Winter Wonderland

Hip hip, hooray for the festive season approaching!!! I love Christmastime for so many reasons. :) It really does bring a special spirit as we turn our thoughts toward the birth and life of Christ. 

I also really love Christmas parties!!!! "A party, is a party, but a Christmas party...!" (What show, what show?) 

I love getting together with family and friends, and for some reason, dress during holiday parties is like 10x fancier than dress for other season's parties. I love this outfit, and I'm stoked to wear it all winter long:) I may trade out the heels for my little flat wedges though, so people stop asking me how the weather is up here ;) 

Also, this is my rommates' room, so don't judge the messiness ;)

Maid and Butler / Professor Plum and Mrs. White...?

Maid and butler/ Mrs. White and Professor Plum

Halloween is upon us again!!! Since I wanted to spend zero dollars on a Halloween costume this year... Okay, I spent about five...

I decided to be a non-scandalous French maid. Or, you know, just an American maid ;)

I already had the black dress, tights, shoes, jewelry and handkerchief (in my hair). The adorable frilly apron was something I picked up when I was living in El Salvador. All the vendadoras wear them, so there are huge pockets to sell from and a zippered pocket to keep money in. Super handy:)

I spent $1 on some perfect stretchy lace trim from Joann's and sewed them into little cuffs for my wrists. I actually ended up making the feather duster. I bought one from the Dollar Tree, thinking I could spruce it up...but there was metal on the inside... anyway, it didn't work. I stole the plastic pieces for the top and bottom and glued them onto a $1 wooden dowel I got at Joann's and hot glued in a $2 pack of feathers. (And I ended up with a new Dollar Tree duster as well ;D) I painted the dowel white with some white paint we had lying around. 

These pics are from our ward date night. My date wanted to match, so I told him I was being a maid and he could be a butler if he wanted :) BUT this is what he ended up wearing (he was also carrying a white hand towel and giant cleaver) and after a couple of highly impressed people asked if we were Mrs. White and Professor Plum...we decided to go with that:)

Oh, and btdubs, we totally won the costume contest. Not like it's a big deal or anything. But whatever. ;) (JK, I'm super duper proud of it. Go for the "W." I wish they'd given us a trophy.)

Oh, gol, so cute.

And here we are on Halloween! Some of us went to a corn maze down by Utah Lake. It was really fun. Elena was our guide and I think we only made like, one wrong turn the entire maze. 

After that, half of them went to a dance party, then to watch a scary movie. I was pretty much danced out, and I HATE scary movies, so a few of us just chilled at home and ate treats and played truth or truth. :) Great Halloween!

I changed up my costume a little with a long sleeved shirt under my dress ( mostly so I wouldn't get cold...) and a white bow headband in my hair instead of the bun and handkerchief. I think I liked the bow better:)

Pre-Fourth Celebrations! :)

I dropped by my family's home for a surprise visit! We were all dressed super patriotically! Didn't even plan it. Also, family #nomakeup day. Also unplanned ;) Happy summer!

Aw...Look how patriotic they are!

The flag kept falling down, so mom was holding it and pretending it was staying by itself.

Too much cuteness for one photo.

My mama's literally the greatest.

Sometimes, you just hug your mom. 

Mom made such a cute table cloth and runner for the 4th of July!

Delish!

Harry Potter Party!

My roommates Elena, Clarissa and I threw a party last week and it turned out awesome! We went with a Harry Potter theme, and we were impressed with how everything turned out.

Decor 

There was so much fun decor :) And the best part was that most of it was pretty simple and inexpensive to do. Just little touches that referenced the series.

We used Christmas lights, rolled up type paper and thread to make the floating candles ceiling of the great hall

Printed off house banners

Just in case anyone needed to take care of business

Elena's basilisk warning. Yikes!

The mirror of Erised

Directions to the bathroom

This is in the pic in the corner of the sign:)

And there was a little surprise waiting in the bathroom:)

9 3/4 poster for the front door

Activities

Pin the scar on Harry Potter

Pretty simple. Like pin the tail on the donkey:)

Wanted Wizard Flyers
I had no idea how awesome these would turn out! We just cut out a poster and hung it from the ceiling with string and tape.

So Sirius. There's even a dementor!

Have you seen this wizard?

Oh, Trav:)

Sorting hat
This ended up being really fun!  People would sit on the table and put on the sorting hat. I'd take the four house color star stickers and put two in each hand. They would choose left or right and I'd only keep those two colors, one in each hand. Then they chose left or right again and I'd yell out their house like the sorting hat and stick their house sticker on them:) However, if people wanted to pick their house, I took that into consideration.;)

House stickers

Finding the horcruxes/deathly hallows
Elena hid all the horcruxes, the snitch, and the deathly hallows around the apartment as a sort of scavenger hunt.

Elena hid them in relevant places, like Tom Riddle's Diary in the bathroom. Notice the basilisk coming up the faucet.

Hufflepuff cup

Harry potter in the forest (my plant, King Julian) where he dies

Marvolo Gaunt's ring

Snitch on the ceiling

The locket in a "cave"

The movie!

We played the first and the last movies. Did I cry at the end you may ask? "Always..."

Refreshments

One of my FAVORITE parts of the party was the awesome refreshments!!! They were so magical:) Elena burned the edges of index cards and I printed in Harry P font from da font to make the super cute labels.

"Alas. Earwax."

Licorice wands

Tyce was AMAZING and found actual butterbeer. They sell it at Macy's. Who knew???

BUTTERbeer. Straight from the Flying Cauldron.:) 

Polyjuice Potion

Okay, we stretched this one a little ;)

I loved this one:)

I used this recipe for pumpkin cake for the pumpkin pasties. It was super easy and turned out wonderful:) I just added a bag of mini chocolate chips and frosted with buttercream frosting.

Magically delicious

 Oh, and of course fun people!

Harry Potter!

 

And the Guest of Honor: Hedwig