This year Halloween falls on a Thursday night, so unless you’re a college student or really into the holiday, you will most likely be celebrating at home! Don’t let your adult responsibilities get you down, there is plenty of haunted fun to be had even if you aren’t planning on partying it up! Here are five Frightfully Fun activities for Halloween Night!
1. Have a Monster Movie Fest
There is really nothing better than watching scary movies on Halloween! Some of my favorite Halloween classics are Hocus Pocus, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Sleepy Hollow.
2. Listen to The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe as read by Christopher Walken via YouTube
Yes, this really exists and its pretty incredible. If you are a major Christopher Walken fan like I am, you will surely appreciate his eerie narration to one of literatures classic haunting tales.
3. Read H.P. Lovecraft Stories by candle light
Lovecraft is considered one of the great masters of horror, so if you prefer the pace of a good novel instead of a classic film, try one of his spine chilling tales. Make sure to ready by candle light for an extra creepy effect!
4. Dress up as your favorite Ghoul and hand out halloween candy
What’s the next best thing to trick or treating? Handing out the candy, of course! It’s the perfect excuse to dress up for Halloween and the trick or treaters love the unexpected surprise when you open your door!
5. Rock out to a custom Halloween mixtape
Nothing can put you in that Halloween Spirit like music, so make your own playlist to set the mood for a spooky Halloween at home! Some of my fav’s are The Monster Mash, I Put a Spell on You, and Witchcraft!
Happy Halloween Everyone! How will you be spending your night? Let me know in the comments!
It’s that time of year again! November has come and it’s the National Novel Writing Month in case you haven’t heard! Whether you are a NaNoWriMo vet or a newbie, there are many resources out there to help you get to 50k success at the end of the month. I have rounded up as many of these resources as I could find for you, so hopefully something or other down below will make the month a little easier for you. Happy Noveling!
For Mac Users
Macworld has a number of staff members who partake in nano, here is their article series for success!
Not to be outdone by Macworld, MacLife also has a mini guide to nano-ing that includes some iOS apps as well.
Here’s a Mac app that turns off the internet for a set amount of time, for those of you who are easily distracted by the Internet. Aptly named SelfControl.
For those of you who have an iPad and want to use that to assist you with your noveling efforts, here is a link to a site with some great app suggestions for iOS.
Here is the link for the Nanowrimo trial version of Scrivener. In case you don’t know, Scrivener is a great application for writers of all types. They are also a sponsor of NaNoWriMo and if you win you can get half off the software!
Here is the link for WriteRoom, one of the distraction free writing applications that full screens your manuscript so you can focus on nothing but writing.
Here is a link to Write or Die, one of the full screen apps that prompts you to write with settings that can prevent you from backspacing, and can even start deleting your work if you procrastinate too long. This also has an iOS app in case you are interested.
If you are having trouble naming characters, this website is very useful.
Here is Written? Kitten! Which appears to be a web app where you get a new picture of a cat/kitten once you have hit the interval word goal of your choosing. Helpful for those of you who require a dose of cuteness as positive reinforcement.
So, will you be participating in Nanowrimo 2013? What are some of your must have resources? Have you ever wanted to write a novel or attempted any other writing challenge? Let us know in the comments below!
So, this week I became the proud owner of my very own Beau Bag from Kate Spade! You may have seen my little rant last month about how badly I wanted the bag, but thanks to the encouraging words of many of you I was able to resist the temptation of breaking my commercial detox over this guy! So thank you all very much for your support! Now, getting back to the bag and why I suddenly have it! My husband and I got some really great news in the last week or so, NO, I’m not expecting or anything, but a wonderful thing happened and if you are friends with me IRL and want to know what it was, send me an email or a direct message on Twitter! Because of said awesome news/event/game changer, my husband decided that he would buy me a bag for all my hard work/awesomeness/genius in getting us to this point! Now, on top of all that, as though it were some sign from the gods, the bag was on sale! Kate Spade NY has actually had two sales since the time I first ranted about my love for this bag but both times the Beau Bag was specifically excluded from the sale. Epic sad face! However, Saks Fifth Avenue is/was having their Friends and Family 2013 Sale and they were not so picky about what they were discounting, so when I saw the sale and shared it with Mike, he basically agreed that it was just too good to be true and we had to buy the bag. So, we ended up getting something like $150 off the bag plus free shipping and it was pretty awesome!
