Fall Fashion: Pretty in Pink

It's been so long since I've written a fashion post! We're not seeing fall weather quite yet, but I know we're going to have a mix of cool and warm days in the weeks to come. These light and neutral fall transition pieces will keep you warm in the morning, but fit in with the sunshine of the afternoons. I own several of these items, plan to buy others and can only dream about the Chloe boots!

1 I own this tee in white and love the flattering cut. It comes in petite sizes too! It's a blogger favorite and selling out fast.  

2  I wear flats most of the time and the blush color is so pretty with white jeans. The suede makes it appropriate for fall.

3 This is the top I'm wearing in my profile pic. I love it so much that I went back and bought it in black. It's on sale too!

 4 My leopard flats are completely worn out after wearing them so many times over the past several years. The modern cut on these make me them my favorite so far.  

5 I am surprised at how much I have worn my gray jeans. They've truly become a staple. The toothpick fit from J.Crew has always been the best fitting skinny jeans for curvy figures since there's a little more room in the thighs. No creasing on the backs of the legs for me! 

6 I wear this cardigan almost every morning. It's the softest and coziest sweater I own. I gave so many as gifts last Christmas because I felt like everyone just had to have one. 

 7 I am completely in love with this Chloe boot! Michael Kors makes a knock-off, but sadly only in black so far. 

8 This scarf is a blend of cashmere and silk for under $100. It comes in so many colors too and would make a great Christmas gift. Yes, I said the "C" word. Sorry!

 9 I love to wear white jeans all year around and they look great paired with darker tops in the fall. However, the gray is a good alternative if you aren't comfortable in white jeans.

I hope you enjoyed this fashion post as much as I did writing it!

Fall Front Porch

My front porch is all decked out for fall! This is my favorite fall porch yet. I usually just throw a couple of pumpkins and mums outside without too much thought and it's fine, but this year I went all out with double wreaths and a variety of fall plants in the planters. 

Here comes Mario the minute I open up these doors!

I used crocus, kale, mum and a trailing purple vine in each planter. I just love the mix of colors. 

I only bought two small pumpkins because it's still warm here and there's a chance I may have to replace them before Halloween.

I found the wreaths at Hobby Lobby. I decided on something minimal since there are two of them and really wanted to use traditional autumn colors because they pop against the brown brick and stone. It was also nice they were 40% off!

Even though it's still warm here, the evenings have been pleasant enough to sit outside. We had the best time this weekend barbecuing, swimming and watching TV on our back porch. I just love this time of year!

Early Fall Decorating

Happy first day of fall! I love to decorate for the seasons, but it's hard to get into the spirit when it's 90 degrees outside. I opted for peach, pink, gray and white instead of traditional autumn colors. The peaches and pinks I introduced are fresh florals so it will be easy to change to darker colors if I choose once the weather turns cool. Right now I am loving these pretty peach roses with my velvet pumpkins.

More peach and gray in the breakfast room.

I used fresh eucalyptus and pumpkins in the dining room. The runner helps protect the table from the greenery. Last year I had made arrangements in urns, but I realized no one sitting at the table would be able to see each other over them so I kept this year's table a little more low key.

When I think of decorating for fall the first thing that comes to mind is adding coziness. Candles, throws, and pillows are the most important elements in my living room.

All I need now is for the weather to turn cooler so I can use the fireplace!

My Kids Halloween Party Details

Last year I threw my first Halloween party for the kids. It was something I had always planned to do since my boys were little because I remember having so much fun at them when I was a child. For some reason they aren't popular where we live and my kids have never experienced one except at their preschools. I realized my two younger kids were going to be too old for one soon, so there was no time like the present. I've always thrown birthday parties together at the last minute at a play place or something really low key at home. This was definitely new territory for me. Thankfully, a friend of mine who has experience throwing creative and unique parties for her kids agreed to co-host it with me.

The most exciting part for me is the decorating of course! I usually decorate for fall instead of Halloween. Since we were throwing a Halloween party I decided we needed to have something creepy outside. The boys were so excited because they ask me every year for a graveyard. I've said no for the longest time because they broke every single gravestone in the past trying to hurdle over the top of them after school. I guess they are getting older because not one of them was broken this year. It looked creepier at night with the strobe light in the graveyard and orange lights in the spiderweb. The spider also goes up and down when someone walks up to the front door. It scared the adults more than the kids!

