My Halloween Costumes!

So I ended up wearing 3 different costumes this year.  All of which I already had in my closet :)  The first costume I decided on was a "Hipster Pirate" which I wore for our school's "Safe Trick or Treat" Event for kid's from the neighborhood. 

Then, I went to OSU's High Ball that Friday night before Halloween and I went as a school girl :)







And on Halloween, I just went to my friend's house to pass out candy and went as a hipster cowgirl by wearing a button-up flannel, pigtails, a mini skirt, boots, leggings, and plastic glasses frames and a little purple scarf.  Sadly, I didn't think to take a picture, so you will have to use your imagination for the most part.  It is very similar to what I wore to the Miley Cyrus concert 2 years ago though which I do have pictures of!  I wore a white skirt, grey boots, and no cowboy hat though.

Cheap Costume Ideas!

As a college student, I do not like spending a lot of money especially on something I will wear one night.  With Halloween right around the corner though, I have been trying to decide on a costume to wear while volunteering for the Safe-Trick-or-Treat hosted at my school.  We are planning to have a costume contest among the volunteers too, so I want to put a lot of thought into my costume without too much of the cost in COSTume (teehee I made a punny!). 

Obviously, one idea is to recycle an older costume from high school that people at college probably haven't seen me in.  Unfortunately, I only actually purchased one costume in high school and I am letting my sister borrow it.  The rest of the times I've dressed up, I've just made up costumes out of clothes and such I already had.  Some costumes I wore using my own everyday clothes and accessories over the years include:  cow girl, Native American, a boy, and Tinky Winky the teletubby.  I bought a FrenchMaid costume my freshman year of college, but I never got the chance to wear it and I decided it is not an appropriate costume to wear around little kids anyway lol.  It is actually pretty modest for a French Maid costume.  I just think the whole idea of it isn't very wholesome haha.  As a backup costume, I have the children's fairy costume I wore two years ago, but it is missing the wings, so I will need to transform it into a forest nymph costume or something instead I guess... haha.  But hopefully, I will come up with something cool as I brainstorm through this blog :)

One easy idea is the Princess.  To just be a generic princess, all you need is a fancy dress and a tiara to be honest.  I have lots of tiaras at home, but I didn't think to bring any to school, so I might go out and buy a plastic one if I decide to use this costume idea.  They can be found for as little as a dollar at party stores or Five Below.  Or if you want your costume to be a little more "legit" and don't mind spending the extra money, Claire's has some more "real"ish tiaras for under twenty dollars.

I could potentially go as a cowgirl again, but I think I left my straw cowboy hat at home also, but this costume is really simple if you have cowboy boots and some kind of flannel shirt and a cowgirl hat.  You could add a rope belt or carry a lasso around with you if you so choose for some more fun accessorizing.


I also noticed that Five Below has some pretty fun wigs for only five dollars which leads me to the following ideas:
(Insert profession) Barbie-  All you need is a blonde wig and you can pretty much wear whatever you want and call yourself Barbie.  For example, you could combine one of the previous costume ideas with a blonde wig and be "Princess Barbie" or "Cowgirl Barbie".  I highly recommend watching the movie Never Been Kissed if you need a good visual of what a Barbie costume could look like.  Here is a clip of the specific scene though if you don't feel like sitting through 2 hours of a great movie:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRpaEi3iKaE (You can skip to 4:22 to see the costumes!).

Five Below also has some fun colored wigs (pink, purple, green, etc.) which would be great for an ALIEN costume if you paired it with some crazy fun glittery and metallic makeup and shiny spacey-clothing. 

Long-haired wigs are great if you want to go as a hippie and pair it with bell-bottom jeans and tie-dye or bright floral prints and giant earrings and tinted sunglasses and flowers in your hair and maybe a nice flowy top or a fringed vest.  There's a lot you can work with here and you probably have stuff in your own wardrobe that you can use for this kind of costume.   

