happy halloween!

trick r treat

halloween is my favorite holiday. it's austin's, too! unfortunately this year, celebrations were just not in order. i closed at work saturday night and i close again tonight, so i'm probably just going to end up wearing a little hat with ears and calling it a day. for today, i thought i'd share my faaaavorite halloween that austin and i have spent together, ever.

first of all, my costume requires very little explaining, but austin's requires a lot. so, i was the morton salt girl:

i literally owned every item for this costume, except for the umbrella that i borrowed from a friend, and the salt canister which i bought, emptied, and used as a purse for the night. this picture was taken when we were meeting up with austin at his work, a local coffee shop, to see his costume and do some homework (which is why i had the bag).

now, my best friend at the time (who i miss soooooo much. so much.), jeff, is this real cool guy who dresses straight out of the 1940s. it's perfect and awesome and i love it. so for halloween, we all thought it would be so cute if jeff and austin dressed up as each other.

that's jeff on the left dressed as austin and austin on the right dressed as jeff. oh man. it was a confusing night for me, to be honest.

jeff served me some coffee.

austin didn't look like himself.

is it weird to say that they smelled like each other? i mean obviously they did, but i also think it's weird to say that. i don't know. either way, it was a confusing night and i didn't end up liking them dressing like each other very much beyond the initial hilariousity of the whole thing. seeing jeff in "normal" clothes was so perfect! we bet him he'd get a million numbers. ;) ;) i can't remember if he did or not, though..

and just because last year's costume was a DREAM. COME. TRUE., i'll share one of the two pictures that was taken of us ( :/ ):

i've been obsessed with wayne's world for as long as i can remember. and i've wanted to do this costume for probably just as long. i'm hoping to resurrect and upgrade it one day, because i know we can do better than this. and we already own the hat! :)

what are you dressing up as this year, so i can live vicariously through you?! <3

my days off

working in retail, my days off are random and scattered, which is kind of how i like them. usually, i have two mini work weeks, while everyone else has a long one. this is how i spent my last couple of days off:

1. i went shopping with my grandma and my aunt cindy, who was visiting from colorado. we were at the mall for about 3 hours, so i made sure to find some time to sit. down. haha. shopping trips are exhausting!!
2. i babysat my girl for a little bit. she started climbing into my laundry basket, which was adorable.. then she wouldn't stop, so i had to move it. but obviously i had to snap some pictures first.
3. austin and i celebrated halloween last night, since i have to close on actual halloween night. we carved our giant pumpkin, roasted a million pumpkin seeds, and watched trick r treat (our fave).
4. austin got this weird card with a working plastic lightbulb in it awhile ago, and avery LOVED it. she was dying over it.
5. i bought the new taylor swift cd (from target for the six extra songs!!) and read all of the lyrics. ;) she's perfect. i'm scheming a way to see her in concert now.
6. i wore a really silly outfit. i actually only wore it to the doctor's office and then changed into leggings and socks, buuuut whatever. i took a picture for becca's approval before leaving the house.

i like to think that since my days off are sort of scattered, i use them more thoughtfully than i would if i had weekends off like everyone else. <3

i'm obsessed with this

do you ever randomly re-stumble upon an artist on etsy (or anything, for that matter) and have them TOTALLY resonate? lately, i've been obsessing over julia pott. i like everything so much that i can't decide what to order! i thought i'd share a few of her pieces here.. it's been a long time since i've shared one of my etsy obsessions.

here with me

you made me a mix tape

walter (this one is my favorite)

hello i love you

cut it out

i want to jump your bones

why won't you love me (this was actually the first julia pott piece i ever saw - on tumblr. aw)

who are your etsy favorites right now? which of julia's pieces should i snag? ;) <3

little spots at home that i love

since making the decision to move out of our house in the near future, i've fallen even more in love with it than i ever was. that always seems to be the way that things go, right?

to be honest, decorating this space was never important to me at all. mostly because we lived with someone else, and i wasn't interested in dealing with all of that, but also because i knew we'd be leaving after a year. but lately i've been throwing stuff up for the heck of it, and really getting excited about making it a home. even if it's just temporary.

becca always sends me these really random and gorgeous pieces of art, and whether they're postcard collages, prints of angela chase, drawings of john cusack, or a color palette from a school assignment, i try to give them the respect they deserve. this little guy is perfect on my bedside windowsill. it's usually the first thing i see in the morning. thanks, b!

amanda and i made these bat chandeliers last week and i love when i walk past our record room and it catches my eye. ;) i especially love the little ghosties that i added. i only wish it was easier to photograph!

this is another idea that i stole from heidi kinney (she's my serious blogger crush these days, if you haven't noticed yet), but i wasn't ready for the real flowers and we're pretty sure our neighbor doesn't like us decorating the porch. at the risk of sounding tacky, i kinda wanna leave these little cuties out year-round <3<3.

