Funky Fall Decor

Most of you are already aware that i absolutely love the fall season. I always dreamed of living somewhere that had a legit season change every fall, but then I moved to Texas. Regardless, I love the change in weather, because summer in both Texas and Florida is rough. Fortunately my good friend MC shares my sentiments regarding fall. Remember when she did this awesome guest post? Well now she has offered another guest post about her other specialty, fall decor! I'm excited. She's is one of the craftiest and most creative people I know, she just has an eye for those things. I do not which is why I'll stick to baking. So everyone pay close attention to what she has to say because this is probably the only worthwhile decorating post you will ever see on my blog. Plus she's also just really funny, or at least I think so, which is probably why we are friends. And for some strange reason she thinks I'm funny too. 

And when you're done please go to the nearest Michael's/Hobby Lobby and decorate for fall, it'll make you a happier person. 

............

Ok everyone. It may only be September 21^st, and I may be a resident of the great ole non-seasonal state of Florida, but I have a slight, alright major, obsession with fall. Once September 1^st rolls around, not only is crisper, cooler weather on the horizon, but it is also time for the pumpkin craze, Halloween, boots, sweaters, Gator football – the whole shabang! How could this NOT be your favorite time of year? That said, Meghan and I have taken our obsessions to the next level and are sharing them via blog post for the whole world to see. Meghan, nurse by night / baker by day, has written a blog post on baking fall goodies and embarking on fall adventures, while I have chosen to write about Halloween and fall décor.

During my time in college, I never really decorated for the holidays – not even Christmas! I don’t know if it was the fact that I was a starving college student, or that I felt like the home that should decorated was my parents’ house, or what. I just don’t know. What I DO know, is now that I have my own place and bit more money, I can’t stop thinking of ways to decorate – especially for the upcoming holidays. I’ve been trying to find two things: 1) cheap decorations that I can craft myself and 2) autumn decorations that can span September through November. And, lemme tell ya, with Pinterest, that is definitely NOT a problem. Let’s start off with the crafty side of this year’s fall décor. What I’ve seen a lot of and fully intend to create are fall wreaths. I have seen so many different varieties of these things, I can’t even begin to go into all of the options, but here are a few that I think are super cute and pretty doable:

In addition these to these Halloween-inspired wreaths, another way to be cheap and crafty this season is to work with pumpkins! Pumpkins are obviously the staple of Fall, Halloween, October, Thanksgiving etc and we must take full advantage of them. Here are a few simple, yet totally clever ways to use pumpkins to spruce up your place, autumn-style: 

Pumpkin Bowl

Perfect for that Halloween-themed dinner party you're planning or for when you're just having a few friends over for drinks. All you need to do is carve out a pumpkin and place a bowl in the center, and voila! You've got yourself one fine serving dish. 

Pumpkin Votives

This is the perfect way to use all those cute little pumpkins you see everywhere. All you need are a few baby pumpkins and some tea candles. Again, carve out a place in the center of the pumpkin and place the tea candle in the center. This is a cheap, easy way to get that cozy, fall look!

Painted Pumpkins

By the looks of things (or I may have just been way out of the loop in past years), painted pumpkins are all the rage this season. I've seen pumpkins painted like candy corns, gold spray painted pumpkins, pumpkins painted with chalkboard paint and then written on, I mean, seriously...what hasn't been thought of? the great thing about painting pumpkins is that you can tailor it to your space-have crazy colored walls? Paint your pumpkin the complimenting color. Want to keep a classy, elegant look around the house? Paint your pumpkins gold, or silver...or even white! The options are endless. 

Using Pumpkins in...umm...unusual places?

Like on top of a candle holder, per say. This is one crafty piece of decor I HAVE tackled- and it turned out awesomely. All I did was buy three different sized candle holders at Ikea, and some fall "berry" branches at Target to wrap around the base of the holders, on which the baby pumpkins will be placed. Super easy. Super cozy. The perfect fall decoration. 

You will see below that there are actually candles on top of my candle holders- well, sadly (and embarrassingly) I have searched for baby pumpkins and they are no where to be found- YET. As soon as I find some, they will replace those candles...or I may keep one candle just to keep that spooky feeling alive. We'll see. Mix and match as desired. Add as many candle holders as you want. Get creative with the base decorations! Fall "berries" are not the only option. 

