We've been hitting the Halloween celebrations pretty hard this weekend, and it's only leading up to an exciting week ahead.  There are so many fun things to do around the holidays in the city that it's hard to pick which ones to work into our schedule.  Katherine is so into Halloween this year, and I wanted to make sure she got lots of Halloween activities in. 

This year we decided to take Katherine to Boo at the Zoo Nights for the first time.  She absolutely loved looking at all of the Halloween light displays and riding the "spooky" carousel.



The next night, my mom and I took Katherine to Pumpkin Glow on Main Street St. Charles.  Main Street is my favorite place to go for holidays, especially Halloween, because of the historic buildings and brick lined streets.  For Pumpkin Glow, the shops and restaurants stayed open late and lined their storefronts with lit pumpkins.  It was really cool and Katherine loved it (up until her massive meltdown....but you know.....toddlers).








The rest of the weekend was spent watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Monster Musical more times than I care to mention, with a side of Monsters University and Hocus Pocus (or as Katherine says "Hocus Krocus").

We've got lots of fun Halloween things planned for this week, plus it's my birthday week!  If you need me, I'll be busy putting the finishing touches on our family theme Halloween costumes.  And if you're in the St. Louis area, come see me at the Fall Festival Craft Fair at Saeger Middle School on Tuesday from 6-9pm!
 

Ah, October.  My favorite month of the year.  I could go on and on about the things I love about this month, but I won't.  You're welcome.  

I don't have to tell you that October is the Halloween month, and I love all things Halloween.  So this month's list may just be called "What I'm Loving about Halloween."  Fun fact:  I'm listening to Thriller as I write this.  




I'm loving this vintage Halloween decoration I found at the Best of Missouri Market a couple of weeks ago.  It's the perfect addition to my festive Halloween mantel.




We've been doing lots of Halloween activities around our house this month.  One of Katherine's favorites was making monsters.  I found this craft kit at Hobby Lobby and it was the perfect indoor activity when the temperatures dropped a couple of weeks ago.




Speaking of crafting, I got pretty ambitious for this year's Halloween costume(s).  I posted a teaser photo on Instagram a week ago and I've been busy working ever since.  I'll be lucky if I get it done in time for Halloween.  Stay tuned.....





Due to unforeseen circumstances, we weren't able to go to my annual family reunion last month, so I was glad my mom had a fall break from school that allowed us to go visit my grandmothers in Arkansas last week.  It's always a fun time for Katherine and she was able to fit some coloring and tree climbing in while we were there.  I remember watching my older cousins climb this same tree in my grandmother's back yard when I was about Katherine's age.

We've got some cool things planned for the rest of October, including a spooky visit to the zoo and a pumpkin glow.  I can't wait!

October is also when the Delta Children's Home Auction takes place in my hometown of Kennett, Missouri.  This year's auction will be on October 25, and if you're in the area you'll be able to bid on these three scarves from my Etsy shop.  

Happy October!

I mentioned in a previous post that I had tried a new resale website thredUp, which is an online resale/consignment shop.  My buying experience was great, so I decided to sell some of my own things on thredUP.  (I considered just updating my last post with my selling experience, but decided to just create a whole new post instead.)

I really didn't have any expectations because most of the prices on thredUP are pretty reasonable so I wasn't expecting to make a lot of money.  Plus, I've worked resale long enough to know better than to expect $100's in profit from resale.  They are used clothes after all.

I requested my clean out bag and it arrived about a week later.  It arrived with instructions and a prepaid return label on the bag, which I filled with items, sealed up, and set out for my mailman to pick up.  Easy as that.  It was so much better than hauling items to a store "neatly" on hangers.


I opted out of the "Return Assurance," because honestly I had already had a yard sale and wasn't interested in getting anything back.  Out of sight, out of mind.  But, just know that there is that option for a small fee.  

I will say, if you're in a hurry to receive your payout, you may want to skip this process.  They were apparently experiencing an extremely high volume of clean out bags, so my original payout date of October 13 was eventually pushed back to October 18, even though they received my bag on September 23.

In the end, they accepted a lot of my items and the payout is about what I had expected, around $2 per item.  So, all in all it was an easy process.  It just took a while to get the payout and it wasn't a huge amount of money, but I wasn't expecting a lot anyway.  I'll probably sell to them again when I get ready to clean out closets again.

If you would like to try thredUP to buy or sell, go here.

I mentioned here, that I had fallen into a fashion rut recently and had decided to try new tactics to dress a little more fashionable and less like a frumpy stay-at-home mom (a sentence I never thought I'd say).  While I love thredUp, sometimes I just don't know that to pick out for myself to wear anymore.  I feel caught in a weird style phase, because some days I may not leave the house and on the days when I do leave the house I want to be wearing something comfortable that I can wrangle a toddler in .

