Generally when I am making costumes, I enlist the help of awesome online tutorials for the more difficult parts of the process. However, while making Barbie and Ken costumes (of the Toy Story 3 variety) for my boyfriend and I this Halloween, I found basically nothing to help me on my journey, so I had to figure it all out myself.

I decided I would, in turn, help the rest of you out trying to make these costumes yourselves by showing you what I did!

First, Barbie. Hers is the easy one.

I basically bought every piece of the costume online and assembled it – pretty simple! The pieces you need are:

1. Stretchy blue one-piece (I bought this one). The picture at this link shows the solid, matte blue one (like she wears in the movie) but the metallic one is what came in the mail. I was a bit disappointed, but luckily this metallic one is what the actual barbie doll version of Barbie wears, so it will do just fine!

2. A pink belt or any belt that’s got the right buckle, painted pink – if it’s a leather belt, make sure to use leather paint (which you can buy at Joann’s or most other craft stores). I found mine online ages ago, but there are usually extensive belt sections at secondhand stores, so you’ll likely find something.

3. A pink scrunchie (I bought mine at Claire’s).

4. Pink pumps (I got mine at Payless Shoe Source).

5. Striped leg-warmers. Unfortunately this is the difficult part. I commissioned mine from a knitter I know (Bananavenger on Twitter), so that’s always an option – but you can always use these rainbow ones in a pinch.

That’s it! Barbie is ready! Now on to the slightly more difficult one, Ken.

 

So! The first thing about Ken’s costume to note is that none of it is stuff you’re likely to find online or at Goodwill. If you do, more power to you. I couldn’t, so I made it all myself.

I couldn’t find any button down shirts or pants or shorts even remotely the right blues, so I went with a standard white shirt and a pair of white jeans, a size or two too big for my boyfriend so we could get that bunched look when he wears them. To conserve dye, I cut the pants off at the knee before dying. Then I bought two packets of “Dylon” dye in Chine Blue at my local craft store and went to town.

They both came out a nice light blue color – the shirt was perfect, though the shorts were a bit light. I ended up leaving them as they were, but if you want a nicer blue for the shorts, I would recommend buying a third packet of Dyson dye and doing them again.

Then, start painting the shirt! I used fabric paint I bought from Joann’s, matching the colors as closely as I could. First I started with the blue spots, making them irregular and funky and covering the front of the shirt entirely. Make sure you place a piece of cardstock or something similar between the layers of shirt so it doesn’t bleed through or stick to itself when the paint dries.

Let that layer dry, then add the black spots! Another round of drying and you can add the little gold embellishments. It takes forever, so make sure you watch something on TV while you do it.

Done! And to be honest, it looks much better than anything you’d be able to find online. There’s nothing wrong with using an existing blue cheetah print shirt, but painting it yourself looks so legit!

Repeat the same steps on the back of the shirt, and make sure to get both the inside and outside of the collar, since you’ll be popping it like you’re at a college frat party.

As for the shorts – regardless of whether you used pants or shorts, you’ll need to roll up the bottom hem to create that folded over look Ken has. It should stay on its own, but if it’s being difficult, throw a quick little stitch in the sides and it should be fine. You also might want to stitch in the “pleats” at the top, if the belt doesn’t quite hold the shape alone. This is something you’ll want to do while the shorts are being worn (to make sure they still fit after taking them in), so it’s kind of a two person job.

Next was the belt. I think what Ken actually wears is technically a leather belt, but finding a solid rectangle belt buckle on a leather belt was near impossible so I just went with this military style canvas belt in beige.

I used fabric paint (the same gold I used on the shirt) to paint the beige fabricy part, then painted the buckle with acrylic paint in black and yellow. Pretty straight forward, and it comes out looking like this:

The shoes were super easy. I found this pair of leather slip-ons at Goodwill (technically Ken wears boat shoes, but this just seemed so much easier to paint and I don’t think anyone will notice).

Then I purchased a 4oz bottle of “Pale Blue” leather paint from Angelus Direct. I was worried the color might be too bright, but again, it was pretty near perfect. I’ve done shoe painting for costumes before and it usually takes 4-5 coats, but these shoes only took 2. After 2 coats, they looked solid, perfect, amazing. Also, as a tip, I prefer a sponge brush for painting leather.

