Disney World with Little Ones on a Budget

    Hey everyone!  We just got back from taking Sugarplum and Buttercup on their very first trip to Disney World.

    It was my ninth visit, but my first time to actually be in charge of planning the whole trip.  Obviously Disney is pretty expensive as far as vacations go, and can be a little intimidating to think about tackling with toddlers.  But there are plenty of ways to save money here and there, and doing it all with little ones isn't bad at all with some planning ahead.  I certainly am not an expert, and our trip went far from perfectly (mainly because we were fighting with stomach flu the whole time!  Yikes!).  But I thought I could share a few tips and ideas that we followed (or want to try in the future, based on our experience this time).  I'm not going to get into which parks to visit, which rides to go on, Fastpass strategies, or anything like that.  I'll just be focused on saving money and working with toddlers/babies.
    UPDATE 3/1/18: I've now posted part 1 of 2 covering parks, attractions, and most of all, how to use Fastpass+.  Check it out!

    1. Go During the Off-Season

    You can save a lot of money and headaches by going during one of Disney World's off-seasons.  Hotels will be cheaper, whether you're staying on or off-property (see #2), and crowds will be significantly smaller, which means less time waiting in lines and more time having fun.  Check online for a crowd prediction calendar for the year you're planning on going.  Usually late January to early February is a perfect time to go - not only is it their slow season, but the temperatures are just right in Florida at that time of year.

    Tip within a tip - even if you're there during the off-season, you're going to want to avoid Magic Kingdom on the weekends.  It can still be super busy, especially on Saturdays, but on Fridays and Sundays, too.  Use those days to take a day off (see #3) or visit the other parks.

    2. Consider Staying Off-Property

    There are pros and cons to staying in a non-Disney hotel or condo, so go through them all and decide what's going to be best for your family.

    The main advantages to staying in a Disney resort (besides just the experience) are having Disney transportation to the parks, and getting other resort perks like Extra Magic Hours.  What made up our minds to stay off-property was the cost and the size of the rooms.  The cheapest Disney hotel averages $110 per night, and we're talking about a very small standard hotel room.  If you're only going to be in your room for sleeping and getting ready in the morning, this isn't as big of a deal - though we all know that more room with toddlers is better for even that amount of time.  But if you're taking days off (see #3), you're going to want plenty of space for them to run around and play.  And if you're going to be making food at all (see #4), you're going to want a kitchenette at the least.  

    I was able to score a room with a separate bedroom and a kitchenette on Airbnb for only $55 a night.  The separate bedroom, with a door, was important for us for two reasons - first of all, Buttercup still wakes up at night, and we didn't want her waking Sugarplum.  Second, on our days off we were able to put both of them in the bedroom for naps and we could stay up in the living area without bothering them.  

    Even with the added cost of parking for $20 each day at the parks, we still came out on top.  But personally, I still would have stayed off-property even if we had had to pay the same price as for the Disney hotel, just so that we could have all of that extra space.

    If you're interested in details, we stayed in this room at Parkway Palms Resort.  It was a 10-15 min drive to all of the parks from there, and close to grocery stores, etc.  We had very few complaints!  Besides Airbnb, you can also try sites like VRBO to look for rooms owned by individuals.

    3. Take Days Off

    If you've ever been to Disney before, you know that it is extremely tiring.  This is even more true for little ones!  Even if they're not walking like you are, they'll be tired from travel and from being off of their normal schedule, and potentially getting to bed late (yes, this happened to us pretty much every night, despite our best efforts).  You are definitely going to want to take as many days off from going to the parks as you can afford!  If I could, next time I would take a day off in between every park day.  But of course, more days off means more days paying for a hotel, and more days off of work, so that probably won't be possible.  Anyway, for your sake and your kids', take at least one day off to let everyone just hang out at the hotel and recuperate.

