Outfit of the Day: Mirror Diaries // Part 8

Well, seems like I have no idea where any of my scarves come from. lol Although they are all at least a year old and I wouldn't be able to link to them anyway. This time change thing really through me off at first, especially because it's now really dark when I get home from work. But a quick open of the blinds at 6:50a while everyone is still sleeping actually works! Although, now with it being so dark when I get home it feels like I need a second cup of coffee just to keep going. I'm sure we'll all adjust soon. ha

Hope you're having a great week! Outfit recap time....

Top: Gibson (hand me down) // Necklace: Jessica Simpson (gift)

Jeans: Blue Spice (hand me down) // Boots: Bandolino via Marshalls ($30)

Top: love Fire via Macy's ($8) //Scarf: ? // Necklace: ? (gift)

Jeans: Old Navy ($15)  // Boots: Nine West (gift)

Top: Target $6 // Scarf: ?

Jeans: Cello Jeans very similar, same brand (hand me down) // Boots: Guess via Belk (gift)

Top: Target $6  // Necklace: Forever21 ($10)

Skirt: Target ($8) // Boots: Target ($30)

Dress: Old Navy long sleeve version ($20) // Necklaces: ?

 Booties: Target this years version here ($25)

Linking up with:

The Stylish Housewife

The Pleated Poppy

Outfit of the Day: Mirror Diaries // Part 7

The evenings have been much gloomier/darker lately making pictures a bit more difficult.
And the mirror needs to be cleaned again. Actually I might as well keep a bottle of Windex next to the mirror to clean daily since my kids like to kiss, lick and rub their hands all of the mirror when it's nice and clean. lol
Hope you are having a lovely week...outfit time:

Shirt: Target $6 // Flower Tank: Sophie Rue (hand me down) // Necklace: ? (gift)
Jeans: Target ($15)// Boots: Guess via Belk (gift)

Top: Banana Republic (hand me down) // Vest: Alfani via Macy's ($17) // Necklace: ? (hand me down)
Jeans: Target ($15) // Boots: Target ($30)

Blazer: Forevewr 21 (gift) // Top: Tramp (hand me down) // Necklace: ?
Jeans: Old Navy ($20) // Boots: Target ($30)

Top: tosko via T.J. Maxx ($15) // Scarf: ? (gift)
Pants: Active via T.J. Maxx (gift) // Boots: Guess via Belk (gift)

Linking up with:

The Stylish Housewife

The Pleated Poppy
Elegance and Mommyhood

HomeMade Halloween: Lady Pirate Costume

Ok, this is a pretty simple costume...a pirate ARRRRRR!
But I wanted to share my take on it and I spent less thank $10 putting it together. This was my outfit for the Halloween dinner and I did have fun yelling ARR and saying things like 'me know you have my gold!'

WHAT YOU NEED:
-white blousey top // $3.69 @ Goodwill
-black/red skirt // $3.50 @ Goodwill
-fishnets // $3.74 @ Wal-Mart
- long scarf
-black boots
-pirate accessories (sword, headscarf, earrings, coin bag, etc.)
tip: if you don't already own some pirate accessories from your kids, check the toy section of stores instead of the Halloween section!

The shirt and skirt I found at Goodwill. 

The only thing I did to the shirt was cut the sleeves to make them jagged.

The skirt was actually a cotton sundress. I snipped off the top half of the dress and made the hem of the skirt jagged. It already had the layer of black and red fabric on the bottom. Perfect!

I grabbed the headscarf, pirate sword and coin pouch from my son's room. I purchased the fishnet tights for under $4. I had the earrings which I thought "oh these look like coins and pirates like coins...these will work! The "garter" that I used to hold my coin pouch was actually my daughter's headband.

That's it! This one was really simple. :-)

I urge you to be creative and see what you already have that you can utilize!

If you need a last minute costume, might you go as a pirate??

Linking Up with:

Tatertots & Jello

HomeMade Halloween: Colonial Man Costume

My husband and I went to a Halloween dinner this past weekend where we had to follow the theme of pirates and colonial/commodore costumes.
So, I went off on my hunt to make our costumes. My husband's was fun to create and might I add it came out hysterical! (It's all in the wig for me...I just couldn't stop laughing. Loved it! And the face is his "I'm in character mode" face!)

WHAT YOU NEED:

- Blazer (with small collar/lapel) // $11.99 @ Goodwill

-Navy Pants 

-white t-shirt 

-black dress shoes

-white, black and gold felt // .35 each @ Michael's 

-white thigh high socks // $3.74 @ Wal-Mart

- gold buttons // $1.74 @ Wal-Mart

- long (curly) wig // $2.99 @ Goodwill

-red ribbon

-white lace

-toy sword

Let's start with the jacket. I did some digging at the Goodwill and found this blazer in the men's section for $11.99.
I immediately flipped the collar up and knew I could work with this.