<3

how do you dress for a hayride?

the title is a joke. ;) obviously i did not dress appropriately for a hayride. i was just too excited for layers and tights and this perfect lace dress.

sunglasses: tumbleweeds
necklace: locket from my parents when i was in high school
dress: ae
button-up (men's): old ae (similar)
cardigan: old ae
tights: old uo
socks: ae
boots: docs

i've been wearing my little dollywood purse for just about any outing lately. i'm obsessed with it. also obsessed with these lil polka dot socks.

i don't regret dressing inappropriately for one second. <3

every year since our first anniversary, we've gone to the layman family corn maze to spend a day in rows of corn and grab that year's pumpkin and some apple cider. i look forward to it every year, and it only seems to get better (and easier).

this year, i took control of mapping out our corn maze routes. ;) usually i just like roaming around, but for some reason, i was on a mission. austin and i have fun ducking into dead ends when we get stuck between big groups of families. i like how peaceful it is in between the stalks, and screaming kiddos kind of ruin the effect.

after we finished the two sections of the maze, we walked around the farm for a little bit.. and checked out how tall we are.

i'm standing on my tip toes.

the hayride is my favorite part of the entire shebang.

a man and his pumpkin

i love this little tradition we've started for ourselves. <3

late night rambles

super into all of the new accessories at work (ae) right now

lately, i've spent a lot of time thinking about the kind of person that i am or that i want to be, and what parts of my life i want to put emphasis on. i am finally back working in the one retail job i've felt at home in, and now i want the rest of my life to make sense for me, too. in a lot of ways, i think i've really been coming into my own in the last few years, but i never want to stop pushing myself to be better, happier, and more comfortable in my own skin. this may be coming about solely because of the change in seasons, but i think i can feel a big change in my whole life. cheesy!

so, although these days i'm happy with the majority of my life, i've really, really felt like i've been failing in a couple of ways: in my friendships, and in my reading (i know).

i've been trying to fix my lack of communication with my friends, whether it be a 30 minute skype before work with becca, a sweet little craft date with amanda, and hopefully soon plans with kayla, i'm really trying! i want to spend more time with friends, and less of my free time watching tv (which is really hard with EVERY SINGLE SHOW I WATCH coming back on! ah!) or doing the dishes (sometimes i feel like all i do while i'm at home is wash dishes? although austin would disagree, haha). i just really miss my girls, y'all. so i'm hoping i'm on the right path to remedying the damage i accidentally did while transitioning jobs and being lazy bones!

would you believe that i'm STILL reading "geek love" ????? remember this post? i was (and still am) SO excited about those books. i just.. stopped reading. for no reason. i'm hoping to change that tonight, right after i finish this post. i'm not going to pressure myself into finishing in a certain time frame or whatever, but geez. i can't believe i let myself slip so much. it's annoying and embarrassing and i miss reading so much!

i can't wait to make more time for these two things (because they're two of my faaaavorite things). does the fall ever have you thinking about changes you want to make? <3

how is it already the middle of october

i've never been one of those people who feel like time is flying by, but geez. time is really flying by. i can't believe that it's the middle of october, i can't believe that our year lease on this house is almost up, i can't believe that i've been at my new job for two weeks, i can't believe how much and how quickly things are changing!

this past weekend, austin and i went to see frankenweenie! which we loved, and i'm already excited for it to come out on dvd. i did a little more home idea gathering.. i can't wait to come up with a whole new feel for our place. i probably think a little bit too much about that, considering we haven't found our new place, or started packing, or anything. i finally got to take my car in for an estimate of its damages from the anniversary wreck i was in. :( the lady at the front desk recognized me, because this is the second not-my-fault wreck that i've been involved in this year! ugh. a cute thing did happen, though. one of the male employees complimented my pattern mixing!

this is basically me telling you that this leopard print belt is the best thing i've bought in a long time.

it was pretty nice to be validated on my outfit by a man my dad's age. generally speaking, my day off outfits tend to be a little out there.

necklace: cm via local honey
tshirt: vintage cub scouts, found by austin (my favorite tshirt of all time)
cardigan: wet seal
belt: target
pants: pacsun
shoes: steve madden

besides having to take my car in, all i did today was shop and lounge around. austin and i had dinner with his parents, and i've been watching gossip girl for the last couple of hours. days off are awesome.

