DIY Halloween Roundup!

Even though we’ve had a bit of an Indian summer the last few days here in Boston, I can’t help thinking ahead to my first post-college Halloween.  I’m eagerly looking forward to crunchy leaves, more pumpkin lattes, searching for a fun costume, and hopefully a trip or two to Salem!

To get into the spirit of all things Halloween-y, here are some of my favorite DIY projects that I’ve come across lately. If you have a project to add, link up in the comments!

For spooky glassware, How About Orange has a great tutorial on using packing tape to make image transfers!

Keeping with the spooky theme, check out these Eat At Your Own Risk toppers via Etsy:

All Things Thrifty has a Woman’s Day Mag-inspired Candy Corn Wreath:

If the idea of gluing all those candy corns is too much for you (or for more wreathy inspiration), there’s a similar version on Etsy:

My Paper Crane has a tutorial and template for adorable felt ghost cozies, which you could also string up into a garland or hang from doorknobs too!

Calamity Anne has a fun tutorial on redoing an old clock to give it a Halloween feel… trip to Goodwill or Ikea for clocks, anyone?

My friend Daniela from Berkeley has a great shop, The Art Life, where she’s selling a kit to make your own mini-chipboard Halloween album, complete with embellishments and papers… and it’s on sale! Also, check out the rest of her shop– great stuff!

If you love pumpkins but not the mess of carving them, Calamity Anne also has a tutorial on painting decorative pumpkins:

At The Crafty Cupboard, Melanie has an easy-to-follow tutorial for this wonderful & inexpensive spiderweb table runner:

Yet another project from Brooke at All Things Thrifty: an easy and temporary way to “trick” out your existing decor! (Yes, I love her stuff!)

Last but certainly not least, Boston-based Papercrave has a tutorial and printables for a lovely paper garland. For fun variations on this, you can alternate the cutouts with candy corn, add some glitter, sub printed halloween paper, or string it on colored ribbon!

Fall is in the air!

I’m officially experiencing my first New England fall… and holy WTF, it’s COLD in September? What is this madness? At home, it’s still pushing 100. I’ve been wearing sweaters and boots here the last few days. Boston really is a whole other world!

The onset of fall, though, has really kicked my bootay into gear with looking for winter clothes and boots and other warm/snugglies. That’s where you come in, lovelies! I refuse to believe that warm=fugly, so I’m looking for kickass and fashionable– yet FUNCTIONAL– winter suggestions! My list (so far) includes:

• tights
• knitted hats
• long down jacket
• shorter wool jacket (no short puffers on this bod, holy marshmallow!)
• BOOTS! (black, preferably, but if they’re cheap i’ll get a cognac pair too)
• warm knee socks
• gloves
• scarves
• warm shirts

Who wants to help? Suggestions, people! I need suggestions!

And to show you stuff I like, I made a pretty Polyvore collage…

winter clothes 1 by Lindsay Goldner featuring cotton jeans

Old Navy Womens Cocoon Cardigans
$37 – oldnavy.gap.com
Wrap tops »

Womens Soul Cal Boyfriend Stripe Cardigan
20 GBP – republic.co.uk
Stripe cardigan »

H81 Floral Thermal Top
$9.90 – forever21.com
Thermal tops »

The North Face ‘Transit’ Down Fill Jacket (Big Girls)
$179 – nordstrom.com
The north face jackets »

Babylon Coat
$130 – modcloth.com
Vintage coat »

A Fresh Coat in Hot Pink
$93 – modcloth.com
Vintage coat »

Forever21.com – Fabulous Finds – 2000004203
$15 – forever21.com
Forever21 jeans »

Jean coupe mince
$12 – canada.forever21.com
Cotton jeans »

Diba Kita Rita Boot – Black/Galaxy
$70 – heels.com
Diba boots »

Steve Madden Women’s Tyller Flat Boot – Free Overnight Shipping on New…
$76 – endless.com
Flat heel boots »

Forever21.com – Accessories – Hats & Hair
$4.50 – forever21.com
Forever21 clutches »

Stella McCartney Striped cashmere and silk-blend scarf
$675 – net-a-porter.com
Striped scarves »

