Happy Friday: Amazing Pumpkin Carvings, Movie Theater Floor Costume and Family of Pirates Costumes

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We had so many fun Happy Friday submissions this week and it was hard to just choose one so I decided to choose the three below. Enjoy! 😀

Sent from reader, Brandy:

I am an artist at heart and I absolutely love to paint. I occasionally do 3D pumpkin carvings around the Fall season and I find that everyone enjoys them and generally walks away feeling inspired to carve their own. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, “If my art leaves people feeling inspired, then that is enough reason to keep me painting for the rest of my life – money or not.”

Having said that I just wanted to let you know that I have been following your blog for many years thanks to my friend Sarah. I have seen your blog develop from its early stages into what it is today and I am always so amazed at how you never cease to give so much advice, time, and money away to those in need, including your readers – inspiring others in the process. This e-mail is to remind everyone that whether your talent is saving money, art, cooking, writing, or you name it, it is always important that we remind ourselves to use our talents to inspire others and give when we can. Happy Halloween everyone! And Happy Friday!

* To see more of Brandy’s amazing artwork and Pumpkin Carvings, check out her web-site here.


Sent from reader, Liz:

Here’s an inexpensive, easy, and fun costume idea– a movie theater floor! We hot-glued empty candy and popcorn boxes, soda cups, straw wrappers, popcorn, wrappers, etc. to a black sweatshirt and beanie. It was a huge hit!


Sent from reader, Heather:

Just wanted to send you a quick pic of our brood’s Halloween Costumes this year. We LOVE Halloween, but it can get expensive so following the sales the past few months we were able to come up with costumes for all 4 of us and a pirate ship for under $30.

My son got his pirate costume from the Children’s Place sale you posted about a few weeks ago, with free shipping and cash back his costume came out to $14.57. My other son (the baby) was his parrot. I made the costume myself using a romper I bought on sale at carters for online for $6 (another sale with free shipping). I got the felt, eyes and fabric glue at Michael’s which was on sale and I paired with another 20% off entire purchase coupon you posted totaling a whopping $5. A few stitches later he had a great costume.

My crafty hubby made the pirate ship around our kiddo’s wagon with cardboard (free at the appliance store), tape (free during a Staples sale after coupons and rebate) and misc paint and parts we had lying around the house. I made the jolly roger flag with felt included from my Michael’s purchase.

And My husband and I who were also both pirates got our costumes totally free at a Costume Swap our Parent Group had! Everyone so far has loved our costumes more than those pricey store bought ones, my kids even won the costume contest at our local farmers market~! Thank you for always inspiring us to save creatively…See you can have fun on a budget!


HAPPY FRIDAY! 😀


Do you have a funny, “Hip”, or unique photo to share?! Email us at happyfriday@hip2save(dot)com. Every Friday, I will post one photo, submitted by you and/or another Hip2Save reader, that gives us a glimpse into your frugal lifestyle or simply makes us smile. If your photo is published on Hip2Save, we’ll email you a $10 Amazon e-card!

** Check out all of the previous Happy Friday pictures here.

Join The Discussion

Comments 17

  1. Debi

    My baby was a parrot the year my son was a pirate. So cute! I still have the costume…but no more babies!

  2. Dawn

    Definitely love the movie-theater floor! Awesome idea!!! Now…..the hardest part will be getting the actual “movie” popcorn box! Very clever! Maybe dump a bunch of soda all over the sweatshirt and let it dry sticky lol. 😉

  3. Destinee

    Love the pirates! The parrot idea is adorable!!!

    • Ketsy

      Our local zoo has a contest and the family that won did this too. They converted their wagon into the ship . Too cute.

  4. Ashley

    Those pumpkins are amazing! I love the mad hatter one! Sadly when I carve pumpkins you can never tell if a child did it or myself 😉 The movie theatre floor is super funny and the pirate family is adorable 😀

    • Brandy

      Thank you! The Mad Hatter is one of my favorites too! And hey, the very first pumpkin I did didn’t look so good either…He stayed inside of my house on the kitchen table. Haha. The most important thing is that they sure are fun to carve though! I look forward to carving a regular ol’ jack o’ lantern with m 3 year old – it’ll be his first one ever! Happy Halloween Ashley!

  5. Amy

    I love all of these! The theater floor reminded me of a costume I wore once. You wear pink sweat pants and a sweat shirt and then stick a shoe on top of your head. That’s all you need to become gum on the bottom of a shoe! Haha

  6. Jenny

    OMG that Grinch pumpkin is insane. Amazing!

    • Brandy

      Thanks Jenny! That photo isn’t even of the finished product – That was about halfway done. I eventually added more details to the face, and some “hair”. I’m not sure if you have seen my blog yet, but I have the photos of the finished piece on there. =)

  7. Jean

    Brandy, I checked our your blog and website. Wow! You are incredibly talented and gifted. Best wishes in all your endeavors. Thanks for sharing with us all!!

    • Brandy

      Thank you so much for your kind words! I really enjoy creating new pieces, and I’m really excited about the pumpkins this year since they are fairly new to me. It’s hard to be noticed in the art world though, since there are so many wonderful artists out there. Having said that I am very happy that I was one of the ones chosen to be featured on the Happy Friday post!

  8. Ashley

    aww, the movie theater floor costume reminded me of my first grade costume of a picnic table with the checker table cloth draped over me with fake food and plastic silverware and plates hot glued to it!

  9. Bethany

    Awww Heather your family is adorable!!!

  10. Tilla Ham

    the movie theater floor is best costume ever, I will totally do that for my 15 year old next year, as she never has any ideas for her school halloween dance

  11. Susan

    Loved all of these! Will be letting my early 20’s children who both are videophiles know about the movie theater floor costume!

  12. Adrianne

    The pumpkins are AMAZING! Great job.

    • Brandy

      Thanks Adrianne! I appreciate the compliment! Happy Halloween! =)

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