DIY Halloween Costume Ideas

Halloween is Saturday! Can you believe that? If the holiday snuck up on you like it did me and  your still scrambling to find the perfect costume here are few DIY costume ideas you can put together fairly easily and inexpensively. 

1. Beanie Baby

beanie baby costume by cleopatrajonez featuring a jump suit

If you're a 90's kid like I was a 90's kid you may or may not have 63 or more of these bad boys collecting dust in your parents basement. The first thing you'll need to do is DIY a quick TY tag. A good sized piece of cardboard and some paint (or glue and construction paper) plus a ribbon or string to tie around your neck should do the trick. There are two ways to go about the costume portion. 1. You could buy a cute animal onesie add your TY tag and bam! you're done. Or  2. you can get the basics of an animal costume, for instance wear a black top/ pant ( or a good jumpsuit) and a pair of animal ears then add the diy TY tag around your neck and you've got the perfect 90's throwback costume.  Since most people have some been some sort of animal for Halloween at least once (or know someone who has) the basic elements of this costume are pretty simple and you may already have some of pieces at home. You can make this costume as "sexy" as you want with whatever you choose to be your main piece of clothing. If you want to  make it scary/ morbid you could be a zombie/ vampire/ pet eaten beanie baby to add a little more personal flare.

2.  Orphan Black Clone

orphan black clone costume by cleopatrajonez featuring dr martens boots

If you don't watch Orphan Black you totally should, but to put it very simply it's a show about clones. It follows four main clones Sarah who's kind of punk, Alison who's preppy, Cosima kind of alternative and Helena ... well she's just kinda crazy. All of the various clones have super easy DIY costumes, especially Alison and Sarah, and all of these pieces could be found in your wardrobe or a good thrift store.


3. Cookie Lyon

Cookie Lyon Costume by cleopatrajonez featuring chain jewelry

I think one of the hottest costumes this year will be Mrs. Cookie Lyon. Her outrageous style is so fun and easily copied that I wouldn't be surprised if come the 31st Cookie Sightings are everywhere. This costume is super easy to assemble Cookie never met an animal print or fur she didn't like. If you have any of those in your closet you're already ahead.  Leopard is probably her most iconic print so bonus points for any leopard pieces. Otherwise a nice bodycon dress, heels, a faux fur jacket (the tackier the better)  and some gold accessories will also give you serious Cookie. 

4. Minion

minion costume by cleopatrajonez featuring a 8oz flask

Minions are a big costume for kids this year but it's also a super easy costume for adults. All you need are overalls, a yellow shirt, black gloves, black shoes and of course minion goggles (which you should be able to find pretty easily or make yourself). You can go traditional overalls or an overall dress if you want to be a little more feminine. Either way this is an easy costume thats super easy and recognizable so you probably won't have to explain your costume all night.


Anyway  if you need any more inspiration you can check out my old Halloween costume posts featuring:  Mad Men inspired looks , Minnie Mouse, and 70's mob wife/ Rhoda. If you still can't think of anything youtube and blogs are full of ideas. Another quick a dirty tip is to just take a trip to your local thrift store, you're bound to find a piece that will inspire a great costume.

 

Junk BoNaNzA 2015!

I've been to the Junk Bonanza a couple times now (in 2012 and 2013) but had to skip last year since both my mom and I worked during the festivities. This year we both had time to go the first day of the event and were pretty pumped. Though we don't always come away with things there's so much cool stuff to see it's always worth a trip. Plus, the things we have picked up there are pretty awesome and some of our favorites. This year we went on the first day and boy was it busy. The first main room was super crowded and it was a bit hard to make your way into different booths as you were kind of swept forward with the crowd. Luckily the other three rooms were far less crowded. There were a lot of cool pieces but I left empty handed again this year as I had a pretty small budget and didn't see anything I needed within it. When I go to any sort of antique/vintage event I'm always looking for things that are unique and hard to find at Thrift stores, estate sales, flea markets and/or really cheap vintage stores, so I sometimes come away empty handed if I don't see anything amazing that I can afford. It's still fun to browse though and you never know what you'll find. So here are a few of the cool things I saw while walking around the bonanza.

 I'm really into these old organizational and industrial pieces but the majority of them were out of my price range. 

  It's this guy cute? I have no idea where I'd put him but I like him/her.

This vintage kids ride was really cool. I think It was for sale but I have neither the money nor the space for it. 

Cute yellow chair.

This booth had a lot of cool mid century modern pieces. 

This cute lamp for example. 

My favorite from this booth though was this mod/ MCM birdcage. I've never seen one before and I kind of love it.  I Kind of regret not going back for that one. 

Burnt out (I think) Light bulbs! these were super cool and I'm sure some crafty person could make something awesome out of them. 

This booth had some cool Mid Century Modern lamps. These were nice, but i'm at a point where an atomic lamp has to be "can't live without it" cool for me to pick it up. These I could live without. 

   

        This vintage horse head mount thing was pretty cool. It would be pretty awesome in a kids room.

                                                  Skeleton keys are just the coolest

     Cool vintage daybed 

I actually really liked this picture and it was only like $22.00 but I didn't end up coming back for it. 

Pretty sure this lamp is made of an old plant stand and a vintage industrial mixer blade, kind of awesome.

Cool Tripod floor lamp 

How cool is this huge radiator cover? 

BABY!

Santa and his roller set beard. 

More cool industrial pieces. 

50's Doctors Cabinet. 

Giant Diaper Safety Pins. 

This beer sign was pretty cool but I see them a fair amount at Estate Sales so I passed.

I love a good vanity and am currently obsessed with a few Mid Century ones I've seen on the interwebs. This one was really cute but I'm not big on painted wood and it's not the vanity of my dreams. I do though love the Mongolian lamb fur they upholstered the seat in. I'm semi-obsessed with some pillows from West Elm made of the same material, but they're so expensive!

