Can anyone guess what I was for Halloween? I was channeling my inner Blair Waldorf. I had a lot of fun with this outfit. I have these glorious mustard yellow leggings I have wanted to wear, but couldn't decide what to wear them with.

If you remember the show, Gossip Girl, you will remember Blair's wardrobe. Lots of primary bold colors mixed with a very professional feel. I mixed the mustard yellow leggings with a grey pencil skirt, a blue blouse and pulled the outfit together with a fall plaid coat and Blair's signature headband.

Today I am doing something a little different. I am going to showcase some fashion for your viewing pleasure. Since Halloween is my favorite holiday, I figured I would show off a few ways I would dress the week leading up to Halloween. I am going to show you two looks involving wearing skulls. Now I know some people are not a huge fan, so I went one for the girl who doesn't mind wearing black, and one for the gal who adores her pinks.

The first look incorporates a black sweater dress with some fun Halloween leggings. I added the skull accent with a scarf and finishing off the look with some ankle boots and a red lip. This is a look I would wear to the office for Halloween.



The next look is a little more for the girly girl who isn't much for black. I paired a salmon pink top which was thrifted and a pair of fun skull leggings from the LulaRow Halloween capsule.
The outfit is tied together with some bright magenta socks and ankle boots.


I had a blast putting together these outfits and shooting my first photoshoot for this blog. The weather has been pretty dreary here in NY the last few days, so I was happy to get a dry day to model these outfits while it was still Fall looking outside. Notice my porch is a little decorated for fall.. those flowers were parking markers from our wedding! I thought it was fun to attach them to the porch for a festive look.

Stay tuned for some more fun outfits coming your way! I am thinking about doing something weekly because, why not?!

Guys, let me start off with a big sigh of relief that this week is coming to an end. I don't know if you all heard, but I put in my two weeks notice a week ago and this week has been really hard for me. I am preparing for a transition period. Lots of deep breathing!


Now I need to get through another week that doesn't feel so awkward. I think I was asked about 10 times this week what it is I actually do as my job. That tends to get awkward fast.


Also I am not sure what it was, but I did not sleep well this week. R was away on business but I don't really think that was the whole issue. I went to bed exhausted and woke up even more tired than I was the previous night. Must of been all of the soul searching and decisions I made. The coffee was my BFF.


I finally got out all of my makeup and did a Halloween look for the blog. I had so much fun creating Zoey, the glam zombie. I hope you check it out. It's really an easy process to make brains and lacerations on your face. And you get to play with makeup! Win/Win.


All in all I am looking forward to R coming home tonight and hanging out on my couch. But I won't actually hang out on my couch because its Halloween weekend and I am going to make the most of it. Did you hear Ithaca is turning an alley into Diagon Alley from Harry Potter? It got some major press this week! It has been respectively renamed to Wizardly Weekend but is still expecting thousands of people!

I will be attending because, why not?! After that I am hoping to attend a Monster Bash hosted by some of my friends from the radio station. Stay tuned next week for my report on this wizard and monster weekend! Stay safe out there boys and ghouls!

Meet Zoey.


Zoey's that girl you had to include as a bridesmaid in your wedding because she's your fiance's sister's cousin half removed who kind of pushed her way in. You know the type. The one you always regret letting your guard down for because she always ruins the day.

Well, Zoey showed up to the wedding ready to party as expected. She was all glammed up and ready to steal the show. She had her hair done and some pretty dramatic makeup. Something seemed different about her, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

I hadn't seen her since the night before, when she went missing during the bachelorette party. She got a little out of hand and disappeared with a guy she was chatting up. What she failed to mention when she showed up to the wedding, was that she had been attacked by a zombie!

No zombie bite was going to stop Zoey from showing me up at my wedding! Even with zombie tendencies, Zoey still managed to steal the show! I knew I should of told her no!

Want to get glammed out like Zoey this Halloween? This is a super easy look that can be as severe or as simple as you'd like. The best part is, all you need for this fun look is toilet paper, glue, and some red eye shadows.

 Glam Zombie Makeup 

 

Start off this look with a clean face. Make sure all of your makeup is off. This will help the "brain" and "lacerations" stick to your face.

Grab a roll of toilet paper and some non-toxic glue. This will be on your face so you may want to spot check it on your skin before starting in case of sensitivities.

Rip off 3 sheets of toilet paper and wad it up. Apply glue to the toilet paper. This will turn the toilet paper into a sticky moldable consistency. This will be your "brain". Repeat for laceration.

Mold the toilet paper into the shapes you want and gently apply to your face. You don't want the pieces to become flat, so make sure they both still have some depth to them.


