Halloween Costume Ideas

Hey guys! Sorry my posting has been rather sporadic lately, it's been due in part to my social life temporarily becoming more interesting and light being in short supply around these parts. I promise i'll try to get my butt in gear and do more outfit posts. I have at least 4 to post! Anyway since Halloween is just around the corner, I figured i'd do a few Halloween costume idea posts for you and yours.

1. Betty Boop. Somebody once told I looked like Betty Boop, I'm still not sure if that's a compliment or not. I never really understood Betty, to be honest, but she sure is an easy costume! All you need for this costume is a strapless red dress, Gold accessories (especially gold hoop earrings), black pumps and a garter. Do your make up super sexy, pop on a Betty wig, and Bam! you're Betty Boop, girl. 

Betty Boop by cleopatrajonez featuring suede pumps

2. Honey Boo Boo. I've never been good at pop culture costumes, for some reason my extensive knowledge of pop culture seems to vacate my brain every year when trying to come up with a costume. But with the crazy redneck fun of Honey Boo Boo it's hard not to notice this gold mine of a Halloween costume. Grab a pink prom dress from the thrift store ( cut hem as needed), grab yourself a blonde curly wig, pink bow, frilly socks, white flats and your ever important go-go juice and take the night by storm, honey boo boo chile.

Honey Boo Boo by cleopatrajonez featuring max factor cosmetics

3. River Song.  This one's for the nerds, y'all. As you know i've recently become sucked in to the tardis and am huge Doctor Who fan now. While trying to think of a good costume that would work with curly hair suddenly I had it, River Song!! River is Amy and Rory's daughter (spoilers!) , she's the doctors wife (I think),  an archeologist (sweetie), kinda crazy  and amazing! She's definitely one of my favorite characters on the show.  One of my favorite River outfits is the one below, so i decided to go with that one, but there are plenty of other options to choose from if you want to be Melody Pond for all hallows eve.

River Song by cleopatrajonez featuring a leather wrap belt

4. Psy. Who doesn't love Psy? I mean you have to be dead if you hear that song and don't smile a little. Psy is also a pretty easy and fun costume. If you're like me and you already have black pants and white button down all you need is a bow tie, sunglasses, blue blazer and oxfords. There are a ton of great costume ideas from that video so if Psy isn't you cup of tea you can always be random guy in yellow suit, pelvic thrusting cowboy or one of his many backup dancers. Sexy Lady!

PSY by cleopatrajonez featuring high waisted pants

BRRRAINSSSS

Dress/ Apron: Garage Sale  Blood on Dress: Ragstock Makeup: thrift Sweater: my grandma

          Last saturday I participated in the 8th Zombie Pub Crawl. It was definitely an experience. The shuttle experience was less than stellar but it was pretty  fun. I don't know if i'd go again unless I had a friend that really wanted to go, but I'm glad I went. I didn't take many pictures there (just the one) and was running late to meet my friend so I didn't end up taking outfit photos. So these myspaceian bathroom mirror pics of me looking like hot mess housewife zombie will have to do for now. I promise at the beginning of the night my makeup was better and I had an extra "wound" on my neck. I was a 50's style zombie housewife, if you were wondering.

subtle pattern mixing

Shirt & Shoes: Thrifted  Pants: Dorothy Perkins Cardigan: Target (old)

                  I wore this to my internship yesterday. I  just thought it up on the fly and I have to say I kind of like it, Sort of subtle pattern mixing. I should have some more outfits coming soon, I just have to take pictures of them.

La Señorita

Ole!

Everything: Thrifted 

       I wore this outfit to my internship a couple weeks ago, when it was considerably warmer. I thought this outfit up during  the summer when I was trying to find tops to go with this skirt. I like this shirt but when I wear it I feel a little like a Mexican Señorita, I think it's something about the pleating on the shoulders. Anyway I like this outfit but I'm not sure if I love it. I felt a little too much like a little girl in it. I think my style is evolving a bit and I just have a desire to be a little less girly and more tailored/grown up/ edgier. I like it, but it's just not where my style heart is at the moment.  What do you do when your style is in transition?

Open House

Top: Dorothy Perkins Skirt &Shoes: Thrift Belt: Target

             As I mentioned in a previous post I went a wee bit overboard during labor day sales a spent a little more then I meant to. One of the places I spent some change was Dorothy Perkins. I've known about DP for awhile but hadn't actually purchased anything until recently. I decided to buy because I fell in love with some faux leather pants they had. I got both of the packages I had ordered a couple weeks ago and my Dorothy Perkins orders were a wee bit underwhelming. Not because of quality or anything just because, despite ordering my normal size, everything was too big. I've only ordered from one other UK retailer (ASOS) but I've had the same "problem" with them. I suppose I should have googled online and looked to see how DP sizing was, but I didn't. This isn't a huge problem, I mean better the clothes be too big than too small. But it's a little more irritating since, unlike ASOS, Dorothy Perkins doesn't have free US returns so I have to pay to send it back. Really it was just dissapointing that the one things I was really looking forward to, the faux leather pants, didn't fit. 

            But, of the four things I bought I did end up keeping two. One is the top above. It's actually a peplum top but I'm not a huge fan of peplums over skirts, unless they're pencil skirts, so I tucked it in. I probably could have sized down in this shirt too but it fits well enough and I think it'll shirk a bit when I wash it. I wore this outfit to a back to school open house at my internship a couple weeks ago. I spent most of the open house downstairs greeting guest, having them sign in, get name tags and directing them to the office. I had a pretty good time, though it  got pretty slow towards the end. I wasn't exactly sure what to wear, and didn't really have any idea what I was going to wear until a few minutes before I left the house, but I knew I wanted something casual yet dressy. I think I pulled it off pretty well. 

