Halloween Cards

I love sending holiday cards. Sometimes I make them, sometimes I just try to find silly/funny ones at the store. Kelly and I were are the Dollar Tree last night, and we stumbled across their card section. ALL OF THEIR CARDS ARE 2 for $1! So obviously I had to at least look at them, and believe it or not a lot of them were actually even better than the cards you pay $4 or $5 for. This one literally made me laugh in the store, just because it was so unexpected and probably even a little inappropriate. I can't wait to hear the response from the lucky friend who gets it :-)

Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin!

It's fall, and I have officially gone into pumpkin craze. Tonight I made Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes, and when I talked to my dad about it, he told me about an amazing Pumpkin Cream Pasta he had tonight... so you better believe I'm going to try to make my own variation of THAT tomorrow night. We're also carving pumpkins on friday, so hopefully I'll be able to try my hand at Pumpkin Bread within the next week!

For those of you who don't follow, but are interested in the recipe, here is a link to my other blog, Wonderland Kitchen, where I try to catalog the recipes I actually get around to recording!



In other news, my first 8-weeks class is finally over, which means I start class two hours later on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Hopefully this means more outfit shots (and outfits, for that matter) since I will actually be up, at em, and NOT all sleepy and squinty before I leave for class! I'm SO excited about that.

Halloween Crafting: Glittery Pumpkins!

I saw something similar to this on How Sweet It Is, and couldn't resist something combining both glitter and pumpkins. In fact, I was so into the glitter idea that I decided to just make the WHOLE pumpkin glittery, and then went out to get another just to make that one glittery too. I mean, as the woman in front of me at Hobby Lobby said, "Glitter just makes EVERYBODY happy!"

And obviously, you can take just about all the artistic freedom in the world with this one, so here are some guide lines, but have at it any way you please!

Supplies:

Glitter of your choice
Pumpkin(s)
Glue
Paint brush
Clear/Gloss Acrylic Paint if you want to cover the whole pumpkin

Newspaper/Plastic plate to combine glue/glitter

To entirely cover the pumpkin with glitter before adding details, I mixed a squeeze of acrylic gloss with a heaping amount of glitter. It works best to sort of "DAB" it onto the pumpkin, because otherwise the brush just drags the glitter around and doesn't really cover anything. After that I sprinkled the entire pumpkin with a little more glitter, just for good measure of course.

Wait for the base glitter layer to completely dry so the black does not get stuck anywhere other than where you want it to be! When it's ready, you can use a pen/sharpie to outline whatever design you choose.

Then go over the lines, a small section at a time, with the glue. Sprinkle the black glitter on to completely cover the glue, and then tilt the pumpkin so you can gently tap excess glitter off. It's good to have another plate handy to use to catch the extra and reuse them. Repeat these steps until all sections of your "design" are covered.

***Be careful to not use TOO MUCH glue, because if you do it will drip down the pumpkin. When I did the spider I propped it up sort of sideways so it was facing more upright and wouldn't drip down the side.


To cover the stem you can use either the method of coating the pumpkin by dabbing, or the glue/sprinkle method!

(Definitely check the link above for the How Sweet It Is blog when you get a chance, her blog is mostly made up of AMAZING and delicious looking recipes, but also has some other bits thrown in, and she is absolutely hilarious!)


Also- I want to thank you guys because SOMEHOW I have 100 (well, +1) followers!!!! I really can't even believe that many people care enough to even occasionally read this, but it has been great getting to know a lot of you and visit your blogs as well. I will hopefully have the "100 Followers Giveaway" ready to go soon! :-)

Pumpkin Patch!

Today was a gorgeous day, perfect for a little pumpkin patch outing! I wish there was some kind of big place around here like one we used to go to in St. Louis, with all sorts of fun little fall things in addition to an amazing pumpkin patch, but we found one good for picture opps and another with an actual pumpkin patch. Our favorite part was the little orange cat that we named Pumpkin!

Outfit
Dress: Target
Leggings/Scarf/Belt: Old Navy
Sunglasses: Delias
Headband: Forever 21
Boots: RCC Western

Also noteworthy is the fact that I narrowly escaped a donkey gnawing my arm off. He was posing so perfectly for pictures with all the kids, and the second I go up there and sit by him he'd rather eat my arm and/or clothes rather than the hay. I feel like this happens every time I'm around farm animals... Thank goodness Nathan had the camera snapping away during this.

(Pumpkin the Pumpkin Patch cat!)

Flirty Floral

I don't really wear this dress all that much, though I do love the fluttery sleeves, peek a boo back, and the colors of it. I wasn't completely sure what to wear this morning, and then noticed this hanging in my closet, realized it would go great with my new boots, and threw it all together! The weather is finally approaching perfect fall standards, and the ground is COVERED in leaves. Today was just a little chilly, but ultimately wonderful! Hopefully this gorgeous fall weather is here to stay.

Outfit
Dress: Urban Outfitters
Scarf, Leggings: Old Navy
Boots/Bag: Charlotte Russe
Sunglasses: Delias

I had Lauryn sneak a picture really fast after class walking through some of the brick paths on campus to add an extra little Fall touch :-) Thanks Sil! And of course once I got started I could not help but take more pictures. I'm not going to lie, our campus is GORGEOUS nearly year round, but especially in the Fall!

