Do it Yourself - Halloween Fairy Costume That Symbolizes Mother Nature

You could definitely come up with a unique idea for this Halloween. By dressing up as Mother Nature, as a wonderful fairy princess that lives deep in the woods, you will definitely make an outstanding appearance.

You can very easily create such a Halloween fairy costume, using a few basic items and accessories. Moreover, such an outfit is appropriate for all ages and regardless of what size you wear, this outfit will look magnificent on you.

First, you will need a simple, light grey dress, which has a corset like top and short sleeves, with a loose skirt. This will be the basic item for your Halloween fairy costume.

For the decorations, you will need one olive green satin ribbon, and organza fabric sheets of different colors, such as soft green, red and brown. First, if your dress has short sleeves of a classic cut, you will start adding organza sheets at the bottom trim of your sleeves.

Add them in such a manner that these will have a jagged edges look. If you are not very skilful, it is best if you pin these organza sheets first to the sleeve, in order to make the necessary adjustments, and proceed sewing them only after you like what you see.

Now, your Halloween fairy costume has already got a touch of nice color and a pair of fluttering sleeves. Using the same strategy, add a few organza sheets of different colors starting from the waistline of your dress.

This will help you create a very interesting pattern, and turn a relatively plain dress into a gorgeous costume for Halloween. On the corset like top, you will add a criss-cross detail from the olive green satin ribbon. You can already notice major changes in your simple dress, although little effort was needed to achieve that.

Alongside the neckline, you can add a nice flower garland, or even a leaf boa- style scarf. You can sew these nicely onto the dress, and you will immediately notice what a nice personification of nature your dress has become.

Wear your Halloween fairy costume with a nice pair of brown high heel leather sandals or even flat shoes, whichever most comfortable for you. Apply a nice natural makeup, by using mineral eye shadows and blush.

Avoid using strong colors on your eyes such as blue or pink, because you will ruin the entire symbolic appearance. Instead, use only earthly tones such as brown, green, or olive green.

When she is not out researching new costume fabrics and styles, Daniela Davis is writing about how to choose a Fairy Princess Costume that matches best the most beautiful Halloween fairy costume, for the most exciting Halloween celebration.

Be True To Yourself - Save The Mask For Halloween

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With Halloween just around the corner, it got me thinking about Masks - not in the costume sense, but rather in the way we hide our true selves from others.

When we were little, wearing Masks was all about playing make believe and pretending to be someone else just for fun. But as we get older and the pressure to fit in gets bigger, we may wear a mask to try and get others to like us or accept us into the group. Before long, we get so good at fooling others that eventually we wind up deceiving ourselves because even we don't know who we really are.

We all have our roles in life; student, son, daughter, mother, father, teacher, friend. But there may be roles that we play and Masks we wear that we may not even be aware of and that may be keeping us trapped in fear and insecurity.

For example, you may be someone who demands perfection from everything that you do. In some ways, that characteristic will serve you, but more often than not, this kind of striving can leave you feeling like you'll never be good enough. You may be wearing the mask of the judge, who is forever criticizing and demanding perfection of yourself and others.

If you've ever done anything just to fit in, or said "yes" when you really wanted to say "no," you may be wearing the mask of the chameleon that continually changes its colors to blend in with any environment, which can put you in compromising and even dangerous situations.

There are others too such as; the bully, the victim, the imposter, the rebel, the clown - and all of them are covering up feelings of insecurity about who you really are. There is no shame in discovering that you've been wearing a mask. But it's important to realize this truth - not everyone is going to like us. So if we live our lives becoming the best, most authentic version of ourselves, the people that do like us, actually like us for who we really are.

Wearing masks may give us temporary relief and may give us the illusion that we are safe and secure, but it takes so much energy to keep up the façade that eventually we end up exhausted and depressed. If you keep pressing the real you down, the only possible and inevitable outcome is depression.

Here are 3 tips to help you take off the mask:

1. Get to know yourself: This is one of the most important jobs you have in life. Self-knowledge is the key to self-mastery, power, self-confidence and inner peace.

2. Stop comparing yourself to others: There is no one on the planet quite like you and the world wouldn't be the same without you in it. It is so much more important to be a first rate version of you instead of a second rate version of someone else.

3. Celebrate your strengths: make a list of everything you like about yourself. Like attracts like, so when you focus on your strengths, you'll attract more positive people, events and situations back to you.

Save the mask for Halloween. The world doesn't need another insecure, depressed teen. We need strong, confident leaders. We need you.

Kathleen Hassan is a professional speaker and teen life coach and travels the country presenting programs on self-esteem, stress management and empowerment to students, parents and teachers. Her hard-earned wisdom and real-life lessons are based on her own journey from troubled teen to teen mentor to successful entrepreneur. She can be reached at 617-698-1976 or visit her online at http://www.KathleenHassan.com

Three Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Buy Toys For Your Kids

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Some toys are over hyped and others that I quite like, are never advertised. When I see new toys or the kid wants something she saw on TV, I usually ask myself "What can this toy be used for" and "How long will it keep the kid interested." The last question I sometimes never ask, cause I never get that far is "Does the toy teach anything or does it build imagination or some other characteristic."

These three questions, hopefully will give me an idea about the usefulness and longevity of the new toy. If the toy passes the first two questions then it is into the realm of learning. Some toys never make it this far, they are just ornaments. I don't look at the safety aspect as most toys are safe, but I am careful with little bits and pieces.

For the first question I think about what you can do with the toy. Whether you can play alone or with friends. Can it be used with other toys to do other things, or is it a one hit wonder.

As an example we will use the Star Wars Darth Vader Mask. This little toy is very popular because of the film, but I think its usefulness is very limited. You could use it in pretend play but how long will that last. I would say this type of toy is used for sharing, a sort of play and share toy to see who can come up with the most outrageous line. It is not really the type of toy you could play with by yourself.

For the second question I think this toy would be discarded quite early, as there seems to be very little to keep the kid amused. Once you have said your few lines what do you then. Then again there are all the accessories to buy to go with the mask, like the clothes and boots. The money is in the accessories these days. Unless your kid wants to be an actor I would not get around to asking the third question.

The toys I do like are the LEGOS, the MEGA BLOKS and the PLAYMOBILS that the kids use to build things. Gone are the days when I was young and LEGO was a bucket of bricks that you could make anything with. The only limit was your imagination.

Nowadays imagination has gone out the door to be replaced with an operator's manual so you get all the bricks and accessories in the right place. They are still fun to do. The finished product is a beautiful crafted masterpiece that usually ends up on top of the piano or coffee table until the cat destroys it.

So far for my kid the max is three times to redo one. So I would say the novelty wears off after three attempts. These toys build finishing ability and teach how to follow a plan. Also they are good for a rainy afternoon as they can take some time to finish. But the downside is they can be very pricey.

For these toys the answer to the first questions would be-- the kid can build something. They can see the finished product and match it with the picture to see if it is correct. The next answer would be they can remake it or make there own design. And for the last question I would say the kid should definitely learn something while putting the blocks together.

Using these three questions I somehow manage to buy what I consider to be useful toys. Therefore I am not swamped by the advertising hype or the "Keeping up with the Jones" sort of thing.

Peter Legrove:
Toyman, Peter Puzzler, I love toys and puzzles and animals and dinosaurs and bugs. I have kids of my own so I am always on the lookout for the latest and greatest in toys.

This article is copyright © Peter Legrove 2006 at http://www.animalsdinosaursandbugs.com/Books-And-Toys.htm Our website specializes in toys, puzzles and games that have an animal, dinosaur or insect theme.