blogtober

The Spooky Halloween Tag

Since spooky season is upon us, I wanted to share a fun themed tag that I’ve seen floating around the community. Thank you, Literary Weaponry for the inspiration to do my own version of these questions. I’m sure after an entire year, my answers to these questions could change, so I hope you enjoy. I tag anyone who is interested.

Favorite horror or Halloween song?

I Put A Spell On You – from the movie Hocus Pocus for sure. The scene in the movie when Winifred Sanderson sings this song to place a trance on the guests at a Halloween party is such a classic.

2. Name something you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark forest or in an abandoned building.

Have you heard of the story of the black eyed children? I’d run my little ass off if I saw one of them in a dark forest. I don’t know why horror movies make children so scary.

3. Have you ever played with a Ouija Board?

Do you think I’m stupid? Hell no! Whether it’s fake or not, I’ve heard plenty of stories of things going wrong so no thank you!

4. Favourite horror monster or villain?

I love the idea of vampires. I don’t know where this came from but I love shows like Twilight, Vampire Diaries & True Blood so you see a pattern. I’m trying to think, do we consider the Salvatore brothers villains in a sense because I wouldn’t be mad if Damon knocked on my door.

the vampire diaries damon salvatore gif | WiffleGif

5. The creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?

I’m someone who is not naive to the fact there aren’t some forms of ghosts or paranormal out there. I wouldn’t consider my experiences creepy because some are “visitations” or signs from loved ones in my opinion. But I’ve for sure had moments when I was alone in the house hearing the creeks & sounds from outside & getting chills.

6. If you were dared to spend the night in a “haunted house”, would you do it?

On one hand, I find those types of videos so interesting. If I did, I’d bring a few people along with me. When someone calls a home haunted, does it mean it simply has old history or are their poltergeists taking up rent?

If I Die You Die GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

7. Are you superstitious?

Not really. We had a black cat walk into our front yard before & I just thought it was cute & wanted to bring it inside. And our rehearsal dinner was on Friday the 13th! So no, I’m definitely not superstitious.

8. Do you ever see figures in your peripheral vision?

I do think my eyes play tricks on me if that’s what you mean. I’d rather not wonder if a shadow by the corner of my room was anything other than my bathrobe. Ha!

9. Which urban legend scares you the most?

None of them really scare me except those black eyed children. I just think people have great imaginations.

10. Do you prefer gore or thrillers?

I’m one of the only people in my family who didn’t go into the medical field. Does that answer your question? haha!

11. Do you believe in multiple dimensions or worlds?

Sure! There’s so much we have yet to discover!

12. Ever made a potion of any sort?

Nah, I’m no witch. Except, I do love crystals!

13. Do you get scared easily?

I guess so. I just really hate jump scares, roller coasters, the feeling of falling …..but even though it’s scary, I enjoy watching certain thriller movies this time of year.

14. Have you ever played Bloody Mary?

Yes, at sleepovers as a kid. Nothing really happened though.

15. Do you believe in demons/the devil?

I’m sure there is. But I’d rather not focus on that type of energy.

16. You’re home alone but you hear footsteps in your house, what do you do?

Call the police. But also they shouldn’t mess with me. I may be small but I am mighty.

17. If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?

If I had to choose, I’d go with The Ring because I’ve seen Scary Movie 3 & I’d just place the TV on a ledge & have her fall. Also, I’m not as afraid of this movie ever since I learned the actress played the girl from the movie Stitch.

18. If you could only wear one halloween costume for the rest of your life, what would you be?

The dinosaur costume for sure!

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19. Would you ever go to a graveyard at night?

I don’t find them scary. I find graveyards to be more unnecessary now a days…

20. In a zombie apocalypse what is your weapon of choice?

A sword

21. Would you rather go to a Halloween party or go trick or treating?

Why not both? Go trick or treating for a few hours & then go dancing into the night.

22. You’re in a horror movie. Are you the final girl, the first to die, the comic relief, the skeptic, the smart one, or the killer?

What do you think I’d be?

23. Do you have to watch something happy after watching a horror movie so you can go to sleep?

Yes, I’ve been known to put on an episode of Spongebob or Friends to go to sleep.

24. Whilst watching scary movies, are you the person who yells at the characters, the person with their eyes covered the whole time, or the person who falls asleep?

Eyes covered saying, “this is such a good movie”

25. Are you the one who gets scared, or the one who does the scaring?

I don’t think scaring people is funny. You could give someone a heart attack.

26. Favorite scary book?

Verity by Colleen Hoover or The Shining by Stephen King

27. How old were you when you saw your first horror movie?

My earliest memory would be watching The Ring at a sleepover when I was 11. And that movie still gives me nightmares.

