Follow Friday – Just Like Kiki

Isobel was very excited about her Halloween costume. She got to wear a black dress (just like Kiki!). She got to wear a big red bow (just like Kiki!). And she got a broom, a radio, and a black cat named Jiji (just like Kiki!). Even now, a few days after the fact, she insists on carrying her “Kiki radio” with her everywhere.

Today’s Follow Friday is dedicated to my favorite witch.

What is Follow Friday? It’s a Twitter meme that I have taken a couple steps further.  Learn more about it in my FAQ. See my nomination for a Shorty Award for Follow Friday here. You can read more Follow Friday goodness here.

TwoAdults Toddlers slept until 8am. Ponies for everyone!

morninggloria Break up the dirt in preparation for spring planting. #ThatsWhatHoesDo

MrWordsWorth New from Quaker, Zooey Deschanel Quirk cereal. You put it in a little shoe & hide from it in your closet. Part of an outrageous breakfast.

MadMonk56 Chris Matthews on The View. So this is hell?

Sondeera Nothing says “delights of parenthood” quite like a pocketfull of waffles.

Schmoodles I copied my Match.com bio from a used car website. – White. – Good condition. – Reliable. – Cheap. – Some evidence of rear end damage.

Krud Tomorrow is Avoidance Awareness Day. Be sure to not mark it on your calendar.

sbellelauren you should be able to eat more things on sticks like, pizzacicles! fried chickencicles! i was gonna say pussycicles but its too early.

Smethanie If you’ve ever contemplated buying a new fridge because the box it comes in makes a super awesome fort, we could totally be friends.

willgoldstein How excellent would it be of @BarackObama joined the #Movember movement? He’d look badass in a handlebar mustache.

eliza_evans I am old. When I saw Demi and Wilmer was trending, I figured Demi Moore was working her way through the cast of That 70s Show.

PolyesterPony I am never more American than when I’ve eaten so many chocolate chip cookies that I want to barf. Think on THAT a while, commies.

senorwinces Take a look at trending topics and you’ll realize why they have to write “do not eat” on dry silica packets.

iasshole Today’s band name: Butt Kegels.

willgoldstein Fuck it. I’m making brownies.

markleggett Are women only going to gyms so they can one day rise up against men and crush us all between their rock-hard thighs? I hope so.

thejohnblog Herman Cain? Sexual Harassment? If you didn’t immediately picture a pizza box with a hole cut in the bottom, then you’re a liar.

wordsinmymouth Sometimes there just isn’t enough pee to put out all the fires.

slackmistress Going by what it selects as my “Top Stories,” Facebook needs to invade my privacy more.

sarcasmically One year at Christmas my gramps couldn’t buy a tree so we decorated the ’82 Chevy Blazer sittin’ on blocks in the yard. A+++ would do again.

jess_mc My entire facebook feed is pictures of people’s children dressed up for Halloween. I’ve crossed some Rubicon of old here.

MassageByTed Also, “The Sound of 50,000 Deflating Boners” is the title of my National Novel Writing Month project.

HeathRobots Halloween needs to be over now. My blood sugar is what a physician might call ridiculously jacked up. Skittles. Taste the Diabetes.

ProfessorSnack Remind me to tell my kids about the elves who come by Halloween night and eat candy so they have energy to finish all of Santa’s toys. Burp.

mrpilkington I’m trying to find a realistic sweater option for the cat, you know, so he’ll hate me even more.

shelldash OK KIDS STOP NOW ALL WE HAVE LEFT ARE EXPIRED COUGH DROPS, STALE PRETZELS, CONDOMS AND ENNUI. GO HOOOOME.

sbellelauren if you really want your costume to be sexy then just take the whole damn thing off.

heyrenees Best costume I saw today: a dude dressed as a banana swinging in a hammock.

muffpunch The most unfunny three minutes of my day are the three minutes of Jay Leno my DVR picks up before Jimmy Fallon.

adamisacson Tonight my daughter and her friend uttered four words that have never crossed my lips non-ironically: “I have enough candy.”

alotofnothing Do Canadians celebrate Halloween with the rest of us or did they have it in September?

FamilySizedFun if these kids don’t pass out in less than 10 minutes it will be the scariest thing this Halloween!

