It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Happy Halloween to all my loves!  Hope everyone has had a wonderful day with a few jumps, some costume sight seeing and of course LOTS of treats!  I didn't go out this weekend for Halloween because I went to go see some family friends down in Illinois but I'm sure you all had lots of fun parties and festivities to attend!  I thought it would be fun to share some old pictures that I found of Halloween costumes when I was younger...but then I realized I left them at my parents house.  So I guess that's not going to be happening.

What is everyone doing tonight?  I'm a HUGE Charlie Brown fan so I'll be cuddling up on the couch with a glass of wine watching this...

I don't think Charlie Brown and Lucy will make me jump too much!

And speaking of Halloween, did anyone else barely get any kids around their block for trick or treat?  It was rainy yesterday so that didn't help obviously but we had a TON of candy leftover from trick or treat!  Oh well...I'm sure Andrew's and my co-workers will enjoy a little sugar in the office!

Haunted House Decorating

I have never been a huge fan of Halloween and it certainly isn't a holiday that I do major decorating for but of course, in my boxes of fall decorations, I do have some pumpkins and spooky dishes.  I do know that some of you are totally into Halloween decorating though and I have found some way fun ideas on how to incorporate Halloween into your house during the month of October.  I know this is a bit late considering it's already Halloween Eve but maybe you'll see a tip or two that will stick in your head for next Halloween!

1)   Glitter Pumpkins

Grab a can of glitter spray paint or you can use silver or gold to glam your pumpkins up a bit and get spraying!  You can even use this on ghords and baby pumpkins for additional decorating next to your fall decor!

2)  Homemade Spooky Wreaths

I love the idea of making your own wreaths for different holidays to match your own style.  For this one, you would need a styrofoam wreath, gray yarn, felt cloth, and a bat cutout.  After wrapping the styrofoam wreath with gray yarn (note that it will take a while and you will have lots and lots of leftover yarn to use for other projects), use the stencil to cut out a felt bat and hot glue it to the yarn wreath.  You can also cut out a yellow felt circle and hot glue it to the back of the wreath for a full spooky moon!  VOILA!

3)  Skeleton and Spider Filled Vases

This is the easiest one of them all.  Just a simple idea of buying little creepy critters in the decoration sections of Michael, Hobby Lobby or any other crafts store and filling cylinder vases or candle holders that you can decorate the insides with.  This picture is so unique because they also put the Halloween color candles in this display!  This is perfect for a front entry way or even a guest bathroom.

4)  Trick or Treat Shadow Box

Using stationary paper from scrapbooks departments or just stamping yourself, you can create this adorable Halloween decoartion box with just using a few candy corns (or whichever other candy you choose), a shadow box, and an adorable background of your Halloween liking!

I'm always inspired by others ideas on how to decorate for holidays so here's just a few other creative thoughts to get your creative energy flowing!



Images from:  Martha Stewart Living, Pinterest, Pottery Barn, Liz's Paper Loft, Family Circle, One Charming Party, Etsy

Fall Wish List

Before the leaves stop falling and the snow comes blowing in there are a ton of things that I still want to do.  A lot have already been checked off my list but here's what my list(s) look like!

Isn't this such a cool idea?  Katie had such a great idea to frame the seasonal bucket list and use it as home decor to constantly have a reminder of what her family and her want to do before the season is over.

Now that the heavy sweaters and socks are out in full swing and the leaves on my (only) tree in the front yard are trickling down as the days pass, I'm going to go out a live it up before it gets bitter cold.  Not too long from now...

Save the Dates

Now that I'm sure everyone that has been invited to the wedding has gotten their save-the-dates by now, I can finally show you all how they turned out.  When we initially did our engagement pictures, we brought Andrew's motorcycle with us with the intention of us doing one or two cool pictures for his own personal use.  Turned out to be a pretty cool prop throughout the photo shoot and when picking out the pictures for the save-the-dates, we ended up liking these the most.  Enjoy!