    4. Take a Cooler Into the Parks

    Yes, Disney will let you take a cooler in!  Their only requirements are that it be smaller than 24" long x 15" wide x 18" high, and that you do not bring in alcoholic drinks or glass containers (other than baby food jars).  This gives you several options.  You could choose anything from just taking in a few snacks, to taking in all your meals, or anywhere in between.  Obviously the more you bring in yourself, the more money you save, and the healthier your food choices can be, too!  We bought a couple of pounds of lunch meat at the beginning of our trip and made sandwiches to take in for lunch every day, plus bringing in food for Buttercup and snacks for everyone.  We usually would end up eating a late lunch and then snacking throughout the evening, and waiting to make up something quick (think frozen meals or Hamburger Helper) when we got back to the condo at night.
    Of course even if you are taking in all of your food, there may be some things here and there that you want to splurge on.  For us, it was Mickey ice cream bars on our last day in the park, and fish and chips from the United Kingdom pavilion in Epcot.  Yum!!  But overall, taking in food saved us a ton of money, plus it saved us from standing in even more lines to buy food.

    5. Forgo the Disney Dining Plan

    While we're talking about food, make sure that you do plenty of research and consideration before signing on for the Disney dining plan.  If you're planning on buying all your meals and snacks in the park, then it could be worth it for your family (though I would still try to research how much the meals will actually be costing you to make sure you'll be saving money).  But if you're planning on bringing in food at all, it's probably not cost-effective.  

    6. Budget for Character Meals

    If you're not using a dining plan, but are planning on doing a character meal on your trip, you should be aware that these meals cost a good bit more than other table service restaurants.  I'm not saying that you should skip it, because we've always had a lot of fun at our character meals.  Just keep the extra cost in mind as you're budgeting for your trip.

    7. Rent a Stroller from an Outside Source

    Even if your little one(s) doesn't normally use a stroller at home, I would highly recommend having one for your Disney trip.  There is a lot of walking involved, and those little legs tire out easily.  The last thing you want is for your kids to get tired and grumpy prematurely, or to end up having to carry them around the park!

    Having said that, the strollers that they offer for rent at Disney World are made of hard plastic and have very little storage.  If you don't want to bring your own stroller from home, then I would recommend looking into the many different companies in the Orlando area that you can rent from.  We used A Baby's Best Friend because they offered the lowest prices for the type of stroller that we wanted to rent, and we had no complaints.  They were very easy to work with, and the stroller was in perfect condition.  Because the stroller was a normal style that you would use anywhere else, both the girls were able to nap in it, and we had plenty of space to hold water bottles, jackets, our cooler, etc.

    As a secondary stroller tip, I personally would recommend getting a double side-by-side stroller if you have 2 children.  We considered all the possibilities, including a sit-and-stand or getting two separate strollers, and I'm glad we went with the side-by-side.  The sit-and-stand would have been much less comfortable for Sugarplum, and she would not have been able to nap at all (even though she only did that on one day).  They can tend to be a bit harder to navigate, too, since they're so long.  We decided against two separate strollers so that one of us would always have our arms available, either just to take a break, or to hold Buttercup when she got tired of riding.  The side-by-side was very easy to maneuver, and the girls liked being able to see each other and see everything around them.  It was pretty bulky and hard to carry when folded, but that's only an issue when getting on and off a bus or tram, and it's not likely that any other stroller would have been much easier.  We didn't have any major issues with it fitting through any openings in the park.

    8. Your Kids Might Not Wear Their MagicBands

    MagicBands are one of Disney's newest features.  If you book a stay at one of their resorts, the MagicBands come free with your tickets.  If you're not staying at a resort, you can purchase them separately.  You can simply scan your MagicBand for entry into the park, and it also holds all of your Fastpasses and all of the photos that the PhotoPass photographers take.  They were nice and convenient for DH and I, who were wearing them on our wrists the whole time.  Sugarplum, on the other hand, only wanted to wear hers for short amounts of time, and complained if it was too tight, which means it fell off her wrist multiple times.  We ended up keeping it in an outside pocket of our backpack most of the time, which wasn't too bad as far pulling it out to scan for Fastpasses.  But then she'd decide that she wanted to wear it again, and then it would come off again...long story short, her MagicBand was left somewhere on the Little Mermaid ride and was never seen again.  Thankfully, we had her ticket with us, too, and were able to use it for the rest of her Fastpasses.  

