BARCStoberfest 2013

WHAT A GREAT DAY!

Yesterday Phoebe and I had a blast at Barcstoberfest in Baltimore. It was jam packed with tons of booths, food, and adorable little dogs! I love puppies so much and it was so funny seeing them all dressed. Here was our day 🙂

We got up early to blog and have our coffee. Then it was costume time! I actually had to sew myself into my costume a bit, but hey whatever works! And if you guessed Minnie Mouse from yesterday’s blog, you were correct 😉

Ta da! Minnie! Complete with ears, whiskers,

A “dog” collar, and my Minnie necklace!

And let’s not forget my sidekick, the STAR of the show… MISS BUFFAY!

You can laugh. I am still laughing. She’s so darn cute!

Minnie and Mini Minnie!

Once we were dressed we hit the road! I didn’t make her wear the ears in the car, but the tutu didn’t bother her so we kept that on.

We arrived at the park after parallel parking… wow I forgot how bad I am at that! I let her walk next to me because she’s been so good at it lately. She doesn’t pull or tug or run out, she just walks next to me very calm.

I did receive a lot of compliments on my Tory Burch shoes. Minnie Mouse has to have style ya know. 

As soon as we arrived there were tons of people and pets everywhere. We couldn’t stop two feet without being photographed! Every one kept asking for pictures with us and I proudly showed my pup off. We worked so hard on these costumes!

It was a beautiful day at the park too. A bit windy, but blue skies!

Then we went to the booth for the race. Remember yesterday how I said we were doing the 1K? Well I was wrong, it was 1 MILE! Uh oh. Phoebe has little legs, a mile is a bit much for her.

Confession: we cut through the middle of the park. Phoebe is small and I was worried about a full mile for her! We actually did do most of it. I’d say probably 3/4 of a mile! When we got to the finish line tons of people were cheering, smiling, and laughing. All saying “You’re almost there little one! YOU CAN DO IT! YOU DID IT!” I was pretty hysterical because it was so cute, plus we cheated a little bit 😉

WE MADE IT!

In the end it didn’t really matter because the money goes to a wonderful cause, the local rescues and animal shelters.

After the “race” we walked all around the park and stopped by all the booths and vendors. We did plenty of chatting because everyone wanted a piece of Miss Buffay! She even made a few friends.

I love this picture!

Some cool bake sale stuff

More puppies

How cool is this shot? It might be hard to see, but basically this dog is propped up on this woman’s shoulders like a backpack. Phoebe and I also did a photo shoot here and donated to have the pictures e-mailed to us 🙂

Then look who we ran into!

My BFF DiPeppe 🙂 She was running one of the dog training booths! I think Phoebe was happy to see a familiar face.

How cute, they are making the exact same face.

After lots of browsing and making more friends, we entered the costume contest. We decided on the human/pet matching contest. All day we were stopped saying we were the clear winners. A lot of pets were dressed up, but not that many people. I’m usually not big on attention, but this was fun!

Her bow kept falling…

Look at all the pups backstage!

These dogs were in the “best group costume” contest. SO FUNNY!

There was also a game controller (the original Nintendo one), but he was held by someone else at the time. Just look at Princess Peach at the top! So hilarious. They obviously won their category.

When it was our turn on stage we twirled and strutted our stuff. I thought oh yeah Phoebs “WE GOT THIS!”. The crowd cheered us on. Then next up was a baby dressed as a cop with a robber dog. Uh oh we are DUNZO!

So yes, we lost. But hey, it was a little kid. We did it for fun and to support the animal shelter. I didn’t need the prize, I bought Phoebe and Shelby some chewies from a booth.

STILL WINNERS!

After the contest, we headed home. It was a LONG day for Miss Buffay and she did so great with all those dogs around all day long. She just stood beside me like a good little girl! It was a lot for her. She slept the ride and then at home she was passed out under the couch. My little angel 🙂

I did a QUICK gym session because I was pretty beat myself. Some back exercises and 25 minutes of spin class. I broke my rule about make up at the gym. I just didn’t feel like taking it off.

I did wipe off the nose and whiskers though

So our cute little costumes? CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! Both of ours only cost me $17.98! 

I bought Phoebe’s ears and tutu at PetSmart on clearance. It only cost me $4.02 with the Pet Perks card and a small credit my mom gave me.

My costume was DIY! Most of it I had in my own home already. So if you want a quick costume for Halloween night, here’s a few tricks for a DIY Minnie Mouse Costume: 

• Black leggings (I used my Lululemons)
• White socks
• Black ballet shoes (I used my Tory Burch)
• Black Tutu from a year I dressed as the black swan. (Chances are SOMEWHERE you have a tutu from a skirt where you dressed as something “flirty” for halloween one year. Use it as your base).
• Long black sleeved shirt, and/or white short sleeved on top
• Red and white polka dot fabric. Find me at any fabric store! I bought 1.5 yards, it was too much! Go with 1 yard.
• Embellishments: Mickey printed ribbon, red sequin ribbon, and 2 yellow buttons from fabric store.
• Old headband
• One black bra 
• A glue gun
• Red thread and a needle
• Black liquid liner

For the headband all I did was take out the cups of my black genie bra (I hate cups anyway), and I glued them to the headband with a glue gun! I just folded over one of the tips. I didn’t need to shape the ears or cut them at all. They looked pretty legit already! Then I just took some of my polka dot fabric, bunched it in the middle with a black hair tie and tied it to the headband. Genius!

Why spend 5-10 bucks on ears in the store when you can scrounge up the stuff at home?

The only other construction is the skirt. I just folded over the material of the skirt until it was the length I wanted, and used the glue gun again! Then I added some sequins and buttons (also glue gunned). The buttons were only 55 cents a piece. Once I found how I wanted the fit of the skirt on my body, I put the tutu on and pinned it in the back. In the morning I just sewed myself into it. Just a simple running stitch to hold the back together. I know how to sew PEOPLE, but the concept with material is essentially the same. It literally took me 3 minutes to sew into it. Nothing fancy!  But it got the job done 🙂

Finishing touches were some fun bows on my arms and ankles, the collar, and of course the liquid liner for whiskers and a nose 🙂

And there you have it! The money from my costume was solely material. I paid more for the sequined ribbon than anything else! Total for my costume: $13.96. Not bad eh? Compare that to something you would buy online for around 100 bucks! If you don’t go with the sequins, this would only cost you around 7 bucks. An adorable costume under 10 bucks guys! COME ON!  🙂 No more buying! 

Overall, a great day, and great memories! It was Phoebe’s first Halloween after all 🙂

XOXO With a Cherry On Top,

-Minnie