Front Side

Back Side

PS.  Can anyone guess what piece of information we forgot to put on them?

Book Lovers Bookshelves

I'm obsessed with books.  There's no if's, and's, or but's about it.  I returned those four books today that I mentioned in this post to Barnes and Noble because I felt guily spending $62 on books when I probably won't miss them if I don't have them right now.  Did I write them down so that I can eventually get them?  Would you think anything otherwise?  Of course I did...

What comes along with a book obsession is also book organization obsession.  They're like peanut butter and jelly.  One doesn't taste the same without the other.  And as I mentioned earlier, I've finally stumbled across my new love name Pinterest.  Have you met her?  She's fun.  And she has a LOT of bookshelf organization ideas and placements! 

Our house has a built in bookshelf which I adore.  Don't-know-what-I-would-do-without-it kind of adore.  I've been wanting to spruce it up a bit lately but wasn't quite sure how to do it.  Then I saw the color organization idea from Honey We're Home blog.  I had to give it a shot!!  In the process of moving all the books, I also painted the wall of the bookshelf to a bright orange ("Harley orange" as Andrew would like to call it because otherwise it just doesn't seem cool enough). 

In rearranging the books I also gained two extra shelves I didn't know were possible.  We finally measured the proper height for all the books and got rid of the full shelf of books and notebooks from our college days.  Looks like I have to get more books to fill that additional shelf space!  Bummer.  We have to still finish this up but it's my fave fave fave now!

And here's my most wanted shelves and organization areas for books.  They're incredible.  When I clicked on the following picture I found this site...I almost passed out I was SO excited.  So yes, Pinterest has awesome ideas for bookshelves but these picture are from site called shelterness.com.

Compared to any of these, I have a long way to go on my book shelving skills!

Hodge Podge Monday

I have random thoughts running through my head and since it's only Monday I don't want to do anything intense and/or overbearing so here's what is consuming my mind.

1)  I hate wedding planning.  Remember that one time where I said I woud keep you all up to date on the wedding?  I lied.  Because there is nothing worse than trying to please everyone and still have what you and your significant other want for your special day.  Instead, I am going to post pictures of what dream weddings would look like with no color theme, no money managing and no timeline...that's why their a dream. 

2)  If I could re-do it, I would steal my five closest friends and immediate family and Andrew's five closest friends and immediate family and get on a plane and fly to an island that doesn't have a name yet to get married by the pastor of our church who would obviously fly with us.  Obviously.......?

3)  But that's not what's going to happen so my rant is over.

4)  I made two super large bags of puppy chow this morning before I left for errands.  I'm still not sure who is going to eat all that.  Or why I made that much.

5)  I bought four more books.  Even though I said I was going to read Jane Austen next in this post.  That didn't last long. 

6)  My newest addiction is Pinterest.  I want to make and do and have everything on there!!

7)  This weekend, I turned my back wall of my bookshelf into orange from white.  I then felt it was necessary to colorize my books because I thought it would "look cool".  Looks great accept when I want a specific book I'll never be able to find it.  Pictures will follow once it's completed.  Perhaps tonight?

8)  I asked Andrew if I could sleep in the hall last night because I loved looking at the bookshelf so much.  I didn't realize how dumb it sounded until I said it out loud.

9)  I want to travel the world.  Like, literally...see every nook and cranny there is to see.

10)  I've never owned a pet before but my freshman year of college, my roommate had fish and I killed one of them when she went home on a weekend.  I'm pretty sure that's why she doesn't want to be friends with me anymore. 

11)  We're talking about getting a dog after we get married; Andrew better not go away for a weekend.

Steering Clear of Jane

Remember when the movie "The Jane Austen Book Club" came out?  It had the word "book" in it which means I immediately gravitated towards it.  I'd never read any Jane Austen books before but I knew I had to see the movie and of course, I loved it.

