hole in your old sheets.  It's a stretch but will work...remember you are desperate.




Or you could just be yourself, with a dirty face.

One Halloween I was in the same predicament, no costume, party was at 7 and I had to work all day.  What was a girl to do?

I got out a cork, burned it and instantly I was the bearded lady from the circus.  It was awesome.


Halloween-A-Day-Photo




Moon over the pumpkin patch. 

Enjoy your night and have a safe Halloween.

Post a Comment

66 Comments

  1. Deeba 1

    Too precious Cathy…love them all! Have a great Halloween! You’ve done a wonderful load of posts leading up to it…love your spirit!

  2. Ruth 2

    Happy Halloween! I’ve really enjoyed your halloween pictures. im not out tonight, but on saturday i will be out as a zombie showgirl :)

  3. Philly 3

    Your little guy is just too damn cute!!!

  4. What a memory jog! I remember my father putting shaving cream and coffee grounds on my face to make me look like a hobo for a costume party. The burnt wine cork seems a whole lot easier.Happy Halloween to you and yours!

  5. Laura 5

    Just don’t call yourself a HOBO!!!!!
    :)
    Didn’t Adam Sandler do a skit like this with a pickle?
    Charming post.

  6. HAPPY HALLOWE’EN!!!

    Another idea for the beard: throw on some jeans, flannel shirt and work boots – if you have a kids’ construction set, all the better to be either a wood cutter (just keep the saw) or a construction worker (tool belt).

  7. Shirley 8

    Those are such great pictures of him! B&W for those shots is just right. We have a woodstove so I’d have no problem finding soot, but the cork idea looks more user friendly.

    Like the pumpkins with the moon. Happy Halloween!

  8. Becky 9

    He is so cute with his little bearded face!
    Love the moon/patch picture. Great capture.

  9. melissa 10

    I will miss all of your pictures! They were great! One year I punched arm and leg holes in a white garbage bag and became plain white trash.

  10. Cathy–It’s your big day! Enjoy!

  11. Barbie with a T 12

    Your little hooligan is quite the actor! Looks like he has a fun time with Halloween…it must run in the family. When I was in elementary school, for Halloween, we used to wear our father’s long sleeved white shirts over a pair of jeans, put freckles on our faces with a Mabelline pencil and wear a man’s hat (My father happened to wear a Texas style western hat) but most girls my age wore a Fedora type hat. I don’t know exactly what we were supposed to represent, but we looked mostly like hobos. Our mom’s didn’t have to sew us up a costume or we didn’t have to go out and buy one and we were happy that way. The cork idea would have worked really better for us rather than the freckles. Wish we would have known about it then.

  12. Wow! I’m only twelfth today. Your son looked liked he enjoyed being the model. I bet you made a great bearded lady.
    Have enjoyed all of your Halloween stuff.

  13. Your son is so cute. What a good sport he is!

    I love the bearded lady idea! I would do that myself, but I know my daughter would drop dead from embarrassment if I did. :P

  14. Happy Haloween Cathy!

    Who know a cork was so versatile!? Your little guy is so cute!!

  15. Who woulda thunk that there were so many other USEFUL uses for a wine cork. And here I thought all it was good for was as a replacement pacifier for babies.

    BTW, your son is a darned good sport – what to let his mom muck up his face and photograph him looking the part of a hobo…

    Happy Halloween!!!!

  16. amazing. you could definitely make Homer Simpson’s five o’clock shadow with that cork trick. your son is too cute.

  17. Rayrena 18

    Those pictures are too cute! I just realized why I’m so drawn to your son, he looks like my dad in his childhood pictures. But seriously, we ant pictures of you as the bearded lady :)

  18. Wow-what a neat little trick! I never knew about that!

  19. First of all, that’s one cute little fella you’ve got there! And what a great sport to be your model! :) Great tips about using the cork. I never would’ve thought of it. (No surprise there!)

    Second, have a safe and fun night yourself!

  20. Tammy 21

    Your little hooligan is adorable in those B&W pics – he looks like a little man!!

    Great cork idea… I’m seeing the possibilities.

  21. Candy 23

    Gotta tell you, I made kitty litter cake for the company halloween bash and it is a HIT! I happened to have a stuffed cat at home, and one of the Vice Presidents here staged an entire cat-pooping scene. It’s good to bring interactive food. Thanks for the recipe!

  22. Pam 24

    What a cutie your son is. I love the moon over the pumpkin patch photo.

  23. Amber 25

    One year I had no idea what to be and I looked at everything and anything in my house with a possible eye. I had 2 pieces of cardboard. Hmm. I cut them into kites, covered them in wrapping paper, hung string from the bottom with wrapping ribbon into bows, taped string so they would hang sandwich board style on my shoulders and covered my face with blue eye shadow for the sky. A bunch of cotton balls on my head would have been a great cloud but I forgot. Cheap, easy, had the stuff and no one else thinks of it. You son is sooo cute, how do you not have lipstick kisses all over him (it would make him a rock star costume). Than you so much for a very fun month. Happy Halloween. Really nice last photo also.

  24. Teri 27

    Fantastic Black & Whites! Great Subject Matter! Quite an adorable face! Enjoyed all your Halloween blogs! Thanks for sharing your world… you are quite the entertainer!

    Have a spooky Halloween!

