Turkey Day Eve

Happy Turkey Day Eve everyone! Are we all ready to savor in all the Thanksgiving foods tomorrow? I know I am. I will have my stretchy pants all ready to go. Because for me, Thanksgiving is all about comfort and the side dishes. Yup, that's right. I could eat a full plate of just sides if you let me. I little mashed potatoes & gravy, corn, biscuits and the stuffing. Oh, the stuffing that my family makes is simply THE best. Unrivaled by any other stuffing I've ever eaten. I can't wait for it :) Can you tell I'm just a little excited for it? Followed by a carb induced coma on the couch, while watching football, by the fire. Heaven I tell you!

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J Crew j crew top / Sweater / Grey shirt / Helmut Lang black stretch pants / Minnetonka brown suede shoes, $145 / J Crew j crew scarf / Sweet Potato Pie Thanksgiving Collection

Do what will you be wearing tomorrow for Thanksgiving dinner?
Do you dress it up or keep it comfy? 

xo Steph

Last Month in Salem

A midst all my busyness, I've forgotten to share my most recent check off my life bucket list: visiting Salem, MA during the month of October. D and I went up to Salem with another couple and friends of ours and it was suuuuuch a fun trip. Like seriously, Salem during October is like this little Halloween-town where all the spirits and ghosts come out, and everyone's love for Halloween is celebrated. I highly recommend to anyone who is Halloween obsessed or who even loves history. Because the city is rich in history. But first up, we took a quick stop into Boston....

Beers from Cheers. Obviously.

 Where everybody knows your name....

 We did a quick stop for beer and dinner. And of course lobster rolls, because when you're in New England, you must get the lobster rolls. It's a rule!

 We booked hotels about 20 minutes outside Boston and Salem which had these charming little fireplaces that totally added to vibe of the weekend. We sipped authentic Boston micro brews by the fire and read up on all the fun, and haunted happenings of the weekend to come. 

 The next day the first stop was the Salem Witch Museum. Which from the outside just oozes creepiness and hauntings. The actual history of the Salem Witch Trials is fascinating, so if you know nothing about it, I suggest definitely grabbing a book and reading up on it. Crazy!!

 Some of the original architecture and buildings are still there from the 1600's. The cemetery below is actually the 2nd oldest cemetery in the country and has people from the original Mayflower voyage buried there. Pretty crazy stuff! D the history buff loved it. 

 Midway during the day, we stopped off at Salem Brew Works for some lunch and tasty Massachusetts brewed craft beers. My favorite was the blueberry ale beer which they garnished with fresh blueberries. Along with their blueberry ale, their pumpkin pie ale with rimmed graham cracker crust was a close second. 

And last but not least, we got to meet Michael Meyers. As in THE Michael Meyers....the one who played the psycho killer from the original Halloween movie (my favorite Halloween/scary movie of all times!) We got his autographs and pictures with him. Creative D even thought it would be cool to have Michael Meyers (aka his real name is Tony Moran) strangle him, which made for great photo ops! So overall we had an awesome time and are even thinking of making it a yearly tradition :)

Anyone else ever been to Salem before? Or intrigued by the Salem Witch Trials like I am?

xo Steph

Don't Forget About Thanksgiving

So are you one to decorate for Thanksgiving or have you already fast-forwarded to Christmas? Confession: one of my biggest pet peeves is putting your Christmas stuff up for Thanksgiving. What happened to Thanksgiving? When did Thanksgiving become the red headed step child of holidays that gets no love? Thanksgiving for me has always been one of my favorite holidays as a kid, so I think its important to give it it's day, complete with festive, harvesty decor and enjoy the day for what it is: being thankful! And don't worry, I have NO problem breaking out the Christmas stuff on black friday. In fact, we're going out as a family to get our Christmas tree on Friday. Just like the Griswald family cutting down their tree. Let's just hope Todd and Margo don't spoil all our fun ; )

