The Halloween Boo-Tique is still open

At Goodwill Southern California You’ll Never Run out of Costume ideas

There’s still time head to Goodwill SoCal and find a costume that’s unique enough to impress all the generous candy-wielding neighbors!

Happy Halloween morning, friends!

I partnered up with Goodwill Southern California this year ahead of the Halloween season because it made perfect sense: Paul and I are trying to be conscious of our spending, our environment and the ways we choose to give our kids a memorable childhood experience.

And if there is a thrift store whose mission I support— it’s Goodwill SoCal:

For nearly a century, they’ve transformed the lives of individuals with disabilities, providing careers that transform lives.
At little or no cost, they help businesses hire & retain talent as well as provide e-waste recycling, among other services at highly competitive rates.
They enrich communities through donation drive fundraisers. Last year, they hosted 648 donation drives resulting in $924,252 to community partners.
Plus, they care for the earth by being “Green since 1916”. In 2017, they diverted more than 100 million pounds of reusable or recyclable goods from landfills.

That’s why heading to a Goodwill SoCal store

in search for Halloween costumes seemed like a great idea— We’d get to re-purpose previously owned clothes and use our creativity to give Benny and Toby new material for make believe.

The Goodwill SoCal store at Fletcher Square is neatly organized, featuring a Halloween Boo-Tique with costumes and clothing items (by the way, there are over 80 Goodwill Southern California stores).

When I entered, I was envisioning costumes and accessories to create a fancy family of cats from the Roaring 20s. Later, I started finding pieces that would make for a great Wizard of Oz family costume ensemble or a DC Comics character family. Ultimately, I opted for creative cowboy costumes!

As you may recall from my previous post,

I saved a ton of money, considering the huge expense that store-bought Halloween costumes can add up to!

Once home, I began preparing Toby’s costume to help him become a Cowboy Mouse, influenced by the Mexican children’s song of the same name. I grew up listening to Ratón Vaquero and my boys love the song too!

His costume included:

A pair of cowboy pants (I believe these are from another costume of Toy Story’s Cowgirl Jesse), a lovely red plaid shirt from Zara, a super fun tiny leather fringe vest, a black cowboy hat with a bandana and a toy gun.

By the way, the hat and bandana were brand new. Goodwill SoCal also carries new items to help complement the used clothing shopping experience.

In terms of the mouse ears, I ordered those online even though I could have probably made them with felt fabric and thin wire. The mouse ears were simply attached to Toby’s cowboy hat to appear as if they were sticking out. The result: A super cute Cowboy Mouse!

In the children’s song, the Cowboy Mouse is a blondie who speaks only English and has big feet— in other words, the Cowboy Mouse IS my son Tobias…lol!

For Benny’s costume,

At first I thought about taking apart this unique fringe outfit and use it to create cowboy chaps. The idea was to have a family of cowboy mice. But as I started looking at the two-piece set, I started imagining the “King of the Wild Frontier”— Davy Crockett.

With this idea came the realization that Benny would ask MANY questions about Davy Crockett, which would actually serve as a mini-history lesson. My husband, who is a history major, was happy to answer Benny’s inquiries. In turn, my son was intrigued and happy to play the part in our backyard.

In order to complete this costume,

I let him borrow a pair of moccasins and ordered a racoon hat. Once everything arrived, it was the most adorable thing to watch him “hunt and gather his next meal”.

Overall, shopping at Goodwill Southern California, was a lot of fun, friends.

I’m looking forward to working with this cool organization again to offer fun ideas on ways to reuse and recycle stuff.

In the meantime, hope you have a Happy Halloween.

Be safe out there!

Xo,

-Anabel M

Fun and Inexepensive Halloween Costumes from Goodwill SoCal!