Now, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the bag itself, why I think its wonderful and all that jazz! Since I now own the bag, you can imagine I am treating it like a total baby! I absolutely love it for a number of reasons. First, it’s just an absolutely cute bag. I know it may not be everyone’s style, but it suits mine just fine! I have actually never owned a Kate Spade bag before, I have a few different accessories and pieces of jewelry, not to mention some iPhone cases, but never a bag before this. I am eager to see how the bag wears to the minor beating it will most likely get as a my work bag. Which brings me to the second point I want to make about why I love this bag; it will make a perfect work bag! It fits everything I used to keep in my Rebecca Minkoff MAB Tote that I was using as my work bag up until I received this one, and this bag keeps its shape! The Beau Bag keeping its shape was a major selling point of the bag. My Rebecca Minkoff MAB Tote looked sturdy when I bought it, but unless it was packed with items it didn’t hold a shape easily. That bag really took a beating, and it’s still in great shape, but I just didn’t like that it couldn’t stand up on its own and when I went to meetings and put it on the floor or on a table it would fall over and the contents of my bag would often fall out! This will not be the case with my Beau Bag. Since the Beau has a zipper closure I can make sure my items are secure, and since the bag holds a steady shape, it will actually stay standing up if I place it on a desk or on the floor during a meeting, etc! Okay, so final thoughts on things I love about the bag. I love the interior print which is a cream lining with gold polka dots and spade symbols. I am obsessed with the “iPad Compartment” which helps to conceal your expensive gadget! Finally, I adore the bow pocket on the front of the bag. It’s really a great sort of secret compartment, because when you look at the bag, you can’t tell that the bow is a pocket, it just looks like a structural embellishment to the bag, but nope, it’s a pocket and a wonderful place to put my iPhone because it has a magnetic closure! Okay, so that’s all I will say about the bag… for now! I do love it and I am so glad it’s finally mine!
So, what are you guys currently obsessed with? Have you put any fashion or accessory items on your holiday wish list? What bag are you currently carrying or eyeing right now? Let us know in the comments!
Have you ever gone to a new restaurant only to take one look at the menu and want to bolt? I have to admit, this has happened to me more times than I care to admit. I seem to have a problem with trying new things, especially when it comes to food! I really need to get into the habit of checking the menu before I am seated at a new restaurant, but a recent experience got me thinking whether there was proper etiquette for such a situation. So, here’s the scenario. You take a chance and visit a new restaurant you are not familiar with, and then after being seated (and even perhaps ordering a beverage) you take a look at the menu and think to yourself “there is nothing on this menu I want to eat!” What do you do?
After discussing my dilemma with my spouse, who was also thinking the exact same thing, our first step was deciding that we didn’t want to stay and tough it out! So, in order to honor the fact that the hostess bothered to seat us and a waitress went to fetch us some soda’s, we decided it would be best to dig some dollars out of our pockets and discretely find our waitress. We explained to her that we had never been to the restaurant before and weren’t interested in anything on the menu. We slipped her a few bucks and thanked her for her time.
Overall, I think that although exiting a restaurant before you have ordered can be an awkward thing, we handled it well. The important thing to remember is it’s not what you are doing, but how you do it that matters. So, talking to your waitress and explaining your situation is a must! I guess we didn’t have to leave a tip, but since she had gone to get our drinks we felt like we needed to leave something for her trouble and the fact that she had two wasted drinks in her hand. Hopefully this will be the last time this happens to us! I will say, I still felt a bit embarrassed even though I think we did everything right.
So, what you do think? Do you think we did the right thing? Is there anything you think we forgot or should have done? Anyone a current/former waitress and been on the other end of this? How did it play out for you and how did you feel about it? Let us know in the comments!
