Get Ugly. (Easy Halloween Costume Ideas)

Ah that ripe time of year when kids get to dress up as superheroes and steal candy from their neighbors. That special time when we teach children that despite what the Safety Kids cassette tape taught us, it’s ok to take candy from strangers as long as they are wearing a cool costume. 

 

Dressing up for Halloween gets more difficult the older you get. No longer can a 7^th grade girl show up in thermal underwear, a fake beard, a pie tin strapped to her belt, call herself a miner and think those nasty little kids will appreciate her good humor.  No, no.  Boys like girls who are pretty for the holiday. 

 

Fortunately, all hope is not lost.

 

Despite what Mean Girls taught us, getting ugly on Halloween does not have to end at the teenage years.

 

I propose that Halloween satisfaction is directly proportional to the ugliness of the costume. It's easy to get ugly, and it sure is fun. 

 

I offer the following as easy costume ideas/my favorite Halloween successes:

 

Werewolf! Supplies needed: furry fabric scraps stuck on with honey, brown face paint, raggedy clothes, ratted hair. Yes that is NOT a wig.

Moaning Myrtle! This costume won me 2nd place in the 7th grade costume contest. I think I lost to Jeff Speechly who was a shower. Yes, literally, a SHOWER. I was mad too.  It may be important to note that this toilet seat had never been used.

Bib Fortuna! You know, Jabba the Hutt's creepy little stooge?  Supplies: Nude panty hose stuffed with towels and cotton for the brain, graduation robe, red paint for eyes.

Flying Monkey!!! It was always my dream to be a flying monkey. I got some friends to join in. Lisy made a great lion in my dad's old yellow sweats. The monkey was accomplished by painting a dust mask brown and slicing it across for a mouth opening. Then I made a tube of furry fabric (leftover from the werewolf probably), sewed it shut on top, cut holes for the face, and wore it over the dust mask. My wings were wrapping paper tubes with various brownish fabric scraps dangling off it. No idea where the vest came from. 

John Lennon and Dracula! Found an old suit of my uncle's left over from the 70s deep in a closet. Added some glasses, towel dried hair, and drew on a gotee. No shoes for Abbey Road.  Jare's Dracula costume came mostly from my high school band uniform plus a cape and some fangs.

 

 

 

Viking. Bought the hat from Zurcher's for like $5. Made a yarn beard and tin foil axe head. Recycled my cave-man fur thing from a previous year. Got ugly.

Happy Halloween from 1993! Let's examine these costumes left to right. Ike's Ogre costume: spiked green hair and some face paint.  Jare is a BYU Granny. That sweatshirt was a hand-me-down from some filthy zoobie relative. It only got worn on Halloween. Classic.  I was a lion. The mane is just some hay glued to cardstock.  Lay is Mother Goose. It was a great year. I'm assuming since I don't remember it.

 

 

So girls and boys and especially girls,

 

Get ugly on the big night.

 

And Happy Halloween!!

Not Nothings Part 1: Carly's Wedding Dress

Not Nothing #1

1.   Back in May, I volunteered to make my best friend Carly’s wedding dress then promptly pawned it off on my mom. I did sew that trim around the bottom at least. Cost was about $100 versus $800 for the one we modeled it after. Turned out great, don't you think?

 

Modeled after this dress                                           Carly's dress

  

Tanner looks ok too.  Congrats Car & Tan!
Photo credit Proudfit Photography



More photos on Carly's blog here if interested: http://cmblove.blogspot.com/2014/07/wedding-photos.html

Doing nothing isn't fun.

One of the more memorable monthly Ericson family nights for me was when my dad gave the lesson which he entitled “Doing nothing isn’t fun.”

 

I’ve tried to adopt this as a motto, though I’m not sure I completely agree with it. Sometimes lying on the beach with a lemonade in your hand watching the waves wash up and the birds fly by while you bake to a crisp in the sun can be very, very fun.

