Want to Sponsor Pretty Lovely in October?

October is just around the corner. Can you believe it? We are in the height of the best season, the leaves are changing, storms are brewing and its sweater weather. Could it get any better? I am so excited about this season and that means so many good things for Pretty Lovely. This would be the perfect time to sponsor. Last month I revamped my sponsor packages just in time for this season and it involves more exposure for you! To sum it up, if you buy a large spot, you get your very own feature post and the option of hosting a giveaway. Buying a medium spot gives you the option of participating in a group giveaway and of course there is the small ad swap spot. Your ad goes on my blog and mine goes on yours!
Check out my Sponsor page for all the details and blog stats. You can purchase an ad spot directly from there or if you want me to style an item or have something else in mind, shoot me an email theprettylovelyblog(at)gmail(dot)com. Im open to your idea!
So, lets give a BIG hello to October and I hope to hear from you soon!

Back in Old Places

Im back at WSU this week and as I am writing this post I am sitting in on my boyfriends class he is teaching. I cant tell you how nice it is to sit in a classroom and not have to worry about hurrying to get all the notes down and listen and pay attention. If only I could have written all my blog posts in class. This is quite nice. A lot less stressful. I do like being back on campus and people watching. After this class I am going to go sit in the CUB and do just that. And not have a single worry about homework or upcoming tests.

These pictures are quite fitting for this post. These were taken at my old elementary school. I wish I could say I planned this, but I didn't. It was the first time in a long time I had been at that school. Even though it is right by my house. I guess I dont have much of a reason to be at a playground anymore. Which is ridiculous. Who couldnt use a good swinging session every now and then?

Outfit Details

Sweatshirt & Pants || Old Navy

Shoes || TOMS

My Fall Uniform

Since everyone is on the subject of how to transition your summer wardrobe into fall appropriate outfits, this is the way to go. Continue wearing your favorite dresses, just wear a comfy sweater over the top. Easy! Appropriate for fall and seriously oh so comfortable. This is something you can lounge around in all day and be ready to leave the house any second. Unlike when you wear sweats and a sweatshirt all day and you find yourself needing to leave the house and what you are wearing just isnt going to cut it. I am going to be wearing sweaters and dresses all season long. 

Outfit Details

Sweater || Heavenly Couture

Dress || Handmade

Shoes || Target

Necklace || Forever 21

Fall to do list

Fall is finally officially here! Washington welcomed it with a wonderful wind storm and some rain. Perfection. With each season comes a list of seasonal activities. Falls activities are my favorite, which is why I made a to do list. I love surrounding myself with seasonal goodies, including pumpkins, apples, sweaters, scarves and fires in the fireplace. This list should guide you along this fall and make sure you get all of those seasonal activities in.

Searching, Searching, Searching

I love going for drives. Just getting in the car with no particular destination, just exploring the area. With my new found need of finding places to take pictures, these drives now have a purpose. Thats what happened on this particular day. I set out with the intention of taking pictures but not knowing where to go. Side note, there are a lot of people that fish in the Snohomish River midmorning. Made it a little difficult to decide on an area.

So while driving around I remembered this park we would run to way back in my cross country days. Made out the drive over to the lake and was very pleased at the sight of no one there. Setting up a tripod and taking pictures of yourself could make for an interesting conversation with people who are not aware of personal style blogs...

I recently got into the show Pretty Little Liars and when I saw this outfit all put together I thought it looked liked a very Spencer outfit. Which was a good thing. The clothes that those girls wear are incredible. I would love to have any of there closets. 

Outfit Details

Skirt, Sweater & Necklace || Forever 21

Shirt || Walmart

Tights & Socks || Target

Boots || Modcloth

Snapshots || Disneyland Edition

Its no secret that I am a HUGE Disney fan. I LOVE Disneyland. Love. So when my mom and I took a trip down to California to visit my brother, a trip to Disneyland was a must. No question about it. We went on Friday the 13th, the first day of their Halloween decorations. Fun fact for you all, this was the 13th year of them celebrating Halloween and it happened to fall on Friday the 13th. Disney thinks of every little detail in everything they do, do you think they knew this would happen 13 years ago? It wouldnt surprise me if they did. But that is one of the many things I love about this park. No detail is overlooked. Every little thing is so intricately designed.