    The moral of this story is, if you want to get a MagicBand for your toddler, you might want to consider an alternative to having them wear it on their wrist.  Perhaps you could hang it on a keychain, so that it was still easy to access for scanning.  I've also seen people taking out the center portion of their MagicBands (the Mickey head part) and using it to make necklaces, keychains, etc.  If your child wears a lanyard for their Disney pins, you could possibly come up with a way to hang it on the end of the lanyard.  And if all else fails, it wasn't too big of a deal to just keep her ticket in DH's wallet and pull it out each time, either.

    9. Try Decorating Your MagicBand

    Like the cute characters on some of the MagicBands, but don't want to pay the extra money for them?  Buy a plain colored one, and decorate it yourself.  I used nail polish for mine, and had no issue with it rubbing or washing off.  The clear coat on the top cracked a little bit when I put the band on the first time, but it was barely noticeable.  

    Even if you don't want to take on something quite as intricate as mine, you can still customize your MagicBand with simple designs like dots or Mickey heads.  Look online (Pinterest or Etsy are great resources), find some inspiration and give it a go!  Also, keep in mind that you can sketch out a design on your MagicBand with a pencil (I used a soft-leaded art pencil) before you start painting.  That helped me out a ton.

    10. Shop for Souvenirs at Walmart

    This was in my original plan for this trip, but our schedule got thrown off because of sickness and we didn't end up making it.  However, from what I've been told, you can find great Disney souvenirs like t-shirts, hats, etc. at the local Walmart and pay a fraction of the price.  Now, if you're like my sister M, your souvenirs *have* to come from Disney itself to be legitimate.  And of course if you want really specific or specialty items, such as trading pins, you'll need to stick with shopping at Disney.  But if you're just looking for cute Disney stuff and want to save a ton of money, I would definitely check it out.

    11. Stay Away from Disney Springs

    My sister M would flip out about this one, too.  Maybe you love shopping and crowds, or like my sister, you just think going to Disney Springs is part of the whole experience.  If so, that's great, you should go and have fun!  But if you've never been to Disney Springs (formerly known as Downtown Disney), I just feel I should forewarn you that it is like another day in the parks in and of itself.  It's huge, there will be a lot of walking involved, there will be a ton of people, there are rides that your kids will want to ride but they cost extra money, and navigating the main store (World of Disney) is a big pain.  The good thing about shopping at World of Disney is that most of the merchandise you see in the parks, plus more, can all be found in that one store.  It's nice to be able to see it all at once and compare the things you like, rather than impulse buying in the park and then seeing something you liked better later.  But if you're not worried about impulse buying, and you want to avoid the madhouse, do yourself a favor and shop at Walmart and in the parks.  

    12. Ask for Gift Cards

   Once you know that you're going to be making a trip to Disney World, start asking for gift cards for birthdays, Christmas, etc.  You can do Disney gift cards, or VISA gift cards, or a combination of both.  DH and I accumulated a total of $370 in Disney and VISA cards and cash, which put a nice dent in paying for gas, parking, and souvenirs.

    13. Get the Disney World App

    The app is called "Disney World" and it's free!  Not only can you use it to book and modify Fastpasses, make dining reservations, and link your MagicBands to your tickets, but it also has live wait times for all of the rides and some of the character meet and greets.  This makes it so easy when you're in the park to find out what is nearby that has the shortest wait time, so you can make the most of your time in Disney.  

    14. Take Advantage of Rider Swap

    Also known as "parent swap", this is an opportunity for you and your spouse to go on rides that your kids are too small for still.  You'll have to ride by yourselves, but all you have to do is go up to the Cast Member at the entrance, tell them you want to do rider swap, and they'll give you a voucher to come back later and go through the Fastpass line to ride again.  This way one parent can stay with the kids while the other rides, then vice versa.  If you're like us, your time will be plenty taken up by kids rides and character meetings, but it's still nice to take some time for yourself on occasion!  Disney has some great roller coasters and other fast-moving rides that are fun for adults and older kids.  