I also found this site which has a lot of really awesome costume ideas.  Some of them are really original and fun too!  I especially liked this section:  http://costumeideazone.com/A9eShopYourCloset.htm

Have fun with your costumes and make it your own!  I hope everyone has an awesome Halloween with some really fun costumes :)

Products I LOVE!

So I'm not typically a very brand-loyalty kinda gal.  I tend to just get whatever's the best deal and hope it works.  But some of those cheap things turned out to be amazing for me.  And I'd like to share a few with you :)

First of all, E.L.F (Eyes. Lips. Face) is a brand that can be found at Target and it is mostly makeup stuff, but it works very well and is extremely low price.  One of their products I am obsessed with is their E.L.F Zit Zapper.  It's only a dollar and it usually lasts me up to 4 or 5 months and works as an on-the-spot treatment for acne.  It's small enough to fit in your makeup bag and it usually reduces my pimples in only 2-3 days.  It works way better than I expected it to!  And I am so happy I found it!!

So I was a little weary of Suave at first.  I didn't believe it could actually work as well as a professional brand shampoo, but I actually like it more than my Garnier or John Frieda shampoo!  And you find it at a lot of places for only 2 dollars!  So if your hair is really frizzy like mine is in the summer, this is a really great bargain buy!  There's a matching conditioner too, but I prefer to use conditioner for color treated hair.  But this shampoo leaves my hair so smooth and soft.  I love it!  And highly recommend it!

Since I do have some icky acne, I always use concealer.  So I love Almays heals while it conceals makeup!  It's got salicylic acid in it, so that it fights acne and helps heal it while you conceal it just as it claims!  My acne hasn't gotten significant better since I started using it, but it hasn't gotten worse at all and it leaves my skin less oily than most liquid foundations and concealers do!  It's about 8 dollars I think and it lasts me 6-7 months on average.  I usually go with the light concealer and neutral 220 liquid foundation and the light loose powder.  Almay is definitely a brand I am loyal to for my skin/face.  And I've heard that most women tend to have total brand loyalty when it comes to makeup, so it makes sense!

So I was just recently introduced to this stuff when I read online that scrubs help a lot with acne.  I went to go buy one and this one was only 2.15 at Target, so I figured "why not?" If it doesn't work, I only wasted 2 dollars".  Well, it turns out, it was not a waste!! From the first time I washed my face with it, I knew I loved it.  My skin felt brand new and it smelled so good!  And I immediately saw a reduction in my blackheads.  I have really oily skin too, and this made it feel normal and got rid of a lot of the oily feeling.  I am obsessed with it.  My new regiment to cure my acne includes washing with this 3 times a week and following it up with alcohol as a toner.  At night, I wash with antibacterial handsoap to get my makeup off and kills bacteria in my face which has been working so well for me!  You don't have to do all of that though, but try the apricot scrub if you're looking to try something new on your face :)

Another great E.L.F product for only a dollar!  I was looking for peach blush, because I saw Rachel Bilson wearing it in a photo, but I didn't want to waste money on something I'd probably rarely wear.  So I was very excited to find these all-over color sticks in the ELF section at Target!  They can work as eye shadow sticks, blush, or lip gloss!! So if I decide I don't like the peach blush, it still makes a pretty shimmery shadow for my eyes.  I loved it as a blush though!  It looked really nice with my skin tone.  They also had a pink one for those of you who have more of a cool complexion.  It's only a dollar though, so if you're looking to experiment with new makeups, it's 3-in-1 for a dollar, so you can't really go wrong! :)

Inexpensive Christmas Gift Ideas

I hope everyone's having a happy advent season so far!  Advent is probably my favorite season in the liturgical year.  I love all of the Christmas music and the advent wreath and just preparing for Christmas celebrations in general. 

I went Black Friday shopping for the first time this year.  I went with my boyfriend's aunt around 4am Friday and with my mom around 8am.  I figured since I'm 20 now, I am definitely old enough to go shopping with the grown-ups.  I was amazed at the great deals!  If anyone hasn't gone Black Friday shopping ever, I highly recommend it.  The deals are definitely worth the crowds and getting up early!  I wish I had prepared a list of what to buy so I could've gotten more of my Christmas shopping done while everything was on sale for such great prices!  I am definitely going next year, but next time, I am going to be prepared and research stores and make my gift lists and everything beforehand and save up some more money, etc. 

