SEEKING SIMPLICITY

Halloween is here again, the excitement is building!

Kids are deciding for the third or fourth time what they "definitely are going to be" for halloween. And we all wait anxiously to figure out which "final" choice is really the 'final' choice before we run out of time to chuck down between $25 and $75 bucks (not including delivery) for a synthetic poorly-sewn atrocity of a too-big (or too small, never right-sized) 'deluxe costume' from our friends at SLEAZY COSTUME EXPRESS!


You might be at home right now hand-sewing a costume for your child made entirely out of old recycled fabric, and painted cardboard and noodles, in which case, nevermind, this post is not for the likes of you. 

In other words, if this picture looks like your spare room, then you probably don't know what "Costume express" is. 

you can go away

However, if you are deeply mired in the crazy business of strolling the virtual aisles of eight or ten different online 'costume shops' with your kid peeking over your shoulder, trying to avoid all those 'sexy nurse and sexy vampire' pitfalls in search of something half-decent looking that actually comes with all the parts shown, you may be fed up about now. I am!

NO! How did we get on this page?

Sure! Ok!

Right now in my closet I have:

• a size Medium  'choco cat' (whatever that was I don't know)
• a size Medium (huge!) "Eskimo kisses" (at least we wore this one twice)
• a size MC (?) goofy pink flapper dress style ballet costume
• a size 3 full body furry one piece skunk

I would like to get rid of these things. EVEN THOUGH: (awwwww)

AND Awwww......

But I keep telling myself, keeping these things hanging in my closet is NOT going to bring back those same cute little faces, so....why not free up the space?

And if I could have the good luck of getting hold of something resembling a kimono sized 8 or 9 for free, then that would be fantastic.

So, I'm proposing that we all at least TRY to swap this year. I see the posts coming fast and furious on the local list-servs. People are looking to sell their costumes, and I get it - if you think you can get a few bucks and want to take the time - that's good. I've done that. But I don't have the time right now, and it's not really worth it for me, and as a proponent of recycling/sharing and re-homing - I think it might be a great idea to start a pre-Halloween tradition in our neighborhood of having a swap/meet for our old costumes.
At the very least, it'll get those things out of your closets, and into other hands, and let's face it - you're going to wind up tossing them anyway in another year or two when you come to your senses, so why not let someone else use them now?

Or, worst case scenario - which is not a bad one at all - they'll go to Wearable Collections or some other recycling organization. 

Here's my lame-ish flyer that I banged out in Word. It's soon to be posted in Carroll Park and I hope to send it around via several listservs.
Pass the info along, bring your discards along (clean only, kid only and costumes only please!). And hopefully you can find something that YOU can use.

 

And has everyone finally finished last year's candy? Because get ready....it's coming back again!