Happy Halloween – My Best Halloween Looks

Hi everyone! Happy Halloween today! Any big plans for you or your kiddos to celebrate? 🙂

I usually don’t post pics of myself here, but today is the exception since it’s my favorite holiday! So here’s a collection of some of my best Halloween looks!

You’ll notice most of my looks were taken in an office. That’s because my workplace always made a big deal out of Halloween and encouraged everyone to dress up and goof off on that day with prizes and parties. What’s Halloween like at your workplace?

Anyhow, here are my best looks! Which one is your fave?

Cowgirl

My Best Halloween Looks / Image Source: Pepper Valentine

Cruella DeVil

My Best Halloween Looks / Image Source: Pepper Valentine

Peggy Bundy

Lol, I “tried” to dress as Peggy Bundy from my favorite sitcom of all time “Married w Children” but everyone thought that I was Reba McEntire instead!!! Such a disappointment! 🙁

My Best Halloween Looks / Image Source: Pepper Valentine

Tony Romo from the Dallas Cowboys

My Best Halloween Looks / Image Source: Pepper Valentine

A “Real Housewife” from Beverly Hills

My Best Halloween Looks / Image Source: Pepper Valentine

Jem from “Jem and the Holograms”

Lol, but nobody knew who this was so I had to spend all day explaining the character! I actually posted all the deets about this character and this costume in a previous post here, so check it out if you want more photos….

My Best Halloween Looks / Image Source: Pepper Valentine

Dora the Explorer

My Best Halloween Looks / Image Source: Pepper Valentine

Join my clique

No spam. Just occasional news, giveaway announcements, and Subscriber Spotlights where you can win a promo. Don’t miss out.

11 Fun Halloween Costume Ideas for Girls

Costume Ideas for Girls

Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays, and this post will be full of Halloween costume ideas for girls. This post was fun for me to put together because it features all the costumes my own daughter has dressed-up in over the past years…

[Disclosure: the following links are affiliate links where I may earn a commission on any resulting purchase, at no additional cost to you. Also, the affiliate link may not exactly match the items in the photograph due to availability changes over time.]

11 Halloween Costume Ideas for Girls

The following list of 11 Halloween costume ideas for girls are in no particular order.

1. Masquerade Ball Costume

Masquerade Ball Costume

Masquerade Ball Costume
Costume Ideas for Girls: Masquerade Ball / Image Source: Pepper V.
Masquerade Ball Costume
Costume Ideas for Girls: Masquerade Ball / Image Source: Pepper V.

2. Mal from Disney’s “The Descendants”

Here’s my daughter as the Mal character from “The Descendants” movie on the Disney Channel. For the eye-shadow, I actually used lipstick instead to ensure it was bright enough. Because sometimes it’s difficult for eye-shadow to show up so vibrantly. My cheat is to use lipstick instead.

Costume Ideas for Girls: Mal from “The Descendants” / Image Source: Pepper V.

Some links that might help you put together this Descendants Mal costume are below:

3. Britney Spears

Here’s my daughter as 3 different versions of Britney Spears… I actually have a separate post detailing these specific 3 costumes better here if you were curious.

Britney Spears Kid Costume Hit Me Baby
Britney Spears Kid Costume “Hit Me Baby One More Time” / Image Source: Pepper V.
Britney Spears Kid Costume "Snake Britney"
Britney Spears Kid Costume “Snake Britney” / Image Source: Pepper V.
Britney Spears Kid Costume "Toxic"
Britney Spears Kid Costume “Toxic” / Image Source: Pepper V.

Most of the items I used for these costumes I was able to find offline. But some online links that might help you piece together these Britney Spears kids costumes for yourself are below:

4. Ariana Grande

Here’s my daughter as Ariana Grande…

Ariana Grande Costume
Costume Ideas for Girls: Ariana Grande / Image Source: Pepper V.

My daughter was a size 3 in youth shoes at the time, and I had no luck finding any kids boots that either looked like this or that they would fit her. So the best I could do was find these women boots from Amazon as a size 6. They were a bit big for her but it worked for the costume and should last a couple more years if needed for other costumes. The boots in this image (as well as various colors and sizes) can be bought on Amazon if interested (link below).

