October PopSugar

I received by October PopSugar box this week. It came as a total surprise; they didn't send me a shipping email and I had read on a few different beauty sites that they were having problems shipping out the October boxes. I looked at a spoiler so I knew exactly what I was going to be receiving. I need to stop doing that! I'm spoiled; I had received my first box (September) not too long ago-I'll have to wait a whole month before I get my next box ;-).

Here's what I received in my box and the suggested retail value of each item:

*Happy Socks Animal Socks ($12)-I'm not much of a sock person. Occasionally at school we will do crazy sock day as part of our Spirit Days so I'll wear these next time we have that. Other than that I don't know when I'll wear these!

*Mine Design Chalkboard Candle ($24)-This is one of my favorite items in the box! I love candles. It smells so nice and I love the fact that you can write on the candle holder with chalk. I'm contemplating keeping this at home or putting it in my classroom (with the chalk hidden from my students haha).

*butter LONDON WINK Eye Pencil in Earl Grey ($18)-This is a pretty color and great for making a smokey eye. I think it's too light to wear as my normal eyeliner so I'll probably use this as a waterline color or on top of a colored eyeliner. It glides on nice and smooth.

*Isaac Jacobs International Acrylic Frame ($36)-Really? $36 for this frame? Please. But I do need a frame for work so this is good timing with this item.

*Nailed Kit Halloween Decals ($8)-Bummer, I just put on some Halloween Jamberrys! But I plan on using these on my toe nails. They are cute but there aren't very many if you make a mistake or want to put them on all of your nails.

*Dean & Deluca Pumpkin Spice Malt Balls ($5.75)-These were actually pretty tasty! I'm not usually a fan of malt balls, but the malt is surrounded by dark chocolate and then topped with a pumpkin spice coating. It was a nice little treat. If you are interested in trying them out, the box came with a 15% off total purchase-use code DEANPOP when you check out.

Special extras: 
 *K. Hall Designs Shoreline Shea Butter/Olive Oil Bar Soap-This soap didn't indicate if it was for the hands or body so I decided to put it in the shower and use it as a body soap since we have a TON of fall scented hand soaps. I was nervous to see if it would totally dry out my sensitive skin, but it didn't! Both my husband and I used it and it does leave the skin moisturized. It doesn't have much of a scent to it which is nice. Great special extra.

*The Blue Jean Bar-$40 coupon to use. I won't be using it, so first person to comment can have my coupon code!

*Marchesa Voyage for Shopstyle-25% off coupon. Another coupon I won't be using; first person to comment can have my coupon code!


Overall, this month didn't impress me as much as last month did. I don't think it was a total bust; there's a few things I will definitely be able to use. I paid $35 for the box and I feel like I "broke even" with this month. I can't wait to see what the holiday boxes will be! Want to try out PopSugar? Be sure to use my referral code, and don't forget to find coupons out there to make your boxes even cheaper!

Fall is FINALLY here!

It's currently 57 degrees here in DFW with highs in the 70's and low 80's for the next week, so it's safe to say that fall is officially here. About time! I celebrated by having a Halloween shopping spree at Michael's yesterday-all of their Halloween items are currently 50-60% off! I'm planning on stopping by one more time this week. Here is my mantle all decked out for my favorite holiday:

I'll post a few more pictures throughout the week of some of my other Halloween decorations. 

It's a 4 day weekend for the kids and a 3 day weekend for teachers. Tomorrow we are headed to the State Fair with my dad and we are taking Julian-please pray that my 2 year old behaves! This could either go really really good, or really really bad.

Last weekend we went to Austin City Limits. It was both tons of fun and a total disaster. That being said, we are definitely going again next year! Friday night we saw Foster the People and Outkast. Saturday I got to meet Interpol. Sunday I got to see and meet Phantogram, see Fitz & The Tantrums, and see Pearl Jam. Fitz was my favorite performance; Pearl Jam was my least. Pearl Jam is one of Justin's favorite bands but it's just not my style of music.

Me getting to meet Interpol. Really sweet guys-I was a HUGE fan of theirs while I was in college! I was all blushy and fan girlie while I was talking to them. 

A few of my favorite pictures from ACL. 

Austin is one of my favorite places ever. I wish wish wish that we lived there! It totally fits my hipster/eclectic personality. A dream that Justin and I have is to buy a house in Austin or a surrounding area. Hopefully one day it happens! 

Justin and I went to ACL for the first time in 2010 when we had just started dating. It was nice to relive and revisit some of those memories <3. I'm looking forward to taking my kids to ACL and introducing them to something that is really important to me-live music! 

October Fall Finds

I am desperate for the weather to start feeling more like fall! It's supposed to be in the low 90's all this week in Dallas but that didn't stop me from buying a few fall goodies at the outlet stores in Round Rock today on our way back from ACL. Here are my purchases at Bath and Body Works as well as Ann Taylor Loft.

I'm in LOVE with the Autumn Sky candle I bought at Bath and Body Works! It's got a great spicy smell to it. There is some ingredient in it that is also in Justin's body wash-yum! And the Halloween wallflower and bulb is just too cute. I'm loving the Purrfect Potion bottle as well. I've already decked out our guest bathroom with the items in the right picture! 

I can't WAIT to try out these outfits; however, I need the temps to drop! Two out of the the three tops have sparkles on them; would you expect anything less from me ;-)?

One month in...

Wow-we are already one month into the school year! I'm probably jinxing myself by saying this but it's been the best start yet. My advanced class is doing GREAT in their rehearsals for their fall show. We are doing a double header- The Summer People and 10 Ways To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse. We had such a wonderful theatre moment together yesterday-my students finally saw my vision for Summer People and they became totally invested and passionate about it. Makes me so proud!