Of course, the finishing touch is the ascot. Or the “regular blue neck scarf”, as I found it to be while researching, since an ascot is actually something entirely different and Barbie lied to you. You can make one yourself by purchasing a bit of silky blue fabric and tying it around your neck – or, if you want to just grab it online, you can buy this ladies neck scarf on Amazon and then just pretend it was always made for a male children’s toy.

And that’s it! Good luck with your own Barbie and Ken costumes, and send me a picture of your finished product if you used this tutorial! Happy Halloween! (or cosplay or Disneybounding, I suppose!)

This past Sunday I was at Disneyland with a whole group of my friends, and we decided it was time to take Disneybounding to the next level. We put a good amount of pre-planning into this trip to the park, but picking a single movie, assigning roles, and managing quite the impressive group Disneybound.

We chose Toy Story. It was a good choice, since it spans three movies and includes more toys than I can even count. We didn’t even begin to cover every character with our group, but we did a pretty good job!

I also managed to convince Joe to choose Woody, which was almost more fun to help put together than my own outfit. His little cow-print bow tie (which I found here!) is just too cute. We’ve done a “couples” Disneybound once before (Ariel and Prince Eric, as blogged about here) but this newest one is by far my favorite.

Overall it was an amazing day, everyone looked great, AND we hosted a big meet up over my Small World that an amazing amount of people showed up to! If you stopped by and said hello, thank you! I was so impressed by everyone’s outfits and I’m just so pumped on costumes right now that it really was the best way I could think of to end VidCon. What a great trip.

 

Have you ever Disneybounded? Who did you pick, or if you haven’t done it – who would you LIKE to Disneybound as? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for stopping by!

Last summer, a handful of my friends and I attended the Canterbury Renaissance Faire down in Oregon, where we became acquainted with a small business called Rose and Thorn Armory. We chatted, we tried on their sweet armor, we hung out together later at the bar – basically, they’re good people, they make great armor, and we became friends. I’ve been meaning to do a little spotlight on them for awhile now for this blog, but they recently sent me a few pieces of their armor for a photo shoot, so now seemed like a good time for it.

The armor they make is awesome not just because it’s actually totally battle-ready, but can also be just as easily used for costumes (which, as you probably know, I am all about). For this photo shoot I didn’t dress it up too much, since I wanted to be able to show off the armor itself (it’s just as stunning worn simply on its own as it is turned into a full-fledged warrior princess costume, trust me). I roped Joe into the shoot as well, to show off the male variety.

I hope you enjoy! And if you like what you see, please go check out their kickstarter! You will not be disappointed.

If you like any of the items we’re wearing above, I’ve got the female warrior princess top and a matching gorget in a combination of purple and black. Joe’s got on a red and black shoulder pauldron and some simple black short arm bracers. You can throw these over a renaissance fair outfit for some added durability and badass-dom, or you can great an entirely new costume out of them! I never even know you could buy armor this legit before I found this company, so I thought it would be fun to share with all of you.

I’ll be back soon with information about everything I’m doing at VidCon – have a great day!

Many of you saw pictures a while back from a secret project I flew down to NorCal to help out with and were dying to find out what it was for. Now that it’s released, I can finally tell you!

The project was a favor I did for Wyrd (the company that helped Joe and I make Jetpack Unicorn) and their new app-making company Drawn by Clouds. We were filming a fun little web series called “Dev” to help promote their Kickstarter – and it’s live now!

This project was a bit different from ones I’ve worked on lately, ie. it was very low budget and a little silly (but ultimately still a lot of fun). It was deliberately made to look amateur-ish to show the struggles of an indie game company trying to bring a game to market, and it shows the team (of which I play the extremely grumpy lead developer) getting their project ready for a fictional kickstarter that runs in tandem with the real one:

 

It’s pretty rough around the edges, but I love these guys and I super want their game to succeed. No matter what you think of the web series, I highly recommend you check out their game’s Kickstarter because Fall Schematic looks like it’s going to reach extreme levels of awesome and I can’t wait to play it.

 

My good friend and fellow blogger Tara of the Geeky Hostess threw a “Galentine’s Day” party this past weekend – a day to celebrate your favorite gals, wear pink, eat waffles and exchange presents. It’s also a day to remember how great of a show Parks and Rec is, as Leslie Knope first coined the idea for this kind of a party.

We did a secret gift exchange (I got Pinkie Pie heart shaped mints and earrings and a big floppy pink bow), caught up on girl talk with “Table Talk” conversation starters, drank mimosas and rocked a little impromptu photo shoot on the photo wall Tara provided.

