And the CSN giveaway winner is...

I know all of you are dying to know!

All six of you, that is.



You are leaning towards your computer monitor right now, aren't you?!



Fingers are crossed?!



Toes, too?!



You're thinking: just get to it already, dammit! I have to know!!

You're identifying with Kate Winslet at the Oscars,
just waiting for her name to come up after five nominations...

Ha ha! Just playing around!

My giveaway may not have had many people enter, but a blog's gotta start somewhere, right?


Now, let me get to the point.

I picked the winner through random.org:

And the third comment was:

Josie from A Wink and a Smile! Congrats, Josie!
Just send me your e-mail and I'll make sure CSN gets that gift card to you.

By the way, if you love fashion, you will adore her blog! She makes me want to actually try to be trendy with all her great finds and tips.

Thanks again for entering! And thanks to CSN for putting my very first giveaway on!

First picture via here.

Halloween Decor: Part 2

I'm back with a bit more Halloween decor!

Here is a (rather blurry) picture of my table:

I kept the center pretty simple:

To start off, I put down a burlap runner for texture and two metallic cups with votives for some sparkle:

I turned the faux antler candlestick I recently bought from Zgallerie...
on its side so that it wasn't so freakishly tall. I have to say, I like it so much better lying down. It kind of brings a bit of (fake) nature inside.

I'm sure you've seen this next trick before: Martha's bleeding candles! I have wanted to try it since I saw it on here. And let me tell you, it was so easy. Buy white tapers and one red candle, drip melted red wax down the side, done!

Lastly, to balance out an empty corner in the dining room, I put a table with a white tray, white pumpkin Dan and I picked up at the pumpkin patch the other day, and the other pumpkin I made over with chalkboard spray paint.

I like the "yin" and "yang" thing these pumpkins have going on. Oh, and the foreboding message came from Scrabble tiles.
Just for fun, here another Halloween tablescape I thought was kinda different:

From Pottery Barn

I especially love PB's chalkboard stones:
But, really, is there anything chalkboard related that I don't love??

Happy sigh...

So, that wraps up my Halloween decor! Hope you all enjoyed!

On an unrelated note, wanna win a CSN gift card? Feel free to enter my giveaway!

Halloween decor: Part 1

I kinda love Edgar Allan Poe, even though I've taught "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" for seven years straight now. And even though he was more than a bit of a weirdo. (Whenever I teach about him, one of my students will inevitably shriek, "He married his cousin?!" followed by a chorus of "ewwws" and inappropriate "Was he from West Virginia?" jokes that last for at least ten minutes. It's hilarious.)

Anyway, reading his stories every October gets me in the Halloween spirit. I decided this year to have an Edgar Allan Poe meets Hitchcock theme for my house decor, with plenty of ravens, black accents, and macabre accessories:

I've had so much fun slowly putting the decorations together! And playing with my camera's settings for extra mood. Here is my mantle in "day" lighting:

And now with the "candlelight" setting:

Spooky, huh?

I started by swapping out our lovey-dovey wedding pictures over the mantle for some sinister (free) art by printing out these three pictures from Hitchcock's The Birds and popping them in the frames.

The one with the bird shadows really freaks me out!

Then, I gussied up the mantle...

On the left side, I put a $2 plate from Target, a magnifying glass (for a "mad scientist" feel), and a bottle of wine with a "poison" sticker slapped on the front.

Thirsty? :)

On the other side, I put my alarm clock, a couple candles, and a raven:

I usually pull this guy out when I teach "The Raven", but I decided he would be more at home on my mantle with a handful of dried leaves:

In the middle of the mantle, I plopped down my chalkboard pumpkin I DIYed the other day:

I love orange pumpkins, but this going-through-a-goth-phase look gives me a kick too!

Finally, I finished off the living room by "mouse-ifying" my stairs, like I did last year:

Eeek!

Moving on to the foyer, I didn't do much here besides hang the photo of Central Park that Dan bought the day after he proposed to me there. I never looked at this picture as "spooky" per se, but the trees' spindly branches seemed to fit in with the decor.

I figure that I'll set up our jack o' lanterns and candy under this on a little table later on to greet friends and any trick or treaters that swing by.

In the dining room, I carried on the foreboding theme with my crazy raven silhouettes. (I just popped them into the frames that usually showcase black and white photography. Read specifics from last year here.)

Yep, these bad-ass birds are back...

swooping off ledges:

Staring ominously from frames:

And even trying to peck their friends free...

This is also the room where I set up a Halloween tree that I picked up this year

with hanging boxes (leftover from my dinner party last year) filled with our favorite candy:

Side note: If you haven't tried these pumpkin Hershey kisses, you need to. You'll thank me later.

This tree is a little cheesy, but it definitely helps me tap into my inner kid! (Any excuse to gorge on above candy...)


I'll show off my dining room table once I finish one little thing! Oh, and if you have any seasonal decor pics you want to share, feel free to include a link in your comment! :)

Hope you enjoyed the creepy tour!

I'm participating in the CSI challenge:

P.S. - If you haven't already, feel free to enter my giveaway!

(Picture credits: Hershey kisses, Hitchcock picture 1, 2, and 3)

My first giveaway! CSN gift card

Last week, I won a giveaway to CSN stores. Yay!