Finally, I'd like to leave you with some Halloween/Fall/Autumn/Thanksgiving interior decor inspiration photos: 

The orange flowers and orange pumpkins against the black backdrop make this the perfect Halloween table setting!

If only I had a front porch like this!

For all of you with fireplaces and mantles!

Love those black flowers mixed with the pumpkins

If you have a million wine bottle, why not? Uber spooky.

Alright folks, that's all I have for you today. Meghan and I, of course will be collaborating in the future because we're just awesome like that and have the same weird obsessions. Like, our next post will probs be all about Garden State...or LOTR elves...or something totally riveting like that. Who knows. But you'll definitely want to stay tuned. 

Happy Fall!

ACL

As previously mentioned I went to Austin this past weekend for Austin City Limits, a 3 day music festival that takes place every fall. I've attended plenty of concerts in my day but this was my first festival and it was awesome. I was really excited for this, especially after hearing countless stories of Nick's experience at Bonnaroo in 2009 (seriously, I've heard them all, you can stop now, thanks). However, I realized something very important, music festivals aren't for everyone. Compared to some ACL is pretty tame, it occurs during normal daytime hours, usually ending around 10, everyone stays in hotels and you can easily leave and walk to a restaurant down the street if you need a break. Even with all the luxuries of a festival in the city, it is still pretty rough to stand for 2-3 hours straight with no bathroom break because you want a good spot for a show. The relentless sun beating down on you doesn't help either (I have a pretty intense burn on my scalp to prove it). I also came down with a cold at the end of the first day, which is really my own fault since I never sleep. All of that is pretty negligible considering how much fun I had.

It was about 95 degrees with very little cloud cover when this picture was taken, I think I was a pretty good sport, right? I also have coffee, a cocktail of various cold medications, and maybe some other cocktails to thank for that (I'm referring to water and lemonade of course). I was also really stoked on seeing the Antlers play. 

The heat eventually gets to you though so napping becomes a necessity 

They look like they needed it don't they? Trust me, they did. Some of us were barely hanging on just a few hours into the second day. Let's just say they were really fortunate to have a nurse with them. 

All the stress and heat was worth it for some really awesome shows. Yes, Coldplay was there but since I've already seen them I opted to see Kanye's show instead and it was really awesome

It was difficult to get good pictures with all those hands and iphones in the air but we got a good one of his surprise entrance. If there's one thing that I'll take from his performance its that if I love someone I should hold on to them tight. He was really feeling the importance of this statement. Thanks for life lessons Kanye.

In total we saw about 11 bands. We planned to attend more shows but extreme exhaustion will make you do weird things like take naps on picnic tables, or in trucks, or in the middle of a field and it tends to be time consuming. 

So if you need tips for a future trip to a music festival here they are:

1. Hydrate. No, a "Jolly Delicious" doesn't count, nor does beer, or warm rum (I wish someone would've told the 17 year old that was trying to offer that to us, yuck) 

2. Wear sunscreen 

3. Beware of camelbaks, they make you drink a lot more than you expect, which also means more bathroom breaks

4. Never say "I'm really feeling this music bro." It's obnoxious. 

5. Just suck it up and stop whining

6. Never wear a strapless dress if there is a possibility for even a very tame mosh pit. Trust me, it gets sketchy. 

7. Rain is your friend. I'm not just saying that because we're in the middle of a terrible drought, it's really just because you get so sick of the sun. 

I've been asked by a few people what bands i saw and it's difficult to fit in one text (ok, I'm actually just lazy, give me a break). Instead I'll list them here in case anyone is actually interested:

Friday:

Wild Beasts, James Blake, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Kanye West (awesome show with some really awesome choreography)  

Saturday:

The Antlers (definitely one of my faves), Twin Shadow, TV on the Radio (another fave-ok I'll stop using "fave")

Sunday: 

The Walkmen, Broken Social Scene, Fleet Foxes (fun fact: Christian Bale was actually on sage for this because he was filming something with this crazy girl who was dancing in front of a camera. I essentially have no idea why he was there, but I saw him and the show was really good), and Arcade Fire (which was also awesome and another favorite) 

Of course my very awesome group helped make the experience so awesome

Nick was of course included in this awesome group but is not pictured because he was taking all these beautiful photos for me since I'm lazy. I'm working on changing my bad habits, starting tomorrow or whenever I'm caught up on sleep which will be never. 