You guys! I am a complete sucker for packaging! Okay, packaging and convenience! The other day I was perusing Sephora.com and I came across these adorable little palettes and absolutely had to have them! It didn’t hurt that they were both ultra-portable and pretty cheap, both under $25! The first is the Too Faced Glamour to Go Palette ($22)! What first drew me to this palette as you may be able to guess is the packaging! It is a super cute black glossy compact with an almost baroque swirl design and lovely feminine label.
What I love about this palette is its tiny size, it’s no bigger than a compact mirror, but inside it houses a full face of makeup in a double layer design. The top layer of the palette houses 8 lovely neutral eyeshadows that fit my makeup aesthetics perfectly, and the bottom layer that pulls out like a drawer houses a pinky peach blush, golden shimmery lip gloss and a nice light-medium tone bronzer.
The colors are all gorgeous and after applying a face of makeup with this palette I was super pleased with the results. The shadows are pigmented without being too heavy which is great for me because I am no makeup artist and heavily pigmented shadows usually end up making a mess of my face! The blush and bronzer, however are a bit stronger on the pigment, which totally works because I like a strong blusher and I can mediate the amount of bronzer I use to make sure it doesn’t go on too heavy.The lipgloss is pretty subtle, but a nice natural shade with a hint of sparkle. I used a colored lipliner first and then added the gloss on top of my lips to blend the color out to a nice rosy shimmery pink! Overall, I am very pleased with my first impressions of this palette and I love the look I was able to create quickly using it! Like I said, its super tiny but you get a lot of products so it’s a great little palette to keep in your handbag, even a small one!
Okay, so the second palette I picked up from Too Faced is this Jingle All the Way Palette ($25). Now, I picked up this palette because it was absolutely too clever to pass by! From the front, this palette is a nice compact case filled with 11 eyeshadows, a medium bronzer and a bright pink blusher, but from the back it has a little secret!
It is actually a 2 in 1 makeup palette and iPhone 5 case in an adorable print! I just had to have it! So, basically the palette is just a palette in and of itself and it fits into the iPhone 5 case. You could leave the palette in the case or pop it out easily and use the case on your iPhone. It’s basically the greatest idea for a holiday gift that I have ever seen (well, may not the best I have ever seen, but its pretty close)! The colors in this palette are again mostly nice neutrals, but they also incorporate some lovely colors as well! I love how they actually give you 9 smaller shadows and 2 larger matte colors as a base/highlight/blending color. The bronzer in this palette is a hint darker than in the previous palette, but I can still make it work (I am not big into dark bronzers because I am usually super pale except for in the summer when I am just regular pale!) but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the bright pink blush in this palette! The brighter the pink, the better, in my opinion! Now, this palette doesn’t include a lip product, but that’s fine by me and still an awesome value since you get so many shadows!
So, be honest, are you loving these adorable Too Faced Palettes as much as I am? Have you tried any of these before or any other Too Faced products? Are you a sucker for packaging as well? Or perhaps you love these palettes because of the all in one convenience factor? Let me know in the comments!
I have been out of college now for 6 years (yikes!) and I still often think about all the wonderful things I did and learned during my years there! Like most life experiences, however, I often find myself wondering how my life would have turned out had I made different choices and did things differently. If I had the chance to turn back time and start college all over again, I would most definitely be the embodiment of some college cliché, taking advantage of every opportunity, working harder on my school work and going on more adventures! So, since I know there are college freshman all over the world who have just completed their first few weeks or so of their college experience, I have decided that now is the time to share my biggest regrets from college so that perhaps others can learn from some of my mistakes and make the very most of their undergrad years!
1. I regret that I didn’t work harder! Cliche, I know, but its the truth. Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, I have been one of those people who never needed to work hard in order to get good grades. In middle school, high school and yes, college, I just sort of skated by on my natural intelligence, but now I see that had I actually applied myself, I may have been able to do wonderful things. My laziness in college is something I frequently find myself making up for in my life now, as I work myself to the bone at my day job and then with this blog all in the hopes that one day my hard work will pay off! Let me tell you, it’s a much better idea to do the hard work in college because the work you do in those four years can really shape the rest of your life. Don’t skate by like I did, make sure you are putting in 110% to your work!
