Our Easy DIY Halloween costumes 2020

         Hey, Hi, Hello!   🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

    How are we all today? Doing well on this bleary, wet and dreary week of October, I hope. Today I thought I'd share a bit about our Halloween costumes this year to brighten this week up a bit! Now, as always my family are HUGE procrastinators. When I started writing this it was October 28th and now as I'm finishing it, it is November 12. Halloween is the 31st and we were just then finishing costumes. Somehow that's how it happens every year. Usually we're always running around scrambling for last minute ideas and trying to find a costume in our size. But these past few years as we've been getting older we've been wanting to start actually getting more into making our costumes.
    Now, usually we say we're going to make our costumes but then we never do or we get too lazy. But this year we somehow managed to quickly piece together super cute, super super easy costumes!! 

        Naomi + Lana

    Okay, so we'll start with Lana and Naomi's costumes. I don't know how or when they came up with the idea but the girls wanted to do something together, which is super cute. I've always wanted to do a couples costume. Or even a group costume. A few years ago two of my friends and I dressed up as the Scooby Gang and that was awesome. We were missing a Daphne, but we ended up just saying that was our mystery. Anyways, back to the girls. Both of them have been practically obsessed with this Five Nights at Freddy's...videogame? Jeez, I don't even know what the dang thing is. All I know is personally I think it's terrifying and I don't understand why kids can thing evil Animatronics are cool but a doll isn't. Some one please explain that logic to me. Thank you. 
    Apparently there are different like versions of these characters as well and instead of doing the main versions the girls chose to do Fun time Freddy and Bon-bon. Now, what I did not know is that apparently Bon-bon is Funtime puppet. So basically my little sister agreed to be my stepsister's puppet for the night and the thought of that honestly cracked me up. 

  

    So, those are what we ended up with. I think they are the ABSOLUTE CUTEST! When I found out the girls wanted to do these crazy costumes I was like boy, that'll be fun. We're either going to just buy the costumes and theyre going to be big and bulky and awkward on these little tiny girls OR maybe they'll think the tutu idea is cute. I've been seeing these cute tutu group costumes pop up for years now. People will take the most simple characters or sometimes even more complicated characters and make them so simple and often super cute! I first suggested the idea to Naomi when she didn't seem to be liking the ideas my mom was sort of thinking we could do for her. I fully expected her little eight year old self to immediately shut down the idea but she actually seemed to ponder it. So, I found some examples and showed her a few to make sure she understood what I meant.
    Yet she still liked the idea. The next hardest part was going to be convincing Lana to go along with it, or so I thought. She agreed to it almost just as easily and honestly I was shocked. I thought they would've wanted it to be almost exactly the same but I'm so glad that they did want to do it! Now, the easy part about the tutu costumes is that once you select your character you just need a color that fits them perfectly, and depending on who your character is a shirt too match. For the girl it was easy enough since most of these Animatronics are one color.           
    For Naomi's costume we got the skirt, pants and shirt, I believe, at Walmart.  Lana's we bought the skirt at Meijer. But honestly you can probably find the tutu's at any major retailer that sells Halloween costumes. Lana's leggings came from Target because I knew we had white leggings for girls and we couldn't find them anywhere else apparently. For the chest pieces we painted Naomi's directly on the shirt and Lana's was a piece of pink felt that my mom just safety pinned to the sweatshirt. The bows were easy. You could very, very easily make them but we just bought Lana's black bow at Walmart and we already had Naomi's which came in some sort of hair chalk thing we'd bought previously. 
    Now the ears were fun. Lana's were made out of like hard green foam that reminded me of the foam that you stick fake flowers in to keep them upright in vases, but I think it was just a hard green foam that we found which was the perfect size. I believe they just painted them white and then glued some more of the pink felt on the center (I kind of missed that part as I was at work when they made those). Then all we did was get a plain black plastic head band and we used some simple wire to wrap around the headband and we just stuck the wire through the center of the ears and then we just kind of sat the hat on a twisted piece of the wire to look like a spring. It stayed better than that sounded like it would. 
    Naomi's ears were made out of the green foam fingers from the pointing fingers board game. She painted them herself with two paints I had previously bought from Target and we put them on a head band same way as Lana's. And with Lana's microphone we just used the one that came from my Trolls karaoke machine. 

