Day 30: Mickey Mouse
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you’ll know that I am a die hard Disnerd. Mickey is my ride or die Mouse!!
What would the world be with the OG Mouse? 
Black Turtleneck, Red Pants and Yellow Shoes from OMG Thrift
Day 28: JEM from JEM and the Holograms
Out of all the characters I’ve chosen to cosplay this month, JEM is the one who is nearest and dearest to my heart. I used to watch the cartoon when I was a kid and dream of the day I could have pink hair and be a rock star!
SHOWTIME SYNERGY!!!
Dress from OMG Thrift
Star Earrings and Heels from Goodwill
Belt from Salvation Army
Truly Outrageous!!
Day 24: GLOW
This is one of my new favorite shows from Netflix this year. A show about the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, set in the 80’s (my favorite era!) If you haven’t seen this show yet, you should.
I didn’t chose a specific character to cosplay, I sort of did an homage to the whole genre. But I think the character I most resemble today is Betty Gilpin’s Debbie. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, it’s cause you didn’t take my advice yet and haven’t seen the show…what are you waiting for? Go watch it, I’ll wait!
Leotard & High Tops from Plato’s Closet
Headband from Sweaty Betty
Day 17: Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz
Aside from being the 17th day in my Thrift Store Cosplay series, it also happens to be National Thrift Store Day. And I didn’t even plan it that way! August was clearly the month that this series was meant to be in!
To celebrate this occasion, I had a couple adventures today.
Stop #1: First up, a tour of my local Goodwill. At BlogHer 17 back in June, I happened upon a Goodwill table at the conference and met Dominik, who is Goodwill Central Florida’s Volunteer Director. Dominik invited me to one of their WOW Tours and also to an Inspiration Breakfast they’re having in September (which I will share with you when it happens!) And today was tour day! I don’t know if they planned it to be on National Thrift Store Day, but it was quite fortuitous!
There’s a lot of misinformation out there about Goodwill. And rather than give in to the chatter or let that influence me, I thought the best way to find out more information is to go directly to the source and learn about the company from within. I’ll be bringing you a lot more blog posts on what I’ve learned and am learning, but I want to say this…I used to shop fast fashion brands and I could no longer feel good about that decision given the waste, potential for human trafficking elements in production and general knowledge of shady practices in a lot of main stream fast fashion companies (if you want names…I can give you names!) Goodwill is a company that is doing great things in Central Florida and I can and do feel great about supporting them and I will continue to do so as I learn more about the company!! You can check out my Instagram story today and see the whole thread of my day!!
Stop #2: After my fun morning at Goodwill I stopped at OMG Thrift because they made me their Selfie Star of the Week and I won a free $10 gift card. So I went to pick it up. And will probably use that pretty soon, as free money doesn’t stay in my wallet very long and I love shopping there!! Expect to see more about it in my Instagram story.
Stop #3: This morning, I hastily ransacked my closet for items to donate to Goodwill this morning, on National Thrift Store Day. Sadly I could only scrounge together 1 bag, because a couple weeks ago I donated 8 bags of stuff, so my closet was slim pickin’s. Not only that, I totally forgot to give it to the OBT Goodwill that I was touring this morning. So I had to add a 3rd stop to my Thrift Store tour today. I stopped at the Salvation Army to donate my measly bag of items. The Salvation Army is exactly 2 minutes from my work, so it was incredibly convenient to donate there. I usually try to divide my donations up and give them to Goodwill, Salvation Army and also my local Boys and Girls Club thrift store. You can’t go wrong with any of those options!!
With all that information for ya, it’s back to the cosplay. Here’s my Dorothy:
Shirt from Goodwill
Skirt from The Whirl and Twirl Square Dance Club’s Annual Skirt Sale
Shoes from Plato’s Closet
Day 16: Harry Potter
Personally, I’m a Gryffindor. So when I found this shirt in Goodwill, I knew I had to have it, not only for my personal closet of items to wear on a daily basis, but also for this series! I already had Harry Potter glasses in my cosplay closet and my wand from Ollivander’s Wand Shop at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando.