Justin's parents have the kids for the weekend again. Have I mentioned before how grateful I am for them?! I feel a little guilty that I enjoy this "no kids" time so much, but I know we both deserve it. His parents love our children to death and it's so wonderful for them to get to spend the time together. I also appreciate getting to spend quality time with Justin. We dated for exactly one year before we got married (we started dating August 21 and got married August 20 of the following year) and then got pregnant with Julian right after that so we haven't had that much "just us" time for a while.

Truthfully, I'm glad for the weekend off. The fall is so busy with all the social and school obligations. But...the house seems a little too quiet right now! I guess that means it's time for a nap!

September Fall Finds

I've been having some fun this week buying fall fashion accessories and coming up with new ideas for my nails. Here is the result of my recent trip to Charming Charlie's and Target:

I just LOVE this infinity scarf from Target! It's a tan color but with pops of hot pink in the stitching. I'm also loving the purple/pink/grey necklace from Charming Charlie's. It can go with so many different colored tops! And the best part about my shopping trip? The price!

Here's a couple of different nail ideas I saw on Birchbox last week. I'm going to use the nail polish I received in this month's Ipsy bag.

My Favorite Halloween Pins!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Time to start decorating for HALLOWEEN!!! I've been pinning like crazy and I wanted to share some of my favorite pins. Some I've done before; some are new ideas for this year.

*Grandin Road-grandinroad.com is your place to go for awesome Halloween decorations! Now that we have a house I can go crazy with the decorations (sorry, not sorry Justin!). I'll be purchasing some headstones from them to put in our front yard. I love the look of the Victorian graveyard!

Here's a couple more decorating ideas for outside/inside that I'm going to do. Hope I don't traumatize my kids too much!

What I'm going to do with the kids this year:

I REALLY want to do this one but I know the kids would keep pulling the sheets off of everything. I will save this idea for when they are older or if we host a big party:

*Here is my Halloween costume this year. In May I purchased this Betsey Johnson "Fit and Flare" dress that I just love love love. This is what I plan on adding for accessories to wear it as a costume:

What I plan on doing with my nails:

*I'm planning on hosting a little get together on Halloween since it's on a Friday night. Here are a few of my decoration ideas.

How easy (and cute) is this?

A playlist for the evening: 

A couple of food ideas for the evening:

These are just a few of the many, many Halloween ideas I have. Check out the rest of my Halloween board here. Click here to follow me on Pinterest. 

Simply September

I woke up yesterday morning and turned to Justin and said, "It's time to start decorating for Halloween!!!" I've been so excited to try out some decorating ideas I saw on Pinterest (I will share those on my next blog post).

Then, I started feeling a little anxious. Once Halloween hits, then we have Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the obligations that come with the months of November and December. Poor September. It's a month that we take for granted. It's after August with all the end of summer, back to school festivities, and before all the holiday months. I thought to myself, what is there to get excited about for September? It's not quite fall but not summer anymore. I decided that I need to jazz up my September but don't want to commit to any major projects or spend a bunch of money. Here are some simple ideas I came up with to make my September a little more special. 

*Start each morning with a fun "goal" or positive thought. 

I like to believe in the power of positive thinking, and I tell my students about making your dreams a reality all the time. Each morning think about one thing that you are grateful for or one fun thing you would like to incorporate into your day. Why should November have all the fun when it comes to being grateful? I'm going to make it a commitment every morning to think about what I'm grateful for. Today it's Grandparents Day and I thought to myself, how incredibly grateful I am to my wonderful grandparents. They are like parents to me. I also said a little prayer for my Grandmother Nancy up in Heaven. Already my day has been off to a great start! I also like the idea of themed goals. Maybe one morning the theme could be "feel like a rock star" and wear all black with some funky eye makeup. Maybe one morning it's "Feel like a goddess" and you could wear a pretty outfit to work. Or quite simply, "Survive the day" and wear some comfy clothes. I think it makes your mornings a little more exciting :). 

*For exercise, take a walk. 

This is the time of year to start a workout routine before you are bombarded with social commitments and lots of holiday food. Don't have time or money to go to the gym? Go take a walk! The weather is starting to cool off  and you can connect with your neighborhood. Have kids? Take them with you! Some of my favorite memories have involved taking Julian on a walk with him riding in his red wagon. It's such a great way to bond with your family and burn some calories at the same time.  

*Pick one part of your beauty routine that you'd like to change or spend some TLC on.

I've decided it's time to change my hair routine. Last weekend Birchbox had a great Labor Day weekend coupon. I took advantage of it and purchased the following products all for $45 (included was free shipping and the two products in the front row. I also used $10 worth of credit I had earned for reviewing boxes). I'm going to start shampooing my hair less and using dry shampoo more. 

The reason for this? In Women's Health I read ways that celebrities keep their hair looking so gorgeous, and here are the two ideas I'm going to try out this month: 

Want to join Birchbox? Don't forget my referral code: https://www.birchbox.com/invite/crystalking

*Try out some new fashion that won't break the bank! 

I'm never sure what to wear in September. Here in Texas it's still too hot to wear fall clothes and if you are like me then you are already sick of your summer clothes. One simple fix is to buy a few scarves and wear them with your summer tops. I just love anything with sparkles and I can't wait to mix in some sparkly scarves with my wardrobe. Confession: I don't like fall fashion or clothes. I don't like how constricting they are. I'm a sandals/dresses/tank tops and shorts kinda gal.  

Here's another fashion idea-jazz up your nails! People will be so busy looking at your fabulous nails that they won't even notice what you are wearing. I saw these examples in Women's Health and I can't WAIT to try them out, especially the color combos: 

So, how about you? What are some things you would like to try this September?