  25. Marjie 28

    I still like Grace’s idea: wearing a sign that says “Nudist on Strike”. I went to the fabric store on Sunday, and sewed like a crazy woman yesterday, and my costuming is now complete. If I had to go out, I’d carry a blanket and go as a sleep deprived mom.

    Love your pictures of your son. Of course, he would cooperate. What boy doesn’t love to be grubby?

    Happy Halloween!

  26. ELRA 29

    Happy halloween.
    Oh, he is so adorable! I love his 3rd phose, he seems to try to scared us, uhhhh
    That pumpkin over the moon is so beautiful.
    Thanks for sharing such a great idea for the last minute panic, cathy.

  27. ntsc 30

    One year when my first wife and I went trick or treating, this was routine in our neighbor hood, with or without kids. She wore a fur coat, heels and a flesh colored bikini. We got candy, she would flash. Usually we got a second helping.

    The candy went to her church for distribution to the homebound the next day.

  28. Cathy this is too darn cute!!! What an adorable little guy! Love his ghosty face…

    Slackers abound here… The pumpkin pulp and seeds have been sitting in the fridge for DAYS waiting to be cleaned and roasted…

    Costumes are a go…amidst a few tantrums…

    I am going as a witch… yes, I do dress up! If I’m going to be carting these guys around I’m going to have me some fun!
    Thanks for all the cool Halloween goodness!
    And dude above me! First wife sounds like she was a hoot!

  29. marcy 32

    Cathy, you are very creative. I NEVER would have thought of using a burned cork to draw a face on with, lol. Love the idea of the bearded lady at the circus, lol.

    Happy Halloween to you and yours!

  30. He is too cute :)

    Happy Halloween to you and your family, Cathy !

  31. Cheryl 35

    Happy Happy Halloween Cathy! Have loved the month’s images…and today’s top ‘em!

    Hey, could you please keep coming up with creative cork usage options? I’ve got quite a collection going…

  32. Paula 36

    That costume brings back memories of my mom dressing me as a “gypsy” Pretty much on of her skirts and alot of make-up and jewery. I loved it!

  33. magpie 37

    Once upon a time, in a fancy (very) restaurant, after closing, we played a drinking game – every screw-up got a mark with a burnt cork…”ibble-dibble”.

    Your day has arrived!

  34. Alisa 38

    You are so ding dang creative! What a great idea.
    I’m going to miss your Halloween photos.
    Hope your hoo

  35. tipper 39

    Great tip for the slackers! Happy Halloween!

  36. This is so cool to know Cathy! Your kids are adorable and I can see they loved doing this!

  37. I will miss your posts on Halloween. So much fun! (Your little cutie is adorable!)

  38. He could be a young Captain Jack Sparrow!

  39. sharon 43

    Thanks to your little hooligan for modeling for us :) Have a fun Halloween!!

  40. dawn 44

    Oh that face! Cathy he’s too cute to put anything on there. Let him go as a handsome young boy.

  41. That lovely pumpkin patch looks very sincere. I’m sure The Great Pumpkin will come your way tonight.

  42. Mrs. L 46

    Happy Halloween to my fellow Halloween loving blogger!
    And I think if you use your trick, tie a bandanna on the end of a stick, wear some old clothes, you have a perfect hobo costume.

  43. That is one cute kid!
    There’s always the hobo option!

  44. I agree with just about everyone. That is the cutest little guy I’ve ever seen! Must be a trip to live with.

  45. Bunny 49

    Have a Happy Halloween Cathy!!

  46. I was recently in Northern Cal and I saw a pyramid of pumpkins it was so cool but I was too late to snap a photo cuz we were in a hurry. Shucks!!! Anyway I love this photo. Have a happy Halloween! I have loved perusing all your fun October blogging you are the best!!

  47. That kid is absolutely scrumptious. Really. Bearded or not.

    And I love your photo. Been lurking around for a while and know you are a pal of Evil Chef Mom and NTSC – just wanted to tell you how cool and funny your blog is.

    Why aren’t you on my blogroll? Let’s change that.

    Kim

  48. Every time I see that hooligan I marvel at your resistance to have more of such adorable munchkins I think I’d want a six pack. A mess of sons to work a vineyard may be a pretty good idea.

    So how did you meet the Wild Boar? Did you suit him up at Nordy’s?

  49. Katie 53

    How clever! Much better than the store bought stuff any way. AFTER we got the kids all painted up and ready to go I noticed the face paint packaging warning that the paints contain lead!

  50. What a face!! Awesome trick- I would never have thought of that!

  51. grace 55

    lovely model, cathy. i’ll bet you had an absolute blast taking those pictures. hope your halloween was all you hoped it’d be! :)

  52. Are you implying something is wrong with my elephant ears/clown shoes/Harry Potter wand costume?

  53. pam 57

    This was always my default costume, except I was always a hobo.

  54. I have a surprise for you at my blog!

  55. I dressed my younger brother as a hobo for his school’s Halloween party.

  56. Egghead 61

    That little boy and that dimple. Oh melt my heart. What a doll. Good idea on last minute costumes and I love the moon over the pumpkin patch.

  57. Cecil 63

    All I can say is this – I ADORE ADORE every and each of these photos.

  58. Every body understands that today’s life is not cheap, however people require money for various things and not every person gets enough cash. Thence to receive good loans or just short term loan should be good way out.

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