And we also got the hair extensions for the ponytail from Amazon. My daughter has very thick hair, so we actually used TWO of these hair extension packages to be able to cover her natural hair sufficiently. We got the longest length of 30in. The ponytail extensions we used can be bought here:

And I’m not going to leave the link where I got the oversized sweater from since I didn’t have a great experience with the order. Basically, the shipment originated from China and took FOREVER to arrive, so I don’t really want to refer anyone else to it and risk the order not being received in time for Halloween or another costume event. But really, any oversized sweater should work for this look – you might already have one in your closet and can skip buying another one. 🙂

5. Jem and the Holograms, or a Pop-Star / Rock-Star

Here’s my daughter as Jem from “Jem and the Holograms” – only the best 80’s cartoon series ever created. Or, if you’re like 99% of the world and not familiar with that specific character, it can also be a generic pop-star or rock-star look…

Costume Ideas for Girls: Jem and the Holograms / Image Source: Pepper V.

6. Anna from “Frozen”

Here is my daughter as Anna from “Frozen”…

Costume Ideas for Girls: Anna from Frozen / Image Source: Pepper V.

7. Ariel from “The Little Mermaid”

Here is my daughter as Ariel from “The Little Mermaid”

Costume Ideas for Girls: Ariel “The Little Mermaid” / Image Source: Pepper V.

8. Genie

Here is my daughter as a genie…

Costume Ideas for Girls: Genie / Image Source: Pepper V.

9. Police Officer

Here is my daughter as a police officer…

Costume Ideas for Girls: Police Officer / Image Source: Pepper V.

10. Wonder Woman

Here is my daughter as Wonder Woman

Costume Ideas for Girls: Wonder Woman / Image Source: Pepper V.

11. Maleficent

My daughter as Maleficent…

Costume Ideas for Girls Maleficent
Costume Ideas for Girls: Maleficent / Image Source: Pepper V.

Subscribe to Pepper Valentine

I hope you all enjoyed these costume ideas and all the photos of my daughter!

Make sure to subscribe below so you won’t miss out when I add more costume ideas for girls to my blog in the future, or other mom-related posts. I don’t spam. My usual cadence is a quarterly email newsletter to keep everyone updated.

Join my clique

No spam. Just occasional news, giveaway announcements, and Subscriber Spotlights where you can win a promo. Don’t miss out.

You Don’t Have to Be Pretty Like Her

You Don't Have to be Pretty Like Her

“You Don’t Have to be Pretty Like Her / Be Pretty Like You” is my new favorite quote.

I found this quote because I was feeling bad about myself and I wanted to find something to inspire me otherwise. I tried to find the original author so I could properly quote them. Most search results said the author was Anonymous, but I did find one result that said the original author was a YouTube/Instagram influencer named Desi Perkins. Just in case that’s true, I want to give her credit for it.

See, I had wanted to post a cute photo of myself to Instagram and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it because I lacked the confidence in how I look. I had a goal this year too, of trying to improve my confidence in my appearance because I already knew it was in a slump due to all my lifestyle changes during lockdown, and I posted about it here. I’m at 0% with making any progress on this goal.

So before all our snow melted today, I dressed-up a little bit and tried to take some cute pics in the snow. I seriously took HUNDREDS of pics. And when I reviewed them afterwards, I hated every single one of them. I kept finding imperfections with myself like:

  • I have a double-chin
  • There’s a shadow over my face
  • My smile is creepy
  • My braid isn’t over my shoulder like it’s supposed to be
  • I have closed fists
  • That spot of sunlight on my face looks like a huge cystic zit
  • I am grimacing
  • My pose is awkward
  • I look too short
  • etc, etc, etc

This literally happened with every.single.pic I took.

And my confidence truly took a beating from it.

Below is a glimpse into what my camera roll looked like. And I was unsatisfied with each one, for a million different reasons.

You Don’t Have to be Pretty Like Her / Image Source: Pepper V.

I know exactly why I do it too. Because I’m on Instagram alot and I see amazingly gorgeous pics of other women all day long. And instead of telling myself that “you don’t have to be pretty like her”, I compare myself to them and I start telling myself that I can’t compete. There’s no possible way.

But why is it a competition to me? Just because other women are beautiful, doesn’t mean I can’t be beautiful too. We are all unique in a variety of ways, and striving to look exactly like everyone else doesn’t highlight our uniqueness at all. And maybe it’s our uniqueness that is beautiful.