later this week, we get to visit the corn maze (maybe my manager reads my blog and gave me a day off because she felt bad that i didn't think we'd be able to go). ;) and i have a feeling that it's going to seem like the time from now til then flies by. i think i need to get better at both cherishing it and documenting it. this time of year always makes me feel like that, and i kinda love it. <3

aunt/niece style post

this blog is quickly becoming an avery appreciation blog, but whatever. she's what i take pictures of. and really, if i'm not working or cleaning, i'm probably trying to hang out with her. ;)

yesterday, i brought her a few presents from becca (who has a blog! and i can link to her! and i'm so happy about it!), and we immediately decided that she needed to wear the skeleton pajamas for the day.

then i realized that we matched, and obviously there needed to be pictures because i go crazy for this kid.

avery's outfit:
onesie: old navy
shoes: stride rite

my outfit:
jacket: uo (old)
sweatshirt: uo
necklace: catbird (no longer available)
dress: uo (old)
leggings: ae
socks: c/o austin ;)
boots: doc martens

we were roaming around an advance auto parts parking lot because kendall's car broke down. it ended up being like a two hour ordeal, during which avery and i took several adventurous walks around the entire building.

we were all a little crazy by the end of it. poor kendall's car is still out of commission, so i drove us around the rest of the day. we had lunch, went grocery shopping, and played with the puppy. avery even talked a little bit for me! which was ridiculous and i died.

the perfect version of a kid, in case you were wondering

today (my second day off in a row after 12 straight days of work), i have no plans (except for the dishes). so i'm going to lay in bed for a little bit longer, catch up on parenthood/project runway/the mindy project, and maybe take a nap. ;)

i hope you're having a good day! <3

these two

this kid has a new friend.

and they're TOO. MUCH. CUTE. to handle.

the puppy is so sweet and gentle with avie, and she tries to be the same with him. ;)

i'm spending my day today with these guys, and i couldn't be more excited. also, i'm sorry kendall, but look at avie's belly and how she's cuddling you in this picture. had to post it.

<3

this cute boy/house situation

austin dressed up for our anniversary dinner, so naturally i made him take a couple of awkward self timer pictures in our super dark house post-dinner. i had to! he looked so handsome.

we're about to move out of this little house, and we don't have many pictures of it or of us from this year, for that matter. earlier this year, when our roommate moved out, i was kinda nervous.. we had been living together, but sam was kind of a nice buffer in case anything got real intense. but really, sam moving out was awesome for the two of us! yeah! we've been able to create a cohesive living together schedule, we've only gotten way closer, and we've learned so much more about each other. and all of that happened here, so this house will always hold an extra special spot in my heart. sometimes i wish we could stay. :(

...but i really just need a puppy. ;)

i'm only a little bummed about my weird tight-lipped smile! i promise i was the happiest girl. :) <3

guess i'll go to sleep

man, i'm tired. this week has been never ending, it seems. i did start my new job, but my work schedule went like this: sunday at my new job, monday and tuesday at my old job, wednesday through now at my new job. thankfully, i'll actually get two days off this week, but they could. not. come. sooner. to be honest, i'm glad to finally be in my forever job (please don't tell me that i just jinxed myself), because everything changing all of the time is THE WORST. but everyone knows that american eagle has always been my kind of retail home. ae cult status. so i'm stoked on life. obviously. just a sleepy, burnt out girl.

on top of that: last monday night, when austin and i were out to celebrate our anniversary, someone hit my car. womp. i still haven't even gotten to handle it fully with my insurance company, and my little dented door is so sad, but thankfully we were fine and everything is fine. just stressful, you know? i don't handle things like that well (i'm kinda the worst at dealing with STUFF), so i'm glad austin was there to chill me out. it wasn't even a big deal!

also this past week, kendall and her little family adopted a puppy! i'm mostly excited to puppy-sit, so that austin and i can get some practice in. since we're moving soon.. and that (hopefully) means puppy time!! ah! i even have baby/puppy pictures to share.. one day.

so halloween is coming up, and there are a few things i'm pretty serious about getting done beforehand:
- coming up with costumes that beat last years (we were wayne and garth from wayne's world - something that i've wanted to do for as long as i can remember, so this may be impossible)
- the corn maze! we go to the same one every year, and it's perfect and pretty and fun and i love it. unfortunately, i have no idea when i'm going to have a day off with austin, so this actually might not happen :( :(:(
- going to see frankenweenie! i don't even really like tim burton, but i love frankenstein everything, and it just looks so cute. eep.

i promise i'll be around this week. we didn't have the internet last week, and things will be a little bit calmer. :) <3

three whole years

these pictures are from halloweens, christmases, anniversaries past, graduation, weddings, and the goodwill ;)

me and this guy have been together for three years today. thanks for the good times, austin. i couldn't be happier. :) <3<3<3<3<3<3<3