What Trick or Treaters Dressed As This Year

Unfortunately, we never seem to as many trick or treaters as I think we will. There are tons of kids in our neighborhood, but for some reason, we always have at least a giant bag of candy left over. That's not good for the ole diet I'm trying to start up again, sort of.

I thought for kicks I'd keep track of all the costumes kids wore trick or treating on Saturday.

• bride
• baseball Player
• ninjas
• Darth Vader
• Iron Man
• FBI agent
• princesses
• fairy
• farmer
• Grim Reapers
• The Hulk
• Top Gun-esque flight suit
• Thomas the train
• cowgirl
• Captain America in a Batman hat
• hippie
• Native American
• football player (Packers obviously)
• vampire
• janitor? mechanic? who knows, it was a jumpsuit
• sailor
• witches
• soccer player
• Jack Sparrow
• 80s girl
• bunny
• chicken
• something with bloody makeup
• police officer
• Mario
• Buzz Lightyear
• Mad Hatter
• bat
• inmate
• referee
• little blue monster of sorts
• teenage boy in drag
• banana
• a Gryffindor Hogwarts student
• military soldier with a samurai sword

I had to compliment the girl wearing the Harry Potter/Gryffindor student costume. What was your favorite costume you saw this year?

Halloween Party Recap

Happy Halloween!

We had about 15 guests at our Halloween party on Friday, and it was a lot of fun!

Here are the decorations, which I threw together in a half hour before guests arrived.  Thank you to Dawn at Suitcase Vignettes for the ideas!  Do check out her blog to see all her awesome Halloween decor.  Mine does not compare.  Also, I had no idea the dollar store would be such a gold mine for Halloween decorations.  Good to know.  I should've taken these photos without flash to get the full effect...oh well!

As for my costume, which was Amy Farrah Fowler from The Big Bang Theory, I realized that 16 years ago, I dressed up as another Mayim Bialik character--Blossom (unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that costume).

And here's Bridget in her candy corn costume I made her.

For more pictures of the party, including Bridget playing with her new friend, some fun costumes (although half the guests came sans costume), and some Just Dance and Rock Band fun, you can check out my Facebook album.

What's the Deal with Homecoming Dresses?

I'm gonna play the old lady card here for a minute.  The one time I went to a homecoming dance was eleven years ago now, and it seems to me that maybe a lot has changed since then.

Are short dresses the thing these days?  I was at TGI Friday's the other day with a few friends, and we couldn't help but notice how scandalous and/or casual these homecoming dresses had become.  The ones that shocked us the most were a very short, tight leopard print dress and a girl with a slit open back and a nude color lace tube top bandeau thing sticking out.  Chica, I wore a low back dress to homecoming as well, but I did not have undergarments showing.  I appreciate the modesty thing, but I'm thinking black would've been better.  Or nothing at all (it wasn't that scandalous of a slit).  And I'm pretty sure those two girls were in the same group, which is kind of amusing.  The date of the leopard print girl wasn't doing much better.  He was wearing an oversized dress shirt untucked with a baseball cap turned backwards.

The other confusing group was the extremely casual bunch.  A few girls schlepped past our booth in simple knit dresses, ballet flats, and messy buns.  I don't know, maybe there was a youngster club nearby and they weren't really going to homecoming.

There were a few winners, though.  We saw the most adorable couple--a girl in a knee-length tulle dress with a wrist corsage and cute updo, and the guy in a nice suit/tux and boutonniere.  High five to them!

It made me think back to my one Homecoming experience. Back in my day, I feel like most girls wore fancier floor length dresses. It didn’t seem to be as formal as event as prom; for instance, I don't think the guys dressed up as much, and I know I at least didn’t get my hair done. But the dresses were still a pretty big deal. Mine was iridescent, sparkly, high cut in the front, and low back.

I enjoyed myself even though I ended up going dateless with a group of friends.  I remember asking I think five guys to go (gutsy, right?) and got shooot dooowwwn five times.  We started off the night meeting at my friend, Holly's house, I believe.  I was having a hair crisis and settled for throwing it up in a claw clip thing.  It was the most stringy and blah hairdo ever.  Then we enjoyed a classy dinner at Old Country Buffet, haha. In the end, though, I danced with a couple guys and had a jolly good, extremely innocent time.

