Halloween Playlist

Here's a spooky little playlist I made last year!  I'm putting finishing touches on costumes today, in hopes that everything will be ready in time for the Halloween parade in our neighborhood.  Happy Halloween, friends!

Weekly Wears: Autumn Air

Our neighborhood is absolutely GORGEOUS right now.  We are surrounded by old homes with great big, beautiful trees and they are turning all kinds of fiery shades.  Thankfully the weather has been cooperating and we seem to be holding onto fall a little bit longer than past years.  It's glorious.

Coat: c/o ASOS;  Cry & Cry Shirt: Stay Home Club;  Striped Blouse: ASOS;  Jeans: Urban Outfitters;  Shoes: ABM for Swedish Hasbeens;  Bag: ModCloth;  Scarf: Vintage;  Glasses: BonLook (Dolled Up)

Hope has FINALLY committed to a costume (she never wants to participate in family costumes on Halloween) so I'll be spending the rest of my week collecting pieces and sewing different things for that.  I hope when she's grown these homemade costumes will be one of the ways she's reminded of how much I love her... because seriously, she decides on her costume the WEEK BEFORE Halloween every single year.  And I always bust it out.  ;)

I hope you are all having a great week so far!  xo.

Peek-A-Boo Party Invites

I've always wanted to host a pumpkin carving party.  In years past, our house was just too small and when we finally had a big enough place, well, I didn't get my act together quickly enough.  I'm happy to report this is our year!  I'm planning to have a small group of friends, along with their kiddos, over to our house for snacks, dressing up, and carving (and painting for the smaller kids)!  Today I'm teaming up with Canon USA to show you how the girls and I made our homemade invitations!

Supplies: 
*photo you don't mind cutting up (I printed mine with my PIXMA MG7120)
*paint and paint brushes
*scissors
*glue
*exacto knife
*cardstock
*laminating sheets (optional)


We started the process by painting a sheet of cardstock orange.  Poesy especially enjoyed this part-- the girl LOVES to paint!

After the sheets were dry, I painted jack-o-lantern faces on the sheets and set them out to dry.


When everything was dry, I brought the faces over to my self-healing mat and used my Exact-O knife to cut around the eyes, nose, and mouth.  Make sure to leave a portion attached so they open up like little doors!


Next, I used my PIXMA MG7120 to print up the backs of the party invitations.  Easy peasy!


Once those were printed, I trimmed around the pumpkins and matched the pieces of paper.  Place your pumpkin card on top of the invitation card (words facing down) and trace around the holes for the eyes, nose, and mouth.


Position your photos were they will go and glue in place.  Once those are dry, place the pumpkin on top of the white paper and glue that in place.  Now, just let them dry and hand them out to your future guests!


I chose to laminate mine (you can see the bubbles on the back part with the words-- oops!!) so they would look extra nice.  If you choose to do this, make sure to laminate your pumpkin face BEFORE you carve it (haha) with the Exact-O knife.

I'm super excited about this party!  I can't believe my year is FINALLY here!  Now it's time to go buy all the snacks and supplies!  xo.

Snapshots

I'm particularly in love with this round of snapshots.  I took some time for myself this week and cooked dinners at home, repotted a bunch of my plants, and did some planning for the coming months.  It's crazy how the changing of seasons can help you focus, but I always feel a little renewing of my "divide and conquer" mentality when it comes to projects.  It's definitely overused, but there's that word again:  INSPIRATION.  You can really can find it everywhere.

**My newly repotted plants looking lovely on my piano.
**We did a little pumpkin painting/carving this weekend.  Tis the season.
**Sweet Google and my new doormat from ModCloth.
**Hope being the perfect child.  Seriously.
**Fancy friends sharing lipgloss.
**Poe's Ghostie.  I need to make these again next year.  I miss it.
**A darling little tea party.

Here's to a good week ahead of us!  Happy Monday, friends!

Etsy Love

It's time for another round of Etsy Love!  I've been finding a ton of really good stuff on Etsy lately.  People are really stepping up their handmade game!

Photo above:  This might be the best scarf I've EVER seen.  Rawaan Alkhatib has a ton of great scarf prints!

How clever is this hand painted wooden clock by Sandra Eterovic???

This Jurassic Park patch by Dany Reede is pretty much everything.

I'm a long-time fan of Cat Rabbit and this pizza brooch is the absolute cutest.

This little hand painted toadstool by Jess Quinn Small art has stolen my heart.

You know I love a good banner by Fun Cult and this Dullsville banner is my favorite right now!

I've been trying to start my holiday shopping early this year so I have plenty of time to pick the perfect gifts for friends.  I have so many great things hiding in my favorites right now.  Do you have any new shops that you're swooning over?  xo.

A Little Bed Nook Revamp

I've been working on slightly redoing parts of my home lately.  Sometimes you just need a change, ya know?  I love my bed nook area.  I think it's one of the best parts about our bedroom.  I was ready for a little updating and am still in that process, but I thought I'd show you where I am right now.


Firstly, we got a new mattress from Tuft & Needle and it's amazing.  We haven't had a new mattress since we first got married, so we were definitely due.  This mattress has no springs, so it came vacuum sealed in a box and was shipped right to our door with no problem.  Once unrolled the mattress and cut the plastic it went "thooooooouuuuuupppp".  (That's the sound of something getting really plump.  Didn't you know?)  Anyway, new wonderful comfy mattress: check.

As you can see in the photos above and below, I took the accordion rack off the wall and moved the terrariums.  I used this idea that Emma had and placed electric tea lights in the bubbles that weren't holding air plants.  It's really peaceful to look at at night.


Settling on bedding is always tough for me, but I ended up with this bedding from Urban Outfitters.  I expected it to be a really happy shade of yellow, but in person it's more of a yellow/green color.  I still like it, it just wasn't exactly what I was expecting.

I still plan to do something to the wall above the bed, but haven't landed on a strong idea yet.  I'll definitely share when I get it figured out.  For now, it's nice to have a bit of change in our sweet bed nook.  xo.

Weekly Wears: In The Bubble

I've been carrying this fisheye camera around with me for a couple of weeks now, treating it just like a disposable.  I throw it in the ol' purse and pull it out sparingly.  That way, when I finally get the film developed, it will be from an array of different events and moments.  I'll be interested to see how the photos turn out-- I don't have any experience with a fisheye and the viewfinder is a bit different than my other cameras.  The lens actually sticks out far enough to be in sight and I'm still adjusting to that.  I think there will be a learning curve.

Jacket: Marshall's;  Dress: c/o ChicWish (similar);  Tights: ModCloth;  Boots: ModCloth;  Necklace: Shlomit Ofir;  Camera: c/o ModCloth

I just bought tickets to take a little breather in Nashville next month and visit a friend, so I'm planning all the cameras I want to take with me.  I have three so far and I think that might be my max.  There are only so many cameras you can remember to pull out before you (I) just start forgetting some of them.  We'll see, though-- it's going to be a fantastic trip and having all the toy cameras for snapping is something I'm super excited about!

Happy Tuesday, friends!  xo.