Feeling inspired to read everything Jane has ever written, I ran out and bought all 6 of her books that are mentioned in the movie.  I had to read them immediately...right after I finished the book I was reading at the time.  That was four years ago.  I haven't cracked any of the Austen books yet.  I always tell myself "I'll just read this quick one and then I'll read one by Jane Austen".  How many times can I constantly say that?  So I felt the need to tell you all about my hopelessness of reading Ms. Austen's novels and this time, after I finish reading my current book, "Love The One You're With" by Emily Giffin (which is not nearly as good as her other books), I will will will read a Jane Austen novel.  I think I'm going to start with the ever classic Pride and Prejudice since I've heard so many good things about it and take it from there.  My hope is that I immediately get hooked and can't put it down which in turn will lead to reading the other five books as fast as I read the first one.  But I do have ADD once in a while and find another book on my shelf that I feel compelled to browse through and end up reading it all. 

We'll see how this constant struggle to read Jane Austen goes.

P.S.  After missing the last two days of blogging, I have a million ideas running through my head and am going to litter my blog with posts from today alone to make up for my absence last week and part of this week.  Most of this is useless information.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

Ghost in the House?

So I finally have a Friday off of work today and as I sit here reading blogs from some other great people, I hear noises.  Now I know the insulation guys are coming today to insulate our house but they're not coming until 1pm.  It's 10am so I know it's not them.  And since our house was built in the 1940's there's bound to be settling noises that the house makes which I'm used to.  BUT...these noises sound like someone is moving around all our stuff in the basement.  Then 10 minutes later there's heavy breathing noises.  This could totally be me a little paranoid right now but are there such things as ghosts when you have a house this old?  I've never believed in ghosts but holy smokes those breathing noises were so real!  Kind of creepy.  Moving on...

We're finally having insulation put in today!  I'm so excited because I don't know if I could deal with another winter like last year.  It cost so much money to heat our house and the highest we would go would be 65.  Brrrr!  I've never been so happy to see Mr. Insulation and his helpers as I am today. 

Happy Friday everyone!

Fall Weddings

Oh man, is it getting cold!  Yesterday was supposed to be our warmest day of the week and it was only 50 something degrees out!  Brrrr.  When I got home from work this afternoon, I raked leaves.  As much as I put it off, I really do enjoy raking leaves.  The smell of a crisp fall is the only scent surrounding me when I rake and it's such a comforting feeling.  I love love love raking leaves!  It's a good thing I do too because I'll have plenty more to rake before the snowflakes fall.  As I mentioned in this previous post, we are all done with 2011 weddings.  We didn't have too many this year but fall is always my favorite time of year (as you know) but also my favorite for weddings!  The first one we attended was in a barn 3.5 hours west of us.  Holy hike! 

Literally, here we are on the family's property.  In a barn.  Cows reside to the right.

Can't go to a barn wedding without wearing cowboy boots.

The other wedding for my dear friend Shannon was in the coolest Car Museum ever!  Well technically it was in a reception hall right off the car museum but you get the jist. 

They had the COOLEST centerpieces!  So classy and incredible!

Isn't my friend GORGEOUS?

Weekend Recap

I know I only posted twice last week and I am trying my very best to post Monday thru Friday but last week Thursday we left for northern WI which also equals no internet reception on a cell phone!  This weekend was such a blast!  We went to see Andrew's grandpa, his wife, and their dog on their 200+ acre land.  The weekend was packed with many fun filled events including apple picking, laying out concrete, miles of walking with the dog, hunting (my first time) and four wheeling.  Here's a recap of all the fun we had on our three day weekend! 

WARNING:  Picture overload

Trying to be artsy on the four wheeler

Perfect views during the fall up here

Four wheeling to the treestand

Nothing like a little concrete action

Addicted to apples from the apple tree!!

Apple picking

My first time hunting...I don't think I've ever been yelled at for chewing Skittles as much as I did while hunting.