2. I regret that I got a boyfriend my freshman year. Relationships in college are one of those things that I think most girls are interested in, but they really aren’t the best way to spend your college years. I know that once I found a boyfriend the second semester of my freshman year, I became a ghost to my friends. I spent way to much time with him and doing things he wanted to do and not enough time developing relationships with roommates and hall mates. Since I was also in a sorority, it was especially alienating for me to have a boyfriend during these early college years because I kept feeling like I had to choose between him and them. Of course, I choose him far too often and as I began to feel more alienated from my friends, the cycle continued so that I was inevitably spending all my time with him. Don’t make that same mistake. Boyfriends can wait until after college, they seriously, seriously can!
3. I regret that I didn’t go abroad. College is seriously one of the best times to spend a semester or two abroad in a foreign country. For me, it was something that I considered out of the question because of my finances and of course, my boyfriend! Looking back, I could have afforded it and it wouldn’t have been the end of the world to leave my boyfriend for a few months, in fact it probably would have done me some good! I honestly think that it should be a requirement for certain majors to visit a foreign country before they graduate because it really is such a valuable life experience and it opens your eyes up to the rest of the world outside of your little pocket of the universe!
4. I regret that I didn’t spend more time getting in touch with myself. This is sort of a weird regret, but they say college is the best time to find yourself and I certainly wasn’t spending much time looking! I was more occupied with making sure I got all the classes I needed to graduate and trying to enroll in classes that would fulfill requirements for both of my majors so that I could inevitably save money and graduate early. I wish I had taken more trips and gone on little adventures. I went to college out in the mountains and there were so many things I could have done and tried that I just didn’t bother with because it didn’t fit my narrow idea of what a successful college experience meant. So make sure you spend your days exploring everything you can. Visit the astronomy tower, go on a camping trip, experience the world around you to the greatest extent that you can. It will help you develop character and learn things about yourself that you never knew!
Do you have any regrets from college that you wish you could pass down to younger generations to make sure they don’t make the same mistakes you do? Are you a current college student who has made some of these mistakes and perhaps can learn from them before it’s too late? Let us know in the comments!
That’s right! I am back with a second installment in my Starbucks @ Home Series, and this time I am tackling everyone’s fall favorite, the Pumpkin Spice Latte or #PSL for the hip among us! To be completely honest, I am not a big pumpkin spice latte fan, although I do generally enjoy pumpkin flavored things! When it comes to the actual Starbucks PSL, the drink is made with a pumpkin spiced syrup that is loaded with sugar and calories and too me is too sickeningly sweet. So, my variation is going to be much fewer calories because I am going to use a pumpkin spice coffee as my base. As always, I have a Keurig so that is what I use to brew my coffee, but you can use whatever means you have at your disposal!
What You’ll Need
A Reusable Starbucks Cup: I bought this simple reusable Starbucks cup earlier this year when Starbucks was running a reusable cup promotion. I believe the cup only cost me $1 and it looks exactly like a regular Starbucks cup!
A Pumpkin Spice Coffee K-Cup: There are loads of varieties of Pumpkin Spice Coffee that you can find this time of year, but since this is a seasonal drink I chose a more wallet friendly coffee brand this time.
Whipped Cream: Whipped Cream is actually going to be a staple in this recipe to help add sweetness without getting too much sugar. In a way, its acting as the creamer. If you don’t have whipped cream you could use creamer or milk I suppose, but make sure to add a bit more than you normally would!
Vanilla Extract: It really doesn’t matter to me if its pure or imitation extract, but you will need about a teaspoon of the stuff to help achieve that lovely spicy pumpkin flavor!
Sweetener: Although the whipped cream adds sweetness to the drink, you will still need a bit of something extra. As I mentioned earlier the Starbucks PSL is very sweet, so to pull this off you need to add some additional sweetener. I use stevia to sweeten my coffee, but feel free to use whatever you’d like!
