Holiday 2016 Party Looks

We're in the middle of the most wonderful time of the year, full of eating, drinking, gift exchanges, and extra hours spent with friends, family, and co-workers.  In the spirit of celebrating, I wanted to share three of my favorite holiday party looks that I'm wearing this month from a casual, ugly sweater gift exchange with friends, to fancy cocktail party attire.

Ugly Sweater Gift Exchange

For a fun, playful look at your friend's gift exchange, try layering a festive t-shirt underneath of a thrifted sweater vest. Your sweater game can still be on point, but you won't be quite as toasty as you would be in a long-sleeved heavy wool sweater. I picked up my Santa squad tee on asos and paired it with some festive earrings from H&M and a hair bow.

Festive Date Night

This outfit will be perfect for going out and grabbing drinks with your girlfriends before the Christmas or spending a date night with your S.O.  It feels just festive and dressy enough, without being over the top.  A Christmas tree green sweater paired with this slogan purse create a playful, yet sophisticated look to head out on the town in.

End of the Year Cocktail Party

Last, but definitely not least is this amazing metallic dress from asos.  To me it just screams holiday party and is perfect for a cocktail hour with friends or co-workers.  This stand-out dress will be so much fun to spin and dance around in.

Last Days of Fall: Rice Crispy Treats

We're counting down the last few days of Autumn, since once we get past Thanksgiving it will be all Christmas everything.  For a final, sweet fall hoorah, I've put together these rice-crispy treats that would make a super simple, tasty Thanksgiving dessert.  Not only are rice crispy treats a crowd pleaser, they aren't super filling which means you'll always have room for one no matter how much turkey and stuffing you eat next Thursday.

For my Fall Rice crispy treats, I chose to coat them in Harvest colored sprinkles from Sur la Table and used a couple cookie cutters in autumn-themed pumpkin and leaf shapes to make individual serving sizes.

To make about a dozen pieces you'll need: 

• 4 heaping cups of rice crispy cereal
• Half bag of mini marshmallows
• Quarter stick of butter
• Sprinkles (optional)
• Candy melts (optional)
• Food coloring (optional)

To make the treats:

• Start with melting the quarter stick of butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. 

• Once the butter is almost entirely melted, add in half the bag of mini marshmallows. Stir the marshmallow and butter combination frequently until the marshmallows are completely melted. (A cute variation of this recipe would be to include some orange food coloring at this point to make the treat look pumpkin-colored).

• Add in the 4 heaping cups of rice crispy cereal and combine the marshmallow mixture thoroughly into the cereal.  Once the cereal is fully coated in the marshmallow mixture, pour it into a cool, unlined jelly roll pan and smooth into the pan to make a flat layer. Cover the top with sprinkles and using a rubber spatula press the sprinkles into the cereal, to make sure it's secure.  Let cool for 30 minutes. 

• Once the rice crispies are cool to touch use a cookie cutter to cut shapes out. Since the treats can be fairly sticky, I needed to wiggle the cutter a bit to create a clean cut out.  Lay out the shapes on a flat surface, to avoid warping. 

• If you want to get adventurous, you can pipe frosting or candy melts into designs on top of your treats.  I dyed some white candy melts with green food coloring and added little stems and leaves to the top of my pumpkins for an extra pop of color.  If you choose to add frosting or candy melts, be sure to let your treats dry 30-60 minutes before stacking them.

• If you can practice the self control to not eat all of the rice crispy treats and need to transport them to your Thanksgiving get together, lay them flat in a plastic container, separating the layers with wax paper to avoid having pieces stick together. 

Enjoy!

Halloween Decor Tour 2016

We've made it to the spookiest week of the year, the seven days leading up to Halloween! I absolutely love celebrating Halloween and wanted to share how I've decorated my studio this year.

Starting off with the "bar cart" in my kitchen (actually just an old microwave stand) with some cute cups from Jewel Osco, striped straws from Target, a cute design on my chalkboard, and an awesome "Trick or Treat" banner from Michaels.

I have a couple of cute little ghosts in my bathroom...

This subtle set up on top of my book shelf...

A really neat skull candle from Paper Source on my night stand.  I've also recently fallen in love with the Pumpkin Spice Rooibos tea from Trader Joe's in the most adorable tin.  I'm currently sipping it out of my "Morning Pumpkin" mug from Lindsay Letters...

And the grand finale: the top of my dresser.  I'm obsessed with the pumpkin string lights from Paper Source and paper bats I hung on the wall from Michael's. 

 I'd love to hear your favorite way to decorate for Halloween!  Leave in the comments your favorite spooky decor.

October Date Night: Barbecue and Blues Festival

This month, my date night is with my momma to celebrate her birthday! For our night out, we went to a barbecue and blues festival at a vineyard in a small town near where my mom lives and where I grew up. It was a perfect combination of fun and relaxation with amazing artists, delicious barbecue, and beer and wine.

To the festival, my mom and I wore coordinated outfits, obviously.  I have on a grey long-sleeve tee and denim jumper from H&M and a hat from Jack and Lucy that I got in my latest PopSugar Must Have box.  My mom dressed in a chambray button up top, black skinny jeans, with layered brown necklaces.  Our attire felt very casual, and appropriately festival-like.

The set up was all outside, on a perfect evening.  Everyone brought their own lawn chairs and set up outside a stage by a red barn.

My mom and I each grabbed some beers and barbecue (ironic that my mom's name is Barb? Barbecue for Barb, get it?), then listened to a line up of blues and roots bands through the rest of the evening.

If you're looking for a last night to go out before the weather turns too cold, I would definitely recommend researching what festivals in your area are still happening.   Most outdoor festivals seem to wrap up in October, at least in the Midwest where the weather can be pretty unpredictable starting in November, and it feels so nice to spend an evening outside without shivering.

The Ultimate Autumn Bath

The weathers getting cooler, people are wearing more and more layers, the days are getting shorter... The season of coziness is upon us.  The other day, I had a particulary cozy evening taking the ultimate Autumn bath.

To start off the bath, I crumbled up half of the Sparkly Pumpkin bubble bar from Lush as the tub was filling up.  It instantly turned the bath a pumpkiny orange color with a bit of sparkle and made tons and tons of bubbles, which to me is essential to have the coziest bath possible.  Once the bath was filled I dropped the Pumpkin bath bomb from Lush in for some extra orange and yellowy colors and a warm, spicy scent.  To top off the bath, I also kept a mini Lord of Misrule shower cream to lather up with after I was done soaking in the bath.  It's seems perfect for October, leading up to Halloween since it's a bright green color, which reminds me of a witches brew.  It was a really spicy, woodsy scent.

To get an extra cozy feel, I also lit a bunch of Fall scented candles from Gold Canyon.  The scents I have are Cinnamon Citrus, Smoked Apple Butter, White Pumpkin, and Mulled Cider.  All of these scents have a more spicy, warm scent so they mix really well and created a very cozy atmosphere.   

To top it off, I brought in my current read, Devil in the White city.  The story is a bit creepy, with chapters telling stories about a serial killer living in Chicago during the Worlds Fair, mixed in with chapters on the architects journey to building the Fair.  It's creepy enough to feel like an October read, but subtle enough to read in a bath and relax.  

Once I got out of the bath, I cozied up in my pajamas and robe after moisturizing with Suncrisp Apple Harvest Bath and Body Works body cream.  I believe it was a part of their summer line, but apple scent is very autumnal to me.  Currently, they have Country Apple in stock, which seems to be the equivalent.  After that, I was so relaxed and ready to cuddle up for sleep.