How do I stop comparing myself to them then? I don’t know how to stop unfortunately, so I don’t have any words of wisdom to share with you. But at least I know that’s my root cause. Do any of you have this issue too? How do you deal with it?

And that’s when I started searching for some inspiration otherwise to help get me out of my funk, and I found the quote: “You don’t have to be pretty like her. Be pretty like you.”

Maybe if I keep saying enough times, I’ll start to believe it. 🙁

Truly Outrageous Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party

Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party

Just sharing a few pics of the Jem and the Holograms birthday party I threw for my daughter a few years ago. It was themed for “Jem and the Holograms” bc my daughter and I went through a phase where we watched the whole series together and she loved it. Of course I have the whole thing on DVD.

What is Jem and the Holograms?

Not alot of people remember this cartoon TV series. It was on during the 80s and definitely targeted the young girl crowd, and I was hooked ever since. But just in case you don’t believe me that it’s a real show that actually happened, you can check out all the scoop on Wikipedia. 🙂

I was mostly addicted to the music, as Jem was a rockstar/popstar and had the catchiest songs and the most outrageous fashion.

She was also a real-life person with a real-life job and real-life responsibilities raising foster kids. Her real-life persona was Jerrica, and she had to keep her rockstar persona a secret from everyone.

Holy smokes. Kinda like me with this blog. I’m using the alias Pepper Valentine here (lol, my rockstar name), and I am keeping this blog a secret from everyone in my real-life so I can be uncensored and unedited here, and have no real-life consequences for being myself.

Anyhow, the reason she had to keep her identity such a secret was because she had a secret supercomputer (in the 80s!) that created all the music and all the fashion via holograms that looked real to everyone else. And she thought that if that supercomputer was discovered, that it could be used for evil purposes. She was using it simply to be a rockstar.

So that’s a quick summary as to why I am a “Jem and the Holograms” fan. I’m a bit obsessed with the series still, and I have fun creating projects that are inspired by Jem, like my daughter’s birthday party. We even dressed up as Jem and the Holograms for Halloween one year! I have those costume pics saved on another blog post you can link to here.

My Photos of Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party

I’m happy to be able to share these pics even though it’s all over and in the past. I hope you like it too…

The Birthday Cake… 🎂

Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party / Image Source: Pepper V.

The Goodie-Bags….

Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party / Image Source: Pepper V.
Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party / Image Source: Pepper V.

And all the goodies packed into the Goodie-Bags, including a pair of Jem’s Synergy earrings…

Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party / Image Source: Pepper V.
Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party / Image Source: Pepper V.
Jem and the Holograms Birthday Party / Image Source: Pepper V.

Join my clique

No spam. Just occasional news, giveaway announcements, and Subscriber Spotlights where you can win a promo. Don’t miss out.

Fun Ariana Grande Costume for Kids

Ariana Grande Costume For Kids

So we experimented with Halloween outfits some more and this time we tried an Ariana Grande costume for kids. I think my daughter nailed it!

What do you guys think?

Ariana Grande Costume For Kids / Image Source: Pepper V.
Ariana Grande Costume For Kids / Image Source: Pepper V.

Compared to other costumes we’ve tried, this one was pretty simple to put together. Just needed the boots, the over-sized sweater, and the hair extensions for the ponytail. Easy-peasy!

So definitely when it comes to preparedness, this one is recommended because you might already have all the items you need in your closet, or, your hair is fabulous enough to do the high ponytail without the extensions. Here is an example of the look we were trying to copy:

Ariana Grande Costume For Kids / Image Source: Link Here

I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy Ariana Grande look. If you’re more interested in a Britney Spears costume instead, I have 3 variations for kids you can check out on this post here.

If you don’t already have all the items handy for this outfit, some info on how to find them follows below…

Ariana Grande Costume for Kids – Shopping Links

[Disclosure: the following links are affiliate links where I may earn a commission on any resulting purchase, at no additional cost to you.]

My daughter was a size 3 in youth shoes at the time, and I had no luck finding any kids boots that looked like this they would fit her exactly. So the best I could do was find these women boots from Amazon as a size 6. They were a bit big for her but it worked for the costume and should last a couple more years if needed for other costumers. The boots in this image (as well as various colors and sizes) can be bought on Amazon if interested (link below).

