Another one of my favorite lines from Thriller! Can’t stop jamming to my own Halloween Playlist.

Speaking of Halloween, I’ve got my costumes ready! Yes, that’s plural; I have a costume for a Halloween party this weekend, and then another to wear on Halloween.

First up, my friends and I all decided to dress up as Stranger Things characters and go out together the Saturday before Halloween. Actually, we had previously discussed going out dressed up that weekend together, but the theme our group costumes was decided without me. They even declared which character I would be! But it honestly felt very fitting, so I was cool with it. Then, we found out there was going to be a Stranger Things themed Halloween party in the city that weekend, so naturally we decided that was where we were going to go all dressed up together.

I decided that this was the most memorable and accessible look of Nancy Wheeler:

I present to you, my rough cut of my Nancy Wheeler look:

So, her coat…doesn’t seem that unique, right?! Seems like a common enough style that would be easy to find, right?! WRONG! Luckily we all started shopping for our looks a month ago; I only just found this online a week and a half ago from JustFab. It’s a membership website, so I got it for 75% off, which was amazing because the only other coat I found that was close was from Forever 21 and it was $50 with no sales or anything going on. This jacket would normally be $70, I paid under $20 for it!! The rest was easy; got a plaid button-up shirt that had Nancy vibes on clearance from Old Navy, gloves from Target that were $3.50 that I just cut the fingers off, and I found my monster-hunting bat at Five Below. The bat was also hard to find; I kept looking for toy bats at Target and Walmart that would still look like a real bat, but they were always themed or too plastic-looking. I also checked out Party City and those awesome, temporary little Spirit of Halloween stores; when inquiring about a toy bat, the Party City employee told me that they only had bats for a short while and they sold out fast because they were the Suicide Squad Harley Quinn bats. I knew a ton of people would be dressed up as Harley Quinn but I forgot she also had a bat. My dad suggested Five Below and that ended up being the winner! Got myself a foam bat that looks realistic for under $5!

Honestly, the top part of her outfit was the most important part. I wore dark skinny jeans (rolled up because I am too short) with black booties and it looked pretty perfect.

And here’s the final look from the party:

(All pictures except that last one are with my best friends as Eleven, Barb, and Dustin; we found a Joyce Byers and a demogorgon with his own little wall and had to take pictures with them, of course.)

It was an oddly warm night to begin with in Chicago, and I was just way too damn hot in that coat to keep it on all night. And I already made my own Nancy outfit to not be as warm as it actually is; on the show, she wears a sweater over a plaid button-up shirt…I was simply not having that. That’s way too many layers! I thought my coat would be enough for people to know I was Nancy, but I just couldn’t wear it all night at this hopping ping pong bar. I think my fingerless gloves and my baseball bat helped confirm that I was Nancy, though:

In case you were wondering, the Stranger Things themed party at the ping pong bar was fantastic. Awesome decorations, snacks, drinks (I had a yummy drink called Purple Rain), and so many 80’s songs all through the night. I danced so much. There were plenty of Elevens and a handful of Barbs but I was the only Nancy! Also, doing a group costume is just so delightful. I had only done couples and best friends costumes before; when Black Swan came out, my Eleven that you see here dressed as the White Swan while I was the Black Swan; together, we were the Swan Queen.

As for my other Halloween costume this year?? I have only tried it on a few times, but I’m going to wait to show you the final product. For now, here is just a tease:

Yup, I’m going to be my darling hero, Rey, from the end of The Force Awakens!! I love her other outfit as well, but this one is my favorite. And when I saw that Elhoffer Design was going to be releasing a cardigan vest and arm warmers like Rey’s second outfit, I couldn’t resist! Stay tuned for the full look and go buy this if you also favor Rey’s second outfit; it’s made so well, amazingly soft and just so perfect.

Happy Halloween Eve!!