Yankee Candle Halloween Finds - Part 1

One of my favorite places to get Halloween stuff is Yankee Candle. I'm a junkie for their candles and wax tarts, so when it's time for their Halloween collection to start hitting the shelves, I get excited.

The preview party was on August 2nd and I told myself that I wasn't going to play into the hype and purchase anything. I got on the website mid-afternoon and looked through all the new stuff. I was intrigued and fascinated by everything. So much stuff!

And there was a coupon...

I caved.

This is the first piece I picked out. It's the Spellbound tart warmer. On the website it looks blue, but in person it's purple. It's beautiful when it's lit up. The light behind it looks like the moon or a setting sun and makes the shadow really set out. I miss these kinds of tart warmers from Yankee, so I was happy to scoop this one up.

   

This pair is my very first Boney Bunch purchase ever. The toasting bride and groom. I thought they were cute and my favorite of this year's Boneys, so I decided to get them. I also got a set of Yankee's Dreadful Drips. They're white tapers that, when burned, drip red. They're extremely messy. I have a paper towel underneath the Bride and Groom so the wax doesn't drip all over my table. I think I'd rather just burn red or black tapers in these instead.

Overall, I'm very please with the tart warmer and my Boney Bunch purchase. Had I known the tapers were going to be so messy, I would have passed on them.

That's it for part 1. Be on the look out for part 2 - coming soon!

Pumking - aka The Best Beer I Ever Put in My Mouth

The Mister and I went to Jake's Thursday night to enjoy a cold pint and soak up the atmosphere of another night at our favorite bar. They had completely sold out of the Sip & Grip offerings, which was Sam Adams, as well as blown through all of the free glasses well before 6:00 pm. Oh well, we always enjoy ourselves regardless.

So, I perused the 69 tap options and came across one I had never heard of before, 'Pumking.' It was under their fruit beers section, so I decided to try it. Boy was I in for a treat.

The copper color of this ale came as no surprise since it is a pumpkin beer. The smell of it alone was heavenly. My nose was caught off guard immediately. The smell of fresh baked pumpkin pie, crust and all hit my olfactory house like a one, two K-O! I felt my mouth start to water with anticipation. I took a sip and was blow away. I had to take another. Oh man, was this good. Had to take another. This was beyond divine. How had I never tried this before?! How had I never discovered it? Have I been living under a rock?! The taste was perfect. No bitterness what so ever, there is no hoppiness. The beautiful cinnamon and allspice notes are so well rounded with the vanilla and pumpkin that I have become to believe that this is the perfect fall beer. Peeeer-fect!

I have died and gone to beer heaven. I nursed it for 2 hours because I didn't want to rush it. I wanted to savor those sweet flavors. I wanted to let them linger on my tongue and enjoy every single moment with them. At the bottom of the glass, it felt like a bad break up. Over so soon? That was the best $6 I've ever spent on a beer.

My photo! From Jake's, straight from the draft!

My photo! Straight of the shelf from my local Total Wine!

Ok, so enough about my experience with the beer. Here's the low down on the brewery, which is very new to me. Pumking is the very first beer I've had from Southern Tier Brewing Company. Southern Tier is located out of Lakewood, NY and was founded in 2002. They have a number of year round beers, but based off their Facebook page, they seem to excel at their seasonal and imperial beers. Pumking falls into their seasonal imperial line. What makes it imperial? That lovely 8.6% ABV content. This beer, while being a slice of heaven, also brings to you a nice buzz. Southern Tier recommends that this brew be best served out of a goblet rather than out of a traditional pint glass or out of the bottle.

My guess is, this beer would make even Jack, the Pumpkin King, himself smile with delight. If you get a chance to try it, drink up!

Dancing Diva

2 Saturdays ago I drove to Charlotte to hangout with a friend of mine. I have been having a really rough time with my self esteem and after expressing my problems to her, she told me to come visit. So, I packed an overnight bag and did just that. I'm not overly fond of taking long trips by myself. Traveling makes me nervous. I'm always fearful of getting lost, breaking down, or having some sort of problem that I'm unable to resolve. I sucked it up and was on my way.

The ride down was quiet. I had my iPod to keep my company and the construction on I485 to keep me on my toes. A friend of mine let me borrow a GPS unit and the roads on I485 are so new that the Garmin kept saying, "Recalculating." It was making me uneasy, but I got on the right path. I made it there in one piece.

Our original plan was staying in, pizza, cookies, and wine. Just a quiet night. We were out on her apartment's balcony talking about my problems and how bad my depression's gotten. At the beginning of the week, we had decided to go uptown and go dancing. I decided against it the day before I left and she agreed, so we weren't planning on going. In the midst of our talking, I guess she realized that I really need to go out dancing. So, we did just that.

It was roughly 7:30 when we decided to go, so we had to wait a few hours to go. When it was time, we got ready. Brand new jeans purchased a few hours before from the Target clearance rack ($6.98 for a pair for $20.99 jeans!) and a new shirt from a second hand thrift store. A little make up, a quick run of the brush through my hair and I was ready to go.

EpiCenter, Charlotte, NC (courtesy of Google Images)

We drove to uptown Charlotte, which is beautiful, and parked in the deck. We had to wait a while for the bar to convert over to the dance floor. When it did, it took a while to relax. I had to get a drink in order to get into dancing and when I finally did it felt amazing. I didn't care about the men in the room. My friend and I were just there to have fun. Boy did we ever.

When she was ready to go, I checked my watch and it was nearly 2 in the morning. The night had flown by. My feet and legs hurt so much from dancing so hard. I woke up the next morning with a hangover, but it was totally worth it. I rode the high from that night for 3 days. It was amazing.

Halloween is Coming!

One thing you'll learn about me is that I'm a Halloween junkie. All things Halloween. Everything.

I love Halloween. I really don't know why. It's such a fun holiday that's has so many, deeply rooted traditions. You have Samhain in the pagan tradition to Dia de los Muertos in the Hispanic or Latin tradition, but it all comes down to honoring the dead and your ancestors.

Every year I put up a Halloween tree. I lucked out and found a black Christmas tree at Walmart one year. I purchased it and every year since then, I've collected little items to put on it. I had the tree skirt custom made for the tree. I had several scrap pieces of Halloween fabric and had a friend patch them together into a skirt for me.

Leaning a little big, my picture

A sparkly spider says, "Hello!"

A plastic pumpkin and a big, sparkly, black bow at the top!

Closer view of the tree skirt and some ornaments

Top half of the tree

I plan on keeping my tree up through Christmas. What's the point in taking it down? It is, after all, just a themed Christmas tree. 

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Stop by again soon for more Halloween goodness.

Back From the Dead

So, I had every intention of writing a blog and maintaining it on a daily basis. Obviously, that didn't happen. I wish, very much that I could and perhaps I should put more effort into keeping up a blog.

I have a lot of random thoughts that roll around in my brain. There are a lot of things that I should probably get out there rather than keeping in. I've had a great deal on my mind lately and a lot of this should have been expressed. Perhaps I still have time.

I'll write more.