We threw the party in the backyard so I also decorated the back porch. Most of the kids were elementary school aged, but there were a few younger siblings. I put It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on the outdoor TV just in case one of the preschoolers needed to chill out if they got overwhelmed. I don't have young kids anymore, but I remember giving them a snack and turning on the TV would make them zone out for a while.

The hardest part was trying to figure out the games. I finally settled on a couple of different races for the kids. I used wood stakes and Halloween themed crime scene tape for the lanes. It was easy and inexpensive. We did a three legged race, a head balancing pumpkin race, and a jumping bag race.

I honestly didn't need to have any games. They had a blast just running around the backyard and doing their own thing. My oldest son was going to stay in his room since this was a little kid party, but he came down to eat and immediately jumped in to help with the races without me even asking him.  He's so calm and patient with younger kids, but they listen to him. Maybe he could be camp counselor next summer?

The good thing about throwing a party for kids is the menu can be simple-hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets, etc. We had the party outside and opted for as much food that didn't need to be kept warm or cool. There's also the issue of flies so I had to get creative of how to cover the food. On Pinterest, it seems that there are no flies and food never gets cold on those nicely decorated tables. I used glass canisters I already had with inexpensive Halloween labels I bought at Target. We brought out pizza and hot dogs once everyone arrived. My husband had cooked the hot dogs before the party and we just warmed them in the oven for a few minutes. It's much easier than having to grill in the middle of the party.

The biggest hit was the chocolate fountain at the end of the party. I noticed one was 50% off one day and picked it up on a whim. It was only about $30 and thought it might come in handy one day. I heard from the other parents that their kids talked more about the chocolate fountain than anything else. Go figure! Unfortunately, I made the mistake of setting it up on the counter here. I noticed the next day there was chocolate all over the patio. Note to self, set it up on a table in the grass next time. Our poor dog, Mario, was also covered in chocolate. We couldn't figure out why he had brown spots all over his back the next day and then we realized it was chocolate because he was waiting for the kids to drop food at the counter. He got his chocolate, just not in his mouth!

We also had cupcakes and donuts at the end of the party. It was a good way to get them to settle down because they were running all over the backyard. Say "cupcake" and they will come to the table!

My creative friend also made a photo booth for the kids. The moms had a good time too! She made the signs we held up as well. That's her in the middle. I would have never thought of this in a million years!

By the time Halloween was over with last year, I felt like I had celebrated for a week straight between getting ready for the party and Halloween night.

It was so nice to have finally given the boys a Halloween party to remember. I wasn't sure if I was pushing my nostalgia on them, but since they have already asked for another party I'm guessing they had a great time. I still haven't decided and try changing the subject when they ask. I figure if they push the issue we can have another one now that I know exactly what to do!

Hurricane Harvey Update

This has been the most surreal and emotional week. I prepared for this storm as I always do, but really wasn't all that worried. We live 90 miles north of Galveston and the hurricane hit the Corpus Christi/Rockport area. I knew we would get a lot of rain, but we can handle it in the northern suburbs of Houston compared to the city since we're at a higher elevation. I was concerned the dam north of us would release water like it did last spring, which caused the lake across the street to overflow it's banks into the street. Our neighbors across the street directly on the lake almost flooded, but thankfully the water stopped right at their doorstep. I was hoping we wouldn't have a repeat of the previous year.

We had so many tornado warnings over the weekend that had us preparing to hide in a closet. It seemed that the worst had passed Sunday night and we even felt comfortable enough to walk down to a neighbor's house for a party. I couldn't sleep well that night and checked the storm at 3am on the weather channel app and social media. I noticed on our county's Facebook page that the lake north of us was going to start releasing 79,000 cubic feet of water per second. You didn't read that wrong...per second. I just knew the lake across the street was going to overflow again. I almost went down to the end of the street to check it out, but I was worried about snakes and even an alligator that may have also been released with the flood water. I waited until the sun went up at 7am and ran to the end of the cul-de-sac to find that in two hours the lake had overflowed it's banks and even into the main street leading to our neighborhood. We were completely flooded in.