Thinking about my homecoming experience and seeing some of the dresses girls are wearing today makes me a little concerned, and frankly panicked, for the future.  But let's not worry about that for today.  Let's just talk about the fashion.  If you went to homecoming, what did you wear?  Or what kinds of things do the students in your area wear now?

Latest Shopping Haul - Gap, Charming Charlie, and H&M

I’ve been kind of bad recently. I ordered a few things on Gap and then went shopping the next day and bought more things.

For some reason, I felt that I needed this Gap mini skirt:

And then to get the free shipping, I ordered an outfit for Bridget (sweater dress from H&M, cardigan and pants from Gap):

Then, while shopping with a couple friends Tuesday, we checked out Charming Charlies. That store is huge! The bangles were on sale and were impulse buys, but I’ve been looking for cheap pearls for awhile. I had to use some restraint to not buy a ton more there.

And scored a few things at H&M too. I can’t really justify the red dress because it’s too short to wear to work, but I loved it, and it wasn’t expensive, so I bought it. I’m sure I’ll get plenty of use out of the sweater and belt at least. As for the hat, I just kept seeing it on other bloggers and decided to get one myself since I like hats anyway, although I always feel a little out of place wearing them. And now I can’t go into H&M without getting Bridget something since they have a baby section.

Some Random Outfits and a Cute Baby

I've had two completed posts saved as drafts for weeks now, but for one reason or another, I haven't actually hit Publish yet. One was a shopping haul post, and the other was musing about the current state of Homecoming dresses. Maybe I'll just schedule them for this weekend and call it a day. It seems like not as many people blog/read blogs on weekends. Yeah, I'll do that.

Anyway, switching gears, I love all the cute sweaters they have for babies, especially at H&M.

As for what I've been wearing this week--this new Gap mini skirt will show up in the shopping haul post.

Skirt: Gap; Sweater: huband's (from Gap); Tights and Shoes: Target; Necklace: Maurices

And I wore this orange and black outfit for Wear It Wednesday yesterday.

Pants: New York & Company; Top: Forever 21; Cardigan: Old Navy; Shoes: Famous Footwear; Hat: TJ Maxx; Bracelets: Charming Charlie

That's all I've got for now! I've been busy all week cleaning and getting ready for our Halloween party tomorrow. I'll have pictures on Monday hopefully, but for now, here's a preview of Bridget's costume.

Halloweens of Yore

1. Do you have plans for Halloween? What will you dress up as this year? I am hosting a party and dressing up as Amy Farrah Fowler from Big Bang Theory. My husband is going to be Sheldon after he got back from the North Pole since he had a beard in that one episode.

2. Where do you go for costume and makeup inspiration? Google? I usually decide what I’m going to be first and then reference pictures of whoever it is to create the costume.

3. What was the best costume you've ever donned? I was trying to think back to all my recent Halloween costumes, and I think I remember them all since junior year of college and one from sophomore year of high school. In reverse order:

Pregnant skeleton

Selene from Underworld (though everyone thought I was Trinity from The Matrix because I couldn’t get the stupid vampire teeth to stick)

I know what you're thinking--that is the best rendition of Wolverine you've ever seen.  I agree.

Jolly Green Giant

Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame

Dr. Torres from Grey’s Anatomy

Mona Lisa from the DaVinci Code (with the writing on the bottom corner of my frame)

Mrs. White from Clue

Sandy from Grease (tried to dye my hair blond, big mistake)

a butterfly

...and Scary Spice (the high school one, obviously).  I don't have a picture of the Spice Girls ensemble costume, but if any of my friends have it handy, I'll post it later.  Out of those, I guess the best costume would either be the Jolly Green Giant or Mona Lisa. Or Scary Spice, haha.

4. What's the most creative costume you've ever seen? The one that came to mind right away was a giant rearview mirror with fuzzy dice.