Cinnamon and Nutmeg: You will need to use a pinch of cinnamon and a quarter pinch of nutmeg for this recipe. I know, those measurements are so precise! Basically you need a tiny bit of nutmeg (because it’s a very strong flavor) and 3-4 times as much cinnamon to help round it all out. Since we are making a drink and not a pie we are using such small amounts its hard to measure out!
Garnish: I garnish this drink with some whipped cream and some cinnamon! You could use pumpkin spice as well, but since the coffee is pumpkin flavored you pretty much have the flavor there already.
Let’s start brewing!
The first thing you will need to do is brew you coffee. K-Cups are super simple, but they do cost a bit more than regular coffee grounds. Obviously, you will just use whatever method of brewing your coffee you have available to you! While your coffee is brewing you need to prepare a few ingredients in your reusable cup first! Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract and sweetener to your cup first and mix it together. This is going to act like the “syrup” in a PSL except significantly less sweet (unless you used a lot of sugar as sweetener). Once this is done you can add the brewed coffee and then copious amounts of whipped cream until your coffee is a nice light mocha color (approximately 1 cup whipped cream). Mix everything together until the whipped cream has fully dissolved in your coffee. Next add some more whipped cream on top and then garnish with some cinnamon!
Voila! Top your cup with its lid and take a sip! Delish, I know! And to think, this is so much simpler than standing in line on a cool autumn morning!
Has this recipe inspired you to start making your own coffee-house drinks at home? Have you tried my past recipe? Do you visit Starbucks or your local coffee-house as part of your daily commute to work? Or, perhaps you already brew your coffee at home? Let us know in the comments!
So if you haven’t noticed, lately I have been really into Kate Spade. This is mostly due to the fact that I am loving some of her more recent prints and designs, especially the new Literary Glasses Print! You may remember that I picked up the 2014 Agenda in the print in August and every now and again I have been getting glimpses of new products that are in the works! Just this last weekend I popped into my local Kate Spade NY Store, yes to visit the Beau, and I walked out with a beautiful new iPhone 5/5s case in, you guessed it, the literary glasses print! I was so excited to find it because I had not seen the case anywhere online. If you get the promo emails from Kate Spade you will know that yesterday they finally released some of their new bookish designs, including the case on their site! So, yesterday I was so excited to see all the new fun accessories that I decided to make some wallpapers based on the print for my devices. I made an iPhone 5/5s/5c background (that I am sure will work on other iPhone models and many other cellular devices) and also a desktop background for my Macbook Pro. After sharing the designs with some friends who also like Kate Spade, I decided that I should just post them to my blog because I know many of the ladies who read here also love her designs as well! I hope you guys enjoy!
Right Click Image to Save Linked FileRight Click Image to Save Linked File
I should hope this goes without saying, however, the Literary Glasses Print, Kate Spade Logo and Quote are all property of Kate Spade New York. These images are not the creation of Kate Spade New York or anyone associated with the brand. These images are simply inspirational images created by the blog owner to share with those who love Kate Spade!
So, are you a fan of Kate Spade? Do you like the literary glasses print? Do you like the images that I have created? Will you be downloading them for your own devices? Let me know in the comments below!
Last week I wrote about why you may want to make the switch from cable television service to a lower cost alternative like Netflix or Hulu Plus! Going along with that conversation, I thought I would talk to you today about some more great FREE entertainment options. YouTube right now is blowing up with great “made for YouTube” series and I wanted to share with you some of my favorites that I completely recommend you watch if you are looking for some more free entertainment!
Yep, you read that correctly, Lizzie Bennet, as in Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of everyone’s favorite Jane Austen novel, Pride & Prejudice! This amazing series that concluded only a few months ago is basically a 21st century retelling of the novel if Lizzie Bennet were a grad student with a YouTube channel! Filled with all your favorite P&P characters, some with modern variations of their names (ex. Mr. Bingley is Mr. Bing Lee), this long running series is as entertaining as it is endearing.
For those of us who love makeover shows, this multi season series follows popular YouTube beauty guru’s who give regular girls a mini makeover! Solving problems like what to wear to prom, or tackling issues of personal style, this fun series is a great “real life” makeover show without all the fancy designer duds and high budgets we are used to seeing from shows like “What Not to Wear”. Definitely give this a shot if you are into real like makeovers and you may even find some style inspiration for yourself!