Lazy October Day

It is full swing October for me now! I've felt kind of weird about it, like I'm not completely embracing it, because everyone keeps planning Halloween costumes and I have just hardly even thought about it. I guess the costume part of my brain is just exhausted from last year's Tinkerbell effort and then the Ringo costume chaos in August. I'll hopefully just be reusing both of those. I also think I'm going to attempt another MUCH easier costume that just requires adding a few little embellishments onto an already made dress, but I'd hate to work it up and then not do it... so we'll leave that for later.

Today I had the GMAT, and to be completely honest, I don't think it went so well. You get most of your score right afterwards, and I'm not happy with it. I definitely don't think it was the best I could do, but this last month has just been beyond overwhelming and by the time I did get around to studying, I really didn't have a clue how to adequately go about it. I guess most business grad schools don't want you until you've had a few years of experience anyways, so if I decide to pursue that route later there's always time to retake it.

After I left the testing center, I wanted nothing more than a completely lazy evening before I had to gear up for the next round of tests. This semester does not seem to ever end. I stopped by RedBox and picked up two "Horror" movies that looked decent and had a rating of R (I use that as a judge of them being scary/gory enough). I already watched Frozen, which wasn't great, but it was good enough for a $1 and an hour and a half of entertainment. Next up is Open House. All this rain and the leaves blowing around, in addition to a mug full of hot apple cider and my Leaves candle has me completely relaxed and totally in the Fall mood. It's about time! Hopefully some fall crafting to come soon!



I'm always looking for suggestions for GOOD horror movies. I'm talking about the ones that legitimately scare the hell out of you. If you're someone that's not easily scared and has any favorites, PLEASE let me know. And I'm open for any other suggestions as well :-)

90 Degree October

The high today was something like 87 degrees. Wait a minute, it IS October, right? I can't even keep up with this weather. Getting dressed in the morning is becoming quite a chore, just because it's generally only 50 when I leave the house with an expected rise of 30 degrees in temperature. Today I just threw all conventions out the window and went with a summer dress and winter boots. I didn't really know what to expect, but it all seemed to work out ok.

I think these pictures really demonstrate how much of a morning person I am NOT. And by morning, I mean at 10am my eyes are still this squinty. This transition into the real world is really going to throw me for a loop. I'm already counting down the days until first half of semester is over, concluding one of my "8 week" classes, and I'm able to sleep in an extra hour or two on Tuesdays and Thursdays (Which means staying up and extra hour or two Mondays and Wednesdays! Hooray!).

Outfit:
Dress: Target
Vest: Old Navy
Boots: UGG
Necklace: ...Forever 21 Maybe?
Bracelets: Claire's/Charlotte Russe

I also just realized I have 99 followers, so I've been trying to get all of the giveaway stuff together so I can do that as a "100 followers giveaway." Hopefully you'll be seeing that soon!

Work Discounts!

Well, it has happened. I finally went and took advantage of that work discount, and probably bought way too much stuff. 5 candles and a soap to be exact, so I guess I really didn't go that crazy. For anyone who is as obsessed with candles as I am... today is Bath & Body Work's last day for their home fragrance sale, and the big 3 wick candles are 2 for $20 (Originally $19.50 each), and they're also previewing the winter collection with the small candles for half price. Just saying, in case any of you want to run out real fast before they close to take advantage of that, or you can always order online. Amazing deal.

Totally obsessed with the Aromatherapy line, and Eucalyptus Spearmint is one of my favorites

My favorite fall scent- Creamy Pumpkin. We sold out really fast at our store thought so I didn't end up getting one :-(

Actually bought one of these... it smells more like cider, but definitely an amazing fall-smell

I guess tonight they are re-arranging the entire store for the winter/holiday collections, so I'm really excited that I just now learned where most stuff is and now it's all going to switch. Haha. Luckily I have a bunch of call in hours scheduled this week, so hopefully I'll be getting some of those and can figure it out again.

SLOUCHY BOOTS!

Finally, some Slouchy Boots! These are from Charlotte Russe, and I LOVE THEM!!! I was debating between black and grey, but then they only had grey in my size, so that easily solved that debate. I think they contrast nicely with the black leggings I'm always wearing as well, so it worked out. Hello Fall!

Outfit
Boots: Charlotte Russe
Leggings/Dress: Old Navy
Belt: Forever 21

Annual Laptop Chaos

I swear it has become an annual thing for me to have some major laptop trauma every fall. This time... a nearly full Caramel Macchiato... ALL OVER THE KEYBOARD. Not to mention that this happened as I was working on finishing up a ten page paper that was due the next morning. It's been a rough couple of weeks. I don't know who said senior year was supposed to be easy, but I can assure you that it is not necessarily the case!

Hopefully I'll be back with some outfit updates and more exciting things (Like meeting Nickie from Wild as a Mink, FINALLY) tomorrow after work! This also includes catching up on the many blogs I have missed reading while I've been away.