    15. Don't Be Scared to Take Them Young!

    No, Buttercup (age 14 months) didn't understand the purpose of the trip at all, and she didn't want to have anything to do with any of the characters.  But she was able to ride everything that Sugarplum could ride and even enjoyed a few of the rides like the carousel and Magic Carpets.  Yes, she got pretty worn out by the end of the week.  But she took naps in the car, in the stroller, in my arms, or anywhere else she could get them, and she recovered quickly once the trip was over.

    No, Sugarplum (age 3 1/2) won't remember the trip in a few years.  But boy, did she have a great time, and we had a great time watching her.  She was at the perfect age to really enjoy all the magic of Disney, and we have videos and photos to remember it all by for years to come.

Check out my Etsy shop! I sell hand painted wooden signs with a variety of themes including geek, Disney, and Christian, and I also make custom orders!

Female Squall Leonhart (Leon) Cosplay

    After a long, intense, sometimes stressful, mostly fun 10 or so months of work, I finally finished our costumes!  We took on ComiCon in Knoxville this past weekend, and it was a lot of fun as usual.  We didn't win the costume contest (as usual!), but we got tons of compliments and had our picture taken dozens of times.

    From left to right, my sister M as Cloud Strife, my sister D as Sora, and me as Squall Leonhart (aka Leon).  All female versions of the male characters, and all based on the looks that they wear in Kingdom Hearts 2.  I designed the female looks, and created most of the pieces.  M and D each worked on some pieces, as well, and our dad made our awesome weapons out of foam core.  

    I'd like to go through each of our costumes (in separate entries) in a little more detail and tell you how I made the pieces.  Starting with mine!

Inspiration - Squall Leonhart (Leon) from Kingdom Hearts 2

Concept art

    Let's start with the jacket.  I bought a 3/4 length sleeve, black, "leather" cropped jacket, Body Central brand, from swap.com.

    My first step was to cut off the sleeves to short-sleeve length and re-hem them.  I cut them shorter than Leon's actually are, for a more "feminine" look.  Then I started adding details.  I found some red pleather on sale at Joann (in their home decor fabrics), and I used the lion's head necklace that I found on eBay -

    - as my template to cut out the emblem for the jacket sleeve.

    This one I hand stitched, since I figured it was easier than trying to get the sewing machine into all those little nooks and crannies. 

    The "wings" on the back of the jacket I sketched out by hand based on some screenshots I found, and I sewed them on with the machine.

    For the silver edging I used metallic silver paint.  Here's a pic of me baby-wearing and painting at the same time! 😂

    And the finished product, minus a second coat of paint...

    Next step was to add the fur trim.  I bought the fur from Hobby Lobby, and getting it cut and sewn on was a tricky procedure.  I had a lot of help from my mom on that one (hard to get it pinned on unless you're wearing it!), and I still can't tell you exactly how we did it haha. 

    The last step was to add the black panels to the front of the jacket.  I used some leftover fabric from Sora's skirt, which made things interesting since it was stretchy.  If you had better fabric, you could potentially turn these into pockets, which would make it easier to get them sewn on flat/straight, and be useful when it came ComiCon time.  But I just decided to stick with what I had on hand.

    For the white shirt underneath the jacket, I used a v-neck camisole that I already owned (it had some lace trim on it that I tacked down so as not to be TOO feminine!)

    The skirt I made from scratch with some semi-sheer black fabric from Hobby Lobby and two super long zippers that I found on Amazon.  I wanted it to be reminiscent of Leon's zippered pants, and look basically like a maxi that had been unzipped up both sides.  Basically it was just two panels of fabric, sewn together at the top and then zippered together the rest of the way, with an elastic waistband.  I tapered the skirt in toward the bottom so that it would better show off the leggings and boots underneath.