The water on the left is covering the road.

There is always some comic relief in a disaster. There was a guy walking down the sidewalk with his nose in his phone and looked up at our new waterfront property. He turned right around as I heard under his breath, "I guess I'm not going to work today." I was about to have a panic attack, but that made me laugh.

I went back home and woke my husband up. He went down the street to the main entrance and said it was even worse than last spring. I couldn't go back out. I was just sick about it. That all changed when he got home and said that one of the neighbors at the entrance to the neighborhood was so close to flooding and needed help putting their furniture upstairs. We had just laughed with them the night before and to have such a turn around overnight was so upsetting. Most of the neighborhood came down to help. I could barely function as I looked out their dining room window to a river a foot away that should not have been there. The homeowner was obviously even more shell shocked and said she didn't know what to do. She said she just kept walking circles. I felt the same way and it wasn't even my home. I know many of you feel probably feel the way I do about my home. It's not about how big it is, what neighborhood it's in, how it's decorated, etc. I feel that many people think that is our focus in the design field. That's not it. It's your sanctuary and the center of your family. It doesn't matter how modest or extravagant, it's your safe place. I tried to clear my mind and get her things packed and moved. As I was going through the pantry I realized how weird I would feel to have the entire neighborhood go through my things. When she said she thought it was enough I ran out of there because I felt that it was not the time to linger.

I also needed to run right across the street to another neighbor to help. This was even worse because this is someone I'm close with and had been there many times to drink wine and watch Real Housewives. My nerves were so shot that I felt sick, hot, cold and on the verge of passing out. She had changed her mind about moving the furniture because she wasn't in danger yet of flooding and there was time to move things if needed. I went home and oddly cleaned my house. I felt like Monica from the show Friends who cleans when she was stressed. I honestly can't ever remember feeling like this because I'm normally really good in stressful situations.

Later that afternoon we went to a neighbor's house to decompress and met someone from the neighborhood on the lake across the street who flooded. His family was evacuated by the National Guard that morning via boat, but he stayed behind to try and save more furniture. He made his way to our neighborhood to stay the night by taking his kayak. I was on my way home to grab dinner for everyone and noticed it outside. Then I came back and was adamant that everyone eat the dinner I made. I swear I turned into my Greek grandmother making sure everyone was fed.

The kayak guy was very calm despite having four feet of water in his house. This is his neighborhood.

The model home behind us also flooded.

That night on the way home we noticed the water was starting to recede! The next morning it was down even further and no one in our neighborhood flooded at all. The kayak guy's neighborhood across the street was completely flooded. There were two other neighborhoods further down with some flooded homes. The model home in the neighborhood behind us was the only one that had water there. The dam had reduced the rate of water released once it wasn't in danger of being breached, which was the reason for the receding water.

Today, we ventured out to run errands and noticed hundreds of vehicles lined up and down the road on the previously flooded road.

They were also lined up inside the flooded neighborhood to help with the clean up. I even noticed someone coming up the road loaded down with pizzas for the people helping. My husband went over after work to help and everyone had already left. I'm not sure if they decided to call it a day or if they had gotten everything out. We're going to go by tomorrow and find out.

Here is an arial view of the flooding across the street. The lake that overflowed wraps around the back. The dry cul-de-sac in the right corner is one of the streets in my neighborhood.

You can see the lake is almost back in it's bank from my backyard.

I am so proud of my friends, neighbors and fellow Texans. I haven't ventured outside my own neighborhood until today. I noticed that every mile I drove there was someone with a boat attached to their truck or someone in uniform on their way to help. It's amazing how this community pulled together and I know this extends well outside my neighborhood and county. Most of the shelters are at capacity for volunteers and even donations. It's been overwhelming, but seeing everyone pull together really helped me realize that it will all be okay. It also helped me not have an anxiety attack.

I don't know if this will work, but a neighbor took this video and it made me smile.

There is still a lot of work to do and re-building is estimated to take two years. Please donate what you can!