I picked up these buttons at Wal-Mart and sewed them the rest of the way up the jacket. I made sure they were evenly spaced using the existing buttons as my guide. Since the buttons I purchased were a slightly darker gold, I took some gold acrylic paint I already had and lightly painted over all of the buttons.

 For the "ruffle shirt", we created a little ruffle piece that we safety pinned to a white t-shirt.
I cut out a piece of white felt into a half oval shape. Then I took stripes of white lace and hot clued it on row by row.

In order to get the ruffle effect, I hot glued the edge on first. Then I folded the lace over every inch or so, glued where it folded over and repeated to the other edge. Once a row was done, I lifted the last row up and started a new row about half way up from the bottom of where that piece of lace would lay. I hope that makes sense!

My husband already had black dress shoes that we altered to look 'colonial style'.

I picked up some black and gold felt from the craft store to make the buckle. I free-handed the black piece but made sure it was wide enough to cover the shoe and high enough to stand up above the shoe. I cut out a gold buckle from the felt and glued it onto the black piece. 

These shoes had a strap across the top already, so I was able to glue a felt loop onto each side of the shoe strap and then glue the buckle onto the loops. This kept the buckles in place without messing up the shoes. 

I cut a strip of black felt, looped it through the pant buckle and stapled it.
This gave a way to carry the sword for the costume hands free.

For the wig, we pulled the hair back into a low pony tail. We had to trim it up a little because it was too long. I then took some red ribbon I had on hand and tied a bow around the ponytail.
For the white stockings, I purchased these white costume socks from Wal-Mart and removed the black bows. We tucked his navy slacks (that he already had) into the whites socks. We pulled the pants over top of the white socks a bit so that you couldn't see the pants tucked into the socks.

There you have it, your colonial man costume!
Are you still working on a costume for this year? Stay tuned, I'll have one other last minute idea for you tomorrow. 

Linking Up with:

Tatertots & Jello

Outfit of the Day: Mirror Diaries // Part 6

Morning Guys! We're getting closer to Halloween and I've spent the past two weekends making Halloween costumes. Well, two costumes for my husband and I for a party we went to this past weekend and my kid's costumes. We're taking them over to Seaworld Spooktacular this weekend so I had to have theirs done a little early as well. 

Anyways, I'm beat and glad that's just about out of the way! Hope you are having a great week!

And here's this week's round of 'mirror selfies'...

 Shirt: via T.J. Maxx ($15) // Necklace: Charming Charlies (gift)
Skirt: Target ($8) // Boots: Target ($30)

Top: Target $6 // Necklace: ? (hand me down)// Scarf: ?
Jeans: Old Navy ($20) // Shoes: Gianni Binini via Dillards (gift)

Dress: Old Navy ($15) // Necklace: Plato's Closet

Boots: Bandolino via Marshalls ($35)

Top: Old Navy ($6)// Blazer: Rampage via Macy's
Necklace: Tassel via Wal-Mart ($5)  // Jeans: Old Navy ($20) // Booties: Target this years version here ($25)

Linking up with:

The Stylish Housewife

The Pleated Poppy

{D.I.Y} Purple & Green Halloween Feather Wreath

You know, I've had the decorative pieces for this Halloween wreath for 2 years....TWO YEARS!
I'm super happy I finally completed this thing! I think the hold up was figuring out how to create a black feather wreath (which was what I imagined when I bought these green/purple decorations) that didn't cost an arm and a leg! So the final cost...under $13!! (not including the cost of spray paint)
Let's get to how I did it.

SUPPLIES NEEDED

-18in straw wreath  (purchased at Michael's using a 50% off coupon) $3.25
-black feather boas (purchased 2x 48in ones at Dollar Tree) $2
-black garland (optional, I couldn't find enough $1 boas to cover the wreath so I used this as filler.) $2
-black spray paint
-decorative Halloween pieces (these were decorative picks found at Michael's for 90% off) $4.20
-ribbon (these were decorative picks found at Michael's for 90% off) $.60
-glue gun
-straight pins

STEP ONE

Spray paint your straw wreath black.

Once dry, start wrapping the wreath with the feather boas and garland. (You can do all feathers if you are able to get enough to cover the wreath.) Hot glue the end to the back, wrap and then hot glue your end piece to the back.

I started with the garland and didn't wrap it too closely together. Some of the black straw is showing through. Then I layered on the feather boas, evenly spacing it out as I went.

STEP TWO

Now you can start adding your decorations. With these bigger pieces, I hot glued them in place and then secured them in place with straight pins. The straight pins I used had little black balls on the end.

I put one through the foot of the owl and one into both a green and purple leaf to keep them sitting how I wanted. 