Kaley + Isabel

    Next, there was me and Isabel. Ours were WAYYYY more last minute. But easily just as simple. Basically all we did was get a tutu in the color that matched what we were going to be and we used it. Once I had explained the idea to Naomi about the skirts I had decided that it was easy enough that maybe I could go on ahead and make one myself to wear while we went trick or treating with the girls since I had a small shift that day and would be off in time to go with them. Originally, Isabel had been telling me to go as Thorin Oakenshield, the 'King' Dwarf from the Hobbit, because they were all convinced I could pull it off, mainly just because of my hair. I was on board for the most part but then we just ran out of time and with this year being as crazy as it was, I decided to just go with something a bit more simple. So while I was looking through the cute tutu costumes I found this Cat one and I was like well heck I already have a long sleeve black shirt and black leggings all I need are some ears and a skirt! And thus we thank Amazon for my costume.                                                                                                  

 

    Literally you can't tell me these aren't the easiest possible costumes to put together. And as a girl who's obsessed with cats, you can only imagine how excited I was about this costume! I apparently didn't take very many pictures but that's okay, these work and get the point across quite well. Like I said, I already had my long sleeve shirt and leggings but they worked perfect. The shirt was from Target, (cause lets be real most of what I own is from target) and the leggings I bought from Aeropostle. The skirt and ears both were found on amazon in like a matter of minutes. I believe the black shoes I was wearing came from Meijer, but I know for a fact I've seen almost identical ones at Target so you could probably find those anywhere. 
    Now, for Isabel's it was also a last minute thing and she didn't even get to go with us because she DID have to work however, the costume itself was still super adorable and easy to put together. Basically, we just bought one of those kits that has the ears, tail and gloves in a pack from Meijer. She wanted to be the dalmatian and it was so cute! Something about it just fit her perfectly. 

    So, even though she didn't get to wear her full costume she did get to wear her collar and ears to work that night! Her long sleeve white shirt was also from Target, it's the exact same as mine just in white and again the skirt was just a quick amazon find. Her ear, gloves and tail kit came together from Meijer and because we got it so late I believe it was on clearance. 

    But that's it! Four super easy to put together and SUPER cute costumes for 2020. What do you like best about them? Or what would you have changed and or done differently? I can't wait to get to next year and hopefully, successfully that is, put together more costumes. Hopefully next year they get to be a little more in depth too. HAve you ever made your own costumes and if so what were they? I'd love to hear about them! Something about being crafty is just so much more fun when you're able to share it with others. I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that.

    Anyways, that's all for now! Can't wait to talk soon! No idea what is coming next but hopefully it's something fantastic! -Kaley

A BIG DAY!

         HEYYYYY!

    So, today was a big day. 

    It's a day that my family has been nagging me about for YEARS. 

    I. Finally. Got. My. Drivers. License. 

    Yep. That's right. After being nagged by my entire family since I was like 16 to get it I FINALLY DID IT at 21, nonetheless, but hey I still did it! Honestly, I was terrified the entire time and literally it was such an easy test. Of course technically I guess it was not a FAIR test because it was the reimagined for COVID19 guidelines test. However, it was basically just a big circle with two stop signs, a yield and maneuverability. It's been like nine hours since then and I still feel like it didn't happen. 
    I know for most people its something they can't wait to drive but for me it's always been a terrifying idea. There's never really been a reason either. I just never wanted to do it. But hey, look it's out of the way and its done and I passed and that's is all that's important. Now all I have to do is go and actually save up for a car! Yay, true adulting! 

