Hannah Montana hangs out here, and Bob the Builder, too - both sharing space with brides and hippies, rock stars and tourists, doctors and nurses. They’re all a dime a dozen on the racks of Goodwill stores.

“October is our busiest month at Goodwill stores,” said Lauren Lawson, representative of Goodwill Industries International. Not only do the stores carry new, packaged costumes for around $13, the rows and rows of clothing, shoes and boots, hats, belts, bags, linens and kiddie stuff need nothing but a bit of creativity to turn them into the coolest costumes on the street.

“With the economy this year, the state it’s in, no one wants to go out and spend $40 or $50 on something they’re going to wear exactly once,” said Juli Lundberg, a regional Goodwill representative. Plus, you’ll give to Goodwill’s good cause: job training programs for those who need help.

Need ideas? Try a few of these:

• Old prom gown? Make a gold cardboard Oscar statuette, pile your hair on top of your head and go as a red carpet winner. Or cut the dress down for a little girl’s princess costume.
• Argyle vest? White button-down shirt? Go prep!

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Show us a little girl and odds are good that at some point in her childhood, she will want to be a fairy for Halloween.

Enter Costumes Fairy, a small business in Ashland, Ore., where the most beautiful fairy costumes are hand-made by a couple (Richard and Robin Reno, who goes by the alias Earth Star). The costumes are made from sturdy but ethereal fabrics that are “non-itchy”

Recently, Town and Country magazine asked Earth Star to provide costumes for Brooke Shields’ daughters to wear during a photo shoot.  

Among their offerings are the fairy moon princess, (above left), which features two layers of soft tulle, trimmed in satin. Without wings, the costume is $65, and with wings it’s $95. The Cinderella fairy dress (above right) is another wonderous costume at $55 (without wings).

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With all of those much-too-cute dog togs out there, Fido may be even more fashionable than his (or her) owner this Halloween. According to the American Pet Products Association, Americans will spend $43.4 billion (yes, as in nine zeroes!) on their pets this year. Among the big trends is playing dress-up with our dogs. So it should come as no surprise that we’re about to unleash the hounds of Halloween with our hand-picked assortment of dynamic duo “dogstumes”: Dog With the Wind: Rhett Butler ($36) and Scarlett ($48) - above

The Dark K-9ght: The Batman ($19) and Joker ($13)

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Trick out your littlest treater in one of the most upscale Halloween costumes around. Photographer Tom Arma has been called the “Armani of the Kiddy costume world” by the Wall Street Journal, and once you take a look at these oh-so adorable costumes, you’ll see why. Each costume in the Tom Arma Signature Collection is available in infant and toddler sizes and sold exclusively through Halloween Express. Be warned: Tom Arma produces a limited number of costumes each year, and like Beanie Babies, once they’re gone, they’re gone, so order now.

Flower ($50 infant, $60 toddler)

Pumpkin ($50)

Snowbaby ($60)

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There they sit, in the dish, all innocent in yellow, orange and white, plotting. They have the power to ruin your dinner and send your diet over the cliff.  You know this, and yet your hand still creeps toward the tri-colored demons. The battle is lost. And for heaven’s sake, it isn’t even chocolate.

Resistance is futile when it comes to candy corn, and the candy’s time of year draws near. Did you realize that an estimated 20 million pounds of it is sold every year, (and that Oct. 30 is National Candy Corn Day)? Therefore, in an effort at diversion, we offer candy corn fanatics some alternatives to the evil little triangles of tubbiness made of corn syrup and sugar.

Juicy Couture is on the job with a pretty little candy corn charm that says, appropriately, “Live for Sugar” on one side ($42).

Proclaim your allegiance with an “I Love Candy Corn” T from Café Press ($20), or  hang your feelings on the door with Lillian Vernon’s candy corn wreath and garland, where giant candy corns are all dressed up in silk leaves and organza ribbon. Crate and Barrel creates candy corn cookies ($6), of all things, as well as a candy corn tray ($15) and candy corn mugs ($5-$9).

