around here, this time of year

I love this time of year! Fall. And it is cooling off a tad here which means less days wearing sandals and more days at the park. 

This weekend we decorated for Halloween. And by we, I mean Henry and I. Man, was he excited. This kid loves Halloween and "halloween things" as he calls them. There is something so fun about having the house decorated and as I realized while chatting with a friend today, Halloween decorations are just fun. Christmas is beautiful and fun in a different, holiday cheer kind of way. Halloween is just fun and spooky and eerie. Love it. Pictures to come soon.


I also have been continuing to train for my 10K which is only 2 weeks away. Yesterday I ran (with the help of Chelsea) 4 miles without walking. That is the longest I have ever run in my life. In my life! I feel confident that I will be able to finish the race even after not running for 3 weeks while I was sick.

I also love this time of year because I love when tv seasons pick back up again. So I have been frantically trying to catch up to be ready. If you haven't watched Once Upon a Time, I would highly recommend it. Give it at least three episodes. Its on Netflix. I also cried through the season premier of Grey's Anatomy and for the first time in a couple of seasons am actually excited to see where everything ends up.

And to continue my goal to be more bold-or push myself out of my comfortable ways-I am making a goal to wear this neon yellow belt this week. I bought it back in July and have yet to wear it. Ridiculous. So keep your eye out for it.

Plus I have a refashion, some freezer meal ideas and my favorite new top tutorial. That's right, I have been making shirts from scratch and not just refashioning. It is highly enjoyable. Here is to a good week.

recent favs: instagram style #2

This should catch me up on instagram pictures...

Whenever I am in charge of FHE treats, Henry is my right hand man. Whether it is mixing up a batch of brownies or picking which ice cream novelties to buy, he's my big boy helper.

Even though Henry often runs away from me while we are shopping, he has no trouble staying right near me at the fabric cutting counter. With his own little cave, he i super happy.

Christmas is coming...quilt pillow covers ala christmas are coming too.

Oh yeah, Fall and Halloween are coming first. I couldn't resist Henry's plea for a bag of mini pumpkins from the produce section. He has thoroughly enjoyed creating a pumpkin patch all over the house.

We're back at story time...

"Mommy, look at this!"

First christmas fabric is in. I love the snowflakes. Green and red coming soon.

A pirate of the first class kind. Cute too.

The perfect distraction, cleaning his toys in the sink. Thanks Andrea for the idea! It kept him busy for an hour.

Getting a head start on Christmas. I wanted to get Henry a kitchen this year and I want him to have felt food. So if I make a few things each week it won't be as daunting, right? Here we have the beginnings of: fried eggs, bacon, pancakes, orange wedges, popcorn, chocolate bar, chips with bag, donuts. If you are thinking I am crazy, its actually really easy and mostly I am using scraps.

Handsome boy

Goal: be BOLD, lips

So school started almost 6 weeks ago for us but its still back to school time for me, in my mind. I personally, am not going back to school but I always see it as the beginning of a new year. I think it comes from the academic calendar I have been living on since I was 5 and will continue to live on forever as my husband is going into academia.
Anyway at this time of year I always make new goals for myself. It seems like a good time to get back into the swing of things after a lazy, sunny summer.
So here is one of them. Be more BOLD. I know what you're thinking. Who makes a goal to be bold. Well, I do.
One of the first ways I wanted to do this was to start wearing lipstick and not just any lipstick but red. I have always been intrigued by a red lip. Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Angelina Jolie instantly come to mind. And while I am intrigued, I am terrified. Red lips either look great or they look a mess. Its easy to smear on neutral gloss and have it look good but red has to be done with care. Could I manage it and not look a fool?
Here is my journey: So my foot in the door was this awesome tinted lip balm by Maybelline called Baby Lips in Cherry Me. It goes on semi-sheer and it makes your lips soft and it tastes good. The only thing I didn't like was it came off easily like when I drank from a straw or kissed Henry's cheek. After a few weeks with this being a success I found a lipstain by Cover Girl called Outlast in Wild Berry Wink (see picture above). It goes on really smooth and is a thin formula you just paint on your lips. You can't even feel it. It also lasts a long time before fading, my at home test showed about 4-5 hours. I tried it on at home first to make sure as it faded that it wouldn't turn hot pink-some lip products do-and even though I felt kind of silly in my pajamas and lipstick, it was worth it. I've also tried the same formula in Plum Pout and like that one too. The only thing I don't love about it is it has a weird taste after awhile but usually I just put on some flavored chapstick and we're all good. I love it and have been wearing red lips to church, the library and even to walmart.
So I know this seems really minor and kind of shallow but for some reason this new lipstick thing has really been a shot in the arm. It has given me added confidence and a greater desire to be myself. I know that when a red lip walks into a room, it gets noticed. I always notice. And being noticed is often out of my comfort zone so I really am pushing myself, does that make sense?
Anyway, more bold moves coming up! One includes a dramatic shoe shift.