all original sources can be found on my Thanksgiving board on my Pinterest page : )

 | Decor |

1. spray leaves gold and write names for pretty name cards

2. gold leaves also look gorgeous on white pumpkins

3. LOVE this entryway with the cornstalks, mums, and pumpkins galore

4. baskets of pumpkins and gourds for simple arrangements

5. stencil "give thanks" on a white pumpkin

6. love this thankful burlap banner

 7. frame printables in simple frames

8. Thanksgiving sangria

9. These Thanksgiving plates are adorable

10. use candles and bittersweets for decor

| Make Yearly Traditions |

11. make a pumpkin "snow man" with the kids and have a contest to see who builds the best one

12. make someone wear the turkey hat for whoever shows up the latest to the party

13. have a pumpking smashing party after dinner to work off that turkey coma. Plus its a fun way to symbolically go out with the pumpkins and in with the pine trees : )

So do you all decorate for Thanksgiving or have you turned your house into a winter wonderland already?

xo Steph

November Cravings

November is finally here and it's one of my favorite months. For one thing, I work in a school in New Jersey and we have what's known as "NJ Teachers Convention" -- so we get the first Thursday and Friday of the month off. Who doesn't love a four day weekend? Add that to Thanksgiving vacation this month, and November tends to FLY by. Plus now that Halloween is over, it's now ok to have the holidays on the brain and get in the festive mood. Christmas music is officially acceptable to be played. Holiday shopping can be started. Merriment and joy can officially be smelled in the air :) And now that it's gotten much colder, I've been craving some warm and cozy clothes to get me through. I've been really attracted to the red, black and white combo lately and loving wine colored nails. And P.S. red cups are officially out and about. That means business people :) Here are some pieces that I'm currently craving to add to my wardrobe.

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Equipment black zip sweater / Even odd red sleeveless vest / Acne Studios highwaisted skinny jeans / Tory Burch brown leather bootie / Michael Kors drawstring shoulder bag / Gorjana chevron bracelet / Gorjana trio ring / Yves Saint Laurent brown lens sunglasses / Kate Spade tech accessory / Cream nail polish

What have you been craving lately?

Are the holidays on your mind yet?

xo Steph

Halloween Recap

Keeping my promise over here and sharing some of my Halloween pics from the weekend :) So first off, you know D and I LOVE Halloween. Well actually, I love Halloween and D inadvertently had to either start loving it or, well, start loving it. Needless to say, he's on board for dressing up for Halloween for the rest of our years. And I love that!

But here is the unveiling of our 2014 costume. And no, we are not an Italian stereotype and a artsy hipster. 

We are Rocky and Adrian from…….Rocky!

"YOOOOOO Adriannnn!!"

And for those of you who are not familiar with the movie or reference, here is a picture below from the original Rocky movie we were trying to channel. Usually when people do Rocky costumes, they do the typical "Rocky in his boxing gear" or "Rocky in his work out gray sweatpants." As for Adrian, who ever dresses up as Adrian? Well I do because if you know the movie, Adrian is pretty kick ass. So we went as Rocky in his sweet leather jacket and mousey "pet shop" Adrian, complete with short hair and cat eye glasses. Shown below :)

Of course our chalkboard wall had to get some love too.

Halloween in HoBOOken :)

Group shot before we went out. We had a birthday girl and her piñata, Rocky and Adrian, and Goose from Top Gun.

Check out D's shiner I gave him. 

it's pretty amazing what you can do with a little purple eye shadow!

This was one of our easiest Halloween costumes to date. I owned all the clothes to make my costume, and D's pieces were all straight out of my dad's closet haha. I was really worried a lot of people wouldn't "get" who we were -- because let's face it, if we weren't standing together the costume doesn't make sense. But surprisingly we got soooo many compliments and people just loved it!

So how was your Halloween? I'm always a little bummed when it's over, but at the same time the trifecta of holidays for me is just beginning. Now on to Thanksgiving……

xo Steph