RELOCATED

As much as I love being a stay-at-home mom, I was getting a bit stir crazy staying home all the time (especially since I did a lot more of that back in the day when Ada was not napping well. I was trying to be super consistent, which meant I never left the house 😩 ). I needed to find ways to get out of the house. I also still had a big stack of pictures to scrapbook -- not only is record-keeping important to me, but I also really enjoy the creative aspect of scrapbooking. Additionally, as evidenced by my 2016 and 2017 lists, I wanted to find a way to spend consistent time with my mom. So I decided to kill three birds with one stone. I asked my mom if we could set up a weekly date for scrapbooking: no calls, no distractions -- just a few hours of time to be together scrapbooking and talking. We've been doing it almost all year, and I've loving it! I love having at least one day a week where I know I'll be leaving the house, I love getting my pictures organized and ...

Well folks, I think I settled on an annual party I'd like to throw -- Pie Night! I first heard of pie night shortly after I entered Russ's family, because one of his aunts does this every year (for her immediate family I think, but that's how I heard about it). In case you're unfamiliar with it, the idea is that on Thanksgiving Day, you get too full from all the other good food, that by the time it's time to eat pie, you can't fully enjoy it. Thus, you have a "pie night" some other time, where you can thoroughly enjoy all the pie. Pie Night is a great party to throw because it's relatively easy and cheap! Decor is already taken care of because  Thanksgiving decor  counts; all I had to do food-wise is make (or buy!) one pie, and then I provided milk, cool whip, and reddiwhip; and my only costs were basically paper products, printing costs (for invitations, printable, and food tent labels), and I really splurged with the three dollar store ...

Apparently, a lot of people don't decorate for Thanksgiving. And honestly, I can see why, because over the years as I've browsed Pinterest for ideas, it's honestly way harder to find decor I like for Thanksgiving than it is to find decor for Halloween or Christmas. There's a lot of fall decor, but I like decor that is more specifically "Thanksgiving." A few years ago, I made a Thanksgiving Turkey art piece that I still love. I also did the gold-tipped feather garland, "so blessed" pumpkin, bunch of wheat, and filled hurricane vase in past years. But this year I really finished up the whole Thanksgiving look with my  pie garland ,  "thanks and giving" printable , and my "thankful" garland. I now feel like my Thanksgiving decor is complete! this quote piece used to just be thanksgiving decor, but now i leave it up year-round.  Can't forget Tomothy the Thankful T(h)urkey! Do you decorate...

I love planning Halloween costumes every year. In fact, as soon as one Halloween ends (maybe even before!), I'm usually already thinking about the next year's costume. (I already know what we're being once we have baby #2 [not pregnant], both if it's a girl and if it's a boy! 😂 ) I was planning this costume before Ada was even born. I thought we would do it last year, but then when my friend gifted me a tiny Sailor Moon costume for Ada, we switched gears and did that instead. Meet, Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the cutest cheshire cat I've ever seen :) I was surprised at how many people asked me if I made my costume! I guess it sounds like something I would do haha. But no, this year was pretty easy costume-wise! I borrowed the Alice dress from an old friend who was Alice in 2016; we got Russ's pants and vest from DI; and we already had the bowtie on hand from something Russ did in high school. I assembled Russ's hat using fabric, ribbon, hot glue...

treats for harry potter and the sorcerer's stone -- jelly beans, chocolate frogs, and licorice wands Russ and I aren't scary movie lovers (we really don't watch them at all), so the only movie we always watch at Halloween time is Hocus Pocus. But in trying to come up with something festive to do in October, I decided we should have a Harry Potter marathon over the whole month. I can't believe I had never thought of it before, but Harry Potter movies are perfect for Halloween! They have witches and wizards, odd creatures, and sometimes even Halloween celebrations. Plus there were 8 weekend nights in October and 8 movies, so it was perfect! (Though we ended up only using 7 of the weekend nights so that we could attend our friends'  murder mystery party ) treats and decor for harry potter and the chamber of secrets Rather than only invite specific people, I decided to open up the invitation to literally everyone. I posted it on my neighborhood Facebook p...