    The leggings were another swap.com purchase (can you believe I didn't already own black leggings?), and the boots were from eBay.  I did already have a pair of knee-high black boots, but a. they weren't the style I wanted, and b. I didn't want to mess them up by putting zippers on them!  I discovered in my online searching that boots with zippers up the front are extremely rare, and if you do find them they are super expensive!  So instead, I bought plain black boots and a couple more zippers from Amazon, and I glued the zippers to the front of the boots.  It ended up working really well, it was not at all obvious that they weren't functional zippers.  I highly recommend this glue -

    - for all your cosplay needs!  I lost count of how many projects we ended up using this stuff on.  For the boots, I glued on a little of the zipper at a time, held it in place until it became tacky, then used painter's tape to hold it while I continued up the zipper.

    Excuse the extremely messy background!  I also used some rolled up cardboard (frozen pizza boxes, to be exact!) to stuff down inside the boots so they would stay upright while the glue dried.  

      Now for accessories...the belt that I wore around my waist actually belongs to my husband, but the other 3 I bought off of eBay.  Size XL, so that they would fit all they way around my hips, though I think I could have gotten away with a size down so that there would not have been so much of a "tail" left over.

     The armbands I decided to make rather than buy, to keep the cost down.  They were a royal pain, mostly just because it's difficult to cut and work with leather, but they turned out well!  I found a bag of leather scraps at Hobby Lobby, and cut the 3 armbands out from one large piece of brown leather.  The buckles also came from Hobby Lobby.  I measured my arm where I wanted the armbands to be, then added a couple of inches to that.  I punched 3 holes in each one with an awl, with the center hole being the one I actually used.  Then I sewed a small piece of elastic to one end of the armband, looping around the center bar of the buckle.  Because of the elastic, I was able to just slide the first two armbands over my hand and up my arm.  I only had to actually unbuckle the one on my wrist, since I have a really small wrist.  

    Sorry I don't have any photos of the actual process!

    My gloves were originally basic black leather, and they also came off of swap.com.

    I used more of the same leftover fabric from Sora's skirt, and finished the edges of 3 different strips to go across the gloves.  I had to hand sew these, since I was going up inside the glove.  The silver details I made out of air dry clay (from Hobby Lobby or Walmart), and spray painted them with the same paint I used for my gunblade.  I glued them on with the E6000 glue (see above!)

    I'm sure you could easily find some kind of buttons to use instead, but again, I was trying not to buy anything else!  I also debated using more leather instead of fabric for the straps, but was afraid it would make hand movement difficult.  Also, after all the work on the armbands, I was over the whole working with leather thing haha.

    My weapon, known as the Gunblade, was made by my dad out of foam core and a Pringles can for the revolver!  I painted the whole thing with metallic silver spray paint, and learned in the process that if you spray on too much at once the top layer of the foam core will buckle up.  I was able to smooth it out with a straight edge, which actually ended up leaving some cool looking marks on the blade that made it look "battle worn".  

    The handle and the shading on the revolver I painted with craft paint.  The lion emblem was definitely the most difficult part!  I finally found a picture of it online that was clear enough to use, and my hubby resized it on Photoshop to the size I wanted for the blade.  Here is the original file that I cropped, before resizing.

    Once it was resized and printed, I used graphite paper to transfer it onto the blade.  This, however, was only semi-successful.  In several places the transfer barely showed up, and I had to fill in the blanks by hand, looking at the original.  Then I traced over all the lines and filled in the solid parts with a Sharpie...much easier than paint and a paintbrush, and it looked just fine!

    For the "keychain" on the end of the handle, I removed a few links from a plastic chain that we already had and spray painted it with the same paint I used on the sword.  My dad cut a notch into the middle layer of foam core, and inserted half of one of the chain links into the notch with some glue.  I created the lion's head on the end out of more air dry clay and silver spray paint.

    As far as hair goes, I used a couple of different gel and wax products coupled with plenty of hairspray to get the raised bangs that Leon wears.  I also separated a section of hair over each ear and held that all in place with the same products.  

