Costume Party Project Supporter "J"eni

We just received this email from our friend Jeni!
We love the support and these outfits are GREAT; your kids looked adorable!

   Just wanted to pass on my story so that the "J's" will
know that the  project has inspired others!

When the kids wanted to go to the dress up party as Jessie &
Woody from Toy Story, I decided that I would try my best to buy
nothing new  while putting their costumes together. I hunted on
ebay for several  days & found brown cowboy boots for Ella & a
yellow plaid shirt for  Ryan.  My Mom said she had a red bandana
and would mail it to us. With  those on their way, I stopped in at
Sprout and couldn't believe my  eyes when I saw a red & white
western shirt - in the right size no  less - perfect for "Jessie".
Over to the antique store across the  parking lot - where I found
a plain red hat and a black kids cowboy  hat (I know Woody's hat
is brown, but the black one was $5! Good  enough, right?).  Ella
complained that the red hat didn't have any  white on it, but I
kept telling her that I would fix that. I searched  through my stash
of ribbons & added a white ribbon around the hat.  Then
remembered how my Dad had sent me a little bag that was
filled  with yards & yards of white shoelace ribbon. So I punched
holes around  the hat & threaded the shoelace thru to add the
white lacing.

The hardest pieces to find were the cowprint vest and chaps - in  
little kid sizes - kind of too specific to find on ebay or at an  
antique store (although at that antique store I fell in love with a  
pair of leather chaps in my size with fringe all the down the sides -  
how do you girls stay focused in those stores that have so much to  
look at?).  So I decided it might be okay to "craft" those pieces and  
off to the fabric store I went to find cowprint fabric. It was  
actually a lot of fun to sew clothes, since I usually only sew home  
decor kind of stuff.  Other than a big belt for Ryan at Goodwill, the  
rest of the costumes came out of their closets (so glad I bought
Ryan  those cowboy rain boots last winter!). Oops - I did end up
buying  something new - the little sheriff badge - found a pack of
badges at  the dollar store. I tried my best tho! :)

Here's some pics - and thanks for the inspiration!!! It's been so fun  
following your project!