28. What was your first Halloween costume?

I was only a few months old & I was a pumpkin

29. What are you going to be for Halloween this year?

I’m not sure. We usually do some form of couple costume if we go out. Last year, we obviously couldn’t do anything. But if we manage to go visit our friends out of state, we may dress up then. TBD….

30. If you could have a spooky halloween pet (black cat, owl, bat, rat, wolf), what would you pick?

I already have an orange tabby & that’s pretty Halloween to me….

– B

blogtober, books

22 Books To Read This Fall

With spooky season quickly approaching – I figured it was the perfect time to share a list of thrillers, mysteries & eery page turners for the months ahead. A few I have read & 100 percent recommend, while others on this fall’s TBR. Here are books to read this fall season:

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

Synopsis: Six friends.
One college reunion.
One unsolved murder.

Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to her southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent. Not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather Shelby’s murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she’d been closest to since freshman year.
But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather’s murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years’ worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.

Verity [ Collector’s Edition ] by Colleen Hoover

Synopsis: Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. * exclusive new chapter included*

The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling

Synopsis: Gwyn Jones is perfectly happy with her life in Graves Glen. She, her mom, and her cousin have formed a new and powerful coven; she’s running a successful witchcraft shop, Something Wicked; and she’s started mentoring some of the younger witches in town.

Payback’s A Witch by Lana Harper

Synopsis: Set during October in a witchy Midwestern town, it focuses around three female witches who were all hurt by the same man, also a witch, and who now want to get their revenge by ensuring he doesn’t win the tournament that determines which family gets a magical boost.

Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

Synopsis: Our Crooked Hearts follows seventeen-year-old Ivy in the present day as encounters a stranger on a road in the middle of the night. This mystery triggers a series of strange events, leading her to question everything around her mother and their relationship.

A Stranger in The House by Shari Lapena

Synopsis: Karen Krupp is left with a bad concussion after crashing her car into a pole while fleeing from an abandoned restaurant in a sketchy neighbourhood in a town in upstate New York. She claims she has no memory of what happened, and her doctors acknowledge that this could happen, but add that she might regain her memory.

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Synopsis: When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

Synopsis: Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all—until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and a lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband.

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

Synopsis: It’s a “dark and twisted love story about a man who writes a letter to his wife every year on their anniversary, even after she dies”. (The book is interspersed with letters that written to Adam on their anniversary, but never given to him, inspired by his Rock Paper Scissors screenplay.)

If It Bleeds by Stephen King

Synopsis: If it Bleeds is a collection of four unrelated novellas. The first two, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone and The Life of Chuck, both deal with characters approaching the end of their lives. The third story, the titular If It Bleeds, is basically a mini-sequel to The Outsider with Holly Gibney as the main character. The last one, Rat, is about a writer who strikes a Faustian bargain in order to write a novel.

Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson

Synopsis:  Turns out that reading nothing but true crime isn’t exactly conducive to modern dating—and one woman is going to have to learn how to give love a chance when she’s used to suspecting the worst. PhD candidate Phoebe Walsh has always been obsessed with true crime.

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Synopsis: Alternating between Maggie’s uneasy homecoming and chapters from her father’s book, Home Before Dark is the story of a house with long-buried secrets and a woman’s quest to uncover them—even if the truth is far more terrifying than any haunting.

The House Across The Lake by Riley Sager

Synopsis: When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.

Horrid by Katrina Leno

Synopsis: As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response.

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Synopsis: Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon. They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they’re sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire – it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller.

Ghost Story by Peter Straub

Synopsis: In life, not every sin goes unpunished. For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past — and get away with murder.

Sign Here by Claudia Lux

Synopsis: A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sell their soul.

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacey Willingham

Synopsis: When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Haunting Adeline by H.D Carlton

Synopsis: Adeline is a writer who moves into her grandmothers house a year after her passing. It’s a creepy old house that hides the story of her great grandmothers murder. Adeline finds her great grandmother’s diaries and finds out that her great grandmother not only had a stalker but had a sordid affair with him.

Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough

Synopsis: In this twisty, paranoia-inducing tale, a woman anxiously awaits her 40th birthday—but not for the reason you might think. When Emma’s mother turned 40, she lost her mind…and now, as Emma’s own 40th birthday approaches, she begins to fear the very same thing might be happening to her.

Long Live The Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw

Synopsis: Jack and Sally are “truly meant to be” … or are they? Sally Skellington is the official, newly-minted Pumpkin Queen after a whirlwind courtship with her true love, Jack, who Sally adores with every inch of her fabric seams — if only she could say the same for her new role as Queen of Halloween Town. 