It was a fun and relaxing morning with great gals and I just wish we made time to do stuff like this more often! I highly encourage you to make time for the important females in your life this Valentine’s Day.

I wore a hot pink dress I found at Ross for $6, polka dot socks and pink tights from Target and my favorite heeled boots from Cathy Jean.

I personally love Valentine’s day, almost as much as I love a good instagram photo challenge. ModCloth is currently asking the Instagram community to participate in a love-inspired ModCloth Instagram Challenge. An excuse to take more photos of yourself, you say? I’m in.

I’ve posted the schedule for you to follow in the image down below! Just tag your photos with #modweekoflove and @ModCloth to share the things you love with the ModCloth community and the world! It starts Sunday, February 9th and goes for an entire week!

Happy Valentine’s Day! You can submit as many photos as you like, and they’ll also be giving out some prizes over the course of the week. I’ll be doing the challenge… let me know your instagram name down below if you’ll be participating as well.

I’ll be back soon with another fun Valentine’s Day inspired post! Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

*This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on them.

So, 99% of my life, I would consider myself someone who really couldn’t care less about football. I don’t care about players stats, I don’t care who’s fumbled the ball, I don’t care what team we’re up against this weekend. My dad considers this one of his shortcomings as a father: not managing to pass his love of football on to his eldest child.

But, in that final 1% of my life, when our home team makes it all the way to the Superbowl, giving my city something to get excited about in the midst of dreary February… I can get a little like this:

I feel bad for the people who continue to hate sports even when they give us something to celebrate about. Seattle hasn’t had a major championship win since 1979 – That’s before myself or any of my friends were even born. The Mariners are an embarrassment, we don’t even HAVE the Sonics anymore, and the last time the Seahawks went to the Superbowl we were totally stomped. The past few months (and especially these last few weeks since the Playoffs) have filled Seattle with camaraderie, sportsmanship, team spirit and best of all hope.

I’ve seen more 12th Man flags, more buildings shining blue and green lights, and people walking around jerseys than people in wizard garb at a Harry Potter con. You can help but get involved. It’s infectious.

I might not really care about the game itself, but I can appreciate an exciting event when I see one, and more so an excuse to throw a good party. Which is exactly what my friends and I (and most of the city of Seattle) did yesterday.

We came up with all sorts of silly traditions, such as taking jello shots at kickoff (and then again after halftime) – Justin ended up eating the final 1/3 of a cake he began eating during the Playoffs game, David wore a football helmet during the offensive plays and everyone pretty much sat in the same seats we sat in two weeks ago – there was obviously some sort of good luck vibe going on so we couldn’t mess any of it up.

I know a lot of the country thought yesterdays game was boring, and I understand that. Winning by a landslide is not nearly as thrilling of TV as an evenly matched, down to the wire game. But please just imagine what it felt like for a Seattleite, watching one amazing play after another and just feeling totally awesome about our city. The perpetual underdogs, rising up for a freaking amazing win. I am so proud to be from Seattle right now, I’m proud to have experienced this crazy event, and I am so happy for my friends and family (especially my Dad) who spend so much more time being invested in this team.

Today marks my retreat back to being a non-sports fan, but I enjoyed it while it was happening. I’m happy this made so many people in my city so happy.

There’s a lot of really great improv companies around Seattle, so I frequently get the opportunity to check them out. It’s a completely different kind of live performance, and my favorite types of improv shows to see are the long-form ones based on a larger theme. I’ve seen a Final Fantasy show, I’ve seen one that emulated being inside a video game with movement tracking “game screens” behind the actors, I’ve seen one that took place on a doomed space mission – but this most recent one (by the Seattle Experimental Theatre) was Doctor Who themed. I wasn’t really sure what that was going to entail, but my friends and I of course bought tickets to see it together, making it a perfect Friday night outing.

The skirt is brand new; I got it from Forever 21 a few weeks ago. I didn’t want to look too fancy (especially since my dang ‘whoops I didn’t shower today’ sock bun really makes a person look dressed up!) so I paired the maxi skirt with a simple D&D t-shirt I absolutely love. Then I threw on my bronze Cathy Jean boots and a black hoodie and that was that! I’ve been playing around a lot with dressing up t-shirts, so this was an interesting study doing the opposite – dressing down a skirt and hairstyle.

