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!

 Happy Saturday you fine interweb folks! I have never done one of those "Currently" posts so I figured since my life has been running rampant the last few weeks I'd do a little update on my life :)

I took what I'd like to call an unexpected technology vacation for the better half of this week. I wasn't planning this but let me tell you what, I got SO much done this week even with having a busy calendar. I know for a lot of people it is hard to disappear from the blogging world and such for a few days, but I realized I was starting to get frustrated with balancing and my writing wasn't the greatest. I needed to step away and recharge and live my life. Living life is what makes the great posts flow. #amiright?

Currently: Work flow
Anyways a few months ago I told you all I got promoted at work. I also had a few moments where I complained about not being busy enough. We all know we should be careful what we wish for because currently my work life is INSANE! Everyday this past week I spent hours looking at numbers on a computer screen for a "special" project and by the time I got home I was so bleary eyed I wanted nothing to do with more screens. I also think I need to get my eyes checked. My vision has not been the greatest lately. (Damn you getting old and computer screens!) On a happy note I finally got my office set up and I LOVE it. I have never had an office before and being able to tell people "let's go into my office" excited me WAY more than it should! I will do an office tour soon :)

Currently: Home projects
Another reason my week was nuts is I was planning for a Halloween party that happened last night. If you have read previous post, you will know I am a fall-oholic and I love Halloween. I went out shopping last weekend to prepare for what at the time was a small get together with my girlfriends. As I fell in love with more and more Halloween decorations, that small get together turned into a full on Halloween party. This was one of my bucket list items because of all the years I  have lived on my own it never happened. Now my house is decorated and ready for the holiday. I will be posting how to make your house look cute and festive on a budget. Look for that on Monday!

Currently: Loving
Sometime last year I won one of those Bluetooth HMDX Jam Party rechargeable stereo speaker things. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it and considered giving it away. Last night at the party I wanted music to be played and my laptop wasn't jamming like I wanted it to. I decided to break out the speaker and synched it with my phone. It is the BEST THING EVER! I love that I can set it anywhere in the house and control it with my phone. I downloaded the I Heart Radio App and I can scan through thousands of radio stations form my phone. Once its charged you can take it everywhere with you and it lasts up to 12 hours. Its pretty darn convenient.

Currently: Avoiding
Can we say laundry? Ugh the only thing I hate about my apartment is there is no laundry hook ups. We do have a quite lovely laundry center in my development but I still need to lug it all up there. It is a rainy day, so perfect to get some laundry done, but I am being lazy. Anyone else avoid laundry like the plague?

So there you have it. Life unravelled. I hope you all have a great Saturday!

Today is the day.. the day I officially end the series: "Defining Lifestyle". As promised I want to share with you how all of the participants answered the question: How do you define YOU?

 
Christine @ The So-Called Homemaker: Christine (n): A fun-loving young momma who loves to read, write, and dance to Asian pop.  See also: crazy, silly, eccentric.

Helene @ Helene In Between: It's really hard to define yourself. You look in the mirror and think about your physical features but you don't often look at your inner self: your mind and your heart. I think I define myself by not necessarily what's inside but those things I hold dear around me. So my husband, my two dogs, my family and my friends. Someone asked me the other day about how I would describe my blog, which, can be difficult when you don't have a niche. But I've decided on "I Create Buzz" and I think that this also could describe my personality. I am outgoing, determined, stubborn, and somewhat creative. And clearly, I'm also all over the place, since this kind of took more direction than one!


Jenn @ Jenn Wells Design:

Becca @ Becoming Adorrable: I'm a wife, a furmom, and a fighter.

Trish @ Beyond the Khaki Pants:  Lifestyle is blogging about life. Which is anything and everything. Mothering, relationships, career, embarrassing moments, the highs and the lows. These blogs are marked by perspective of the unique view of the blogger, not necessary by topic. Which is why I could read 10 posts about the same topic and they could be completely different.

ME: I define my lifestyle as a project in process. I am always learning and creating new ideas both personally and professionally. This blog will always be a view of me and how I am changing.

Now it's your turn! Link up with either your 5 questions and answers or your definition of lifestyle. Or combine them together! Do it however you please! I can't wait to read your responses!