STEP THREE

Now I added my 'ornament' pieces to the wreath. I snipped the wire off the back of the pumpkins and skulls with wire cutters. Then I took straight pins (with no colored ball on the end) and stuck them half way into the back of the pumpkins and skulls. To make sure the pins didn't move when being put into the wreath, I added some hot glue around the straight pin. (see picture below).

Insert your ornamental decorations into the wreath. 

Tip: I did not have regular straight pins to push into these styrofoam decorations. 

So I snipped the needle side of a large safety pin with wire cutters and used that as my straight pin. 

STEP FOUR

Ribbon time! I had some 'Happy Halloween' ribbon that I snipped a piece of and hot glued to the bottom as a little banner. 

Next, I took the green and purple glittery ribbon and cut a long piece of each to tie around the top of the wreath. This is the piece that your wreath will hang from as you can see in the picture below. 

I then cut another long piece of the green and purple ribbon and tied it into a bow. I hot glued the bow to the top middle of the wreath.

The garland that I used to wrap the wreath had those silver skulls that I removed, so as the final touch I glued one to the middle of the bow.

Now hang from a command hook on your front door and get in the Halloween spirit!

Yeah, we're seriously lacking outdoor Halloween decor.

Pretty darn cute, huh? I love sweetly spooky decor and this fits perfectly.
I hope you give making one of these a try! You can take the idea and tweak it depending on the decorative pieces you grab. And remember, you can even just pick up the pieces during the after Halloween sale and make it next year. Or two years from now! ;-)

Linking Up with:

Tatertots & Jello

Outfit of the Day: Mirror Diaries // Part 5

Another week and I'm still trying to squeeze some type of fall out of this hot Florida weather!! Thankfully, I work in a cold office all day so even if it is 80 degrees during the day, I'm feeling good.
Let's get to the outfits from this past week:

Top: Express (gift) // Scarf: Not sure, no tag.
Jeans: Old Navy ($15)  // Booties: Target this years version here ($25)

 Earrings: ? (gift) // Top: Chenault (hand me down)
Jeans: Target ($20) // Boots: Bongo (gift)

Scarf: Apt. 9 via Kohls (gift) // Top: Express
Vest: Old Navy via Plato's Closet // Jeans: Denizen via Target ($15)
Shoes: Anne Klein via Macys ($25)

Linking up with:

The Stylish Housewife

The Pleated Poppy

Recent Finds and Buys // Instagram Round-Up

Happy Friday! Sorry if this post is a cop out. ;-)
But I thought I would do a quick round up of recent finds and buys from my Instagram posts.

 Juice Organics Brightening Cleanser via Ross $5.99
Yes to Tomatoes Gel Cleanser via Ross $6.99
Honestly, I'm not so sure what I think about these two products. I haven't noticed any big changes since using them. I do really want to try the Yes to Tomatoes Charcoal mask though...maybe I will have more success.

Sam & Libby Sandals via Target $5

I got such a steal on these sandals. They were on clearance plus an additional 20% off with Target Cartwheel. I have worn them a ton since I bought them, they are a fun pop of color. 

NYX Matte Lip Cream in Istanbul $5.99

Essie Polish in Power Clutch $8.99

Not Your Mother's Texture Spray $5.99

This was a small haul from Ulta not too long ago. I had a $3 off Essie Nail polish and $3.50 off $10 purchase for Ulta to use on this trip. I really wanted to try this lip cream because of a favorites post that Kacie at Elements of Ellis did. Except that I love the color on her more. It's pretty but much more pink on me than I wanted. The nail polish is such a pretty grey/green color that I saw on Kimberly over at Penny Pincher Fashion. And I wanted to try out this whole texture spray thing that I have been hearing about but honestly, I don't notice this doing much of anything. Have you tried it or do you have another brand to recommend? 

Swingline Laminator via Amazon $14.99

One of the crafty supplies I have had on my wishlist. I grabbed this one on sale from Amazon thanks to an alert from Frugal Coupon Living.

Dymo Label Maker via Staples $9.99
Another crafty supply checked off my wishlist. And again, thanks to an alert from Frugal Coupon Living. Sadly, I still haven't used this yet and I've only laminated ONE thing. I better get on that...

 barkTHINS: Dark Chocolate, Pumpkin Seed and Sea Salt
This are just...SO.GOOD. My mom introduced these to me and I am hooked.
You can pick them up at Target or Costco. Who has a Costco membership? Because I need these in gigantic bag form.

Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss Pumpkin Spice
I really love this coffee creamer brand. I don't use any other creamer. It doesn't have any added chemicals or junk, just milk, cream, sugar and natural flavor. I skip the sugar in my coffee when I use this. I'm not a huge "OMG it's pumpkin spice time" kind of girl but I was excited to see a new flavor of Natural Bliss.

If you aren't already, you can follow along with me over on Instagram @everylittlepenny.
I try to post my frugal finds and buys over there. I won't overload your feed because right now I'm only posting a few times a week, if I'm lucky. ;-)