        That was pretty much it. I just had to make a note of it and post it before I forgot. See you next time!

Hello and Welcome!

 Hello! 

Welcome to my new blog that I've at least for the moment chosen to call Sweet Japanese Pickles! even though I've never been to Japan, nor am I a fan of pickles! I wanted to create a place where I could rant or post about the random crafts or small paintings I've made, maybe even my guesses and predictions for tv shows! Hopefully some reviews and I hope anything and everything. 

    Once upon a time I used to try and write my own stories, the ideas are all still there but the will and want to actually write them has somewhat vanished as I've grown up and realized I had to adult. (Ew.) However, there was one night where I was very into my writing and I can't remember which of my characters it was but he was mad and I asked my sister to pick the most ridiculous exclamation she could think of and when she gave me was Sweet Japanese Pickles. I don't think that I've honestly ever laughed so hard over a random exclamation of words. So that is how the title was born! Thank you Isabel! (<-- my little sister)

Otherwise I'm not really sure what the best way to introduce myself is. My name is Kaley, I'm officially an adult, 21, WOOP WOOP! Ha. Yeah but not really. It feels no different being 21 only difference is I can drink alcohol and its been a month and I still haven't had any yet! Most people I tell that too find it hard to believe. Honestly, I'm just not all that ready to just go out and party. Plus I don't have enough friends. Or the right kind of friends I guess you could say. Plus I'm like a HUGE introvert. I always want to go out and do something but any time I'm offered to go somewhere I'm like 'Nah, I'd rather stay home.' I really just can't win. 

Lets see what else.....I am the oldest of four, six if you count my step siblings. I have one brother and two biological sisters, then both of my step siblings are girls as well. We have a pretty good age difference between the six of us. You have me at 21, Izzy (Who is Stepsister #1 and is also named Isabel but she goes by Izzy) at 20, Then my one and only brother Caleb at 19, next is Isabel at sweet 16, Lana at 10 almost 11 and then Baby Naomi at 7 almost 8. We're really quite a range of ages. Um to say the least my parents just got an official divorce after 22 years. And my 'Stepdad' is already planning the cutest proposal ever so I can't wait to share that! The best part is that both my dad and my stepdad are practically the same person and they get along just so fantastic that often times we've joked that they're best friends. 

Also, let me just warn everyone know that when I get obsessed with something, I get OBSESSED with it. At the moment my biggest obsession is LOTR/The Hobbit. So, just be ready for a lot of content or mentions to certain fandoms occasionally. I'm trying to dial it down a bit but it's a little hard sometimes though it shouldn't be. But just a fair warning so you can't say I didn't warn you. Be ready for lots of Marvel, Supernatural, LOTR, and a ton more to come! 

I work as a Target Fulfillment Expert and I love it so much! But as a girl who is obsessed with Target let me just tell you that it's quite dangerous and I spend far too much money there already. #SorryNotSorry. Just wait for Christmas time.....oh boy we're not ready. 

Typically I like to listen to most types of music. Though I do have my favorites. I like Musicals and like OLD country. Last Christmas my dad bought me a record player and let me just say that it's like one of my favorite things. I loved it so much that I bought SOOO many records and even went and bought myself ANOTHER player which BTW is FAN-FLIPPING-TASTIC! It's literally one of the greatest things I've ever bought. It plays CDs, Cassettes, Records, has a radio function AND Bluetooth option. I bought mine from Target just because you know Team Member Discount but even then like I said it's one of the greatest things I've ever bought! Here's the Link! 

Really, I'm not sure what else to say though I'm sure I'll think of something and regret ending this here, but thank you for checking out this blog! I hope to be able to actually keep up with it! Usually I fail wit keeping up with things. Once upon a million times I've tried making youtube videos or writing stories or even other blogs and they have just NEVER worked out in my favor, so I'm hoping that we can make this one different! Thanks for hanging with me! Chat soon! -Kaley<3