#BLOGTOBER Day 30- Fall 2018 Bucket List Update

October 30, 2018October 30, 2018michelleleighwrites 1 Comment

Earlier in BLOGTOBER I posted my Fall 2018 Bucket List. [SEE HERE] I love fall, I love getting into the spirit of the season, and I love me a good to do/bucket list.

UPDATE!

So as Halloween rolls in. I wanted to check my progress on my trusty ole to do list.

There were 14 or so items on the list, and I was able to check off a good chunk of those this month!

Pumpkin Picking. CHECK

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Decorate for Fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving. CHECK

My house is festive AF!
Pumpkin Carving. CHECK

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Buy pies, jams, ciders, and other fall drinks/treats. CHECK

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Trick or Treat with my niece…

After tomorrow…CHECK

Watch Hocus Pocus & Halloweentown. CHECK

Some things I added along the way- like watching tons of fun Halloween movies including House of Wax, and listening to spooky soundtracks like MJs Thriller on a loop.

Others like the JT concert was actually postponed til January- which hey is out of my control. But I am READY!

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I wasn’t able to get to the movies as I wished. But life gets busy, what can you do? I did buy a cheap copy of Halloween so maybe I’ll watch it tomorrow night.

I didn’t make it to Apple Fest again this year, because my family got super busy. But truth be told I was better off, since I ended spending quite a pretty penny at the little shop at the farm we went to for pumpkin picking.

Fall fashion has been a bit of a bust, I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t gotten a chance to swap out my summer clothes for my fall clothes. And because the weather has been so unpredictable I just never know. Let’s hope November is a bit more “fashionable. Lol.

My pumpkin party and wine & cheese party ideas didn’t happen this month but I’m hopeful for next. My best friend and I are trying to set up our pumpkin party. And to be honest, I’m dying to host a wine and cheese party myself!

As for NaNoWriMo- I am still planning to do this, however it doesn’t start til Thursday so stay tuned for an update on that. November is going to be insane. But I am interested to see how this works.

Fall isn’t over yet…November will be a time to conquer the rest…especially finding those Thanksgiving recipes and who knows maybe dye my hair purple? Haha. I know it costs a lot and it is a big commitment- I had my blue hair for ages. So when I do it, it has to be the right time. Stay tuned for that too!

Happy Fall All!

Did you get to check all the fall things off your bucket list?

See you tomorrow for our final #BLOGTOBER POST!

Working on a short story as we speak! The plan was to get half up today and the last half up tomorrow, but it’s taking longer to write than I expected. And it won’t be ready before midnight, so hang tight. Whether it’s done by tomorrow or night, I will still post it eventually.

*All images are my own.*

-<3-

#BLOGTOBER Day 27- Creating this year’s Pumpkin Character

October 27, 2018October 27, 2018michelleleighwrites 1 Comment

So I know that almost everyone in the world has carved or decorated a pumpkin. But just in case you haven’t, I got you covered. 😉

Every year, I carve/design a pumpkin character. See my other character creations in BLOGTOBER Day 9 !

As always I have my Fall Bucket List, and I have been slowly making my way through it. And so I’ve been wanting to find time to carve my pumpkin and last night I made sure to do just that.

BEFORE & AFTER

The Making Of: Meeting Aquafina

STEP ONE: Set your Pumpkin out on a steady working area. You may want to lay out a garbage bag, because things are going to get messy! And Gather all your decorative pieces…(hence the mess in the background all over my table!)

STEP TWO: Cut off the top of the pumpkin; I drew a circle around the stem and carved it out with a regular kitchen knife. I didn’t have any fancy pumpkin carving knives, but a regular knife worked just fine.

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STEP THREE: The fun part! Get Messy and remove all the guts and the seeds!

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STEP FOUR: Go in with a spoon to scrap and remove any excess pumpkin guts.

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RESESARCH DESIGN INSPIRATION: I wanted to do a mermaid character, so I just needed an image to use as a reference when I drew it.

STEP FIVE: Free hand the design onto the pumpkin, with a pen.

I messed up the nose a bit… 😦

STEP SIX: Carve out the facial features you want to. I chose to carve out some and outline others. Just to show a little light in when I put the candle in. Be sure to clear out any extra pumpkin that may fall through inside again.

STEP SEVEN: MERMAID MAKEUP. Here are some supplies I used to create my mermaid’s makeup. I basically used the blue pen to draw on the face. Then I mixed the blue crayon and the green glitter to create the glittery eye shadow, eye liner, and lipstick, using the blue paint brush to apply it. I used the black crayon for the eyelashes.

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STEP EIGHT: CREATE THE LOOK. Then for the design portion I added two battery operated, no flame tea lights into my pumpkin. And added my mermaid touches (believe it or not, I had all of these things)- a Hawaiian lei, blue hair extensions (I wrapped them around the stem to create a bun style and used bobby bins to pin them in place), my DIY starfish hair pin, and a plastic fork because you know that’s how mermaids comb their hair. #THELITTLEMERMAID

STEP NINE: Give her a name! MEET Aquafina! She’s a sassy mermaid.

TIP: Sometimes after cutting the stem, it ends up becoming too small and then falling into the pumpkin. My mom suggested adding a tooth pick on either side of the cover to keep it from falling in. You can’t tell here, because I strategically placed the Lei, but it worked like a charm. And it makes it easy to lift my pumpkin cover to turn the candles on and off.

STEP TEN: Shut the lights off, pop in a Halloween movie, grab a snack and a glass of wine (or if your underage some cider, Lol) and ENJOY!

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This was a bit time consuming, but I love all this fall themed stuff.

When all was said and done, I really liked the way she came out.

She looks so cute and sassy!

*All images are my own, except for the black & white mermaid face design.*

-<3-

#BLOGTOBER Day 9- Pumpkin Picking with the Family plus mini Fall Haul #2

October 9, 2018October 9, 2018michelleleighwrites 2 Comments

Every year, my family tries to schedule a day to go pumpkin picking. My family is pretty big so it can get really hard to get everyone’s schedule to line up. But this year, even though not everyone could make it, we still had a pretty decent sized crew. And it was even more special because it was my niece’s first time pumpkin picking!

Here are some fall shots I took…

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