If its cooking shows that tickle your fancy, you won’t want to miss Nicko’s Kitchen, a highly popular YouTube channel and series all about cooking. What I love about this series is that it covers great everyday recipes that are quick, easy and fun, and they have a great mini series on the channel called Fast Food Friday’s where they teach you how to make your fast food faves from Big Mac’s to KFC Chicken! If you’re an epicurean, this is one series you won’t want to miss!
If you are more of a fantasy fan, preferring shows like Once Upon a Time or Grimm, the Guild is probably right up your ally. This multi season series follows around a group of online gamers who play a World of Warcraft like MMORPG in the same guild and decide to become friends IRL. Outlandish drama ensues when the awkward gamers try to interact socially, which makes for some hysterical episodes filled with references and lingo fellow gamers are sure to understand and enjoy!
If you are a fan of comedy shows like SNL or late night talk shows like Jimmy Fallon, you will certainly enjoy Between Two Ferns. Watch as actors and other pop culture figures are given the most awkward interviews of their careers by the straight-faced, too blunt for TV host! It completely reminds me of Stephen Colbert and his hysterical and envelope pushing interviews with public figures in which you’re not certain if the interviewee knows that they are partaking in a joke or not! Check it out for yourself and you are sure to have a good laugh!
Do you like to watch YouTube? What are some of your favorite series’? Have you ever seen any of these shows before? Let us know what you think in the comments!
No month-long commercial detox would be complete without a quick and dirty lesson in budgeting! If you are not currently using some method of budgeting to help you calculate and understand your monthly expenses, I highly suggest you give this a try. Since I am no financial guru, I can’t get into the nitty-gritty of allotting your monthly expenses, but I can help you get started on a path of personal financial management!
One day soon after I had graduated college, I was watching TV when I came across an episode of The Oprah Show that focused on personal finances. Much of the episode focused on helping couples break out of credit card and student loan debt, neither of which applied to me, however, they showed this great pie chart that they used on the show to give a rough outline of how to allocate your monthly expenses. I immediately grabbed the pie chart from the show’s website and have been using it as a guide for myself ever since
If you have never made a budget before, or if you’re not happy with your current budget, I suggest taking this chart, opening an excel file and starting to calculate how much you should be spending on each element of your expenses based on your total gross monthly income. Then you can compare what you should be spending with what you are actually spending! Make sure to grab your bank statements for the past few months when you do your comparison, because spending habits change from month to month and you need to take a look and see exactly how you have been spending your money over a good period of time. I suggest checking out your last 6 months of spending! While doing this comparison, you may find that you are spending too much on housing or clothing based on the suggested percentages and can begin to work towards finding a better balance in your budget. Once you can see where you’re overspending, it might make it easier for you to temper your spending in that area.
Obviously, if you spend too much on housing, it may not be as easy for you to put that spending back to the proper balance, but over time you can take actions like getting a roommate to cover housing costs or finding a more affordable apartment once your lease expires. In the meantime, you are going to have to cut corners somewhere, perhaps with eating out or personal entertainment, or by finding additional means of employment. I have already covered a variety of ways you can save money in different aspects of your life this month, so if you need to cut back on your entertainment costs, clothing or other personal purchases, click here to see my suggestions to make the most of your money!
Overall, I hope you came to see that budgeting is an important and necessary exercise in your life. Although you may not find that you have trouble covering the bills, taking the time to evaluate your expenses may show you where you are overspending unnecessarily and could be putting more money into savings for the future! Your personal savings is a place you really don’t want to skimp on each month, so the more you can put away the better. You never know when you will have an unexpected car repair or medical emergency that will require you to dip into your savings! Seriously, YOLO is not the financial plan you want to default to, so get your finances together asap!
Do you use a budget to help you keep track of your monthly expenses? Do you find that it helps you to make smart money decisions or is it something you reference after the fact to clean up your bills! Let us know in the comments!