 

HOWEVER, the point was if one were to sit at the beach every day all day and do nothing but drink lemonade and watch the waves, one would become very fat and very lazy and very very bored. Doing nothing isn’t fun.  The moral: We should always be working toward something. Have a goal, work hard to achieve it, do your best, blah blah blah.

 

Example: Every year when the season rolled around, my parents used to make all of us kids help bottle fruit and tomatoes (which I maintain are vegetables).  Peaches, apricots, pears, applesauce, plums, tomatoes, grape juice, you name it. It was agonizing, but so delicious in the end.  One year when he was about 14, Ike refused to help with the bottling extravaganza. He just wanted to watch Scooby Doo and LHOTP on TV like a slug. In Ike’s defense, Michael Landon did have the coolest mullet on the prairie.  My dad gave Ike the choice to either help bottle peaches or stare at the blank TV screen. He chose the blank TV. What a bum.  I think he learned his lesson.

 

The purpose of this post is to explain that in the following posts, I am not bragging about my cool vacations and/or awesome skills, I am simply proving to my parents and the world that I am not doing nothing, because… what ladies and gentlemen? That's right. Doing nothing isn’t fun.

 

What's a Granny?

What's a Granny?

In the words of one of her many small great-grandchildren, "She's my old old old old old old great great great great great great grandma. She's as old as Santa Claus!"

Allow me to educate you.

Grannies are fiesty.

Grannies like to walk 5 miles every day.

Grannies shut disobedient children in the cooler (scary unfinished basement room with no windows and heavy metal door that locks from the outside only).

Grannies love to run rivers in white water rafts.

Grannies throw rocks at cats when they enter the yard.

Grannies like to ski, go snowmobiling, hike, swim, water ski, and ride horses.

Grannies burn hundreds of collectors edition comic books that could have made us all rich.

Grannies have traveled all the world.

Grannies keep magic genie lamps in their living rooms.

Grannies occasionally take their young granddaughters to see movies at the Villa Theater.

Grannies love to read books.

Grannies are tough because they grew up with three brothers.

When window-wells get full of water, Grannies break windows with wedding rings while yelling at sons to bail faster.

Grannies just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk.

Grannies get upset when snakes fireworks make messes on the patio. (Click here if you don't know what snakes are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK-PqwxC6lM)

Grannies like to jump on trampolines and watch kids play in the sprinklers.

Grannies do NOT like to "sew, crochet, embroider, do handicrafts, write letters, keep scrapbooks, wall paper, paint, wash walls, clean windows, scrub floors, or most of those other things that you more talented domestic types like to do."

Granny is my 87 year old paternal grandmother.

We love Granny.

Happy Mothers Day

Gayle Claire Ashworth Lloyd

Gayle reading 1938

Grand canyon ~1941

Wrestling with little brother Clint ~1946

Clint and Gayle on the river ~1949

 

Bruce & Gayle wedding Sept 1st, 1950

Gayle and Bruce, South Africa mission, 1986

 

 

Granny with great-grandkids James Booth and Sophie Lloyd at Red Butte Garden.

May 10th, 2014

Hannimal: The Inaugural Post

Throughout my lifetime I have been known by many names, most of which were involuntarily discovered by my behavior as observed by my three older siblings.

1. Hans - (adv.) Though infrequently referenced, this nickname was originally contrived to be my alter ego, pictured below. 1998

2. The Pink Hanther - (n.) in reference to my favorite pairs of pink sweats (two identical sets were frequently sported). 1999

3. TV-Han - (melody) Lyrics are as follows: "TV-Han, TV-Han, Hannah watches TV every chance that she can." Though the music was composed in my early youth when I spent ample time watching Scooby Doo and Little House on the Prairie, the original concept was formulated much, much earlier on my 2nd Christmas. 1992

4. Mannah - (adj.) This character was formulated at church one Sunday when my brother drew a picture of what I would look like as a man. Later, it was brought to life in a moment of brilliant spontaneity before our Desolation river trip in 2009.

5. The Hannimal - (vb.) The one that stuck. References my love for adventure.

6. Most of the time, I'm just Hannah. Age 23, recent college graduate.