And we also got the hair extensions for the ponytail from Amazon. My daughter has very thick hair, so we actually used TWO of these hair extension packages to be able to cover her natural hair sufficiently. We got the longest length of 30in. The ponytail extensions we used can be bought here:

And I’m not going to leave the link where I got the oversized sweater from since I didn’t have a great experience with the order. Basically, the shipment originated from China and took FOREVER to arrive, so I don’t really want to refer anyone else to it and risk the order not being received in time for Halloween or another costume event. But really, any oversized sweater should work for this look – you might already have one in your closet and can skip buying another one. 🙂

Anyhow, I hope this info helps with your look for an Ariana Grande costume for kids. I wish you all a fun and safe Halloween this year! And good luck putting together your outfit, no matter which costume you decide. There are so many choices and so many ways to make it your own. Have a great time!

Subscribe to Pepper Valentine

I hope you all enjoyed this costume idea and the photos of my daughter!

Make sure to subscribe below so you won’t miss out when I add more costume ideas for girls to my blog in the future, or other mom-related posts. I don’t spam. My usual cadence is a quarterly email newsletter to keep everyone updated.

Join my clique

No spam. Just occasional news, giveaway announcements, and Subscriber Spotlights where you can win a promo. Don’t miss out.

3 Fun Britney Spears Kid Costume Ideas

Britney Spears Kid Costume Hit Me Baby

So have I told you all lately that I go a bit overboard for Halloween?! No? Ok then… Well, I do. And one of my faves was the Britney Spears kid costume that I put together for my daughter one year.

There was this one year, where my kid was a Britney Spears fan bc I was a Britney Spears fan and we used to enjoy all the same things. (Lol, those days are long past us now.) But my daughter had 3 different Halloween parties to attend, so of course, I just HAD to prepare 3 different Britney Spears costumes.

The rest of this post is dedicated to the Britney Spears costume, but if you would like more costume ideas for girls, I have a separate post located here: 11 Costume Ideas for Girls, which includes my daughter’s costumes as Ariana Grande, Cruella DeVil, Jem and the Holograms, Ariel the Little Mermaid, Wonder Woman, Mal from The Descendants, and others…

Hit Me Baby One More Time

Of course we did the obligatory “Hit Me Baby One More Time” outfit. This was the easiest costume to put together because most of these items we were able to find via thrift stores in town. So easy. And, all the pieces can be re-purposed for normal wear too. The only item that I had to really hunt for was the microphone earpiece and I was able to find it online (link below).

Britney Spears Kid Costume Hit Me Baby
Britney Spears Kid Costume “Hit Me Baby One More Time” / Image Source: Pepper V.
Britney Spears Kid Costume Hit Me Baby
Britney Spears Kid Costume “Hit Me Baby One More Time” / Image Source: Pepper V.

I’m A Slave For U

And believe it not, we put together a kid costume for “I’m a Slave 4 U” too! My daughter was obsessed with doing this particular outfit bc she wanted the snake prop. We called it “Snake Britney” at home bc that was the best thing about it.

For the main outfit, we used a peacock costume we found online (link below) because it was the correct color scheme, and we simply removed all the peacock-ish features of it. I was worried that it wouldn’t work, but it absolutely did! And once we found the peacock costume, the rest was easy!

Britney Spears Kid Costume "Snake Britney"
Britney Spears Kid Costume “Snake Britney” / Image Source: Pepper V.
Britney Spears Kid Costume "Snake Britney"
Britney Spears Kid Costume “Snake Britney” / Image Source: Pepper V.

Toxic

And finally, we did the “Toxic” outfit too. This is only my favorite Britney music video of all so I was most excited to do this one. My daughter is actually wearing an Adult Small flight attendant costume because I simply could not find a child version that would work.

Because it was an adult costume, I had to do some amateur alteration work – mostly with safety pins in the back to tighten it, and then safety pins in the front to close the cleavage area. It’s for times like these where I wish I knew how to sew! It’s a very important skill that not very many people have anymore!

So despite the outfit being a bit big on her, and despite the alternations to make it appropriate, I think it worked out and she didn’t mind at all so no problem! What do you all think?