ElizabethBanks I totally rocked my “overtired working mom” costume. Complete with spit-up on shirt and a nap. And somehow, I still made it slutty.

allisonthemeep Serious question: At what point did Val Kilmer go from being really attractive to having a head the size of the Death Star? Like, the 90s?

notbrandoncrane Just saw a bird explode. It was like a pillow fight gone horribly horribly wrong.

heyrenees I just got to third with the buffet at the Four Seasons.

drgrist I’m going to give my whole bag of candy to the richest looking kid I see & trust that he’ll trickle it down to the other kids.

TheBloggess Halloween is when the veil between the living & the dead is at its thinnest. And that’s why I can’t take a shower.

ProfessorSnack I drink Wild Cherry Pepsi instead of Cherry Coke because I like the idea that Pepsi gave the cherries a sporting chance before killing them.

Sigafoos “I need a stool softener. It’s for my mother in law.” So that’s how my day’s going.

MeganBoley If melting Halloween candy into morning coffee is wrong, then I am super duper wrong.

shariv67 White suburbanites giving out healthy Halloween treats, I hope your house is pelted with only the finest organic eggs.

turtlesby In the hallowed tradition of treating one’s neighbors, today I throw open the shades and walk the walk, if you get my weening.

UnicornFlavored Can we all just agree to eat candy all day? If we scale up together, it’s like it never happened.

alwysabridesmd The best thing about being an office drone on Halloween is guessing who wore a costume and who is just bad at dressing themselves.

EvenMoreSarah Ew. Way too Monday outside.

PinkPeonies I just rubbed my forehead and dried couscous from dinner fell off. How did I not notice that earlier? #winning

joshjs We just saw a double rainbow. I feel like tweeting this is compulsory.

rstevens I wish that when I said that we got ten inches last night that I was being saucy.

bebehblog I am uploading all the party pics to Facebook, including some really unflattering ones of myself. Because I am a giver.

theleanover Fuck Apple. I just duct taped my Zune to my Nokia. Boom!

danforthfrance Bartender dressed as The Fifth Element showed me her Multi-Pass. #halloween

morninggloria I’m trying to make “two monocles” happen. It’s a very decadent look.

sucittaM People didn’t smile in photographs from the 1800’s mostly because the taco pizza hadn’t been invented yet.

johnmoe “A Frankenstein who plays guitar? Ghost who plays guitar? Sexy guitar-playing Zombie Qaddafi?” – Carlos Santana considers his options

AmberTozer Oh sorry, I thought you were a real donkey. Your costume is amazing. I’ll get off your back & stop screaming “IT’S JUST YOU AND ME DONKEY”

LouisPeitzman Number of propositions received following “I’m slutty” tweet: -3.

Brotherwags Don’t freak out, but “Super-Dad” is doing his laundry right next to me as I tweet this. #humblebrag

morninggloria Rick Perry will continue to participate in debates. Ill continue pointing out that Rick Perry kind of looks like the Grinch.

geekandahalf I can’t wait to go to sleep tonight so I can wake up tomorrow and then take an epic nap. #planningahead

chickenscottpie Please forgive my earlier angry traffic tweeting. I murdered everybody, and now it’s all better.

louisvirtel The worst Evanescence video has got to be the Twilight series.

rstevens All I can think of is all the poor samovars of coffee going cold in the power outage before getting the chance to be turned into pee.

shinyinfo I shudder to think of the inside of those Holosuites. #DS9

NoReservations “What do you provide your audience?” asks immigration guy. “Dick jokes,” I reply.

babybabylemon Spencer calls his helmet his danger hat.

TwoAdults Me, Ezra and Iris are at the Starbucks drive-thru in our jammies. Long live civilization!

sarahbartlett Time to feed this kid: scrambled eggs. I am so creative it hurts!

BridgetCallahan Also completely sincere: our biggest contribution to any visiting alien culture is going to be coffee.

Mama_Mash Never put your child to bed with a talking stuffed animal. Dear My Pal Scout, you just made me crap my pants.

wordsinmymouth I’m thinking of calling this zit Monique & adding her to my dependents for tax purposes.

heyrenees I’ve been asking Siri dirty questions all afternoon and giggling.

TheNextMartha If extreme couponers ran government, we’d have zero debt PLUS all get a refund.

mariannecanada Feeling pretty cute until my mom asked if I was wearing a skort.

wordlust There should be some kind of adult Halloween where they hand out antidepressants and health insurance.

ecsuperhero I totally just offered Shane sexual favors in exchange for him telling the kids’ babysitter that I am not coming to her Tupperware party.

