Pop & Locktober Fest 2014

I can't take credit for that title. That is actually the name of one of Community's Halloween episodes....

Anywho, I thought I would take this opportunity to recap all of my Halloween blog posts as well as give you guys an #COTN (costume of the night) run down of my costume this year!

You can find all of this month's Halloween posts....

Here
Here
Here

This year, The Mister and I had the pleasure of going to my trainer's house for a Halloween party...it was tons of fun and it was exciting attending our very first (adult) Halloween party since Cy was born.

#CoordinateWithYourDate

#COTN 

I'm a cat, duh.

Every article of clothing in this costume (except for the lace ears) I already had in my closet which I suppose says something about my wardrobe....The lace shirt and shoes came from Cohoes....The stockings came from Amazon....the skirt and rings came from Forever 21....and the ears came from Charlotte Russe...I like to call this look, a high fashion black cat!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Halloween Musings

Food and Wine Experiment - 

As y'all know, the C household has been experimenting the past few Sundays with dishes from last year's Epcot Food and Wine Festival. This past Sunday the experiment was a potato and leek waffle with braised beef which hails from the Belgium booth. Now, as with any sort of food experiment, I always seem to get only a few things right. We don't have a waffle maker so instead I made pancakes (womp womp). They were....OK...the best part about this dish was the beef. We made ours in the crock pot as opposed to a Dutch Oven which the recipe calls for. My pictures of the actual food are not that great but I can assure you that it tasted better than it looked. What can I say, I am simply not a food blogger!

At least my table setting looked chic! The place mats and napkins were a gift from my SIL a few years back, the plates are Crate and Barrel and the goblets are from the Target dollar bin!

Very good, but not very photogenic!

Spooky Chic -

I promised pictures of the house lit up in all of it's Halloween glory...here they are! -

Tealights fa' days!

High Fashion Black Cat - 

This year for Halloween The Mister and I are attending our first adult Halloween party since Cy was born. I decided on being a high fashion black cat as I bought black cat tights a while back (knowing I would need them eventually) that I wanted to bust out of the wardrobe. Here's a sneaky peak! -

#BlackCatsAreMagical

Throw Back Thursday {Costumes Of Halloween's Past}

My thoughts about Halloween have always matched up with the Mean Girls explanation -

Not that one....

This one!

So for those of you offended by a little provocative-ness...please head to another blog today because I'm about to give you a rundown of all of my past Halloween costumes (pre children).

I included this picture in my Halloween blog the other day. This was The Mister's and my first Halloween together. At the time, I worked at a Halloween store (duh) and got those costumes at an amazing discount. His Hef robe is part of the first line of Halloween costumes Playboy put out...it came with the pipe and everything! 

Next came my Amy Winehouse (pre death) costume...This was a fun one because it was the year I celebrated my 21st birthday and it was pre braces so I had the gap in my teeth to pull off the Amy Winehouse look - 

'Scuse the language!

I picked this costume pretty much a whole year before that Halloween and made sure to grow out my hair long enough to create the beehive with all of my own hair. #MissionAccomplished!

And then there was my devil costume...probably the skimpiest one I have ever worn. No regrets though. Had I known before I had a baby, the work it would take to get back to my pre baby body, I would have basically walked around naked. #SorryNotSorry

The Mister repeated the Hef costume as it matched what I was wearing. I think we make a pretty hawt Halloween couple! :)

And since we are throwing it back Halloween style today, I figured I would include some Halloween #tbt pictures of my littles...one fur baby and one human baby - 

Minnie Mouse (the cat) dressed as a pumpkin. #IdentityCrisis

And Cy's very first Halloween! #LittlePumpkin

Halloween 2014

I have finally finished decorating the house for Halloween this year. It usually takes me all of September (and a bit of October) to get in all of my finishing touches. So, without further ado, here's all the 2014 haunts -

First I will start with the entertainment center that is always themed out with the corresponding holiday -

The entertainment center is the thing that took me the longest to finish decorating. My initial vision was 4 pumpkins flanking the snow globe but specifically "Cinderella pumpkins" (duh). Alas, the farm that The Mister, Cy and I frequent every year that carries the Cinderella pumpkins didn't have ANY gourdes at all this year! So I had to revamp my vision...I ended up getting a deal (4 for $16) on pumpkins at Shaws and just ended up spray painting them white for the effect I wanted. The snow globe was purchased at Home Goods a few years back and is one of my prized Halloween possessions.