The show was interesting. I had a good time, and a couple of my friends were in it, so that is always an added bonus. The premise was that there was an actor that played the Doctor, and a companion. The rest of the cast became either the good guys or the villains. They asked the audience for a location on Earth (we chose Paris) and a problem (lice). Then they made a Doctor Who episode out of it.

The best part of the show was the full sized beautiful Tardis they had on stage. The Doctor ran in and out of it all night (obviously) and waved a sonic screwdriver around and made all sorts of references to the show while still creating something new and unique out of the story. I think we might have been there on an off night, because there were quite a few things that didn’t pan out or didn’t make sense or were totally abandoned, but overall, it was still a very enjoyable experience. Improv is hard. I have no idea how those actors come up with all that stuff so quickly, night after night. I have the utmost respect for talented improvisers.

 

Unfortunately the show is now over, but if you ever see a themed long form improv show in your area, especially one based on something nerdy and fun, go check it out! They’re a lot of fun, especially if you can make it to multiple nights of the same show. I love seeing how different the shows turn out on various nights.

Have you been to any of these types of improv shows? What did you see? Let me know in the comments!

A couple of friends of mine decided to throw a Disney themed birthday party, and I’ll admit – they gave us ample time to work on costumes. We’re talking somewhere in the two month range here. But naturally, nobody started working one their costumes until the morning of the party.

Hence, pretty much everyone decided to Disneybound. I headed to the mall that morning with not a single idea about what I wanted to do, but almost instantly upon walking into Forever21, I found this amazing floor length teal green skirt. I knew what I had to do.

 

I scoured the store for a purple crop top (again, nailed it) and then called up Joe. “Do you have blue jeans, a white button down and some sort of red thing to put around your waste?” I asked him. “Umm.. yes?” he responded in his Kristina is scheming again so I probably shouldn’t argue with her voice. “Great. You can be my Prince Eric.”

I went to every jewelry store in the mall on the hunt for some kind of shell-related accessory, but apparently Seattle in the winter isn’t the place for nautical apparel. Actually, I take that back – there were anchors flippin’ everywhere. But not a shell necklace/earring/bracelet to be seen. I couldn’t even find any sort of generic fish. I found goldfish earrings at one store, but those were a bit of a stretch. I ended up with the starfish earrings pictured above (not my first choice by any means but they would have to  do) and a purple bow I already owned.

I had to pull it together with the makeup, then, since jewelry shopping had failed me. I used the brightest green and purple from my actual Ariel palette from Sephora – as well as pulling off my very first winged eyeliner attempt! Also, I must admit, Joe looked quite dashing as Prince Eric. I can’t wait to look on Etsy for a REAL shell necklace so I can try this Disneybound out for real at the park someday.

The outfit of the day portion of this blog post is coming, I promise. It’s a journey we’ll take together, this time.

So last week Thursday, my good friend and roommate Liz Leo and I set out on the most ambitious roadtrip we’ve ever taken, just the two of us. The trip was for NaNoWriMo and the Night of Writing Dangerously, which we’ve each done successfully for the past 8 years (7 for Liz) but never been to the huge write-a-thon party held in San Francisco each year. We powered down to Springfield, OR, stayed the night, then made our way all the way to Stockton on Friday. There was a lot of music listening, switching off who’s driving and who’s writing (we’re hardcore), appreciating how beautiful our corner of the country is, and hunting down the best roadside places to eat.

Then finally, on Saturday… we made it!! San Francisco is a crazy place, and man it feels good driving across the Bay bridge and knowing you earned being there, after 2 straight days in the car. Traffic or no traffic, we had arrived at our destination.

Of course the first thing Liz and I agreed to do was go to the Walt Disney Family Museum. I really didn’t know much about it, and we thought we’d just stop by and poke around for an hour or so… What really ended up happening was over three hours whizzing by without us even realizing it. The museum is FANTASTIC. I really enjoyed myself and I’m so glad we remembered to check it out.

The weather was beautiful in the city that day; sunny and clear but crisp in temperature, perfect for sweaters without jackets. I wore my brand new floral sweater and black skirt from Forever21, my red ankle boots from ModCloth, and coral colored socks I got from a cute little independent shop on the Ave by UW. It was a perfect outfit for traveling – comfortable enough for a long ride in the car, but fun enough for tourist pictures! I also bought myself some goodies in the museum gift shop, including a few gifts for people, so I wont be sharing those quite yet. If you ever get a chance to check this museum out, please do! It was wonderful.

Note: This post may contain affiliate or referral links, but all thoughts and opinions are my own. Disclosures.