Accessories Swap

 I love accessories especially new ones. Who doesn't? But I have tons already which makes it hard to justify buying yet another necklace or pair of earrings. Hence the accessories swap. I've heard about clothing swaps but it seemed tricky since not everyone is the same size. Since accessories are practically one size fits all, it was the perfect thing.

In case you are interested in doing a swap yourself, here is what I did.

I invited a handful of stylish friends over. Everyone went through their closets and brought anything that was in good shape that they didn't wear anymore. We had shoes, hats, purses/bags, belts, scarves, jewelry, headbands, sunglasses, etc. Everyone got one ticket for each item that they brought that would allow them to choose a new item to take home. This was a good idea that I had read about online but it didn't even end up being necessary. No one took home more than a handful of items. For example, I brought 27 items but only kept 6 new ones.

 I put out all my serving platters on the table to arrange items by type. Everyone put their stuff out and we had a yummy brunch. Once everyone had come we went in order of arrival, so if you were on time you got to go first and down to the last person. But you could decide an order on your own for choosing. We went through a couple of times before all the best stuff was taken and then it was a free for all. We also took multiple items each round to speed it up.

One of my favorite parts was looking at what everyone brought and laughing at ourselves trying to explain why this stuff was in our closets. Like "I had it for a costume..." or "Remember when glittered sash belts were super cute..." or "It was a gift..."

Overall it was really fun. Not just because it forced me to be realistic about what jewelry I don't wear and clean it out but I also found things I had forgotten about in my closet. I also scored a few new things to mix up my wardrobe.

In the end, all the leftover items could either be taken home by their original owners or I donated them to a local women's charity. It was decided we would revisit the swap again next year and then I will be ever more honest about what I don't actually ever wear.

fav moments: instagram style

 I have been doing a once a week babysitting swap with my friend so we can get stuff done. We trade off weeks and its just for 2-3 hours in the morning. Can I tell you how much I love it? Not only does Henry love having friends over to play but I love having a morning to myself to be super productive. Above is our friend Lyla who finds herself in a predicament.

 Yummy donut trip to dunkin donuts.

 Henry loves all things pirates so of course he needed a treasure chest.. I just took an old wipes box and spray painted it gold. Inside I glued down a piece of felt and glued sequins all over the bottom. So the sequins wouldn't fall out, I hot glued a piece of clear vinyl and then hot glued some fancy gems and diamonds. One thing if you attempt, I would use epoxy and not hot glue as hot glue peels right off plastic.
And to make it even better, we have an X that marks the spot. Henry will go in his room and I will hide the treasure chest but mark it with an X so he can find it. The X is just a piece of paper with an X drawn on it. Treasure hunting is a daily occurrence here: pirate hat optional.

 Finally some new pillows for our bed after many, many moons. You'd think in my line of work I'd be more on top of it for my own home.

 Dyed pasta sorting. Its super easy to dye pasta just soak in rubbing alcohol and food coloring. But since pasta is yellow adjust colors accordingly. Blue turns green, purple turns olive and red is orange. We sort, play with them and string them up for necklaces.

 New upholstery for our dining room chairs. After almost two years I only have one more chair to paint and cover.

 Henry on the internet. I wonder where he gets that from...

 If you live in Athens, you should eat at Stuffed Burger. Imagine cheese and bacon grilled right into the center of your burger. Ooey gooey yumminess. Also don't get the fries, get the tots.

Good hair day had to be documented. Also I need ideas on what color to paint that mirror, any thoughts?

I came into a Barnes and Noble gift card and brought home this lovely and inspiring book. All it is is color combinations with RGB and HEX codes for photoshop. Heaven. I get so stuck in my same color schemes with all my designs. Branching out made easy.

lately, forgotten

Yeah so I have completely forgotten about my blog these past couple of weeks. Sorry about that. I have been that perfect combination of semi-sick, busy and lazy that means I just haven't gotten around to blogging.

I have had a cough. The kind that just won't go away but you don't actually feel sick. I am tired of sleeping with a cough drop in my mouth and on that, I have eaten so many cough drops the roof of my mouth started bleeding last night. Bleeding. But on the positive, I do love me some drug induced sleeping.

So next week I will have up some new pictures of projects completed and more from our low key life lately. Have a great weekend.

Pictures unrelated to post:
#1. Finger painting in the tub after a sweaty run at the UGA track. Again, he enjoyed washing his hands more than the paint.
#2. "Mama take a picture of Henry now." This is the set up he created while I was taking pillow cover pictures for etsy. He is such a ham.