Next, we have the bahh - 

All of these decorations have been collected over the years at places like the Dollar Store, Christmas Tree Shops, Michaels & AC Moore. I also love to include "live" things in my displays so the 10 for $10 mini white pumpkins at Stop and Shop came in handy for all of my vignettes. 

Which brings me to my floor to ceiling shelves...

Again, all of this stuff have been collected over the years. The black cat print was purchased at an art shop in Salem, MA (#SoHalloween) and the other prints were found on Pinterest. 

Even the fauxs got into the Halloween spirit!

The Mister's and my first Halloween together gets a little tribute every year....

#BonesNBows

Can't forget the kitchen! - 

Every time I change the flowers in the Crystal Head Vodka skull, I change the sign as well. I have tons of signs that I've collected over the years (Holla for the dolla store!) that match any color scheme imaginable!

#Magical

I will be lighting up the house later tonight/tomorrow and I will be sure to get pictures in all of it's Halloween glory!

Happy October Y'all!!

Fall Organization/Decidedly Delightful Headquarters

Every year as the end of August approaches I always get this urge to start redecorating/rearranging/cleaning for the upcoming holiday season. Here at the C household, we celebrate (and are decorated for) holidays from Labor Day(when the Halloween decor comes up) to New Years Day. Which of course means that every year, before and after said holiday season, I like to overhaul our tiny, yet cozy digs.

What's even better about this year is that we are selling a lot of stuff. I am figuring out eBay more everyday and will be getting a lot of our decor (related) things out of here for a fresh start. Since we don't have a ton of storage here (and due to my lack of emotional attachment to things) I like to have a high turnover rate of "things" around the house...this includes everything from clothes to toys & decor. So stay tuned for that!

In the mean time, this place has been on an organizational overhaul. I was starting to find corners of my house looking like this....

My (very black and white) brain could not handle such a colorful mess any longer. And since we just had Cy's birthday party it was the perfect time to go through toys/clothes and see what we were keeping and what was headed towards storage/Salvation Army.

Without further ado, this is what our floor to ceiling shelves looked like before - 

And after my organizational overhaul, this is what they look like now - 

I wanted to clear a few shelves for the upcoming decorations bomb that is going to hit this apartment. I also created more storage for toys (as those cardboard boxes pictured in the first picture were toast a few months after the picture was taken). We are trying to teach Cy to put away one activity before starting the next and I think the separate bins will help with that.

During my organizational overhaul, I decided I wanted to (yet again) redo my craft room and really turn it into a blogging/eBay headquarters. Also, I know I am going to need the space for the holidays and I was feeling rather uninspired in my work space so I knew a change was in order. This is what the Decidedly Delightful headquarters looked like before -

And here is what is looks like now --

#DecorDepot

#GlitterPumpkinLife

I think it is so much more open now and really offers a space that I can work in. I was also determined to devote a shelf to housing all of my decor that I am keeping but isn't in rotation at the moment. I added a small section for beauty prep too. In a tiny apartment I have to be smart with my space and if that means devoting a small corner and storage to getting ready in my craft room/blogging headquarters, then so be it. After all, a girl needs her space in a house full of boys.

Deets - Floor to ceiling shelves - Ikea | Clear bins - Ikea (Samla) | White Shelves - Home Depot | Desk & Chair - Ikea | Pumpkins - Dollar Tree