Happy Halloween!: This Year and Last

S: Happy Halloween, everyone! This past weekend = awesome. We ended up attending the Texas Book Festival Lit Crawl in East Austin Saturday night with a couple of friends. The best: I loved the Dear Teen Me panel at Pine Street Station where YA authors read letters to their teenage selves, foretelling future awesomeness and mistakes. Sweet and hilarious. Then we trampled through the Texas State Cemetery on the moonlight tour with an estimate 400 other people. (!!!) Our costumes were definitely a hit—I have never received so many compliments before. (Update: Our Suzy Bishop and Sam Shakusky get-ups were featured on both the Huffington Post and Brit + Co. Love it!)

 

Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop

 

Suzy Bishop

Obligatory mirror shot

InstaMax fun

Also, here are a couple of us from last year, dorking out as board game pieces from Settlers of Catan. Nerds.

 Wood hexagon

Sheep hexagon

Moonrise Kingdom Costume: Sam Shakusky

S: Here it is in all its glory! Chris's Sam costume turned out so well.

 

 What kind of bird are you?

Tips on where to find similar parts of the costume (shirt, raccoon patch, coonskin cap) can be found here and here.

He purchased the yellow handkerchief from Amazon, and it's currently on sale for 64 cents.  (!!!) Seriously. How can that even be possible?

The eyeglasses are retro Clark Kent Wayfarers that were also purchased on Amazon.

Put it all together and you get one brilliant-looking Sam Shakusky.

Happy Halloween weekend, everyone!

Moonrise Kingdom Costumes: Suzy and Sam

S: Chris and I are thisclose to getting our Suzy and Sam outfits finished for Halloween. Yay! I am so excited about these costumes. A breakdown of some main components and where you can purchase similar items online is below.

Chris's Sam shirt:

Chris got his shirt at Target. He went with a dark green military-style long-sleeved shirt, but a light brown or light green shirt would work just as well if that's all you can find. How I made the raccoon patch is here. You can purchase similar raccoon patches on Etsy, although they are SUPER easy to make yourself. It took me about ten minutes. The other patches we got at a local craft store, and we had the pins at home. Similar T-shirts can be found here and here.

My Suzy dress:

I purchased the dress on ASOS a few months ago, and unfortunately it's sold out now. This is the closest I could find online. This dress is also kind of similar.

Suzy and Sam hats:

Chris found his coonskin cap on Etsy, and I bought my maroon beret on Amazon. The exact beret I got is still available (and it looks perfect!), and there are tons more caps on Etsy (not the same, but similar).

Happy costuming, everyone!

Birchbox + goop

S: I started a Birchbox subscription a few months ago and, as a woman who is hopeless with all things makeup, I am loving it. It's like I get a monthly tutorial complete with products in the mail each month. Basically, you pay ten dollars and get a little goodie box full of beauty and lifestyle treats every four weeks. (Learn more about Birchbox subscriptions here.)

This month Birchbox teamed up with Gwyneth Paltrow's goop site, and I really love all the products included. The Essie color (Lady Like) was so pretty, I took it with me to my pedicure yesterday afternoon.

The box.

 The products.

Newly colored toes!

This and That

In the mood for this pumpkin cider beertail today.

Also these pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

And this pumpkin cheesecake trifle. Did I mention I love pumpkin anything?

Periodic Table for Childhood. Love.

Tinybop, a blog about children's media.

Would love to make this no-noodle zucchini lasagna soon.

Wine cooler corkcicle!

(Image via Pinterest)

Brunch: Savory Bread Pudding

S: Yesterday, Chris bought all the ingredients for me to make the savory bread pudding recipe from my Food52 Cookbook for the Sunday brunch we were planning on having with friends on the downstairs deck this morning. It turned out to be amazing and awesome and all of those other super positive a-words that you can think of. More than highly recommended for brunch. (Also note: I have a fiancé who volunteers to go grocery shopping for me when I am busy running around town with my maid of honor searching for the perfect wedding dress. Have I mentioned he's awesome? Also, finally found a dress! More on that later.)

For the chevre, I went with a firm goat cheese called Pantaleo from Sardinia that Chris bought at Antonelli’s Cheese Shop. (He purchased two different kinds of cheese, so that I could pick which one I thought would work best. That's an indicator of how much he loves me and also of how much we both love cheese.) The cheese is aged a minimum of one hundred days and is ridiculously delicious.

From the Food52 website.

Savory Bread Pudding

3 cups diced bread (I used whole wheat.)

4 large eggs

1 egg yolk

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup whole milk

4 ounces chevre, finely crumbled (Pantaleo)

3 ounces prosciutto, diced

1 teaspoon fresh thyme (Used dried thyme, half the amount.)

2 shallots, minced

4 crimini mushrooms, sliced

Cracked pepper, to taste

1/4 cup shredded gruyere or parmesan (Parmesan for the win!)

Toast bread cubes in 350 degree oven for 10 minutes, stirring halfway through. Leave oven on at 350. In a bowl, mix together eggs, milk, and cream until thoroughly blended. In a 9x9 square baking pan, toss together bread cubes, prosciutto, shallots, mushrooms, thyme, and pepper. Gently stir in chevre. Pour egg mixture over bread cubes. If desired, garnish with a shredded cheese, such as parmesan or gruyere, for a golden crust. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.

 Not as perfect looking as the Food52 photo, but delicious nonetheless. 

(Recipe and top photo via Food52; other photos by Sandra)

DIY Monogrammed Wedding Vase

S: I saw these painted mason jars recently on Pinterest and decided to do something similar for our upcoming wedding next year.

I used white spray-paint, a Central Market Organics spaghetti sauce glass jar, and a free font from Lost Type. Print and cut out the initials and ampersand you want to use, then use double-sided tape to affix them to the clean jar. Then spray-paint two or three coats. Peel off the letters and let dry. I also accented the top with some blueberry Divine Twine. Perfect for flowers, straws, or pens by the guestbook.

Materials:
-White spray-paint
-Glass jar
-Neat font
-Double-sided tape
-Divine Twine