Anyway.

After reading about other bloggers' experiences with Stitch Fix, I decided to give it a try.  If you had pitched this idea to me about four or five years ago I would have said it was a waste of money, but circumstances and lifestyles change.  Back then I had plenty of time to study trends and then go shopping for what I wanted.  I also spent lots of time keeping up with fashion trends, as I worked in retail (which also allowed me to shop constantly while on the clock).  Now, the idea of someone else picking out my clothes and sending them to me is brilliant.  So, I headed over to Stitch Fix, filled out a personal style quiz and scheduled my "fix."

The style quiz was actually fun, and a little eye opening if you want to know the truth.  My, how my style has changed.  Where shopping for clothes used to be fun and relaxing, it's now a daunting task that I actually avoid.  I told my stylist what I was looking for and for a $20 styling fee, she will find it for me and send it to me.  I pick what I want to keep (with my $20 going towards my purchase) and send back what I don't want.

My "fix" date was October 1, but my actual package didn't arrive until October 5.  My stylist sent me five clothing items personally selected for me with corresponding styling cards.


Let me start off by saying my stylist totally got me.  Like, really got me.  So much so, that I already owned a similar replica to each item she sent me.  

{Loveappella sweatshirt, Just Black distressed skinny jean}

{En Creme potter button back sweater}

This sweater was my favorite, and I almost kept it.  Almost.

{Skies are Blue cardigan}

{Papermoon dress}

The prices of my clothing items were a little (actually a lot) more than I would normally pay for clothes, so it didn't make sense to pay top dollar for items that I basically already owned.  So, I sent everything back.  I was out the $20 styling fee, but it was nice knowing my style was professionally validated.

I'll probably try Stitch Fix again, this time more prepared for the sticker shock.

If you'd like to schedule a fix of your own, click here.

Jason had the day off earlier this week, so we headed out to pick up some pumpkins at our favorite farmer's market/pumpkin patch.  Katherine had only been talking about getting "punkins" for weeks (thanks Hobby Lobby for the early Halloween displays), so she was very excited to finally get to go to the pumpkin patch.








Picking out our pumpkins was only half the fun.  The hay-filled playground and kid activities made her morning.  This kid is so excited about Halloween.  I can't say I blame her.

It's been one of those weeks around here, where I feel like I have to constantly hit the life reset button.  I have to stop, take a breath, and try again.  Not to mention the weather has been a little crazy this week, starting out hot and ending pretty darn cold.  I could literally see the evolution of weather change when I did the laundry earlier today.  Shorts and sweatshirts.   I scored this brand new Radio Flyer tricycle at Goodwill that was the perfect size for Katherine's short legs.  In the earlier and warmer part of the week, we enjoyed lots of outside tricycle time.
Mid-week, we put our jackets on to help Daddy rake up some leaves.  Katherine was a fantastic helper.
By Friday, it was too chilly to play outside, so we dug out all of our Halloween books.  Tis the season after all.

Happy first day of Fall!  We're entering my absolute favorite time of the year and I couldn't be more excited.  Speaking of the start of fall, it's actually one of my favorite things about September.






Topping this month's list is, of course, the start of fall.  If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this photo last week.  I love fall weather (aka boot weather).






I couldn't mention the return of fall weather without giving a shout-out to the return of everything pumpkin.  I do love that very first pumpkin latte of the season, although I usually hold off until the start of October.  I did buy some pumpkin butter at Trader Joe's the other day, just to kick off the pumpkin season.






September is also the month of my family's annual reunion.  This photo is from last year's gathering and I can't believe how much Katherine has grown.  It's always a fun time and it's one of the only times in the year when Katherine gets to see many of her Arkansas family members.





Last Tuesday, I went to get my hair cut and before I left the salon to come home, I sent Jason this photo.
Every time I go to get my hair cut I always get "just a trim," but this time I wanted a change.  With all of the changes going on around our house, I decided to be brave and go for it at the salon.  I cut off between 5-6 inches and I couldn't be happier with the new cut.





Since I have a new haircut, I went all out and bought a texture spray I had been eyeing.  I was using a drugstore brand of texture spray, just to try out the concept.  While the drugstore brand did the job, this Amika UnDone spray is so much lighter and smells great.  Adding some texture spray to my styled hair gives it so much body and helps the style last longer.

I'm so excited about fall and our Halloween costumes are already in the works.  Yes, costumes.  We are dressing up as a family again.   Details soon....

The original title of this post was going to be "Weekend Update," a super cute pun off of SNL's weekend update, but regretfully two whole weekends past without so much as a single sentence typed.  Oh well.  It's still Monday, right?