OhLookBirdies Victorians were posers. Hundreds walked around with those ear trumpets, but only a few of them could play it.

oodja I Know What You Did Last Summer, Charlie Brown ##RejectedPeanutsSpecials

BridgetCallahan Good Grief Charlie Brown, Why Won’t You Use a Condom? #RejectedPeanutsSpecials

johnmoe I’m Rejecting Your Peanuts Special, Charlie Brown #RejectedPeanutsSpecials

AnaGasteyer Snoopy Gets Fixed #RejectedPeanutsSpecials

BridgetCallahan It’s Not the Great Pumpkin, It’s that Homeless Migrant Pumpkin Picker Again Charlie Brown #RejectedPeanutsSpecials

Lord_Voldemort7 You’re a horcrux, Charlie Brown. #RejectedPeanutsSpecials

NicLewis It’s a Class Action Suit Against Minoxidil, Charlie Brown. #RejectedPeanutsSpecials

TheBloggess I’m not telling you that I don’t want to eat your brains just to lull you into a false sense of security. I’m just generally not hungry.

muffpunch Mom: Want to go to dinner with us? Me: Well, it’s game 7. Mom: Is that some kind of internet thing? I don’t know what that is. Me: Yes.

funtrees Patron: “Can you tell me like, where your books are on, like, Buddhism, and like, enlightenment?” Dear, you’re going to need more than that.

helgagrace These Jeopardy contestants obviously don’t have patrons asking them for Selena all the time.

JLYoungsma What man doesn’t like to come home to his wife in big brown furry robe? I am your personal Snuffaluffagus.

babybabylemon I bought a bag of Doritos so I would stop eating Halloween candy. #logicfail

MassageByTed You probably don’t even know that your favorite thing about being childless is not having to convince someone else to eat food.

What is Follow Friday? It’s a Twitter meme that I have taken a couple steps further.  Learn more about it in my FAQ. See my nomination for a Shorty Award for Follow Friday here. You can read more Follow Friday goodness here.

Thrifty Living: DIY Kiki’s Delivery Service Costume

This year is probably the last year I’ll have any say whatsoever in Isobel’s Halloween costume. I figure as parents you get at least two years, three tops, depending on where their birthday falls, to selfishly pick out a Halloween costume to inflict upon your little darling. After that you can prepare for the next ten or so years of haggling the sluttiness level of your daughter’s costume down to acceptable levels. For now, though, Isobel is still learning that the phrase “trick or treat” is a magical gateway to candy, and she had no problem working up enthusiasm to dress up as one of her favorite movie characters: Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service.

Kiki is an adolescent witch spending a year away from home to gain independence as part of her witch’s training. She opens a flying delivery service and, through trial and error, learns to make friends and trust in her own skills and abilities. This is a great movie for little kids as it has no overly scary imagery or subject matter. It is one of three movies Isobel tolerates. (The other two being The Care Bears Big Wish Movie and the lovely documentary Babies.)

(You’ll have to excuse the mediocre photos. I took these while waiting for my mom to arrive so we could head on over to the Library’s Halloween toddler time. She would only hold still if she was actually watching Kiki, which means terrible lighting and a glazed-over expression.)

(Also, she insists the witch’s broom is held bristle-up. Insists. If you try to fix it she will say, “No, not that way,” and then turn it around anyway.)

Unlike last year I was able to find the right dress while thrifting which solved my biggest (and potentially most expensive) problem. We already had the broom so Isobel could “help” clean, and I made the bow and the radio myself. The radio is an old camera I found while thrifting. I used red duct tape over the case. I thought about adding dials by gluing plastic bottle caps on and decorating it with a sharpie, but that never happened.

I made the bow out of a red headband and some lightly wired ribbon from my boyfriend Michael’s (Arts & Crafts). I made a large loop, twisted it, secured it with a smaller length of ribbon, then attached it to the headband with a glue gun.

Since we are schmucks we ordered her an imported stuffed Jiji the cat for waaay more than I felt comfortable paying for, but I couldn’t find anything thrifted that fit the bill. Plus Anthony wanted to spoil her.

Isobel has no idea we are going trick or treating tonight. It’s going to blow her mind.