the first night

On Saturday night I brought over the cats and we spent our first night in our new home! It went so smoothly. Arrietty and Hubble did their fair share of investigating every nook and cranny before cuddling up in bed with me. It was so perfect and sweet!  My room is still a work in progress (basically the only room that's completely finished right now is the kitchen, which I'll share soon!) but it's finished *enough* that it feels cozy and home-like. I get the best light in the morning, my room was practically glowing when I woke up. It was gorgeous!



Tomorrow is my birthday (it really snuck up on me this year!) so I'll have my annual birthday giveaway posted here in the morning! I included lots of fun stuff so make sure to check back tomorrow and enter :D 

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friday favorites

I'm obsessed with these cat wall decals from emerging thoughts! I ordered a set in gold but I have a feeling I'll be back for more in other colors, too.



Modcloth is having their first sale of the gift-giving season! Over 1,000 items are marked down at least 20%, including these three pretty dresses! Watch out, wallet...



This paper mache cat head is probably the best wall decoration ever. Imagine it on a wall that's also covered in the cat head decals above. (There is no such thing as too many cats)



This is a set of gold letters so you can spell out anything you'd like, but honestly I'd probably choose the same exact sentiment. Staying in is awesome.



Best sugar bowl ever! I have a matching teapot so I think maybe I need this too..



I love the color of this lady tie!! I really need to get more colors because I get sad when I don't have one that matches my outfit. If they came in a set with every color of the rainbow I'd snatch that up in a heartbeat.



These balconies are so adorable!! I found it on pinterest linking back to tumblr (the point of no return..) does anyone know where this is?



I don't even care if Halloween is over, I want these zombie lawn flamingos.



If you haven't seen this yet, you need to watch it! Aziz Ansari gives an idea of what a marriage proposal would look like if we weren't already familiar with the concept. It's definitely the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. I ended up watching his whole Netflix special after seeing this clip (I also love him as Tom on Parks & Rec!) and it was pretty fantastic!

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christmasitis

Like clockwork, it's the beginning of November and I have Christmasitis! I already put up my trees (I have three, and finally room to display them all) and a few decorations and I am itching to bake up a million cookies and hundreds of pies. Around this time of year it seems like everyone splits off into two groups -- the people who start Christmas too early (me!) and the people who think it's much too soon to start getting festive. I personally love the lead-up to Christmas just as much as the actual day, so I enjoy this particular time of year when stores are just starting to play seasonal tunes and me and my mom begin our annual baking frenzy. Even if you're not fond of seeing red and green decorations 2 months before the 25th, you have to admit.. it is never too early for Christmas cookies ;)

dress - sheinside | blouse - vintage | brooch - vintage | shoes - bait footwear

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autumn leaves

This weekend fall finally showed up here! yay! Last week it was so hot I was considering turning on the air conditioner, but the last two days have been delightfully chilly. I think this might be the latest autumn has ever arrived... our Octobery glory tree is only now just beginning to show hints of orange and red, when it's usually completely barren by November. I love it though, because this might be the first year that my birthday (one week from tomorrow! yay!) arrives during the beautiful explosion of fall colors.

As I've been getting closer and closer to 30 I've been a little less excited about my birthdays. It's insane how when you're in your teens you just can't wait to turn 20 but then the next ten years you're like "No, life, please slow down!!" But I think now that I have my apartment and am working on getting my degree to become a teacher I feel a little less of the panic that I felt during my last few birthdays. I finally feel like my life is on track. I'm planning on traveling a lot next year, I have a very close family, a tight-knit group of friends and the most lovable cats a girl could ask for. This birthday might be the first one in about five years where I actually feel happy about where I am in life and not terrified that I'm eking closer to the cusp of real adulthood (that's what 30 is, right?) with no plans in sight.

dress - c/o oasap | boots - so old I can't remember | tights - target

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Holiday advertising info!

If you're interested in advertising on my blog, you can get rates, statistics, traffic, etc. on my sponsorship page here. Rates start at $15 and the featured ads are still open for November and December (the best months for it, since it's shopping season!) so if that tickles your fancy you can reserve it now. Also you can buy 3 consecutive 30-day Medium size spots for 20% off. Just change the quantity to "3" and use code 3MONTHS.

I'll be doing another sponsor gift guide this year (you can see last year's gift guide here and 2011 here!) Shops can feature their own items and bloggers can create a seasonal wishlist! All November & December sponsors will be able to participate, so if you buy an ad now you'll have the option to be included. I'll be e-mailing everyone with more details a little later this month.

I think that about does it! *end awkwardness* I hope you have a happy weekend! :)

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my halloween party

Every year on Halloween I throw a costume party, and this year I had it at my apartment! A lot of the rooms are still not finished (we had to use folding lawn chairs at my dining room table) but my kitchen is functional and I have enough complete that I thought I was ready for my first little party :) I went to Michaels on Halloween morning and they had all their decorations 80% off! I got a huge removable decal kit that was $20 marked down to $4 (!!) as well as some plastic pumpkins and glittery pipe cleaner cats and spiders. I couldn't get over how cheap everything was.. I'm definitely doing my holiday decoration shopping last-minute from now on! :)





The party was a huge success. I made chicken parmesan (it's apparently the best thing I cook, based on family feedback, although I've never tasted it myself since I'm vegetarian lol) and spaghetti for dinner and tried my hand at my first soufflés for dessert! I used this recipe for pumpkin soufflé and they came out delicious! I was so excited that they cooked right since I've always heard soufflés can be tough cookies.

I really loved having my flapper doodle halloween banner up (it was the very first thing I hung up in my apartment 2 weeks ago!) I think I'm going to make a printable that includes every letter in the alphabet so you (and I!) can make custom banners for every day of the year ;)

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princess unicorn

This is by far my favorite Halloween costume ever! I've actually been planning it since last October. If you're not familiar with The Office, Princess Unicorn is a fictional Barbie-like toy that was featured in the Season 5 Christmas episode. Her tagline is "My horn can pierce the sky." NBC made a fake website promoting the doll here, which is where I got most of my costume inspiration :)



In the episode, Princess Unicorn is the most popular toy at Christmastime so Dwight buys up a ton of the dolls and sells them at a marked up price to desperate parents who missed getting them in stores. It's only featured in the one episode but it's one of my favorite Office things (I mean come on, it involves unicorns!)

I had so much fun hunting down all the different pieces I needed to make the costume and then assembling them! The dress was an 80's vintage find on etsy and then I dyed it light pink and added the gold trim to match Princess Unicorn's. I wore a lace bodysuit underneath to add the sleeves. I was originally going to sew on star-shaped sequins as well but I just ran out of time. I'll probably sew them on anyway because I have a feeling this costume will be reused at some point in years to come :)

The only thing that I couldn't get right was the hairstyle since a ponytail is hard to do with a wig... but the website says "style her hair anyway you like, up or down" so I'm more like Princess Unicorn after someone took her out of the box and brushed her hair.

dress- vintage | unicorn horn - brooklyn owl | wig & tiara - party city

necklace - handmade | magic wand - disney world | bodysuit - boohoo

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