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Was your man born with two left feet? You’ve got just enough time until the season of wedding party dances is upon us to teach him – and maybe yourself – how to move on the floor with the greatest of ease. Chuck Reed’s How to Dance with Two Left Feet: A Comprehensive Guide to Real World Dancing ($60) offers hope to the rhythmically-challenged with simplified, sometimes humorous instruction on a three-disc DVD covers basics such as how to lead and how to find and follow the beat in the music. Direct your guy to How to Have More Social Success for  tips on the basics of dancing. The site, written by a self-described recovering socially inept awkward guy, says men need to know that they just have to be good enough to blend in with the crowd on the dance floor and not look like a dork. At Learning2Dance.com, you and yours can learn from a dance instruction video that timing really is everything in salsa, hiphop, ballroom, Latin, tango and more and will even make a custom DVD for you. Highly recommended is DanceTutor.com, because its instruction videos can be downloaded and watched frame-by-frame and in slow motion. A manual is still a good choice if you or your partner scored high in kindergarten on the “follows directions well” portion on your report card. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ballroom Dancing includes step-by-step photos that cover common ballroom dances and an instructional DVD ($17). Both you and your partner will feel like stepping out in official ballroom wear from DanceSport Ballgowns. For those who crave context, the dance manual section at Library of Congress includes much more than a history of social dancing in America. Video clips feature dancers in period costume performing dances like the Washington Post two-step against the backdrop of the Library’s Great Hall in the Jefferson Building.

March has been a banner month for fans of Dr. Seuss and his clever, wildly creative children’s books. Many schools celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday (he was born March 2, 1904, and died in 1991), and then on March 14, the animated movie Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who (pictured), starring the voices of Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and Carol Burnett, opened, drawing millions of children and their parents into movie theaters. If your child loved the movie, it’s a good time to introduce them to other Seuss volumes. A nice collection from Scholastic is Your Favorite Seuss: A Baker’s Dozen by the One and Only Dr. Seuss, which includes The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Sneetches and more ($34.95). A thoughtful gift for a young relative would be a membership in the Dr. Seuss Scholastic Book Club. Each member receives seven books, a tote bag and a copy of The Cat in the Hat for the introductory fee of $4.99 plus shipping. Each month, two different books are sent; if you choose to keep them, each book is $4.99 plus $3.99 for shipping and handling. Seussville, a web site run by Random House, has click-and-play games with characters from the books, a biography of Dr. Seuss, a catalog of his work and a listing of book-related events. Amazon.com has its own Dr. Seuss Shop, featuring a selection of Seuss titles. For babies, you can’t miss with a board-book copies of Dr. Seuss’ ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! and Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? ($4.99 each). Other fun Seuss-related items available online are the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook, by Georgeanne Brennan ($16.95), and a plush red-and-white top hat, like the one worn by the Cat in the Hat. You can wear it when you read bedtime stories to your children, after a dinner of green eggs and ham.

Being a fool for wienie dogs, I’m always on the lookout for dachshund-inspired objects and books, but my amazement at Fuzzy Nation Couture’s faux-crocodile red dachshund ($180, pictured), Burrberry chihuahua ($59), and bronze pug ($140) handbags has led me to several wacky animal-inspired fashions. If you’re saying, “But what will I wear with those nutty handbags?” Fuzzy Nation also offers newsboy hats ($32) and brooches ($12) to complete your ensemble. Carnaval and Mardi Gras 2008 may be over, but Halloween costume parties can give you reason to wear Laurie Jacob’s Blowfish Bra ($250) from her Spiky Bras collection. The padded push-up bra is made of 100 percent breathable synthetic, and the designer promises that “proceeds from all sales will go to my eventual analysis.” Over at Etsy, artist Neile’s Butterfly Wing Jewelry combines fine silversmithing with an eye for design and a love of butterflies. “The butterflies I use are farmed all over the world, and harvested after their natural death. No butterflies are killed for my use,” Neile reassures, for guilt-free shopping. Also at Etsy, check out the Cool Kitten Skirts like this one ($43.95) by Koosi, an artist from the Netherlands, or this “seriously cool” one from Kinchi ($43). Cool? I don’t know about that, but they’re awfully cute if you’re into kittens. Whatever species you adore, go get your wacky animal groove on.