What I wore: 10/12/12

I'm mildly obsessed with this blazer from Charlotte Russe. (I have been going through a blazer craze lately so you are likely to be seeing a lot of them soon.)

I just threw it on over a plain LBD. 

The piping is my absolute favorite. I know the 'rule' says no white after Labor Day but this blazer is worth it!

Halloween party food ideas

It's obvious through my numerous posts about Halloween that I have a slight obsession with the holiday. As I have previously mentioned, I'm super excited to be attending a Halloween party at my friends' house... regardless, my pinterest account has been full of Halloween ideas that I would definitely use if I were to have own party. 

This first link has tons of ideas for creative Halloween recipes, and I just love the image below. Click on the link below the picture to check out how to make everything from spiders to a skeleton of ribs and even some Halloween inspired cocktails. 

Wicked Ways Productions

The link below has a lot of kid-friendly recipes for Halloween fun. Check it out for some really awesome stuff! 

Our Best Bites

The rest are all links with the recipe for that specific image - click on the link underneath to get to the website. Enjoy! Happy haunting!

Halloween bark 

See Jane in the Kitchen

Worms! (made from jello molded in straws)

Instrucables

Eyeball cookies! 

Forkable

What a creative way to keep drinks cold... freeze the water in a surgical glove.

Simply Stated

This is absolutely my favorite Halloween themed item I have seen lately. It is available on Etsy for $10!

Etsy

Halloween is creeping up! Boo!

I. LOVE. HALLOWEEN. 

This year will be the second year I will be celebrating Halloween at one of the most spectacular Halloween festivities I have ever attended. 

All of my IU girls will be traveling to Cincinnati to celebrate with our good friend Logan and get to enjoy her mother's amazing Halloween home recreation. 

Seriously, how cute is this invitation? (Ignore the blank areas at the bottom, I blurred the identifying information).

I just have to share some of the pictures of the totally creative ways Logan's mom transformed her home into something extravagantly spooky and extremely detailed. 

This image cannot even capture everything that is going on! We continuously found little details that we had missed. Everything from artwork, to the china cabinet was changed to fit the Halloween theme.

And below is a picture of the IU girls with our lovely hosts! They were dressed as inn keepers (the theme for the night was a Haunted Scholar's Inn).

Last year we all went to a local pumpkin patch and found this gem - we found it hilarious! I may not be a blonde but it seems like my kind of corn maze.

In addition to me reliving my past I have also found some images of Halloween crafts that I love. If I were to be hosting my own Halloween party instead of going to Logan's wonderful party I would definitely make them!

This one would most likely be a little more time consuming than my typical crafts but I think that the outcome would be well worth it!

Pinterest

 I also found this image on Pinterest. Absolutely perfect for fall! And I love that the person who had pinned this image had the caption as 'mum-kin' how precious!

Pinterest

Jessica made these gorgeously creepy eye ball hurricanes. Click on the link below for a wonderfully detailed DIY instruction!

My World Made By Hand

How cute is this simple yet spooky craft? Nicole at Canadian Nickel Scrapn made this with just a piece of black construction paper and then some white for the eyes. Check out the link below the photo for the DIY instructions!

Canadian Nickel Scrapn

I absolutely adore this creative way to use styrofoam, cheap skeletons and pvc pipe. Check out the link under the photograph for the simple directions for this awesome decoration.

Halloween Forum

I love this house turned 'monster' - they used hardware store foam to create this unique piece. 

Halloween forum

Hammock bliss

This chilly weather has caused me to crave cuddling! I'm desperately hoping to find some time in my schedule to go camping under the new fall leaves soon before it gets too chilly!

Pinterest

[Insert Name Here] Wall Art

Check out Shanty2Chic's project. I found this through pinterest and fell in love! HERE is the tutorial by Whitney.

All you need is a piece of wood and however frames necessary for the word (I chose to use 4x6 frames from the dollar store). Plus of course paint and glue. 

I decided to make one for my boyfriend, using his last name. I printed off the letters from this Flickr site. I decided to just print them on regular paper at home but you could of course print actual photos. I liked the grayscale color scheme so I spray painted the board gray and left the dollar store frames black. 

Below is probably one of my favorite spray painting tips!... When you are spraying, prop the piece up on push pins. Therefore the board won't stick to the drop cloth (or newspaper, etc). Just make sure that the pins are placed somewhere you don't mind having a hole! - I put mine where I knew it would be covered. 

