Whatever I Think Of!

Friday, October 30, 2026

Contemporary Trick-or-Treating?

I've been hearing how the price of candy has been going up, and am wondering about getting any for tomorrow night, since no one has shown up at our house for the last year or so. And I'd rather see teens show up for candy than see them show up to egg or toilet-paper my house. And will people have to resort to giving out hand sanitizer?

Wednesday, October 28, 2026

Costume Reveal

It took a while to decide on something. One thing I saw at the Halloween store was this:

I also saw this one online:

I knew I wasn't going to get it from the store, though, so I looked for DIY ideas. I already had this skirt I'd worn for a decades prom at work one year, so I went with that, adding more dice images and some poker chips.

Online I found a jacket printed with playing cards. I could not have afforded it, and there was little to no chance of finding a used one. Then I saw this on Pinterest:

Here's my take:

I used printed playing cards because I did not want to waste the ones I had at home, even though they are mostly bent. Also the paper made it easier to attach the cards to the jackets, using safety pins inside the jackets. I opted against putting them on the neck area because they would not be seen there. Since I'd printed all 52 cards out, I had a lot left after first pinning them on the lapels, so I glued others on or behind the pinned cards. Then glued together four cards for each sleeve and pinned those from the inside as well. I was still left with three cards.

I already had this hat from a St. Patrick's Day party at work several years ago. Why I was holding onto it, I don't know but it came in handy for this idea. I also had some dominos, dice and bingo stuff that I'd used for crafting some years ago, so that worked out well.

I also made this money lei from fake $100 bills bought at Spirit Halloween. I found this instructions in a YOuTube video, but can't seem to find the exact one I'd used. Here is a similar one.

I also got a gold dollar sign necklace and a pair of playing card earrings (not pictured) from the Spirit Store.

As I said, the hat and skirt I already had. The jacket came from Goodwill. I was a little hesitant about getting one there, since they no longer allow you to try on clothes. I'm kind of annoyed by this new policy, since now you have a week to see if clothes fit, then exchange them within a week for store credit that must be used the same day. At least I could slip the jacket on over my clothes. I felt it worked fine, so there would be no need to exchange it. The Goodwill store in a nearby town had even more costume options, but they too no longer have fitting rooms. I had not decided on an outfit when I was at that store, but I saw a used SpongeBob costume there. Though I wasn't counting on buying it, I saw it didn't have a tag so I would not have been able to buy it. The "no-tag, no sale" policy is also bit annoying, as at my store last month, I found a white pumpkin bucket that didn't have a tag. I would have liked it to have used it as one of my pumpkin lights. Enough on that for now.

More pictures to come.