Double the Pleasure, Double the fun

Top: Macy's Skirt: Thrift Shoes:Gifted

          It's confession time ya'll, I totally wore this outfit twice... in a row. I first wore it last Friday when I got home to my mom making dinner reservations at a yummy (but expensive) local restaurant called Piccolo. We had to go quickly so I threw on this outfit, one I've been waiting since spring for it to be cold enough for me to wear, and left. When I put it on I thought "oh I should have worn something else and wear this to the Junk Bonanza" but I was in a hurry so I left. At the end of the night I decided what the hell I can still wear it tomorrow! I only wore it for a few hours Friday and my mom would be the only one who knew I wore it the day before, so what the hell. Honestly I'm  a serial outfit repeater. Once I think up an outfit I love I want to wear it all the time, I don't but I want to. This tendency,though, t has decreased with the blog since when  I go out or dress up I try to always come up with a "new" outfit to post. Usually I don't wear them on consecutive days but, you know, life happens n' such. 

           Anyway I really like this outfit. I got this shirt three years ago for 10 bucks at Macy's. I love this shirt and the color, but I never had any good bottoms to pair with it. Thankfully this year I have a bunch, so you'll probably be seeing this shirt a lot more. The skirt and shoes you've seen before but are old favorites.  I really like this outfit and had a great time both of the times I wore it, so I think that's a win. right? Do you repeat outfits? back to back?

Junk Bonanza

source

 Last year my mom and I found about a local event called the Junk Bonanza. It's basically just a big bi-annual antique,vintage, retro, and re-purposed three day shopping event.  We found some good stuff at pretty decent prices last year so we decided to go again this year. I had to work the first two days of the event but Saturday I closed so I had some time to browse and shop. We got there around 11/12 and the place was pretty packed. Things were pretty congested when we got through the gates but it got better as we went. This year it seemed like a majority of the booths had  re-purposed and/or shabby chic type items. Those items were ok but they're not really my style. The shabby chic stuff is a lot of painted furniture (mostly in white, grey and pastels), a distressed look (real or faux, genearlly faux), and florals. It's generally pretty feminine.

Example of a Shabby Chic-ish booth. loved the blue jay picture

 The re-pourposed stuff is kinda cool. There were definitely some really cool re-purposed items, but generally I like things to be kept the way they were.

Baseball bats and balls re-purposed into American flag wall art.

 There were definitely some serious trends going on. The "paint something with chalkboard paint" trend has apparently taken off like a rocket, there was a whole booth full of stuff painted with chalkboard paint.  Every time I saw chalkboard paint I thought of the Portlandia sketch "Put a bird on it!" except it would be "make it into a chalkboard!." I don't hate that trend, It's just not for me. I'm not a huge fan of the look of a dusty chalkboard (you know after you erase whatever's on the chalkboard) and constantly wiping down something seems like it'd be annoying. But I have seen it done really well. Anyway there were also a lot of vintage biology posters for sale. I like them but I'd like to find one super cheap, preferably in a thrift store.

some vintage biology posters for sale

There seemed to be a lot fewer antique/vintage booths, which was kind of a bummer. There were a few cool booths, one in particular was really cool with lots of mid-century stuff. My favorite booth had this slightly creepy monkey blowing bubbles that I kind of wish I had bought.

He's kind of ragged and creepy, yet adorable. I mean he's blowing bubbles!!! aww. 

 There was also a cool Heywood Wakefield side table in that booth that was cool but I didn't see the price on it. There was also this really cool giant malt mixer.

 

I have to admit I kind of wish I had gotten this guy. His face is so funny and very expressive. But he wasn't in the greatest condition. Maybe next time. 

 I love old portraits, I thought these were pretty cool. Look at all the cool 40's (?) hairstyles!

You don't see many plus-size mannequins, so I thought this was pretty cool.  But, if I read the tag right they wanted like $1000.00 dollars for it, way outta my price range.

 This sign was really cool too. I love the colors, but it was a tad out of my price range. But, it's from a local vintage store so If I start to obsess I can always go there and see if they still have it, or some other cool signs.

 A cool mid-century light. I love mid-century lights but now that I have a few I'm looking for lights that are a little more unique/cool or that I can't live without. The lights in this booth were cool but fairly similar to the lamps I already have.

Anyway,  we walked around for a bit and saw some cool stuff but nothing we couldn't live without. So after  we made the rounds and saw all the booths we left empty handed. It was fun to see all the stuff people had for sale and some of the re-purposed stuff. But, I didn't see anything really unique. Most of the stuff I saw has been trendy on a lot of design/ vintage blogs for awhile. But it's always fun to see cool vintage stuff. I have kind of a hard time at vintage/antique type stores. They have lots of cool stuff, but for me one of the best parts of getting vintage stuff is finding it in a thrift store or at an estate sale. There's just a high you get when you find it "in the wild" that you don't get in antique malls. But antique fairs/malls etc are great for finding stuff that is harder to find in thrifts like vintage lamps, some vintage furniture and signs. There are also some vintage/antique stores that have pretty good prices. But in antique fairs/malls you just don't get that same high and I always think in the back of my head that I cold find that item for cheaper in a thrift store. Nonetheless I do love browsing antique/vintage stores, though it can be a bit overwhelming, even if I don't tend to buy as much.  All in all it was a pretty good time and we'll probably be back next year.