    For makeup, I actually researched biker chick looks, and based mine off of that!  Squall/Leon may not actually own a Harley, but his outfit definitely says biker to me.  My sister D did my smoky eyeshadow, and my husband made Squall's iconic scar with a light bronze cream foundation and a makeup brush.  Finished all that off with black eyeliner, my normal light rosy-brown blush, some highlighter, and bright red lipstick, and some finishing spray to help hold it all in place.  (Tip: don't let your little sister do the finishing spray part, or you might almost drown.)

    That's all for mine!  To wrap up, here's a fun picture that D and I took at ComiCon, recreating a moment from Kingdom Hearts 1 when Sora and Leon first meet (even though both our costumes are different, we couldn't resist!)

Check out my Etsy shop! I sell hand painted wooden signs with a variety of themes including geek, Disney, and Christian, and I also make custom orders!

I Don't Have Time to Blog

    Yep, you read that right. This is a blog post about not having time to write a blog post. Makes total sense, right? 

    Okay, so obviously, technically, I have time to blog. I actually have tons of down time, sitting right here where I am right now, on the couch holding a sleeping Buttercup. We've been dealing with colic for most of the last two months, and she's a very restless sleeper during the day. The real story is that up until today, I hadn't thought of using this time to type out a post on my phone. Of course that's a rather slow-going process...not only because I'm typing an entire blog post with one thumb, but because I'm also trying not to ignore Sugarplum. So typing is being peppered with getting my teeth checked, conversations about an imaginary bug, and telling her to stop throwing toys. Also putting Buttercup's pacifier back in her mouth over and over again until she finally decides to stay asleep. 

    I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, though. I wouldn't trade these girls for anything. Adding a second child hasn't been easy, by any means, but in most ways it hasn't been as hard as I was worried it would be. It just involves a lot of improvisation and making do with the time you have...like one finger typing a blog post on your phone while holding a sleeping baby. 

    Anyway, the original point of this blog post was to talk about the things I'm doing when I'm actually NOT sitting on the couch holding Buttercup. There are a few short moments each day when either she has just eaten and is awake and happy, or I'm able to lay her down and she stays asleep for at least a few minutes. Also, of course, I can sometimes hand her off to DH or a visiting family members and steal a few minutes away. Some of that time has to go to things like eating, showering, taking care of Sugarplum, and trying to give her a little one-on-one attention. Also there are things like occasionally doing some dishes and laundry, and oh yeah, maybe eventually taking down the rest of my Christmas decorations. 

    But honestly, one of my biggest focuses lately whenever I get the chance has been our costumes for this year's ComiCon. We have 5 months left, and there is sooo much left to do. M, D, and I started thinking about our costumes literally on the day after the con last year, and had decided before I even made it back home. We're doing a group cosplay this time. Buttercup and Sugarplum will be participating as well. DH hasn't decided for sure yet, but I'm hoping that he'll end up joining us. I'm not going to share exactly what we're doing quite yet. I will tell you this...our three costumes (M, D, and me) are femme versions of male characters, are designed by me, and involve quite a bit of crafting and sewing. There's a pretty good combination of sewing from scratch and altering pieces that we purchased. 

    My dad, also, will be involved with some weapon and armor crafting. We owe that guy big...he never actually signed up for this whole cosplay thing, nor did my mom. But they love their girls, so he fills our orders without (a whole lot of) complaining, and they both help us craft and dye and paint and come up with solutions and ideas. Love y'all!

    Without going into a ton of detail, right now I think the only thing I have completely finished is D's shirt (not counting my shirt, which didn't need any alterations, and a couple of accessories that we bought online). I'm currently in the middle of alterations on my jacket, D's jacket, and M's top. I still have to start on skirts for all 3 of us, and there are still several accessories yet to buy, including wigs for the two of them. 

    I know what Buttercup's costume is going to be, but I'm trying to wait until closer to June to start on it so that I'll know for sure what size she'll be in. I haven't actually decided on Sugarplum's costume yet. I have a few choices, but I'm waiting on DH to decide on his before I make a final decision. 

