i hate you martha sue-wart

i don't know what comes over me sometimes. its as though i have a split personality that tells me that i am craftier than i actually am. a week or so ago i went on the hunt for a halloween costume for nova. as a parent, their child's first halloween is a little bit of a big deal and so i wanted something super cute, but cheap, because cheap is my middle name 99% of the time....unless someone asked if i wanted to go to disneyland....then i wouldn't care how much it cost....but lets get back on track. so i went to the DI to find a gently used costume that would make adults ooohh and ahhh over my daughter. prideful, i know.

anyway, when i arrived i found the cutest skunk costume. well, actually the tail was cute, the rest of the outfit was not. i just really loved the idea of a skunk, so as mentioned above, my split personality martha sue-wart kicked in and said, hey, why not just make the rest of the costume? you can do it....it would be so easy! buy some black clothes and some furry fabric, cut, glue and badda-bing, badda-boom, presto, you have a killer skunk costume! ........sounds crazy i know, but martha is very convincing when she takes over the brain.....so i purchased the outfit and also purchased a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants---for a total of 4 dollars.

so i ran to the fabric store, found some fabric and glue to adhere the fur to the costume, and felt for the little ears. the martha sue-wart part of me and even the suzanne part of me was pretty excited.....so at approximately 11:30pm, when nova was down for the night, i went to work on my seemingly, oh, so simple costume. 5 words people: i hate you martha sue-wart.

you see i cut into the fabric, and it started out ok. i measured and re-measured and cut away. i glued like a crazy mad women when about 10 minutes into the project i realized that instead of buying a 1/4 of a yard of fabric/fur, i had indeed bought a 1/4 of a cat, and it had shed ALL over the table, my legs, arms, neck, in my ears and on the carpet. i could see hairs floating in the air.......again.....i hate you martha sue-wart. then the sneezing started and dan's laughs began. i was near tears of frustration at the hairy mess and the not-so-cute costume that now looked white, not black, because of all the hair. dan tried to cheer me up but i was un-cheer-up-able. why had not i just spent 25 dollars on an old navy costume that would have been hair-free and full of cuteness? why did i THINK it would be a good idea? again....i hate you martha sue-wart. dan convinced me to go to bed----AFTER i made him help me clean up the mess----we were both laughing that we had an invisible cat who did not shed invisible hair-----(not a pet i would recommend)...again, lets move on.

the next morning i was determined to make it work----something about sleep--even 4 1/2 hours of it does a body and a martha sue-wart mind good. i decided to wash the costume and see if it would obliviate all the hairy mess on the sweatshirt. surprisingly it went better than i thought and i was able to partially complete the costume that ended up not that great, but not that bad and WAY to big for nova. she screams every time i put it on, but at least it resembles a skunk, and the fur is connected and not flying all over the house.

the irony in this situation is that nova detests the costume so much that we had a costume party and she didn't even wear it....... i decided a happy baby was better than a screaming, and pretty cute skunk baby. so we went as the napoleon dynamite crew. dan went as napoleon with a hair cut and contacts, i went as deb with a perm, and nova, as a big fan of pedro.

needless to say, despite the pain of making a costume, at least we got a picture, and i overcame martha sue-wart once more. however, i have a note to self-----next time martha sue-wart tries to take over the brain---push her out and go home and take a nap instead!

here is a video of us in our napoleon dynamite get-up. man, we are one GOOD looking fam! (and dan that is one sweet suit! (and actually, my dress is pretty delicious too!))


nova says happy halloween! (and apparantly in these costumes halloween does not stink! she actually was happy when i put on her costume! amazing what naps do for your children!)














also here is a picture of her with a headband she got from tammie---oooooo--scary!