Once you get the molded toilet paper where you want it on your face, allow it to set for 2 minutes. Because this look was going to be a glammed out look, I went ahead and applied some primer and foundation to my face while it dried to save time. You can skip this if you are only looking for a brain and laceration look.

Once the molds were set, I took 2 different red eyes shadows that I had laying around and brushed the color onto the molds. There was no real science to this except I kept applying until I liked the shade. Don't be afraid to get this on your face as well. The more blood the better right?



If you are only looking to add a brain and a laceration, than you can stop here! So simple and easy for a quick Halloween costume. You can also add more now that you can see how easy it is to make lacerations out of toilet paper.


I went ahead and added some dramatic eye makeup and some more red marks on my face. I wanted to look like I earned those cuts!

It's the week before Halloween and maybe you decided to throw a last minute party. No? Okay maybe you have a great setup with your Halloween decor but are missing that something you can't seem to put your finger on. Don't worry, I got you..

All you need for this project is a bottle of wine (or 5 if you want to get your girlfriends involved) and some glow sticks. Do I have your attention?



Now let me explain. Last year I decided at the last minute that I wanted to throw a Halloween get together. I wanted to decorate and make cute little snacks. Only one problem. I was a little broke. I did what I always do when I need to get something done with no money: I used what I already had.

I had a few empty wine bottles sitting around on my kitchen counter (Don't judge me, I live in wine country) and the idea popped into my head. Wouldn't they look super cool if I added some glow sticks into them? They would look super eerie in a dark room.

The best part about this is all of the empties I was hoarding hanging onto had some pretty creepy looking labels on them. One was from a local winery and the wine was called "Apparition" so there was a ghost like image on it. Another was from my visit to Gettysburg and had cannons and smoke on it, and the last had a creepy looking face on it. I may have to rethink the wine I'm drinking guys. Wine should be happy right?
 
Anyway,  for a quick and cheap decoration, run on down to the dollar store and pick up some glow sticks and then over to the liquor store if you are out of wine. Pick wines that have labels that will fit your theme. You could also take off the labels and make your own. The options are endless.


I used my wine bottles in a window with some black netting and flameless candles. When I turned off the lights the window looked pretty creepy. I unfortunately did not get a really great photo of that, but I did get a photos of the bottles I used and how I set them up. See the photo above this paragraph. Other ideas for these would be:

Table center pieces
Walkway lights
Mood lighting
Focal point in a scene

So there you have it. A super easy Halloween decoration adults can get behind! So what are you waiting for? Call over a few girlfriends and get to work! I want to leave you with a pretty crappy photo of what these look like when they are glowing. Stop back tomorrow for more quick and easy Halloween tips!

I just love a good Halloween party! But what I love more is decorating. Over the weekend I threw a little party to get in the Halloween mood. I put together my whole party for under $40 including food and decor. Let me show you what I did!

I have a great entry way in my apartment. I wanted a way to greet my guests to introduce them to the party. Since I really love wine, and drink it regularly I picked out some empty bottles with spooky art on them. I then went to the dollar store and found light up LED wands and stuck them in the bottles for a spooky look. I also picked up some LED tea lights and a black gauze curtain to tie it all together. Voila! A simple (and cheap) entry way for my guests!


Next I wanted to make sure I had a focal area for the party. For me that was the drink table. I decorated a table with spider webbing and plastic spiders (Again from the dollar store).


 On the table I needed to add more focal points. I had a beautiful wood bowl I got somewhere and never used so I went to the local pumpkin patch and picked up some small pumpkins and squash. It was a heck of a lot cheaper to purchase from the farm and I will still use the squash for food later on. It's a win/win. I also stopped in to Pier 1 Imports where they had all of the Halloween decor on clearance and I picked up those cute little mummy and bat ornaments along with those cute as heck cups. I closed the look with some dollar store lights to wrap around the bowl to give it a more festive look.

Next I needed a great drink for my guests. I really wanted to make an apple cider sangria, but did not have a big enough pitcher for it, so I used what I had. I had 3 carafes ranging in 3 different sizes. I decided to make it a "mix your own" drink. In the largest carafe I poured some cheap pinot grigio, honey crisp apple, a cinnamon stick, and 3 mini bottles of caramel vodka. In the second carafe I poured more pinot grigio, and in the third I made hot cider and let it chill. Now my guests could pour the wine mixture into the wine and add cider if desired.


So there you have it, some cheap ways to decorate! Shop the dollar stores, use what you have, and make it work! Some of the best ideas come out of what you already have. I hope you have a great Monday!