The Retro Round Up:: Spooky Spooky!

This weekend we put up our Halloween decorations.  The gourds are out and I’ve already eaten my weight in candy corn.  And I smell it in the air–the desire to do my annual Etsy/Ebay vintage Halloween costumes. Sweet!

Make every grandad on the block smile seeing this little Davy Crockett cutie coming up to his door! Sigh!

Your little girlie would look major in this darling majorette costume!

The Navy always is looking for a few good trick or treaters!

Holly Hobbie, you are too cute for words!

I just think about the kid who kept begging his mom to buy him the Star Wars storm trooper outfit and imagining the whole white hard plastic armor and getting this instead.

Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!

I dream of some kiddo dressing as Genie!

When given the chance to go as Evel Knievel, you go as Evel Knievel.

You can go as Mary and here is your little lamb!

Vintage Star Trek costume. Please someone buy this!

Happy Monday!

 

Call for Kiddos! Enter the 5th Annual Homemade Costume Parade!

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It’s that time of year again friends! October is upon us and that means HALLOWEEN isn’t far away! We love this time of year and for the past four years we have done a spectacular—and super popular!—round up of cool homemade costumes. Every year I think “We’re going to have a hard time beating last year’s costumes” but man you guys sure don’t disappoint!

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image: lishyloo

Even though most people buy their outfits these days (and trust me, there’s  nothin’ wrong with that!) I still love seeing what homemade goodies people whip up. Sometimes these handmade costume turns out amazingly well….aaaaand then sometimes, not so much. But there is something undeniably charming about doing it your own way.

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Which leads me to this: once again, we want to see YOUR homemade kiddo costumes. Let me be clear, you don’t have to be a Mini Martha, we’ll take it all! Perhaps you made something so stinkin’ cute you got compliments everywhere you went. Or maybe things didn’t work out QUITE the way you expected. Either way, we want to see!

I’ll be posting them here on Modern Kiddo in our infamous Homemade Costume Parade Photo Gallery. I’ll be sure to post them early enough so you can actually use them as inspiration for your own costumes!


images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

So what are you waiting for? Send me those photos!! Email me: Alix [at] modernkiddo.com. We prefer 550-600 pixels wide, if possible….and feel free to include a link to your blog/shop, if you have one. I can’t wait to see what you guys scare up this year!

The Retro Round Up:: Autumn Awesomeness

Hoo boy, what a beautiful weekend.  A little mimosa soaked play-date. Saturday dinner outside with pretzels. A ton of Uno.  New shoes for the Peach’s little iron shaped footies. Bathtime. Giggles. Naps.  Yup. Some weekends are unscheduled bliss.  And one of the hightlights of course was finding some lovely goodies for you all from Etsy.

This mug makes will help your kiddo make the most of this hot chocolate weather.

Why wear your heart on your sleeve when you could have it in your pocket with this dress.

Plaid + peter pan collar + ruffle = awesome!!!

Is that a bone in your pocket or are you just happy about this amazing little jacket?

This shirt? Perfection.

Ahoy mateys! Check out this bell-bottomed beauties.

I would have done anything for these cute little red shoes when I was a kiddo!

It doesn’t get any cozier than elephants on a sweater.


I want this dress in my size!  So darling!

 

And this wonderful book should be read snuggling up by the fire!

Happy Monday, friends!

 

 

Vintage Birthday Cakes

Mmmm. Birthday Cake. You know, back in the day people really made an effort to make their kiddo’s birthday cakes special—and personal. They cut and created. They decorated and embellished. Cakes were artful in a very home spun way!


image: curly wurly

I never was a fan of too much frosting when it came to eating, but I sure loved to look at it. When I was 4 or 5 one of my mom’s friends made me a gigantic ballerina shaped cake and whooooo boy did I think it was cool.


image: the happy apple

I have to say that ultimately I’m a big fan of the sweet and simple old timey two layer cake. My specialties are yellow cake with chocolate frosting and M&Ms all over the top (cute, easy, and festive!) and a lemon cake with cream cheese frosting (which is sooooo freakin’ scrumpdillyicious I can’t stand it).


Nowadays it seems that birthday cakes fall into a couple of camps. The over-the-top fondant covered fancy cake—that’s so elaborate it’s almost more of a wedding cake. (Does fondant really taste good anyway??) And the other option are the prefab, store-bought rectangle cakes with that puffy sweet frosting that makes yer teeth hurt. And then there are the cupcakes.

For all my yackin’, I’m never that adventurous and I always end up making cupcakes—which are admittedly all the rage with the elementary school set. While I do love a good cupcake, I still miss those proper homemade “cut up” cakes of the 1970s . Take a look at these babies from the Baker’s Coconut Cookbook and you’ll see what I mean! (Please pardon the butter and flour stains on the page—this little book was well loved!)

Poor Jerry Giraffe….it’s never a good sign when there are only two good things about you, and one of them involves you being eaten.

Awww, the gum drop horsey! So cute. Although it kinda looks like a llama…..

And then there’s the quirky Teddy Bear with it’s craaaazy eyes.

It’s a fluffy bunny, bear, er…. “THING”. And finally, the Cut-Up Kids!

The little girl is a TAD creepy. A slab o’ pink “leg” anyone??

So fun huh! I would loooove to bake something like that for Wolfie. Like, a groovy guitar cake! Or a wacky dog. Alas, my son is the World’s Only Child Who Hates Cake. It’s maddening. Cupcakes are his usual request, but someday I think I’ll just surprise him and bust out with something totally crazy. Like this red and yellow luv: