One of my favorite blogs, A Beautiful Mess, has posed a challenge to themselves and their readers, the 4 Simple Goals Challenge to be exact. I absolutely love this idea for a few reasons — goals are important to keep you moving forward, they have the ability to improve your quality of life, and even the smallest changes can have a huge impact.

You can find the ground rules here, but I’ve put in my two cents below.

It is important to choose goals that are attainable with little effort. Do you wish that you started your day with a healthy breakfast everyday? Do you want to read more? Do you want to call home and chat with your parents more often? These are all within reach, choose something simple!

Try not to focus on the end result. For example, eating a healthy breakfast everyday should be about improving your diet on a daily basis, not trying to drop a couple dress sizes.

You’re looking for life enriching goals, feed your soul. What will really make your life better? Talking to mom more often? Going for a walk everyday?

So, here’s the bonus…choose a reward for each goal so you can give yourself a big pat on the back as you reach each one.

Lastly, you’re supposed to blog about it. I know that not everyone has a blog, but I think this is a great exercise, so I say do it, with or without a blog. You could journal about it, comment in my posts, or share it on Facebook. Make it work for you.

I hope that you will join me.

xo

The party was a blast! Here’s the big Halloween roundup. When it was all said and done, we spent about $50 and were able to reuse a lot of old decorations. We found great free printables on Pinterest, pulled some things from our costume bin and, we even made use of our leftover Halloween candy. I regret not taking more pictures, but this will give you a good idea of how it all turned out.

Our friends are so creative and crafty, so their costumes were awesome, but I gotta tell you…my hubby outdid himself this year, as Jack of  Jack in the Box.

I dressed up as a piñata this year, and I loved how easy and inexpensive my costume was…it cost $15 and took about 3 evenings. I got this idea from Pinterest (here’s the pin I used). For night 1, I did nothing but fringe the crepe paper. For night 2, I hemmed my dress (bought at a sample sale for $5) and began adhering the fringe to the dress. I used fabric glue and made sure the my dress was fully extended while applying. I completed the front in about 2 hours. Then for night 3, I finished up by attaching the fringe to the back, and I made my donkey head. The donkey head was a small box with and 2 cone party hats. Again, this was  easy, fun, and comfortable to wear all night.

And so, from our family to yours, I hope you had a great Halloween weekend and made some fun memories.

Happy Monday!

xo

Hi everyone! Happy Friday! It’s been a busy week, but I managed to add a little something to the dia de los muertos altar. I was inspired by this pin, and I’m really loving the punch of color.  I’m hoping that slow and steady wins the Halloween decorating race because I am moving at a glacial pace.

Here’s to hoping!

Have a great weekend!

xo

Halloween is right around the corner and we are pleased to be hosting a party, as this is one of our favorite holidays. It may seem odd that I love Halloween so much because I’m a pansy when it comes to all things scary, BUT there is something about the fall weather, dressing up in costume and the use of dry ice to make a normal punch bowl transform into a witch’s cauldron.  I have always had a love/hate relationship with those pop up Halloween stores because the employees would be dressed up in scary costumes, and the decorations made noises and popped out at you as you passed. Despite my fear (and constant mental reminders that it’s all fake), I loved going to pick out my costume. Once we had the costume, the countdown began. I used to love getting into costume and cruising the neighborhood for candy, and it wasn’t all about the candy but more about being out with friends and my little sister. We would get home with rosy cheeks from the cold and change into pj’s–while still donning at least one costume accessory–and go through our loot. We would carefully choose our favorites for immediate enjoyment, and then mom would put a piece or two into lunches for weeks…that was awesome. There is something magical about Halloween and it has not faded for me, not one bit.

A couple things have changed over time, but I think these changes are for the best. #1, I love to DIY, my decorations and costumes (yay, no more scary Halloween store experiences!). #2, I have traded in trick-or-treating for party hosting, and I absolutely love having a full house and entertaining for friends. This party falls on El Dia de los Muertos, so I am going to put a Day of the Dead spin on everything. Keep that in mind as you peruse my décor ideas.

On Saturday I was able to combine some favorites; a bestie, shopping, aaaand Halloween. To prepare for my party décor shopping, I pulled out my old Halloween decorations to see which ones would return to their former glory. Here’s what we have that fits the bill.

Then I checked out Pinterest for inspiration, check out my board.

I narrowed it down to my favorite ideas and happily hit The Dollar Tree and Party City, with my bestie in tow. I am a firm believer in making the most with what you have, so a large portion of the décor will be DIY based on what I have, or on what we bought for cheap. Here’s what we picked up.

PROGRESS:

• I have reused some skulls and added faux flowers.
• I have added some spider webs to our art wall– fun fact; all of these works of art were painted by my dad.

More photos to come as this Halloween / Day of the Dead Wonderland comes to together.

Happy Monday!

xo