Goodwill Haunting...er, Hunting for Halloween

And no, I don't mean the movie.   This year I avoided the store-bought costumes and looked for items at Goodwill and other thrift stores in my town, as well as Dollar Tree to assemble something for this year.  When the month began, I had several ideas in mind, including a mermaid, a prisoner (in orange) or a gold digger.  One night as I went to bed, I still hadn't made a decision, but kept seeing images of gold digger costumes I'd seen over the years on the web, and then decided this was what I was going to do.  I'd though of doing it for years now and now is the time.

Again, I chose to avoid store-bought costumes as there was no way I was wearing something like this:

 

Also,  there was no Spirit store in my town this year and this was not available at Kmart (did not expect to find it there), and I didn't feel like buying from Amazon or any other sites, I knew hitting the thrift stores was in order. Since this was cheaper, I knew it was the better way to go.  Along with Goodwill, my town has several local thrift stores run by volunteers from organizations (including one run by the county hospital) and open on certain days of the week.  I visit them quite regularly.  

I got a toy firefighters' helmet and gold chains with dollar signs from the Dollar Tree.  Trying to find a shovel was hard as the toy ones are hard to find now that summer is over.  So I settled for a garden shovel, found at one of the other thrift stores.  I spray-painted the hat and shovel gold, and glued the lens from a broken flashlight onto the hat.  And from Goodwill I got a golden-threaded sweater, a gold belt, golden-strapped shoes, and blue pajama bottoms, which I spray-painted gold as well.  

More info, and photos to come.