Golden Sparkles

 Love the gold sequined skirt

Love the gold sequined star stirrer-thingy

 

Love the gold sequined pillow

 Love this tablescape!

This would make for a lovely Valentine's Day fête, no?

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!

via

2 Different Halloweens

I thought I scheduled this for 11/1 but then just noticed I put in 11/11* - whoops! I watched a "Young and Abducted/Murdered" special on E! this morning (really morbid, huh?) so maybe I shouldn't be posting that my husband is out of town...but as you can see, I have quite the guard dog. Sorry that you're getting a Halloween post a week late!

* As an aside, my birthday is 1/11/11 this year...ohhh yeah! And anyone who has an 11/11/11 birthday is even cooler!

My Halloween:

J's Halloween:

A little different, huh? My guy just finished his first week of a month-long away rotation in OR.  I've never been and would love to visit him using the generous donation of a friend's standby passes. (We never booked a flight for me because a) we didn't know his schedule far enough in advance, and b) we're poor. Fourth year is muy caro, y'all!) 

Since a) I probably won't be able to work out working remotely with my job while I'm there and he's working (and I don't want to burn vacation at the moment because I may end up needing it), and b) if I did make it up there I don't know how the airport pickup/dropoff would work with his schedule, it looks like the visit's not happening. 

I'm bummed because a) it's hard not seeing your spouse for a month (although total control of the remote control is nice) and b) depending on if I could be there on the days he was interviewing at some other programs in the OR & WA areas, I'd get to check out three of the potential-cities-we-may-be-living-in-but-I've-never-been-to. I'd love to have the opportunity to actually visit said cities so I could give real input on his rank list. (Though clearly my influence may not matter since he's scouting out places to build his dream house!)

What did you do over the weekend? Anything fun? I'm hoping coworkers bring in lots of leftover candy since I didn't have any this weekend!

Happy Halloween Weekend!

Have a weekend full of tricks and treats, my lovelies!

Photo from Shannon Blue Photography

Trick or Treat!

Maybe it's a little early to start thinking about Halloween, but I wanted to share some things I've come across recently...

These personalized trick or treat bags are only $10 over at Walmart, with $.97 shipping. (Each photo links directly to the product page.) These are my top three picks...I need to send this link over to the parents of the little ones in my life!

I ran into these Halloween piggy banks at Target. (By the way, did anyone see the cute patterned ones they had recently? I totally want one for a future baby (or okay, myself)...I would have already purchased one if I wasn't trying to stop being such a hoarder.)  You can currently see all of them here. I think the Superpig and the Skeleton are my favorites.

See the doctor one on the bottom? We should have bought this years (and years and years) ago to save for medical school!

Love this chalkboard one also - just write your savings goal on the side!

These next two items I found via Tatertots and Jello, a new-to-me treasure trove of awesome ideas.

I think this bottle display is such a great idea and could work for so many things: "baby" for a baby shower (and maybe ones with each guest's first initial for a favor?), "love" for Valentine's Day, etc. You could also always have the "candy" ones on hand and change out the colors based on the holiday.

Instructions found at Random Thoughts of a SUPERMOM!

These etched glass jars could be used for different occasions as well. Start saving your empties!

Instructions found at Let Birds Fly

I don't do any seasonal decorating other than at Christmas, but I like the idea of incorporating small, inexpsensive touches like these last two.  Do you do anything in your home for different seasons and holidays?

Have a Great 4th of July Weekend!

I'm feeling a little down in the dumps at the moment, which I'm hoping is due to the combination of the rainy weather and being tired from not being able to sleep last night. These prints from ablaze's Etsy shop are starting to cheer me up.

What are your plans this holiday weekend? Hope it involves some sparklers!

Hey now, don't you tell me you don't remember me 'cause I sure as heckfire remember you

Once a year the eyes of the nation turn to this tiny hamlet in western
Pennsylvania, to watch a master at work. The master, Punxsutawney Phil, the
world's most famous weatherman, the groundhog. Who, as legend has it, can
predict the coming of an early spring. So I guess the question we have to ask
ourselves today is, does Phil feel lucky?

+

My nieces' birthday is next week, and one of them told me that she can never tell people if her birthday falls in the winter or spring until the Prognosticator of Prognosticators makes his debut for the year.

For their sake, I'm hoping that the large squirrel doesn't see his shadow. You won't, right Phil? Don't you remember doing this every year? So there's no reason to be scared of your shadow like you were the last few years? 'Cause I'm sure as heckfire donezo with the cold weather!

I'm really hoping to catch Groundhog Day on TV tonight. Love it!

Oh What Fun!

Hope everyone had the happiest of holidays! I didn't realize quite how much we had going on, but looking back, there was a lot of wrapping, holiday partying, friend and family enjoying, and other general merrymaking in the last few weeks, and I didn't get the chance to post anything.

I did get a request to see which holiday card we ended up choosing, so here it is:

Front

(Our names are off-center since I deleted out the last name.)

Back

(I left some room so I could write a little personal message to everyone - hopefully everyone turned it over!)

Address Labels
(Left over from last year, but I still think they're pretty cute if I do say so myself.)

This photo (a result of playing around with the effects in Picnik) makes me wish it weren't over already. We're down with J's parents at their beach condo this week, and they just took down the Christmas tree and lights. I think when we get back I'll go lie under our tree and look at the twinkly lights for a little before taking it down. (Since I am lazy, it will probably not be put up right away anyhow.)

How was your holiday? Any exciting plans for New Year's Eve?

Skull Candy

I've never decorated for Halloween, but I am liking these budget-friendly skull serving pieces. Makes me want to have a skeleton party!

Many found via Copy Cat Chic (a great source of the look for less):

Target Bone Collector Platter, $22 Target Cocktail Plates (Set of 4), $22 Target Skull Mugs (set of 4), $22
Target Skull Plates (set of 8), $16

Target Skull Platter (set of 2), $14 Z Gallerie, $13

Pottery Barn, $16

Speaking of budget-friendly Halloween decorating, have you seen Young House Love's post and video (embedded at the bottom) on what they did inside this year? All great ideas!

They dripped red candle wax down the pillar candles. I love this arrangement of candlesticks and can easily see switching out the candles to work for any holiday: Thanksgiving (orange), Christmas (red, green, white, silver), New Year's (white, silver), Valentine's Day (red, pink)

Great silhouette of Burger. The bones were adapted from his actual chew bones. How smart is Sherry? (If you can't tell, I'm a little in love with YHL.)

Again, I can easily see this cloche working for any time of year just by switching out the objects. Genius!
John doctored a copy of their wedding photo. Again, I think this would be funny for other holidays...Santa Hats at Christmas?

Halloween Decorating from Young House Love on Vimeo.

Happy Valentine's Day!

xoxo,
Laura

You're the ____ card here
Ever After print here

Happy Thanksgiving!

The original Thanksgiving post I put together yesterday ended up being rather lengthy, as well as somewhat sappy and depressing, so I decided to delete it and just leave it at this:

Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving, filled with loved ones and good food.

photo from Sarah's Fab Day