    I haven't hit panic mode yet, even though it does seem like a ton of stuff to do in a very little amount of time. I really enjoy the whole process of planning and making costumes...even more than actually wearing the costume and going to ComiCon! The good news is, I recently acquired a carrier that seems to be working well for Buttercup, so hopefully I'll start being able to get some more stuff done while wearing her on days when she wants to be held all the time. 

    So...yeah. Life's a little hectic at times, and free time is a very limited commodity. But hey, I did at least finally write a blog entry! Check that one off the list. 

DIY Abby Sciuto cosplay

    So, it's been absolutely forever since I've updated my blog.  ComiCon has come and gone, and we finished all of our costumes in time...whew!  It was definitely a tight race to the finish, but we made it!  Everyone had fun (other than maybe Sugarplum, who had been fighting a cold and was pretty exhausted most of the day), and my little sisters are pumped for next year already!

    My main excuse for not updating has been my computer being on the fritz...yet it's still on the fritz, and here I am, so clearly that wasn't an entirely valid excuse.  It did make things a bit more complicated - I had to get the pictures I wanted off of my super slow computer onto a flash drive, and then actually write the blog on DH's computer since mine won't currently connect to the internet.  But I'm making it work!

    Having said all of that...it's time to start recap entries for each of our costumes, so that all the info is in one place and easy to follow.  Starting with my own cosplay, Abby Sciuto from NCIS.

    Most of this costume involved searching for and ordering pieces, there were not a lot of projects to complete.  First, every Abby cosplay needs a good goth-style top.

    I was originally looking for maybe something with skulls, which for some reason was a lot harder to find than I anticipated.  Maybe if you look at this time of year it would be easier!  But I ended up finding this skeleton tank on eBay, and it's extremely similar to one that Abby has actually worn on the show.

    Next you'll need a skirt or pants.  From my research, Abby does wear some of both, but the plaid mini skirt is her most iconic look.

    I was looking for either red, green, or blue, though I was leaning toward red.  The fact that this one came with a studded belt was an added bonus...but unfortunately, you couldn't even see it once I put it with the shirt.  Oh well.  This skirt came from swap.com.

    The next important piece is a lab coat.  I found mine on eBay, and added the embroidery myself.  I'm sure you could probably find a pre-embroidered NCIS lab coat if you don't have the means to do the embroidery, though they'll probably be a bit more expensive.  

    As an added detail for the final look, I hooked an ink pen into this pocket since Abby often carries one there.

    An optional piece, depending on what type of bottom you need up with and how comfortable you are in short skirts, is a pair of black leggings.  

    I accidentally ended up with a pair with holes down the front, which ended up working well for the overall look.  Like I said, the leggings are optional, since Abby doesn't actually wear them, but I didn't personally want to wear just a mini skirt with no other covering!  These came from swap.com as well.

    A key piece of Abby's look is her knee-high socks. 

    She wears a variety of patterns, including argyle, but I decided to go with the black and white stripes.  This was another eBay find.

    Of course as we're working our way down to the feet, the next obvious piece would be a pair of boots.

    While I admit these are not the most "Abby" boots I could have possibly gone with...I already owned them, and boots are expensive!  Abby generally wears taller boots, with lots of buckles and such.  But I felt like a simple pair of black combat boots worked pretty well without having to spend all that extra money.

    If you don't already have black hair and bangs, you'll also need a wig to complete your look.

    I found this one for cheap on eBay.  Keep in mind when buying wigs, what you pay for is what you get!  So while a cheap wig ended up working for me in the end, it was a lot more work to get it that way.
    The first thing I had to fix was the bangs.  They were VERY uneven!

    As you can see, there were sections on each side that weren't short enough to be bangs, but not long enough to mix in with the rest of the hair.  I cut those off to bangs-length.  There were other long pieces randomly mixed in throughout the bangs, too.

    Next I worked on de-shining the wig, which I have written a post on already, so I won't go into detail here.