I would definitely go again next year, especially since it'll be in October which is a very nice month with very nice weather. I like October, can it just hurry up and get here already? I could use a day where the temp is below 90. And speaking of October, stay tuned for a fall related post later this week by my favorite (and only) guest blogger, MC. But now its time for sleep and by sleep I mean I'll pretend like I'm going to bed but I'll actually wait another 2 hours before I really get into bed. 

Growth

Remember this?

No I'm not referring to the day when my 3 closest friends and I wore our graduation gowns and ran around the football field making silly faces and acting like children. Although that was one of my favorite days. No, I am actually referring to how long my hair was. This picture was taken a month before I chopped off about 13 inches of hair and donated it to Locks of Love for the second time in my life. Since then I had gradually taken off more hair each time I got it cut until I finally settled with a length that I liked. The problem is that in order to maintain that length I have to cut my hair every 6-7 weeks. I know I told pretty much everyone that I loved my short hair, loved how low maintenance it is, and that I never wanted to have long hair again but I changed my mind. Impulsive, I know. But just in case you were wondering, yes it is extremely expensive to get a hair cut every 6 weeks. The funny thing is that I really like saving money, almost as much as I like spending it. So I figured that now if I'm getting my hair cut 4 times a year rather than 8 or 9, I could use the money to treat myself to more pedicures, more Starbucks, maybe a standmixer? Or I could just save it, we'll see. 

Now, you may be wondering how much influence Nick has had in this decision. He did actually prompt me to grow out my hair but it wasn't because of him that I decided to go through with it. A few months ago he started talking about how much he missed my long hair, I of course completely blew this off and basically told him to get over it because it was never coming back. But the idea stuck in my head, not to mention that i was really getting sick of the whole financial factor. So once I reached the 6 week mark last week I thought about it some more and just didn't make an appointment and still haven't made one for this week. I'm barely 2 weeks in and the length in the back is starting to annoy me but I am really loving the fact that I can actually get my hair into a ponytail which is extremely rare. There will be plenty to distract me from the annoying in between length of my hair these next few months, like working 3 in a row starting tomorrow (blah), or all the online shopping I did last night, unfortunately I spent way more than the cost of a haircut, lets end this discussion before I decide to hate myself. It's going to be rough but please, don't worry about my emotional state during all this, I'll survive. 

I'll keep some updates regarding my hair growing process (because I know everyone really cares about the state of my hair). And I'm trying to update the blog more often, yes I know I've made similar promises before, but now I have a post planned regarding my awesome experience at ACL this past weekend, I'm just waiting for Nick to send me the pictures (like maybe today????). 

Things I'm lovin' - End of Summer

Hi folks. Look at me posting a second time in the past 2 weeks. I know, I'm sooo motivated. Anyway, the three of us are all moved into the new house and its glorious. I took some pictures but I've spent most of the past week cleaning and organizing so its not quite settled yet. Also Nick refuses to give me permission to use a drill or touch/move the TV's so some things will just have to wait. Honestly though, can you blame him? However, since I'm awake and feeling halfway inspired I'll do a short post about things I'm loving lately.

1. Rainier cherries

Seriously these things are like crack. My obsession is definitely nothing new but a few weeks back I was at Whole Foods and picked these up since I knew they would be gone by the end of August. I paid $9 for a bag of them and then proceeded to eat more than half of that bag while driving home. It was a dangerous and expensive day, and totally worth it. 

2. My backyard is awesome, just ask Willow. It also helps that we have had amazing weather the past few days. It was actually 60 degrees when I got home from work Tuesday morning. This picture doesn't really do it justice but its all I have so far. I haven't take many pictures outside because I unfortunately slept through most of this week's beautiful weather. I'm not too upset though because I feel like there will be plenty more over the next few months. 

3. I did not take this photo. It was taken by the genius who created these heavenly cookie dough balls. I find it difficult to get good photos every time I make them (which is often) because I'm too busy eating 3 at a time. They're the best thing that ever happened to my life. They're also vegan which does not mean they're healthy but I don't care because they are amazing. Make them and see for yourself.

4. This is nothing new, I'm always lovin' on this dog. 

5. I am most definitely loving this house. Maybe someday soon I'll have enough motivation to actually take pictures. We'll see. 

Ok that's it. Now it's time to eat way too many peanut butter cookie dough balls. See ya