And hopefully my last...

Country couple

Mini Wedding Preview

I know I've been pretty vague than anything about the wedding lately but now I'm finally getting into the details of it and I'm having fun with it!  For those of you who don't know, we've had some hurdles throughout the wedding planning but with God's help and our love for eachother, we've surpassed those and are now down to the "nitty gritty" of it, aka. the fun details and crafti-ness of planning!!  Here's the mini overview of something of what the day is going to look like!

Our wedding is taking place on February 25, 2012

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The ceremony will be at Blessed Savior Lutheran Church.

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Our reception will be held at the Sheraton Hotel

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Rehearsal dinner will be at Horny Goat 

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Sound by Design will provide all the incredible music and entertainment

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We're not having a cake either so all you cake lovers, our sincerest apologies but we know you won't be disappointed with our dessert choice!!

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Formal wedding attire suggested

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That's all I can include but once February 25 comes and goes, you'll see all the rest of the fun details!!

Figured it out...

I've officially found out what the real reason was that I started up my blog.  Not only did I have incredible amounts of inspiration from Blue Eyed Bride, but I'm getting married aren't I?  And when someone gets married, the first thing out of people's mouths when you see them are "How are the wedding plans coming"...right?  YES!!  It's finally time to start blogging about wedding plans so that people can keep up on what's going on and we can talk about something different when we see each other in person.  This isn't going to turn into a full out wedding blog but I will definitely start posting about plans, ideas, thoughts, struggles, etc.  Bring it on February 25, 2012!

Andrew and I attended our last wedding of 2011 this past Saturday (pictures to follow) and I think it got more real for me when I realized that this is our last wedding we will attend until ours.  Holy smokes we're next in line!  I know that I will have the first two months in 2012 to wrap up all the details but I feel like Christmas 2011 is my deadline and the majority of things should be done by then.  Crazy?  Maybe.  A little obsessive?  Most likely but I feel like since this is such an important day, I'd rather be on the safe than sorry side.  That and things will come up last minute that I forgot all about.

Sunny Saturday

Waking up this morning was really easy knowing that it was going to be the most incredible day for a wedding <3.  My good friend who moved to Madison not too long ago is marrying her best friend today and I couldn't be more happy for the two of them! 

Shannon is this amazing individual who has such a passion for life and though I don't know Tyler too well, I know he makes her so happy which is the most important thing in any relationship.  So as I run my errands this morning with my venti Starbucks coffe, I wonder what Shannon is doing and how anxious she's getting.  I can only imagine that the butterflies in her stomach are just going crazy!  I know mine will be when I get married in less than 5 months!  Just have a few more gifts to wrap and off I go to put on my pretties for the beautiful wedding today on this PERFECT 80 degree day in October!  Is this really Wisconsin??  Happy Saturday everyone!

Things I Love About Fall

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Stylish Sweaters

Fall is officially in the air with it's crisp breeze and changing colors!  This is the time of year I look forward to most.  Things seem to be slow down a bit, kids are in school and it gives us that reminder that winter is just a few short months away.  Not only those reasons but for thoseof us who don't live in the south, we can finally cozy up in warm and bulky sweaters.  There's nothing like that feeling of thick fabric wrapped all the way around you.  It's a safe and sweet feeling.  Pair it up with a pair of leggings, jeans, or a skirt; it doesn't matter.  I love to throw a great sweater in the mix of it all! 

I scoured Victorias Secret's website which has AMAZINGLY stylish sweaters and snagged a few of the cuties!

Polished Fall

Fall is easily my favorite time of year and the perfect time to pamper yourself.  It may be a little late in the season to show off those pretty toenails but pedicures feel so amazing that it's just worth it.  This is also the best time of year to bust out the dark colors on your nails.  Not only does it look terrific, but it gives your nails the pop it deserves!  I added my FAVORITE fall colors to take advantage of this season.  I can't wait to start using them all!