5. No holds barred if you could dress up as anything, what would it be? I don’t know about this year, but a couple years ago, I really wanted to go as Beyonce in the Single Ladies video and do the dance wherever I went. I just wasn’t all about wearing a leotard in public. But if I could’ve gotten the costume and the dance perfect, that would’ve been awesome. I was OBSESSED with that video at the time.

Source

The Winner of the Fashionista Giveaway Is...

Sarah!  The very last entrant--crazy!  You've won the Coach bag!  I'll be emailing you a little later for your address.

Thank you all so much for entering my very first giveaway!  I never thought I'd get 50 people, let alone over 200!  Thanks also to all the other giveaway participants for offering such great prizes and sending traffic my way.  Especially, thanks to Shelley from Still Blonde After All These Years for organizing the event.  I know it was a huge undertaking, but it was definitely a success!  Looking forward to the spring edition! And of course, thank you to E-Collectique Runway Boutique for providing the Coach bag as a prize!

Hi and welcome to my new followers!  I hope you continue to like what you see!

E-Collectique Runway Boutique Groupon Deal of the Day!

So you know E-Collectique Runway Boutique, my awesome sponsor for the Fall Fashionista Giveaway Event (which ends TODAY--enter now!)?  I was super excited to see that they are the deal of the day in Milwaukee on Groupon today!  Needless to say, I bought one.  Check it out!

Pinterest Strikes Again

Dress: H&M; Blazer and Boots: Kohls; Scarf: gift; Tights: We Love Colors

This outfit was inspired by a combination of these two photos from Pinterest:

Source: kittenhood.wordpress.com via Rebekah on Pinterest

Source: gallery.me.com via Rebekah on Pinterest

Sorry about the weird lighting in my pictures. I either have to go back to using natural light or get better at Photoshop. Or both.

I'm really drawing a blank today, but I wanted to post my outfit pics at least.

Remember that tomorrow is the last day to enter the giveaways for the Fall Fashionista Event. If you haven't done it already and still wanted to, you can enter to win a Coach purse here! Good luck!

Trying Out the Tuck

One of hubs’ uncles is known for being hi-larious, inappropriate, and boisterious. I was in his car on the way back from the wedding Saturday, along with hubs, sis- and bro-in-law. Sis brought up the topic of peopleofwalmart.com, and I announced that I had recently learned what a FUPA was. (Honestly, I had looked it up on urbandictionary.com after seeing it mentioned on the Man Repeller a couple times.) I believe everyone else already knew was it was except for maybe hubs and bro. So we were all laughing about FUPAs for a good five minutes of the hour and half drive home from the wedding.

Anyway, my point is, I’ve always (since 8th grade at least) steered clear of tucking shirts into pants for two reasons: 1. The mom butt, and 2. the FUPA. But I gave it a shot today and made sure to suck in my stomach whenever necessary and untuck the back of the shirt a little. I’m all for trying things outside of my comfort zone, but this is something I will probably not be going back to any time soon.

Looks kind of cute on Vanessa Hudgens, though, eh?

Inspiration Picture

My Interpretation

Shirt: eShakti via Boutique Larrieux; Pants: New York & Company; Belt: Walmart; Shoes: Mr. Shoe

Klutzy and Late? Sounds about Right!

This weekend, my husband, Bridget, and I flew down to Georgia for his cousin’s wedding and grandmother’s 80th birthday party.

We stayed at my husband’s aunt and uncle’s place with a bunch of other relatives. I loved their house, and I was especially impressed with their eclectic book collection. Neither of them have language-related jobs, but they had rows of books that made this editor drool. I wanted to steal them all. They also had a C.S. Lewis collection that could rival my dad’s.

One of hubs’ cousins brought his baby girl over who’s only about two months older than Bridget. It was a lot of fun watching them play and interact with each other. I also had fun hanging out with hubs’ sister and her husband as usual. It’s too bad both his sisters don’t live closer by. That’d be neat to see them more often.

The morning of the wedding was crazy. With such a big group, we ended up taking three cars. The first car left an hour or so earlier than the other two cars, so there was kind of a lot of stress surrounding getting them out the door in time.