It Starts With Us By Colleen Hoover

An extra book to the list for those who aren’t into spooky season. Coming in October…

Synopsis: Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas. Colleen Hoover tells fan favorite Atlas’s side of the story and shares what comes next in this long-anticipated sequel to the “glorious and touching” (USA TODAY) #1 New York Times bestseller It Ends with Us.

Let me know which books you plan to read during the fall season. I’m always looking to add more to my TBR.

-B

blogtober, blogtober, Minimalism, Minimalism

My Fall Capsule Wardrobe

What is a capsule wardrobe exactly? Minimalists like to define it as a set number of clothing items to reduce the troubles of decision fatigue & allows us to understand the benefits behind owning less. Courtney Carver, the writer behind the book, Project 333 goes a step further & challenges those to have 33 items of clothing for 3 months. I attempted project 333 for myself during the pandemic & I did take note of the benefits. But overall, I don’t necessarily like to limit myself to a set number of clothing pieces. I simply ask myself how often I wear something? Does it fit the person I wish to be? And is it practical? Otherwise, I let it go. And over the course of the summer, I’ve downsized my wardrobe extremely to the point where 95% of my clothing is gone! As the new season approaches, I look forward to revamping my style & curating a capsule wardrobe that allows me to create classic outfits.

As I’ve decluttered over 10 bags of clothing in the past few months, I’ve also made a few replacements along the way. I’ve been in a style rut & wanted to enter my fall season with a bit more style. Summer tends to put myself in a style rut [ especially when it’s hot ] because all I wear are athletic shorts & basic tanks or tees. Fall fashion is elite. And I’m so excited to share the pieces I’ve bought & put together.

Denim Denim Denim

A classic pair of jeans is a staple in any wardrobe. As a millennial, I still find skinny jeans to be the most flattering at times, but I have been wanting to branch out to different styles. I purchased a pair of the viral 90’s straight leg relaxed fit jeans from Abrocrombie. And I totally understand the hype! I can’t wait to rock these with some sneakers & basic tees all fall season.

Business Beige

To jazz up your dressier occasions, why not swap or add a pair of beige slacks to your wardrobe along with the typical grey or black. I personally love incorporating lighter shades to my fall wardrobe to showcase a brighter look. No white after Labor Day, who? I also love adding knits to make your look a bit more casual.

Stick To The Basics

The majority of my closet is filled with basic tees & tanks. Lately – I’ve added a few fitted crop tops to my wardrobe. I love pairing tighter tops with baggier pants to create a bit of definition. I love layering these with flannels, cardigans or jackets to stay warm. I recommend you have a basic white, black & grey t-shirt & tank & then go from there. Stick to shades that are the most flattering to you. There’s no need to own the entire rainbow.

Sneakers

I’m trying to get away from just living in Uggs until March (although if you are from the East Coast, it’s pretty much inevitable). Last fall, I purchased this pair of Sam Edelman sneakers in this white & beige shade. I thought they would be a perfect minimalistic look to any pair of jeans or leggings.

Birkenstocks

It’s hilarious to me Birkenstock clogs are back in style. I wore these almost daily in high school. I haven’t yet purchased these, but am looking to add these to my capsule wardrobe soon to add variety to my shoe collection. I feel like they would be perfect paired with my A&F jeans.

Dainty Statement Jewelry

I strongly believe you can enhance an outfit by just adding a few statement jewelry pieces. I love pairing my rose gold B&T necklace with a crop top & jeans or adding a pair of gold hoops.

Oversized Sweaters & Cardigans

Of course, it’s not fall without that cozy sweater weather feeling. I love pairing them with black leggings, a warm beverage & a book in hand. They are like warm hugs! For the most part, I prefer neutral shades like beige, grey or black , but I also love wearing Halloween themed jumpers to be festive.

Water Proof Boots

On the east coast, I feel like it’s crucial to own boots that are weather resistant. Whether it’s walking through the pumpkin patch or the muddy Renaissance fair, I’m so glad to have boots that will be easy to clean. During the Nordstrom anniversary sale, I purchased a pair of black water proof ankle boots & I have a strong feeling I’ll be wearing these a lot this fall season!

Graphic Tees

During my recent declutter, I let go of a ton of old graphic t-shirts that were faded or had holds in them. I still believe we don’t need to own an entire drawer filled with graphic tees, but I do think it’s fun to own a few to make an outfit more unique. One of my favorites is my zodiac sign flower t-shirt.

Even More Inspiration

Pinterest is my favorite site for finding fashion inspiration. Here are a few photos that depict the style I’m going for lately…

pin it for later
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What clothing styles / pieces are you looking forward to wear this season?

-B