As and avid thrifter I thought this booth was a bit silly. Any thrifter worth their weight knows you can find silver pieces like this for (i'm assuming) much lower prices at literally any thrift store. I was pretty much just baffled at this booth. 

An assortment of cool rotary phones. Back when I was a kid we had a few of these and they always made you feel very fancy, like the number you were calling should be more important because of the dramatic way you dialed. But nowadays these phones would just be catching dust in my house. The only vintage phone I think I'd buy aside from an Ericofone (like the one Roger Sterling had on Mad Men) would be one of those clear plastic 80's/90's phones. I was obsessed with those and never had one. Someone needs to make a phone cover for cell phones like that, I'd buy it in a minute. 

Pretty Lampshade. 

Cool vintage Christmas set up and awesome car grille. 

I really loved the lamps in this booth but they were way beyond my price range, very cool though. 

The people at this booth made this old stove into a kitchen island. Isn't that the coolest idea ever? The great thing about Junk Bonanza is even if you leave empty handed you get to see a ton of cool DIY's. 

Can you spot the sneak peak of my Junk Bonanza OOTD?

These display cabinets were pretty amazing and reasonably priced, but they were still outside of my price zone. I'm also looking for more closed storage pieces as opposed to these lovely display pieces. That said if I had the money I'd totally have gotten them. 

Isn't this the cutest bookshelf? It would look awesome in a kids room. The good news is it's a totally do-able DIY piece if you really like it. 

These hands were pretty cool but I have no need for them. They could make really cool Halloween decorations though. 

That's it for this year's Junk Bonanza, even though I walked away empty handed I saw a lot of cool stuff and will definitely be back next year if I can. 

Dem Booties tho

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

It may come as no surprise that this fall I'm still head over heels for the 70's trend. And thusly have a serious craving to cover those heels in a fine pair of booties.  I do have a pair of black fringe booties I got from Target a few years ago that I am still very much in love with. They are part of the reason I'm so into this trend, they're very cute but also super easy to walk in. As a non-heel wearer, for the most part, that's key to me actually wearing a heeled shoe.  Since I already have a lovely black pair, this season I'm looking for the perfect camel bootie with a stacked wood heel. This would seem easy as booties are everywhere this season, but many of the booties I've found I like are pretty pricey. So I'm searching the thrifts hoping to get lucky and if all else fails waiting for a good coupon code to snatch  up a pair.  

What I didn't buy at the thrift store

1. A Fox

I found this Illustrated fox/ cardboard cutout at Savers a few weeks back. The fox is very handsome and would be a fun piece in any room really, especially a kids room, but I didn't really have a need for it and lately have been trying to not bring in unnecessary things. Hopefully this got a home on some adorable child's wall.

2. Brass and Marble side table 

I really liked this side table, but wanna know what I have a lot of? side tables. I'm not even kidding I have five in one room. This was cute but I need closed storage more than side tables, so I passed.

3. lil Wishbone

I used to have a dog named Wishbone (before the TV show started thank you very much) and she was the sweetest dog. I also was a fan of the PBS show and even went to meet wishbone once at the Mall with my best friend and her mom, but the line was so long we got fed up and left. Anyway I spotted this mini Wishy at an estate sale and had instant nostalgia, but stuffed animals I need not.

4. Rich n' Creamy Nestle Cup

I loved the typography on this mug and the cool 70's vibes. I was going to get it if I ended up finding anything else, but I didn't find anything else that day and forgot about the mug. 

5. Mid Century Modern Library cart

I've seen these before on craigslist and such but have honestly never really got them. I'm sure there is someone somewhere who styles these bad boys amazingly and would make me regret not buying it. But, I'd rather have cleaner looking closed storage or storage with non-slanted shelves. I thought about this for a while (it was super cheap) but I decided to pass and let it go to someone who'd be really excited for it.

6. Gold Lamp with potential

Something about the clean lines of this gold lamp drew me to it. With the right lampshade and/or a coat of spraypaint it could be really cool. But for the most part unless it's an amazing Mid Century lamp that I just cannot live without I generally pass on lamps, like side table I already have too many. 

7. Men's symbol Mug

This was another piece I told myself I'd go back for if I found anything else, but I didn't. It's very Austin Powers and I love that about it. The only thing with vintage mugs is they are often pretty small. That is obviously coming from the land of huge portions and giant mugs but I've become so accustomed to bigger mugs I find it hard buy cute smaller ones at the thrift store. I feel like I'd opt for the bigger ones and they'd be used mostly for decoration, which is kind of silly.

8. Backpack

I was given an old real leather coach mini backpack a few weeks before I saw this one. When I first spotted it I was hopping it was a bucket bag, so when I found out it was a backpack I was a little bummed. It's super cute but I don't really need two small backpacks, so I left it.

8. TACO CATS IN SPACE!!!!!

I saw this shirt hanging on a dressing room and loved it. But I wasn't really in the mood to check the tag or try it on.  I love it though, had I been in a different mood ( and it been in my size) I may have bought it. 

9. Small Mid Century Lamp

I carried this around with me a bit, it was only three dollars but in the end I decided it really wasn't cool enough for me to bring home. Plus I don't really have a place for it.

10. Big Box Light

I liked the look of this lamp. Obviously it's very big and bulky but something about it was appealing, I still passed though.

11.  Mixed Media lamp

 This lamp had a cool look i'd never seen before. But didn't need it.

12.  Sand Dollar Lamps

There were two of these lamps and I actually think they're really cool. I love the texture on them and think they have a really interesting shape. But I really have no place to put them, so I passed.