The Beauty in Blissfulness: Halloween Costumes from years past

Happy Halloween (month) everyone! As I have previously mentioned, I have always loved Halloween. I am currently attempting to decide what to wear for Halloween. It's especially difficult because at IU Halloween consists of at least four days of costumes, so if I ever had numerous options, I basically never had to narrow it down. So for all of you that are attempting to come up with Halloween costumes, I figured I would share some from my past few years.

So, it's obvious from the first few pictures that I didn't break out my most creative costume ideas immediately at IU but I think they do develop over time!

Freshman Year:

My friend Ilyssa and I dressed for an 80's celebration (I obviously was a fan of the neon and bright colors)

Below is a french maid outfit. Again, a little too typical for my taste but it was simple

Unfortunately I didn't get a very good shot of this one but I was dressed as a 'streaker'. I simply googled censored bumper stickers and ordered three and stuck them onto my spandex shorts and a black bandeau. So simple and actually comfy. I would probably add a trenchcoat now.

Sophomore Year:

The classic Audrey Hepburn. I just grabbed my LBD and put on every strand of pearls (and costume jewelry) I own and paired it with white gloves from my high school prom. It's not pictured well but I also had the famously pictured with Hepburn cigarette holder.

I believe this was a last minute Halloween outfit throw together for all of us. I just had to share the image because it is so hilarious. Including a kitten, cop, hippy, devil and then of course the french fries.

Another hodge podge of costumes from a ninja to a basketball hoop. The basketball hoop was honestly one of the best costume ideas - my friend Patrice was absolutely the hit of the night with this simple game attached to her head.

Junior Year:

My friend Lauren and I attempted our take on 'Desperate Housewives'. Our outfits consisted of aprons with silly sayings ironed on them with those letters you can buy at craft stores (and of course a strand of pearls).

We also made some cookies to go with our costume and happened to run into the cookie monster! How ironic.

As anyone who has followed my blog will know, I'm a fan of being as cheap as humanly possible. Therefore this halloween outfit was perfect - it cost nothing! I threw on a dress (or any snazzy 'going out' outfit) and heels. Then grabbed a friends' button up to complete my 'shacker/walk of shame' outfit. Complete with a phone number on my hand and a toothbrush. If I were more dedicated to the outfit I would've purposely messed up my make-up and hair but I like to believe that I look this composed when I wake up in the morning!

Here is a more complete pic. Shaker hanging out with Risky business and two Blackhawks super fans.

Another free costume using items I already owned - one of my practice leotards, my soft shoes and some leg warmers (which were SUPER warm! perfect for October weather).

I just had to use this picture because I love Erin's (also cheap) costume - Frat Rat!

This obviously isn't me but I had to share these images of my friend dressed as Bieber. Too perfect.

The image below is actually from a Christmas party but if you are wishing October and November away you could prep for December by dressing as a Christmas tree! I believe almost everything we used to make these outfits was from the dollar store!

We dyed Hanes tee-shirts green and then chopped off the sleeves (of course you could use any green shirt and skip the dye). We bought garland, huge light strands, and also some battery operated light strands all from the dollar store. Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture with the lights turned on but they are wrapped around the garland. We hid the battery packs from the lights in the gift backs we attached to the bottom of the 'tree'. (Which was also a perfect purse without having to hold anything!) We were in a rush and secured everything with safety pins, which actually worked perfectly.

This was probably one of my favorites. I used to love the show Married with Children and thought of this couples costume. All it took on BIG red wig and some interesting clothing. The guy just has to part his hair, wear a REALLY short tie and keep his hand in his pants all night!

Senior Year:

It's obvious that by senior year we stopped really caring about being 'sexy' as most girls at IU strive for during Halloween... unless overalls are sexy!

A group of the girls decided to be Minions (from Despicable Me). We couldn't find very many overalls at Goodwill, and weren't willing to pay $50 for new ones we would NEVER wear again. So the solution for those that did not have overalls we just bought cheap black suspenders. You can't tell from the image below but we got out a black 'G' image like the Minions have on their overalls. And the goggles happen to be from a child's toolkit set (and I was lucky enough to borrow them all from work). Then just throw on a pair of cheap black gloves!

Don't we just look exactly like them! ha!

I have previously posted about the amazing time I had last year at my friend Logan's house with her mother. The IU girls did a group theme as cats - again, simple. Below is an image with our gracious ghosts.

For anyone that has been to Bloomington, the theme of last year's Halloween party was Scholar's Inn and they were our (creepy) innkeepers!

With this costume we won a costume contest at a local bar. We made these dresses and ironed on letters for the types of sauces. We then wrote the sayings (which are all actual on Taco Bell's sauce packets) on white felt.

- Kiss me I'm Irish for the Verde sauce

- Thanks for rescuing me, Hot was getting on my nerves! for the Mild sauce

- I see how you look at other sauces! for the Hot sauce

- I'm in good hands now for the Fire sauce

My friend Erin had this SPECTACULAR outfit - She was the house from UP! Complete with balloons and lots of difficult movement through the bar. Love it!

Another costume that I loved - My friend Ashleigh dressed as Little Miss Grand Supreme (think Toddler's in Tiaras) I'm not sure if you can see it but she has a pacifier and I believe there was also a bottle involved.