Bloom Where You're Planted This Halloween:   

Here's One Unique Halloween Costume  

It's not everyday you get to meet a real live plant.  In fact, Halloween is probably about the only time of the year you can say this.  And then only if you stumble across some person brave enough to take a lampshade and make it the cornerstone of her Halloween costume. 

I've had the dubious distinction of meeting one such woman.  A friend of mine, she's involved in a murder mystery, dinner theatre event for Halloween.  The murder occurs aboard a fictional cruise ship during a costume party. 

The organizers of the event said that those who had no major roles could roam throughout the evening and be "plants" in the audience to help guide the thinking toward who may have murdered the character. 

BINGO!  Plant.  She decided she wanted to be Rhoda.  Rhoda Dendron.  You've guessed it.  She would dress looking like a rhododendron.  Clever, huh? 

Now the only question was how to carry this clever idea out.  She started with a lampshade.  (Okay, so she really started with a flower pot and found these would be too heavy for a hat!) 

So, she took a lampshade, covered it with leaves and then took a flower (Shh! Don't tell anyone it's a hydrangea and not a rhododendron and he'll never know) and secured it at the top of the lampshade.  The flower appears to be sticking straight up out of what would be a hole in the bottom of this flower pot. 

But the cool thing is that every time she shakes her head, the flower bobs along with her.  Rhoda makes a wonderful plant! 

For a moment, "Rhoda" though was puzzled about what to do for the rest of the costume.  A lampshade hardly makes a full Halloween costume. 

So my friend bought a dark green turtle neck sweater and green knit pants.  Then she visited her local craft store and bought as many leaves and vines as she could.  And she secured this on the sweater and the pants. 

Now, "Rhoda's" costume was complete!  She made the perfect plant for the murder mystery -- and a universal Halloween costume!