So, first thing's first.  We are moving.  (Insert long exhausted sigh here.)  Jason put in for a transfer at work a while back and it became official this month.  We got the call saying it was a done deal when we were literally on the road to Florida last month.  Jason's worked the same area at work for the past eleven and a half years and he decided it was time for a change.  He had actually been talking about transferring for years, but I was the one holding back.  I didn't like the idea of moving away from the city, and I liked working where I was working (when I worked), and I didn't want Jason's co-workers to think we were abandoning them, and ....yada yada yada.  But recently, I had to admit that leaving St. Louis county behind was what was best for our family.  So, we're putting our house on the market and heading out west.  This is going to be a painful process for me, as I dislike change and I hate moving.  Like, really hate it.  But, in the long run this is what is best for us and I'm looking forward to making new memories in a new house and in a new town.

As you can imagine, as soon as we got back from Florida I entered "clean out the house" mode.  I finally finished cleaning out the basement (and all closets and cabinets on the main level) and organized a yard sale, which we had last weekend.  I had high hopes that my revenue from the yard sale would help pay for professional movers, but alas, it went towards paying for a new water regulator and a plumber to install it.

In Katherine news, her little personality is shining through more and more each day.  She's so creative and imaginative.  She's also very good with words, and can tell when she doesn't have my full attention.  But in my defense, she'll say the same sentence over and over and over and get annoyed with me when I don't react with much enthusiasm on the fifth time she says the sentence.

She also doesn't like it when the TV show lineup on Disney Junior doesn't coincide with her personal preferences.  This happened when she found out Doc McStuffins was coming on next, instead of Little Einsteins:
She lives in a constant state of tragedy.  She was apparently planning a luau that served coffee while watching Little Einsteins, but instead her life was ruined.

Moving on.

I can't believe it's the middle of September already.  The pumpkin flavored goodies have burst onto the scene, and while I do love a good pumpkin flavored drink or pastry every now and then, it needs to actually be chilly outside before I can indulge.  Pumpkin lattes in the 80 degree weather just doesn't do it for me.

Now for a blog contradiction:  the Halloween scarves are now available in my Etsy shop!  While I may not have a pumpkin spiced frappe-latte-mocha yet, I will shop for Halloween accessories.

I'm getting ready for my first official craft show next month, so I've been busy working on extra products to have for the show, in addition to keeping the shop stocked.

Thanks for letting me ramble a little today, and have a great week!  

It's a fair assumption that I have fallen into a fashion slump since becoming a stay-at-home mother.  I would even go as far as to say that I'm a self-described frumpy mom some days.

I swore this would never happen to me, but here I sit wearing the mom uniform: sweatpants and t-shirt.

I was a fashion (double) major in college and worked retail for years following graduation, so I lived and breathed fashion for years and years.  I used to study fashion magazines and I could tell you what the trend would be for the upcoming season (or beyond).  Somewhere along the way, I've fallen into a rut of wearing whatever is most comfortable.  I don't have time to read fashion magazines anymore, and I can't remember the last time I went shopping.

Which brings me to the point of this post finally, getting out of the fashion rut that I seem to have fallen into.

I love resale shopping, and while St. Louis has a plethora of resales shops, I never find the time to go to them.  Plus, lately Katherine is a nightmare to try to shop with.  So you can imagine my excitement when I came across thredUP.  I'd read other bloggers' posts about thredUP and decided to give it a try.  It's basically an online consignment store (resale shopping from the comfort of my own home? yes please).

ThredUP carries womens (and maternity!) and childrens clothing at decent resale prices.  I got 15% off of my first order so I loaded up my virtual cart with all kinds of new-to-me items.  I even read up on current trends for fall (I know right?!).  In the end, I opted out of being extra trendy and stayed in my comfort zone.  But, at least I have some "new" things in my closet.

My order arrived promptly and in super cute packaging.  It's hard to believe the package came from a "resale" store and not a fancy online boutique.  My items were in great condition and exactly as they were described online.  With fall coming up, I'll probably shop for Katherine some cute new fall/winter clothes next.




You can also send them your items to sell, which I haven't done yet because I'm planning a yard sale and thought I'd just try to sell some things on my own first.  Plus based on the low prices of the items listed on thredUP, I doubt I'd get that much money (if any) for my items anyway.

While I still may dress a little more casual than I did before, I'm making progress in not dressing like a bum every single day.  My wardrobe may change now that I can resale shop from home.

Get $10 off of YOUR first and second orders from thredUP by clicking here: http://www.thredup.com/r/2R3EPR



UPDATE:  I had every intention of taking photos of me actually wearing the outfits from thredUP, but, like they say ain't nobody got time for that.  I did finally take some selfies of my new thredUP pieces.  Please excuse the dirty playroom mirror.

{J.Crew tank, Band of Gypsies floral top}

{Forever 21 tunic}

{J.Crew zip-up hoodie}

{GapFit capri pants}

{Loft dress}