I would say that this was one of my better trips to Disneyland. It was just my mom and I for the majority of it and my brother and his fiancé joined us later. The lines were fairly short, we went on a lot of rides, which also meant that we got to ride some that we normally wouldnt have because of shorter line waits on the bigger attractions.

The halloween decorations were just what I expected. Pumpkins everywhere. Disneyland doesnt do scary so everything was very cute and fall like. One of my goals was to get some Halloween Minnie ears. Achieved and wore them the whole time. When you go to Disneyland, you've got to wear your ears.

Peony Knits || Etsy Shop

While perusing Etsy about a week ago, I came across this super cute shop full of handmade knit goodness just in time for fall. The lovely lady behind Peony Knits, Josie, fills her shop with scarves, boot cuffs, ear warmers, hats and fingerless gloves in all sorts of colors. Everything looks so cozy. Seriously. The best part? Josie has so kindly provided a discount to her shop. Enter promo code "SAVE20" to save 20% off of your order. Now what are you waiting for?! Go say hi to Josie, check out Peony Knits and stock up on essentials for fall!

All photos from Peony Knits

DIY Mason Jar Lanterns

I have a super easy fall DIY for you today, making lanterns from mason jars. The supplies include mason jars, wire, chains, candles and wire cutters/pliers.

Step 1: Wrap the wire a couple of times around the neck of the mason jar. Make sure it is tight so the wire cannot come off of the jar. 

Step 2: Attach the chains to the wire by pulling apart one of the links on each side of the chain and attaching it to the wire. You can use the pliers to help pull apart the bigger links. 

Step 3: Insert a candle.

Step 4: Light and enjoy!

See, easy! I placed mine on my front steps. I think they would also look good as a centerpiece on a table as well. This just adds a little extra cozy to your home as the temperatures decrease, leaves start to change and it gets darker earlier. 

A tree that smells like cotton candy (no joke)

Taking these photos in the woods, finally surrounded by fallen leaves, not as many as I would like but still a good amount, I was surrounded by the smell of fall. It was so refreshing and I didnt mind taking my time and trying new things with these photos, even though there were more people walking by me than I would have liked, I still put up with it. There are a lot of dog walkers around my area. But anyways back to the smells of fall, you guys have to go seek out a Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) tree, I am not kidding when I tell you that the fallen leaves smell like cotton candy. I remember learning about this tree a couple years ago in one of my Horticulture classes. We would go on nature walks and when we got to this tree the whole class picked up a pile of leaves to smell, we probably looked crazy to everyone walking by, but this tree, oh my goodness does it smell good. My neighbor has one in their yard and when I take my dog on a walk, ill pick up a pile of leaves to smell on my way by. Sounds crazy, but dont judge until you smell. Seriously. Cotton candy.

Outfit Details

Dress || Modcloth

Sweater, Boots & Necklace || Forever 21

Socks & Tights || Target

Jacket || H&M

Turning a TV Cabinet into a Shoe Closet

I recently redecorated my room and needed a new way to store my shoes. I couldnt keep them in the closet and a shoe rack that I had previously been using was too long for the space it needed to go in. So my mom came up with the GENIUS idea of turning our old TV cabinet that was being used to store dust into a shoe closet. I said "YES PLEASE!"

It was really quite easy and for a motivated person could easily be done in a weekend. First thing I did was paint it. All of my other furniture is white but I wanted a pop of color in my all white room so I went for this coral pink just on the inside. I failed to take a picture of the inside before I did anything, but it didnt have a back and of course no shelves. For the back I used cardboard. I took the backing out of a big picture frame we had in the garage, painted it and it worked perfectly. The shelves we also had laying around luckily. Those were cut down to size, painted and attached using L brackets. The brackets are screwed to the side walls of the closet and the shelves just lay right on top of them.

The original cabinet had a pull out shelf underneath the main cabinet. I removed that shelf and put two storage bins from Target to store my tights and socks.

And for the bottom cabinet, it is just painted and became the perfect spot for my boots. It can hold eight pairs which I was pretty surprised by.

I am so happy with my new closet. It is completely perfect and it feels like im shopping when I go to pick out my shoes for the day. I seriously recommend doing this if you have an old cabinet of some kind laying around. I will probably add some hooks to the side or on the inside of the doors for extra storage but I havent completely decided on that yet.

I hope this gives you a fun new idea for storing your shoe!