    In this picture the left section has been de-shined.  It's not a huge difference, but it's one of those subtle details that makes the wig look more realistic.

    I really wanted to give my wig Abby's iconic high pigtails.  Unfortunately, this is what happened when I tried that.

    I don't know how well you can tell without zooming in on the photo, but you can see the netting of the wig right through the hair.  Nothing I did to style the wig solved the problem!  Even with a black wig cap on underneath you could still see it.  This is probably another result of buying a cheap wig.  A better quality wig would most likely be thicker and have better coverage and styling options.  So, I ended up going with another Abby look, the low braided pigtails.

    Even this look was a bit hard to accomplish without exposing the netting underneath.  I will go ahead and admit that I got very frustrated with this wig before it was over with!  But in the end, the bit of netting that was exposed was not noticeable enough when paired with the black wig cap to continue to worry about.
   A side note...if you're going to do any kind of cutting or styling on a wig, you'll want to get one of these wig heads.  They only cost about $5 at Hobby Lobby or Jo-Ann.  Also, do yourself a huge favor and rig some kind of stand to put it on, because they are super lightweight and will fall over constantly while you're trying to style. You can see somewhat in the picture above the one that DH made for me...basically it's a board with a spike/dowel sticking out of it and up into the hole in the bottom of the wig head.

    Now for the details!  The fun stuff!  First, jewelry.  Abby loves her jewelry!

    If you're going to cosplay Abby, a dog collar choker is pretty much a must.  I got mine on eBay, and I'm pretty sure it was an actual dog collar and not meant to be a necklace!  The skull bracelet also came from eBay, and the studded cuff was something DH had lying around.  As long as you stick with metal, black, and leather, you're pretty safe to be as creative as you'd like with your bracelets.  A choker and bracelets are about as far as Abby usually goes, though.  No earrings, and if she ever wears rings I didn't notice them.

    And, of course, you can't really be Abby without the tattoos.  This is certainly the most difficult part of the whole look!  Thankfully I married an artist, so he was in charge of my tattoos, though my sister M and I each did one on my wrists to help him out.
    There are several methods for creating your own temporary tattoos, and we weighed the pros and cons of each before settling on the simple Sharpie method.  If you want to be able to print your tattoos instead of having to draw them, there is a method with water transfer paper that you should look into.  For us, the Sharpies worked well - we drew them on the night before ComiCon, and they lasted throughout the day with very little fading.  The main issue I had was with the ones on my wrists, because I had bracelets rubbing on them, but they were easy enough to touch up.  Just make sure you take your Sharpie to the con with you!  That goes along with step #10 on my guide to ComiCon, which you should definitely check out if you're headed to your first con.
    Here are a couple of pictures of my tattoos compared with Abby's, with mine being on the right.

    Another little detail you might notice in the top picture is my black fingernail polish.  Not my usual look, but definitely an Abby thing!  For makeup, I kept it simple, with black eyeliner (but not a ton), a very small amount of light blush, and dark red lipstick.  

    And here it is, the final look!

    This was such a fun new look to try, and I got a ton of compliments on how much I looked like Abby.  Even with my baby bump, haha!

    Now let's talk cost.
    Skeleton tank: $4.99
    Mini skirt: $9.00
    Lab coat: $11.79
    Leggings: free! (long story, see my costume update post for that)
    Socks: $1.76
    Boots: free!
    Wig: $6.99
    Skull bracelet: $.74
    Dog collar: $3.70
    Cuff bracelet: free!
    Makeup, tattoos, and nails: free!

    TOTAL COST: $38.97
    Now that's cosplay on a budget!  This was actually the first time I had added up the cost, and I have to say I'm pretty pleased.

    I'll eventually get around to posts on Rey, Vanellope, Samantha Parkington, and The Man with No Name.  Hopefully it won't take me quite as long this time!

Check out my Etsy shop! I sell hand painted wooden signs with a variety of themes including geek, Disney, and Christian, and I also make custom orders!