The biggest hiccup of the day happened while sis-in-law and I were getting ready. She asked me to paint the nails on her right hand. I grabbed the nailpolish, shook it, and polish went flying EVERYWHERE. Whoops!!!!!!! It landed on my dress, my foot, on the carpet, and on the white duvet cover. Crap. She sis, hubs’ aunt, and I spent the rest of the time before we had to leave cleaning that up. The carpet looked fine, my toes were still gunmetal color since we used all the nailpolish remover on everything else, and the duvet was screwed. We ended up dropping it off at a dry cleaners and hoping for the best. The dry cleaner people didn’t sound optimistic, though...

Our car left with plenty of time to get to the wedding, even with our dry cleaning stop. Unfortunately, we hit tons of traffic on the way there and may have stopped off at McDonald’s since we were all really hungry. Bridget loves french fries, by the way. So anyway, we got to the wedding ten minutes late and snuck in the back.

The good news is, it was a GORGEOUS day for a wedding. The weather could not have been more perfect. The wedding and reception were held at a winery with mountain views in the background and plenty of wine and delicious food to be consumed. Pretty much ideal. And of course, the bride looked stunning and very happy. The reception actually ended at 8:00, which was OK with us because we had an hour and a half drive back to hubs’ aunt’s house. Hubs, who hates going to weddings, admitted that he would go to ten more if they were all like that--very laid-back and ending at 8:00. Hehe.

Dress: Kohls; Blazer: Gap; Clutch: Fred Boutique; Shoes: Target; Necklace and Bracelet: gifts

Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?

It's Giveaway Time! Win a Coach Purse!

I’m very excited for my first giveaway! I’m participating in the Fall Fashionista Giveaway Event, along with over 130 other bloggers.

Here, you can enter to win a Coach handbag (pictures below), courtesy of this fabulous local designer resale shop, E-Collectique Runway Boutique.

As described on CityVoter:

E-Collectique Runway Boutique opened in April 2008 and is still one of Milwaukee areas best kept secrets. This unique boutique, housed in a 1912 bank building, specializes in high end couture/designer fashions (authenticity guaranteed) and collectible vintage. Each item at E-Collectique is hand selected by the owner and is of exquisite quality. E-Collectique's labels include Chanel, Hermes, Emilio Pucci, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Missoni ... to name a few. E-Collectique also offers fine estate, runway, and vintage designer costume jewelry. This is one store unlike any other in the Milwaukee area and has the best selection of both premier designer and vintage to be passed down through generations.

I love wandering around in the shop, and I always seem to find something affordable to take home with me. Even if it was a little overwhelming for me at first as a resale shop newbie, the owner, Mikelle, is great and ready to help out if needed. If you’re in the area, I highly encourage you to stop by. If not, you can still check out some of E-Collectique’s fantastic designer items on their eBay store.

Click on the thumbnails below for larger detail shots.

Rules: All you have to do to enter to win this purse is leave a comment on this post (including your email if it's not linked to your profile so that I know how to contact you) and I will select a winner using random.org on Thursday, October 20. That means you have until the end of the day Wednesday, October 19 to enter.

In addition to entering to win this Coach bag, you will also automatically be in the running for the grand prize. The Grand Prize for the Event is a Fendi Mini Beige Red Pochette Bag from Bella Bags. For every giveaway in the Fall Fashionista Event that you enter, you gain one entry toward the Fendi Bag.

Do check out the other participating blogs! There are some amazing prizes out there!


Disclaimer:
Still Blonde after all these YEARS, Fall Fashionista Giveaway Events or the Fall Fashionista Giveaway Event bloggers are not responsible for sponsors that do not fulfill their prizes.

You must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Open to US and Canada only. Read instructions carefully because rules vary from contest to contest. Make sure to provide a correct email address so we can reach you if you win. You have 48 hours to respond once contacted. Still Blonde after all these YEARS, Fall Fashionista Giveaway Events, or the Fall Fashionista Giveaway Event bloggers are not responsible for sponsors that do not fulfill their prizes. Your prize should arrive within 30 days; let us know if it doesn’t, and we will try to help out. Opinions expressed are the blog’s own. This Giveaway is not affiliated with, associated with or promoted by Facebook. Happy Entering!