Funny story…last time I was at the Wizarding World, I went into Ollivander’s with my friends Erin and Cristina, fully expecting an exuberant child to be picked by Ollivander to do the wand choosing portion of the experience at the store. There I was, in the front row with the biggest grin on my face at least a foot or two taller than the little children eagerly wanting to be chosen by Mr. Ollivander. But one look at me and Mr. Ollivander stopped in front of me, gave me an quizzical look and then proceeded to pick me…ME!!! Sure, some of you might say…”let the children do it instead,” but if Mr. Ollivander chose you, you’d forget that you were an adult and run up to the counter in anticipation of your first REAL wand too…wouldn’t you? No? Just me? Well, regardless…that is the story of where I got my wand!! The end!
Harry Potter shirt and pants from Goodwill
Wand from Universal Orlando
Glasses from my cosplay closet
Shoes from my shoe closet (I have many closets!)
Underpants from Richard Leeds International (Not seen in above picture…obviously!)
Day 14: Aladdin
Aladdin is one of my all time favorite Disney movies. It’s neck and neck with Lion King for me. I must have watched it over 1,000 times as a kid and still continue to watch it as an adult (though since the death of Robin Williams it’s been much harder to watch it without crying uncontrollably!)
Which is your favorite Disney movie? We all have one (or 4.)
Hat from my dad’s extensive hat collection (go on Instagram and check out his #30DaysofNerdyHats )
Pants from my Aunt Becky’s dance closet (we used to do a dance to Arabian Nights at her belly dancing class when I was a kid.)
Vest from OMG Thrift
Undershirt from Goodwill
Day 13: Luigi from Super Mario Brothers
This one ended up being more of an homage than I originally intended. The first piece of my Luigi cosplay I found was the green overalls. I got excited cause I thought to myself “Look, green overalls…just like Luigi wears!” In my defense I haven’t owned a Nintendo since I was in high school which was…let’s just say it wasn’t yesterday.
Imagine my dismay when I got home and Google’d Luigi to see the kind of blue shirt I needed (again, I was going on memory here) and found out that Luigi wore blue overalls and green shirt. Wah-wah-wah. But I went with it anyways and decided it was going to be an homage the Luigi I remembered in my child’s mind rather than real Luigi. And here it is:
Overalls from Goodwill
Shirt from OMG Thrift
Boots from Plato’s Closet
Hat from my dad’s hat collection
Day 11: Forrest Gump
I think Forrest Gump was my very first Tom Hanks movie. Or at least the one I remember seeing first. They say you never forget your first Hanks…well, they should say that! Because Tom is a national treasure. He’s one of those actors that is beloved by all. And if you don’t like Tom Hanks, then I truly question your very moral compass. How are you living an upstanding life if you don’t like The Hanks?! I ask you that!
I mean…I even named my cat after the incomparable Mr. Hanks. Look at that little face…
Don’t you think all cats should be named after him? Who are we kidding…name the dogs after him too. Are you having a baby? Let me offer you the name Tom Hanks…girl or boy! First name Tom, middle name Hanks! What better namesake could there be? Just look at how happy my cat is to bear the name of Hanks:
Ok, bad example. Tom Hanks, the cat, never actually looks happy. But I’ll bet he’s smiling on the inside, all because he’s named after the G.O.A.T…Thomas Jeffrey Hanks. And…actually Tom Hanks, the cat’s middle name starts with a J too, just like human Tom Hanks! But it isn’t Jeffrey, it’s Jamesfranco.
Alright, back to the cosplay. Here is my homage to one of human Tom Hank’s greatest characters:
Which movie was your first Hanks? Let me know in the comments or meet me on social media!! #MyFirstHanks
Day 9: Fairy Godmother from Disney’s Cinderella (1950)
Everyone’s always giving all the love to the Disney Princesses, ok…I know…me included. But what about the supporting characters who make the Princesses’ stories happen. Like…for example…Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother. We don’t know much about her, but we know that without her Cinderella would be up a creek without a paddle, if you will.
And another thing. We know Cinderella is Becky with the good shoes, but dang, if the Fairy Godmother didn’t have her own exquisite taste in footwear, would she really be giving Cindy such a great pair of heels? Women with bad taste in shoes don’t give shoes as a gift. I’m just saying…Fairy G Mom is probably rocking a pretty epic shoe closet back at home. With that in mind…here is my take on Cindy’s Fairy Godmother, mind the shoes!!
Top from Salvation Army
Pants and Shoes from Goodwill
Check out those sparkly shoes!! That’s how Fairy Godmother rolls!!
Bippity Boppity Booya!
