My husband and I went as troubled gothic teenagers one year. That was fun. All it took was a couple of capes, black wigs, pale makeup, black lipstick and a glare. The glare was the hard part.

I made a costume from an idea in a magazine one year, going as a piece of pizza. The slice was cardboard with red plastic plates as pepperoni, then a stuffed nylon stocking as the crust. It was not a good costume.

My niece went as an iPod last year, all that took was a piece of white cardboard with iPod-looking controls drawn on it. That was actually a good idea.

(Karla Wennerstrom is the editor of the Eden Prairie News. She can be reached at editor@edenprairienews.com.)

A Black Spider...... ...
Here's How
1. You get two black pairs of girls' tights. 2. Cut the legs off and stuff them with fiber-fill.
3. Sew the top of the legs closed and pin or baste two to each side of a black sweatshirt about 8" apart. Get some black pants or skirt with black nylons too. You will then have a total of 8 "legs" (2 arms, 2 legs and 4 tights)
4. Take fishing line and string the fake legs together for each side by looping the line around one leg, leave about 8 inches of line between the legs and loop or tie the line around the other leg. You will also need a line coming from the top leg with a loop in it to hang around your wrist.
5. I found a headband at the Dollar Store that was a spider "baby" to wear on my head.
6. Viola! You are now a spider and can spread your arms wide to scare the kiddies!

Caution: Be sure to wear a turtleneck or t-shirt under the sweatshirt with the legs sewn on. You cannot drive with your legs tied on! (at least don't tie them to your wrists) Also they make using the restroom a challenge, so if you think that you may partake of the Halloween punch, you need to have a "Potty Plan"

My daughter went as Medusa a few years ago and is planning on being her again this year. All I did for the costume was grab a black and green curly long-haired wig, cut some rubber snakes in half and sew them to the wig with fishing wire. (The snakes stick out of the hair nicely once the wig is on your head) Then I painted her face green and did some black shading around her eyes, cheeks and mouth to make her look scary.

Another great costume I did was for my 2-year-old son last year. He went as the traditional oompa loompa from the first Willy Wonka movie. We sprayed his hair green, swirled it up in front and gave him an orange face by using some bronzer make-up. Then I bought a pair of white pants, shortened them and sewed suspenders on with the criss-cross in front and big brown buttons. He wore a brown shirt and socks with white masking tape stripes on the cuffs and collar of the shirt and verticle stripes on the socks as well. He looked so cute and was just the right size to be an oompa loompa.