Since I probably will not be able to afford to get everyone super awesome expensive presents, I am currently working on ideas for super awesome inexpensive Christmas presents that everyone will love. 

One of my favorite things to make is scrapbooks which can be as simple as buying a photo album and just sticking pictures in it or as tedious as making your book by tying pages together in a fancy way or stapling them together.  You could also just take a binder and glue pictures either printed off at Walgreens or Wal-Mart (for about 10 cents a picture) or printed off from a regular printer to regular printer paper (or whatever you find lying around) and punching holes in them and then, decorating the binder as a scrapbook.  There is obviously a lot of other creative ways to do this. 

Similar to the scrapbook, you might also want to make a memory book or a letter book.  For this, you could put whatever you want in a book: stories, jokes, quotes, pictures, reasons you love the person, favorite memories in general, etc.  You could do a binder or photo album or make your own book.  I highly recommend just buying a blank journal and filling the pages with pictures and memories and quotes.  That's just how I prefer to do it, but definitely be as creative as you want and make it your own masterpiece!

Also, if you have a little bit of extra time, some really great hobbies to learn are knitting or crocheting or sewing.  These are very useful when it comes to inexpensive, personalized, homemade presents, because the materials are fairly inexpensive and these activities don't need to take very long depending on how skilled you become and what you decide to make.  I am going to try and re-learn knitting, so I can maybe make some scarves or something fun for my friends.  Pillows are also very easy to make if you learn basic sewing techniques.  My only experience with crocheting is from girl scouts and we made pot holders which were actually very easy once I got the hang of it.

If you like to paint or draw, you could also buy a small plain box or a 10 cent solid-colored notebook and paint it and give it as a gift to someone.  You could also just frame a piece you paint and give that as a gift.  Pottery and sculptures also make great creative gifts if that happens to be a talent or hobby of yours.

Mix CDs are always fun and easy as well if you just want to buy a pack of blank CDs for like ten bucks and make Mix CDs for all of your friends.

Christmas cards are obviously a great thing to make.  Everyone knows how to make cards and they can be as basic as folding a piece of paper in half and writing "Merry Christmas" in it.  I love to draw fun pictures and comics on mine and then, write personal messages.  You can also always just get a box of Christmas cards and just fill them out and give them to all of your friends with a piece of candy or something small attached to them.  Candy canes are really great for this.

Bath and Body Works also usually has a lot of small things that are between 1 and 5 dollars that you could give to friends as gifts for only a small cost.  I like to buy a lot of smaller things in bulk like big bags of candy and Christmas cards as well as small items like cosmetics or shower gels or socks and make little gift bags for friends with one of everything.  JoAnn Fabrics, the Dollar Store, Wal-Mart, and the Dollar Spot at Target are great places to find things to put in your gift bags.

Everyone loves sweets too, so you could always just bake your friends and family goodies and buy a big pack of Christmas-themed paper plates and arrange an assortment of treats on them and cover them with some plastic wrap and ribbon to make them look festive and professional, but still keep your spending within your budget.

If you're looking for something more simple, you could also just buy a picture frame for less than 5 dollars and give framed pictures as gifts, or even make your own picture frame using whatever you can find.  I've made some out of cardboard and glue and colorful paper and markers.  You could also get a cheap pack of plain wooden picture frames from Michael's or JoAnn Fabrics or maybe even Wal-Mart or Target and decorate them for loved ones on your list.

These are definitely only a few ideas.  I am sure there are similar suggestions in magazines and on the internet if you look for them.  It is so much fun to make presents for people though, so I highly recommend trying some of these out for any occasion- birthday, Christmas, Easter, or just because.  The great thing about these is they are fun to make and people love to receive them and since they are so inexpensive, it's easy to give them as often as you'd like!  Have fun and don't stress too much about gift-giving.  It's always the thought that counts!  :)