Unfortunately, I’m no longer able to find this specific costume online so I can share the link with you. If you’re looking for similar, I wish you tons of luck. I’ll continue looking online too so if I find it again I will add it here.

Britney Spears Kid Costume "Toxic"
Britney Spears Kid Costume “Toxic” / Image Source: Pepper V.
Britney Spears Kid Costume "Toxic"
Britney Spears Kid Costume “Toxic” / Image Source: Pepper V.
Britney Spears Kid Costume "Toxic"
Britney Spears Kid Costume “Toxic” / Image Source: Pepper V.

Anyhow, that’s the scoop on my daughter’s Britney Spears kid costume for Halloween… Hope you all cracked a smile. I sure did. 🤣😁

If your kid prefers Ariana Grande instead, you can check out that look too on this post here.

Britney Spears Kid Costumes – Shopping Links

[Disclosure: the following links are affiliate links where I may earn a commission on any resulting purchase, at no additional cost to you.]

Most of the items I used for these costumes I was able to find offline as well as online. Some online links that might help you piece together these Britney Spears kids costumes for yourself are below:

Subscribe to Pepper Valentine

I hope you all enjoyed these Britney Spears kid costumes and all the photos of my daughter!

Make sure to subscribe below so you won’t miss out when I add more costume ideas for girls to my blog in the future, or other mom-related posts. I don’t spam. My usual cadence is a quarterly email newsletter to keep everyone updated.

Join my clique

No spam. Just occasional news, giveaway announcements, and Subscriber Spotlights where you can win a promo. Don’t miss out.

Truly Outrageous Jem and The Holograms Costume

Jem and the Holograms Costume

Since Halloween is the theme of the month, I found pics from one of my favorite costumes ever. My daughter and I dressed in Jem and The Holograms Costumes one year.

What is “Jem and the Holograms”?

Not alot of folks are familiar with “Jem and The Holograms”. It was only the greatest 80’s cartoon series of all time, so you truly missed out if didn’t watch. Don’t fight me. 🙂

But just in case you don’t believe me that it’s a real show that actually happened, you can check out all the scoop on Wikipedia. 🙂

Image Source: Google

Not alot of people remember this cartoon TV series, which makes me sad. It was on during the 80s and definitely targeted the young girl crowd, and I was hooked ever since. I was mostly addicted to the music, as Jem was a rockstar/popstar and had the catchiest songs and the most outrageous fashion.

She was also a real-life person with a real-life job and real-life responsibilities raising foster kids. Her real-life persona was Jerrica, and she had to keep her rockstar persona a secret from everyone.

Holy smokes. Kinda like me with this blog. I’m using the alias Pepper Valentine here (lol, my rockstar name), and I am keeping this blog a secret from everyone in my real-life so I can be uncensored and unedited here, and have no real-life consequences for being myself.

Anyhow, the reason she had to keep her identity such a secret was because she had a secret supercomputer (in the 80s!) that created all the music and all the fashion via holograms that looked real to everyone else. And she thought that if that supercomputer was discovered, that it could be used for evil purposes. She was using it simply to be a rockstar.

So that’s a quick summary as to why I am a “Jem and the Holograms” fan. I’m a bit obsessed with the series still, and I have fun creating projects that are inspired by Jem, like these Halloween costumes for myself and my daughter. My daughter even had a Jem and the Holograms birthday party theme one year and I saved those pics on another post here. I’m happy to be able to share these pics even though it’s all over and in the past. I hope you like it too…

My Photos – Jem and the Holograms Costume

So one year myself and my daughter dressed as the main characters, Jem and Pizzazz, and we had a great time. Lol, how’d we do though? We look just like them, right?

Jem and the Holograms Costume / Image Source: Pepper V.
Jem and the Holograms Costume / Image Source: Pepper V.
Jem and the Holograms Costume / Image Source: Pepper V.
Jem and the Holograms Costume / Image Source: Pepper V.
Jem and the Holograms Costume / Image Source: Pepper V.
Jem and the Holograms Costume / Image Source: Pepper V.

Jem and the Holograms Costume – Shopping Links

[Disclosure: the following links are affiliate links where I may earn a commission on any resulting purchase, at no additional cost to you.]

Join my clique

No spam. Just occasional news, giveaway announcements, and Subscriber Spotlights where you can win a promo. Don’t miss out.