Forever21.com – Fabulous Finds – 2080440927
$5.50 – forever21.com

H&M Shop Online
hm.com
H&m tops »

snow forest
home.comcast.net

Thankful Thursday

Today has been quite the bizarre day. First, I missed the bus (again) and had to take a taxi to work (again).  Then, craziness from evilplagarismbitch occurred, making the twitter world all abuzz with dramz.  In case you missed it, she’s this “blogger” who basically copied ALL of her content– including her BIO!– from other bloggers, like The Bloggess, Mommy Wants Vodka, and other badass ladies/awesome writers. Of course, once it got out that one of her posts was totally jacked, everyone started discovering strangely familiar content that she’d yanked from other people’s blogs. Wtf? Everyone’s reactions made me start thinking about being thankful though, that these some of the bloggers standing up for the plagiarized ones are my friends too… you can’t put a price on loyalty like that.

Amidst all the insanity blowing up my twitter feed, and, y’know, WORK, I got a text from my dad saying “hannah checking into hospital. don’t call, will text later.” Uh dad? I’m calling your ass. Like now.

My darling dad doesn’t quite get that when you tell me something like that, I get panicky. Immediately. As in, as the phone is ringing, I’m already having a panic attack. Mind you, I’m still AT THE OFFICE. He tells me they’re in the waiting room and that he can’t talk or something like that.

HELLO FULL-BLOWN PANIC ATTACK.

So I go back to my desk and start looking at flights to LA. Found cheap ones and text my dad saying “I found flights, want to come out and at least cook meals or shit” (cuz really, that’s all I’m good for). Finally my mom calls me back to talk me down, saying that H is ok, but that the pulmonary specialist they saw (because her ER visit 2 nights prior had come with a pneumonia diagnosis) thinks it’s this thing called Valley Fever, which would explain her funktastic lung scans and the super painful hives, and that the doc recommended the hospital to get all the tests done in one place and done quickly.  Luckily, I was only 30 minutes from the end of the work day (and a 45 min commute home)… and a job pseudo-interview… but THEN I got to get back to my full-fledged panic attack again. Crying, shaking, no breathing, the works. God bless ativan, eh?

Guys, this is my baby (well, not so baby anymore) sister we’re talking about here. She doesn’t get to go to the emergency room. That’s my job, and I stand by that job proudly, tyvm.  Seriously though, it kills me to hear that she’s doing blood test #5 and that she’s hurting.

This has just made me realize again how.freaking.thankful I am for my family. H & I fought 24/7 for pretty much the entire 16 years she was alive before I moved out. But damnit, I still love her. We’re polar opposites, amazingly so for two girls so close in age, brought up in the same household, the same city… but she’s MY SISTER. It kills me to think of her going through this shit, but I’m really thankful that my parents are there for her, and that my Aunt Julie (who is so incredible) has offered to fly down to help or do what she can to help my sis get into her new apartment at school next week.  It looks like this will get cleared up quickly, and hopefully H will be back to her normal silly self in no time. It’s killer not being there, but I guess it was just one of those moments in life where you have to look at what you have and realize that you are really fucking lucky. Love you, kiddo ❤ Nini

I love her, really!

BlogHer Babes to Follow!

Well, BlogHer has officially come and gone. To be honest, it was nothing I thought it would be and everything I never expected (how’s that for confusing?) What I mean by that is: I thought I’d spend all day in sessions, and just talk to people at mealtimes and at parties. With the discovery that the sessions were being liveblogged and podcast, though, I gave myself the license to actually go out and meet everyone I’d been talking to (ok, stalking) on Twitter/the blogosphere for weeks, months, and in some cases, years. This post is dedicated to the amazing ladies that I came to know and love in two short days!

First, I want to say that meeting miss Morgan of The818 was by far the best part of my trip. Serendipitously, we discovered that we’d not only grown up in the same area (about 20 minutes away from each other), but that we went to the exact same temple. In a conference of 2500 women, across the country from our home state… so crazy. Here’s the culmination of our brand new lady love on Saturday night-

@the818 and @linzlovesyou post-Sparklecorn, pre-Cheeseburgher