So, lately it seems “Creative Habit” is really “Creative Every Spare Moment of My Life!” I’ve been working on Halloween costumes around the clock this week. As I was working last night while everyone else in my house slept, I remembered how I used to regularly stay up late (before kids, obviously) working on sewing projects and other creative things. For some reason, late at night, I tend to get re-energized and filled with ideas. I’ve forgotten that, because, after a day as Mama, I’m in bed by 10:00.

So, costumes. It all started with BB. He is obsessed with all thing police related – cars, officers, handcuffs, walkie talkies, everything. He’s talked of being a police officer for months. After finding a police hat at the thrift store, I was sure I could piece together his costume with a dress shirt and dress pants, and that I would be sewing badges on in the wee hours of the night.

For the first time in my life, the thrifting gods were not smiling on me. Neither were Amazon or Target. It seems to be impossible to find a navy blue dress shirt. So, I finally gave in last week and ordered the costume online. (This photo is from Amazon – it’s not BB.) It arrived in two days (thank you, Prime) without accessories, but I pulled those together with items from the dollar store.

I turned this lovely orange floral notebook (4/$1)

into a ticket book using electrical tape. BB LOVES giving us tickets. I also found a toy pack with a walkie talkie, police badge, whistle, binoculars, and a gun. Which do you think was BB’s favorite?

All this time, BB thought BG should go as a police car. I thought this was fantastic. She was game for a little while, but then she saw kitty cat ears and a tail, and she was sold.

But I’ve kind of had my heart set on a family theme for costumes. I know there won’t be many years it will fly, so I decided to make her a police car costume, have her wear it for a few fun photos, and then let her choose.

I have never seen a police car costume, so I started by sketching out some ideas and raiding our cardboard boxes.

I used a large box from Costco and cut down two smaller pieces from other boxes. The large box is the base of the car body, the smaller piece is the roof and windshield, and the smallest piece is for the lights.

I cut a hole in the box for the body and for the roof so BG could wear it around her waist.

I painted everything and put the pieces together with duct tape.

This thrifted t-shirt has been the workhorse for Halloween costumes this year, as you will see. I cut the bottom part of the shirt into strips to use as straps over BG’s shoulder to hold up the car.

And here she is. The black turtleneck and tights are the base of her kitty cat costume, too.

She changed back and forth all day. This morning at breakfast, she told me she was going to be a Kitty Cat Police Car.

BB: “You can’t be both.”

BG: “Yeah, I DO!”

And now for Husband and me. Husband is not a costume guy. AT ALL. But, you know I love a good theme, so I assembled items for him, just in case. We’re going to be robbers.

I started with a mask and a toboggan (out here in California, they’re called “beanies”). Husband has a black Raiders toboggan that will work just fine. I decided to make my own out of the t-shirt.

I cut the sleeves off and then into strips, which were the perfect size to make masks. (I did go back and reinforce the seams as they fell apart quickly.)

I tried on the mask, marked my eyes with chalk, and cut out eye holes. So easy.

The remainder of the sleeve ended up being the perfect size for my head. I knotted the cuff of the sleeve and had a perfect robber toboggan.

I thrifted black and white striped tees for each of us, and I paired mine with black pants and boots I already had.

As Husband will probably never make an appearance on the blog, here’s a photo of me, post trick-or-treating and post raiding the kids’ candy buckets. (We went out this afternoon in our costumes to visit Adopted California Parents. When we got back, Husband was in full costume, waiting for us. Yay! I’ve won him over to the dark side!)

Made it to the end of 31 Days! Woohoo! I’m calling it a night early tonight – Trick-or-Treat wears me out WAY more as an adult than as a kid.

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This post is part of a 31 day series. Find all the posts in this series here.

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