It got me thinking about how great it is to win something... and how much I wanted to have a little giveaway of my own to sort of pay that winning feeling forward. 'Cause ya'll like free stuff, too, right?

So when CSN sent me my "congrats" e-mail and I noticed a message at the bottom: "If you are interested in hosting a giveaway on your blog, contact us!" I figured, what the heck. I sheepishly e-mailed back and asked if my little 'ole blog was giveaway-worthy...

and they graciously agreed!

So here is La Vida Lista's first giveaway:

A $35 gift card to any of CSN's 200 stores!

This website has a huge range of stuff, like...

Furniture, like a ottoman coffee table

Appliances, like this food processor

(NOTE: I think that's what I'm going to buy with my gift card because I have a pumpkin soup recipe I'm dying to try with this baby!)

Cute bakeware, like this pie plate:

I love the robin's egg color. Shannon from Shannanigans, the blog that I won my CSN gift card from, actually won a separate CSN giveaway and picked up one of these pretty pie plates. So cute!

How to enter:

Entry 1: Be or become a follower of La Vida Lista then visit the CSN Stores website and leave a comment telling me what kind of stuff you like on there

Bonus Entry: Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link to mine and let me know! NOTE: Please leave a separate comment for each entry

This giveaway will end on Friday, October 22nd at 11:59 PM EST. Open to US & Canadian readers only. Good luck!

Just do it #13 (take 2): Seven posts in seven days

"I have not survived against all odds.
I have not lived to tell.
I have not witnessed the extraordinary.
This is my story."

- from Enclopedia of an Ordinary Life,

by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Yesterday, when I was killing time at the bookstore with Dan, I ran across this book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal:

Image of book cover from here.

In it, she describes the ordinary observations, pitfalls, and sweet successes that make up her life. She also manages to weave humor throughout, like this:


Um, who reading hasn't leaned to try to magically prevent a bowling ball from going in the gutter?!

and this:

Ha ha! Too funny, right?

Anyway, I was struck with how similar the idea for an encyclopedia for an "ordinary" life is like blogging. We all are writing about our little moments or projects or observations... and hoping someone else connects and cares what we have to say.

I love it.

Which brings me to my "just do it #13: Seven posts in seven days."

Look, 13 is an unlucky number. You see, my first try at "just do it challenge" #13 was to "Participate in fantasy football". We all know that idea completely bombed. So, then I decided to re-try my 13th challenge with something completely different and void of anything to do with sports: try to write seven posts in seven days. And I have to say, it was kind of fun! I had a few ideas of things I had been meaning to post and this forced me to just sit down and write, rather than just thinking about it.

Also, I gained a whole new appreciation for the bloggers who work full-time or stay at home with small children that manage to post daily! Never again will I get indignant when one of my favorite blogs forgets to post for a day or two! Who am I to judge anyway? My blog goes neglected for weeks at a time, especially during hectic months.

It was nice to give it a little attention. :)

Here's a re-cap of the past seven days:

Monday: I confessed to NOT participating in fantasy football
Tuesday: I showed the updates on my living room.
Wednesday: I dished about my apple, cheddar, thyme galette and apple pumpkin muffins
Thursday: I wrote about coming out the other side of my crappy September
Friday: I posted Halloween DIY projects
Saturday: I slacked off. Whoops. My hubby appreciated my break from blogging :)
Sunday: I wrote this post!

Oh, well. Six out of seven ain't bad. In fact, Dan convinced me to skip Saturday's post by saying, "If you were batting baseball, hitting six out of seven would get you in the Hall of Fame!" (He forgets sometimes that I don't get sports metaphors... )

Verdict: a success, even if it wasn't.

Thank you all for reading about my extraordinarily ordinary life! :)

To find out more about the book, go to her website. All pictures are from here.

Halloween DIY projects

I've really enjoyed my "seven posts in seven days" challenge so far, but Dan and I are going to a movie in a few minutes, so this one is going to be less writing (but more pictures!)

I got a little bit crafty when I came home from school today by trying a few Halloween decoration projects. First, I bought two pumpkins and gave them a spooky makeover by spraying them with chalkboard paint I had leftover from this project.


I put the biggest one on my mantle and wrote on it with my chalkboard pen:


Kinda fun, right? :)

The smaller one is now in my kitchen with this message:
Sorry for the lousy picture quality, but, trust me, they came out cute!

Then, I made some DIY art for my mantle by printing out framing photos from the movie The Birds by Hitchcock.
I love the old-fashioned horror movie vibe that is going on in my living room right now!

Lastly, I tried to replicate YHL's gourds. That, however, did not go as well. Here's what their gourd project looked like:

Photo via here.

They almost look like porcelain, don't they?

And here's how mine looked after three tries at spray painting:

Not a fan! The paint was dripping, cracking, and peeling off. I ended up trashing them, since I have plenty of other decor already. Who knew that a simple spray painting project was best left to the professional decorators??

Anyhoo, I'm still waiting for the candlestick I ordered to come in before I show the whole Halloween shebang, but it's coming soon!

Via here.

I'm off to the movies; Dan and I have been on a roll with picking great ones lately (The Social Network last weekend and The Town a few weeks before that). Here's to hoping tonight's is good too!