Sorry, I didn't take many pictures along the way because I didn't really think about posting it on the blog. 

I printed off the letters after formatting them to be able to fit the individual frames.

I ripped off the kickstand piece in the back so that they would lay flat on the board. 

I decided to use hot glue but you of course could use wood glue, etc. to affix the frames onto the piece of wood. 

And here is the final product!

Tailgate time!

Tailgate time! IU Homecoming is finally here! Bright and early wake up call - I will be drinking LOTS of coffee this morning!

Her name is moon

Thrifty flower floating centerpieces

I have been absolutely obsessed with these centerpieces ever since I have seen this picture (and many similar ones) on Pinterest months ago. I finally broke down and attempted to create my own version. Below is the image that inspired me. 

Southern Hospitality Blog

As usual, I decided to go the cheap route and bought these flowers from the dollar store.  The amount you will need will definitely depend on the size of the container and how cramped you would like it to look.
I didn't take a picture of just the containers, but they are also from the dollar store. These specific ones are smaller, my guess is about 10 inches tall. They are perfect for my use!

Next step, chop up the flowers. They have wire in them so I used one of my jewelry making tools that can cut wire. Below is an image of this tool.

Below is an image of the flowers once I had chopped them up. In my initial attempt I kept the 'leaves' on the flower stems, but did not look the way that looked in the glass. To me, it looked a little bit like an fish tank with all that green but test it out and find what fits your style!

I filled the bottom with rocks, again from the dollar store. 

Below is an image before adding the water. I simply shoved the flower stems into the rocks. I decided not to but it may be beneficial to glue the stem to the rock. Just play around with it. 

Add water!

And viola! Here is the final product. 

I used votive candles that I already had (these have been used as jack-o-lantern candles for years). They actually float without any addition tweaking. Before I completed this project I assumed they wouldn't float and found that there are actually tutorials online for making regular votive candles float. Just google it!

So in total, I spent $4 (plus tax) on this project. I made two so each container cost a dollar, the bag of stones (which I had TONS left over) was one dollar and the one bunch of flowers was also a dollar. (I already had the candles). 

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Puppy Bliss

I love puppies. I want a puppy so badly. I need a puppy. But I know that I can't handle a puppy right now, so these adorable pictures will have to do for now. 

Photo from Her name is moon

Photo from Her name is moon 

Photo from Her name is moon

Photo from Her name is moon

What I wore: 10/2/12

October has officially begun and I suppose I should start accepting that fall is here. Today I broke out a chunky sweater dress. I paired it with a big boyfriend style black cardigan (but of course forgot to snap a pic) and a belt.

Sorry about the quality of the photo! This mirror is in the hallway and is the best for a full length pic... The lighting is just awful! I will be working on getting a more suitable mirror~

DIY Dry Erase Calendar

This DIY is fairly simple and can be very unique. 

Simply put fabric/wallpaper scraps/wrapping paper/whatever you desire as the background in a photo frame. 

I thought of this when trying to find a way to stay organized with my coursework this semester. I found a nice dry-erase board calendar (yet it was just a plain white wipe off board) for over $40 at Meijer. I figured I would be able to make a much more visually appealing one at a much lower cost. 

I simply drew out the calendar as I wanted it on the back of the image that was already in the frame. I am honestly unsure of the size of this frame... I know that it is larger than 8x10. 

Simply divide the total by 7 (you'll want 5 rows). 

*Don't forget to include an area for the days of the week. 

*Also, don't forget that the glass may sit in the frame which may overlap and cover the perimeter of the glass. So if you look closely, there is a line on the left and right of my paper indicating where the glass will first be visible. (If you don't take this into account the outside squares will be smaller than the other five.)

I drew the lines directly on the glass in sharpie on the side that will be inside of the frame (where the picture would typically go) and then flipped the glass over and wrote the days on the outside because I am not talented enough to write them in reverse. 

I had a few fabric and paper background choices and played around with the options for a while. 

*Make sure that you are conscious of whether the markers will show. (Especially if you are like me and decide to color code, make sure the colors will be legible!)

 I originally was going to use dry-erase markers but they were a little difficult to read because they weren't as dark. 

While using glass cleaner to spruce it up a little bit I discovered that the black sharpie wipes off with Windex. So, lately I have been using sharpie to write out the events. 

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