Costumes From Your Closet

Happy Halloween! If you are low on time or money, don't go to the Halloween store and overpay for cheaply made costumes! Browse around your closet and use things that you already own to make up your costume this year. I put together a couple of outfits from things I already had around the house to give you a couple of examples!

Witch
This is pretty easy for most women because we all should have a black dress in our closet, right? I paired mine with a vintage cape (I mostly wanted an excuse to wear it), tights, black boots and a witch hat that I got for only $3 at Target. Total cost of the this costume: $3

Lumberjack
I own about 7 plaid shirts so this costume was a no brainer for me. If you don't have one, they are relatively cheap at the thrift store. I also added my brown lace up boots, black beanie and my buffalo plaid jacket. This is a perfect costume for Halloween in the Midwest because you are already wearing lots of layers!

Professor
Wear a pair of khaki pants or a plaid skirt. Pair it with a blazer, oxford shoes, glasses and a bun. Think Indiana Jones or a stuffy British professor :)

Mad Men Character
You can pick whichever lady (or gent) suits your style or what you already own. Since a lot of modern style is taking its cues from the 50's and 60's right now, you might have something that would work even if you don't own any vintage clothing. I would wear a 50's dress with a full skirt and go as Betty, a pencil skirt and tie blouse could evoke Joan or anything plaid or conservative could be Peggy.

Most importantly, have fun and get creative. My favorite costumes have always been the ones I've put together myself instead of buying. I would love to see what you come up with. Have a great Halloween!

Florence

Back with another post from Europe! Sorry these have been so sporadic. I meant to get them all up a long time ago but you know the story. Things get busy and stuff gets moved to the back burner. I hope to finish these up and get some more outfits and DIYs up soon!

The other problem with waiting so long to post about these places is that I don't remember exactly what we did! We walked around and shopped in the street markets. If you didn't know, Florence is very famous for its leather goods (I'm not sure why) and you can get really good deals. This is where we got a lot gifts for our families. It was closer to the end of the trip and everything was really reasonably priced.

  

The Duomo is gorgeous, isn't it! I love all of the red roofs of Florence. The inside isn't as impressive as the outside so if you don't have time, I would skip going inside. You would miss the inside of the dome though. :)

A replica of David in the place he would of originally stood. The original statue is now housed in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence. The last time I was in Florence, I saw the museum David. It is a lot larger than you would expect. The only downside is you can't take photos and there are a lot of guards enforcing that rule so don't attempt it!

  

If you can't afford to go to a lot of museums or don't have enough time, just walk around! There are statues all over town and lots of gorgeous piazzas to explore.

We walked over to Ponte Vecchio which is much prettier from the outside. On the actual bridge, it's very busy and only really has fancy jewelry shops on it now. 

We had to get gelato and I HAD to spill it all over myself. Typical! We did learn a tip though. Don't go a place like we did with the gelato all piled up, it usually means it isn't fresh!

Old carousels are the best, right?

That's it for Florence, more to come soon!

Another Day Another Photoshoot

I really need to start taking pictures of myself. I am having a hard time with the darkness coming earlier and just feeling generally blah. I need to spice things up and hopefully my Halloween party and the subsequent organizing and cleaning that goes along with it will be enough of a jump start.

My cousin and her wife live in Oregon so we don't get to see her as much as I'd like. They are a great little family and their daughter Ellis is so cute. I have honestly never see a kid that young (18 months) talk as much as she does. She knows words like helicopter... so cute and smart. When they were in town a couple of weeks ago, I did a little photo shoot for them. My cousin Sarah that lives in the Twin Cities was there too and brought her daughter Eve so we had to take some photos of her too. Ellis loves Eve and loves to give her kisses. It's really really cute. I hope you like them!

  

  

If you live in the Twin Cities or surrounding areas and would like some photos taken, just send me an email at babesinthriftland@gmail.com!

Out of Order

Hi all! It has been a long time since I've posted here but I've definitely been missing it! I've gotten up to some fun things so I will start with one of the most recent, a new niece! I was out in the DC/Baltimore area for a wedding at the end of September and was there just in time to meet my new niece, Juliet Elise. She is just the cutest even if she was a week late. I took some photos of her and her sister so I thought I would share them with you!

I knit her a hat for photos, isn't it cute! :)

She doesn't sing it but she loves the song "No more monkeys jumping on the bed" This is what she does at the end when the doctor says, no more monkeys jumpin on the bed :)