The Winter Olympics figure skating competition looked like an impressive take on a fancy dress party. All competitors looked great in their fancy dress style costumes.

The British team went for a country and western fancy dress theme. The French wouldn’t have looked out of place at a fancy dress bask in their can-can costumes. Bollywood fancy dress is still proving popular with the US team choosing a very spangley costume set. The Japanese costumes would have fitted into our fancy dress wardrobe a treat, with an impressive Geisha style costume and matching fan.

Despite looking like a Dancing on Ice show the figure skating competition was a hit with Canada coming up trumps and taking first place.

The annual sledging race in the Czech Republic was a spectacle of fancy dress delights. All competitors made great efforts with their fancy dress costumes. Around seventy-one teams of three took it in turns to pull an 8kg sled around the course.

Among the fancy dress ideas was an impressive pirate fancy dress crew. In pirate fancy dress costumes with pirate fancy dress hats and even a huge pirate flag attached to their sled they really looked the part. Teams in nurse fancy dress outfits, clown fancy dress costumes and leprechaun fancy dress all braved the cold and testing course. Another highly impressive fancy dress team were the astronauts. In white astronaut fancy dress outfits complete with helmets, back packs and even a rocket on their sled they looked great!

If the snow continues here in the UK maybe we could organise a similar competition……

With Book Week approaching rapidly for schools all over the UK, it’s time for many parents and children to get their fancy dress thinking caps on! Fancy dress ideas can be a struggle at Book Week, so here are some popular Book Week fancy dress outfits to help.

Red Riding Hood fancy dress costumes are a regular hit at Book Week for the girls. Also popular are the Tudor and Victorian girl fancy dress costumes. These fancy dress costumes consist of a dress, apron or waistcoat and a hat to complete the look simply.

For boys Robin Hood fancy dress is popular along with the Scarecrow fancy dress outfit from The Wizard of Oz. Again the Tudor and Victorian Poor Boy fancy dress costumes are an easy fancy dress choice to achieve an Oliver Twist style look.

Harry Potter fancy dress outfits always get the thumbs up at Book Week. There are a range of Harry Potter fancy robes, a Voldemort fancy dress costume and a Harry Potter Accessory Kit to choose from.

If you’re a teacher taking part in Book week and are in need of a fancy dress costume – do not fret there are fancy dress ideas for you too! There are Lord of the Rings fancy dress costumes, Wizard of Oz fancy dress outfits including Dorothy fancy dress costumes, Scarecrow fancy dress outfits and Wicked Witch of the West costumes. Or if you want to be down with the kids how about a Harry Potter fancy dress idea?

Fancy dress at New York Fashion week….a rarity I’d say! Kelly Osbourne stunned the photographers in her interesting choice of dress. Her outfit was so close to a Wilma Flintsone fancy dress costume the resemblance was uncanny. Kelly’s outfit was a one shoulder, orange and black number with jagged edges….in true cavewoman fancy dress style. To finish off her prehistoric look Kelly went for a pair of black peep toe shoes…but where is the cavewoman in that you’re asking? The shoes were decorated with animal bones going through the front – interesting choice but it worked!

Fancy dress or no fancy dress Kelly looked great, especially sporting her new slim line figure after her participation in the US hit show Dancing With The Stars.

With Pancake Day looming charity organisers in Devon have organised a fancy dress pancake race. The Sid Valley Rotary Club have organised the fancy dress race to take part on Shrove Tuesday. The race will involve fancy dress revellers running through a Sidmouth street tossing pancakes as they go. The fancy dress charity goers will be from local businesses with the winners receiving an engraved frying pan and the money raised going to Polio Plus.

I’ve been scratching my fancy dress heady, thinking of suitable fancy dress ideas for such an event….Now you would want a fancy dress costume that is lightweight and not too bulky so you are free to run like the wind. A couple of fancy dress ideas could be the lightweight Banana fancy dress outfits or a Decades fancy dress costume to add some colour to the affair. If you wanted to bare all to streamline yourself to the max then how about some Hawaiian fancy dress. You can’t go wrong with a fancy dress lei and hula skirt…let’s just hope the weathers nice!

Over 5000 people gathered in Perton, Staffordshire for an immense Tough Guy Contest. The competitors braved mud, the bitter weather and fire on an assault course that would put the likes of Rocky and Rambo through their paces.

As if the gruelling assault course wasn’t enough, some competitors decided to wear fancy dress costumes. The fancy dress ideas were rather fitting with Superman fancy dress outfits, Robocop fancy dress and even a Spartan Warrior style fancy dress costume. The competitors (including those in fancy dress) had to run through a field of fire, crawl through ice underneath barbed wire and even combat and electric fence – ouch!

The event was so popular that over 1000 people were turned away. There were plenty of policeman and military personnel taking part, commenting that the Tough Guy Contest is one of the hardest tests of physical and metal endurance. With plenty of broken bones, bruises and blood shed loads of fun was had – fancy dress or no fancy dress! Rather them than me…..