Well its been 7 fast weeks and I am finally wrapping up the "Defining Lifestyle" series. I had great bloggers share fun questions here on the blog. They all give different perspectives of what a lifestyle blogger does. We have no boundaries. We post all kinds of random stuff and people still read it. That is the best part. If I come home at 1am and have nothing prepared for tomorrows blog, I can seriously wing it and no one would ever know.


So now that I am wrapping this baby up, I wanted to share with you my 5 question. I hope you enjoy the questions and this series!



1. Is it true that you haven't bought shampoo in almost 2 years?
Trish: Totally true. Guilty. I have not physically paid for shampoo and many other products in nearly 2 years thanks to my little freebie addiction. Although I have slowed down, it it weren't for them this blog wouldn't exist. I don't feel like anyone should pay full price for anything. Don't believe me? Check out some of my favorite sites to score all kinds of goodies ---->  Freebie stuff!

2. How did freebies start your blog?
Trish: I had SO many free items sitting around, I decided to do what every company wants, and that's talk about the products. This blog started as a 1 post a week review page. Now I've moved into Lifestyle with a few reviews thrown in.

3. It's not real clear what you do for a living- What are your professional skills?
Trish: What? Freebie Addict isn't a profession? Ok, Ok.. Where do I begin? I went to college undeclared  and got bored while taking classes for my undergrad so I decided to also take classes in Interior Design. I earned a certificate in that (It's no wonder I like to decorate!). Still in school for my undergrad I took a job in the eyecare business to make some extra cash and ended up getting my ABO certification. For those of you who aren't familiar with that term, I can make eyeglasses and make people look fashionable in their eye wear :).

I finally graduated college with my Bachelor Degree in Marketing with a minor in Business. I decided to fly across the country (I'm originally from PA) to Los Angeles to follow my dream (Or so I thought) and interned at an entertainment marketing company called Fanscape. I got to do all kinds of fun rock star types of things; like work a tour or handle a famous person's MYSPACE page. Yes I said MYSPACE. That's how long ago this was folks. Myspace was still the shit! So I had all kinds of great Los Angeles experiences and then stuff got expensive and I had to go home. Booo. So fast forward to now. I am working in a technical job where I am handling operations for a materials testing lab. So to sum it all up, my professional skills makes me a Mutt? BA, CE, ABO, Crazy?! I have a lot of skill and still want to learn more!

4. Whew that was a long answer! Next question: If your blog had a theme song, what would it be?
Trish: After that long answer I'd have to say Extraordinary by Liz Phair because who wouldn't want to described as an "average everyday sane psycho, super goddess?!". I think this blog jumps around so much it can seriously be average or over the top depending on the day. Plus its so much fun to sing!

5. Do you find your life interesting, and why?
Trish: I have been really fortunate in my life so far. I have done some pretty crazy things that people can only dream of doing. I set my mind to something and I get it. (Hello I went to the Grammy's!) So yeah I would say my life is pretty interesting most of the time. But I keep it that way. Why live any other way?

Alright peeps there you have it. My 5 questions and answers. It was a lot of fun! Now I really would love to see what kind of questions you guys would ask yourselves! Tomorrow I am going to share how everyone who participated in this series answered the question "How do you define YOU?" So with that,  I am also going to have a link up so everyone can share your questions and answers! I hope to see you then!

Need some examples? Here's a recap of all the lovely ladies who came up with questions for the series!







 

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We all have that question we are just DYING to answer, but it doesn't ever seem to come. Defining Lifestyle is a series that allows bloggers to submit their own set of questions AND answers in effort to get some stuff out there that they normally aren't asked. If this doesn't define the lifestyle blogger, I don't know what does. So sit back, relax, and expect some fun over the next few weeks!

Today I am welcoming Julie from Girl on the Move. Julie has such an inspiring blog. She has some great fitness posts as well as cupcakes! Those 2 subjects alone are enough to make me love Julie for life. Julie is also a fellow co-founder of Blogstaycation 2014. For those of you who aren't familiar, stay tuned cause rumor has it we may be putting together a Winter Blogstaycation...