Halloween Treats!

A lot of people know that Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. I love everything about it from pumpkins to costumes to candy and more, this holiday is so much fun. I went to a few costume parties this weekend, but I'm planning on spending my Halloween watching scary movies and giving trick or treaters candy with some of my friends.

My unicorn pumpkin and my boyfriends driving skeleton pumpkin.

To spice the movie night up, I made a few really spooky treats, because what better way is there to celebrate Halloween than with Halloween themed snacks?

Starting out with these simple take on cheese and crackers with these string cheese witches broom sticks.

I simply took sticks of string cheese and cut each one into 3 equal pieces. Then I cut each piece vertically to look like strands on a broom. Lastly I cut into those pieces twice horizontally to make the piece of cheese look frayed and more like an actual broom. I added a pretzel stick on top for the handle and voila, a broomstick!


The next snack on my party list are these super cute jalapeño popper mummies!

Find this recipe at the bottom of this post.

They're made with roasted jalapeños, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and olives for the eyes.


Finally I made these adorable and extremely delicious spider cookies! They're basically snickerdoodle kiss cookies, but with a mini Reese's cup instead of a Hershey's kiss. 

Recipe at the bottom of this post.

However you are celebrating today and even if you're not, these snacks can be altered for any occasion. Cook away!





Mummy Jalapeño Poppers

Ingredients:

• Crescent rolls or puff pastry
• 10 jalapeño peppers halved lengthwise and seeded
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 8 ounces grated pepper jack cheese
• 1 green onion, finely chopped
• Black olive slices for eyes

Directions:

1. Halve and seed the jalapeño peppers.
2. Combine the two cheeses and green onions and mix well.
3. Fill the mixture into the jalapeño pepper halves.
4. Use a pizza cutter to slice strands of the dough. Wrap the strands of dough around the jalapeños to resemble a mummy. Leave space for the olive eyes.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
6. Remove from oven and immediately press olive slice eyes in the spaces for the eyes.

Spider Snickerdoodle Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp milk (I used almond milk)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar (for rolling)
• Mini Reese's cups, frozen
• Candy eyes
• Melting chocolate or frosting in a tube

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat together shortening, peanut butter, egg, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and milk.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture and beat until blended.
5. Form into 1 inch balls.
6. Roll in sugar and place a couple of inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden.
8. Immediately, gently press an upside frozen Reese's cup on top of each cookie and move to wire rack to cool.
9. After placing and moving all the cookies on the wire rack, put in place the candy eyes while chocolate is still slightly soft.
10. Place in refrigerator for 10 minutes to allow cookies to firm.
11. Melt chocolate in a bag and cut the corner to pipe the spider's legs on to the cookie. I used frosting in a tube.
12. Place in refrigerator for 10 minutes to allow legs to set.

Oscars 2016.

This year marked the 88th Annual Academy Awards! 88 is the year I was born and 8 is my lucky number so I figured something special might happen (spoiler alert...it did!). I write something every year about the Oscars and I also try to watch as many nominated movies as I can, but definitely the ones nominated for Best Picture, and this year is no different. So here goes...

Fashion 

Obviously, let's talk fashion first! Everyone looked so amazing and beautiful...especially my beau, Leonardo DiCaprio. These are my top fashion favorites of the night...

Lady Gaga in Brandon Maxwell.
Charlize Theron in Dior Haute Couture and Harry Winston diamonds.
Saoirse Ronan in Calvin Klein and Chopard jewelry.

I have to admit, I was really looking forward to seeing Alicia Vikander's look tonight since I've been obsessed her with style all awards season, but I was a little underwhelmed by her look at the Oscars. Not bad, but still not that breathtaking.

And on a side note, has anyone checked Heidi Klum's head recently? She's been looking all kinds of sloppy on the red carpet recently, I definitely thought she would step it up for the Oscars at least.

Being in the diamond industry myself, I had to include my favorite jewelry looks of the night too!

Jennifer Lawrence in Chopard.
Charlize Theron in $3.7 million worth of Harry Winston diamonds.
Giuliana Rancic in Forevermark. 

Host/#OscarsSoWhite

There was a lot of buzz around the Oscars not having a more diverse group of nominees. I agreed somewhat, where I thought Will Smith should have been nominated and so should have Straight Out of Compton. I guess the Academy tried to make up for it throughout the show by peppering in a lot of jokes to combat the #OscarsSoWhite controversy? Chris Rock's monologue was actually funny in my opinion, but most of the jokes were trying to make light of "racist Hollywood", and though his jokes were bold, they were also borderline uncomfortable. It was apparent that everyone in the audience didn't know if it was okay if they laughed. I did, however, like Chris' nod that Michael B. Jordan should have been nominated, because lets face it, he should have. On the other hand, that introduction to Stacey Dash was god awful. Maybe I'm biased, but I'm having a hard time agreeing that any recent Oscars host has been better than Ellen!

Winners

Again, I watched all the Best Picture nominated movies this year, and also Joy and The Danish Girl. I had my opinions on who should win and I'm overall really pleased with the outcomes. After tonight, I'm definitely going to make an effort to watch Carol and Amy (Best Documentary Feature). Let's talk...

I'm really happy for all the Mad Max wins including Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Editing. I think they were all deserved. Creating a futuristic movie that is to the caliber that Mad Max is hard to do and the people behind it did it really well.

• Best Picture: I thought all of the nominees this year did a really good job of spotlighting (hehe) social relevance. Spotlight was the winner! I kind of didn't see it coming, but I'm really happy it came out on top. I think this movie, of all of them, embodied social relevance and brought to light a hidden topic that challenges an otherwise revered institution. 

• Best Actor: Well. What can I say? I've been waiting for this moment since I saw Titanic when I was 13. Aside from how handsome I think Leonardo DiCaprio is, I think he's truly, truly talented and maybe it took him all these years to perfect his acting enough to be able to portray his character in The Revenant, but at the end of the day, this award was so deserved in so many ways. This is why I think the 88th annual Oscars was lucky :) Also, true to Leo fashion, he encouraged conservation of the environment in his acceptance speech, which made his win even more epic. 

• Best Actress: Brie Larson! The Room was actually a very poignant film and Brie had a huge responsibility of carrying it, along with Jacob Tremblay, and she did a great job. She was one of the only main characters in the film. I read that she locked herself in her home for one month and didn't leave so she could understand how her character would feel. As far as I've seen, method acting always breeds a winning result, so good for her!

• Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies. I liked him in this film, but I'm not sure I would have chosen him as the Best Supporting Actor. Even though he was the major part of the film, he was hardly in any of the scenes. I would have liked to see Mark Ruffalo win this category for his portrayal of a Boston journalist in Spotlight. His passion in this film was incomparable. 

• Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander in The Danish Girl. I watched The Danish Girl this morning, very last minute! I wasn't going to, but I figured since the two main actors in it (Alicia Vikander and Eddie Redmayne) were nominated, I should watch it. I'm really glad I did, because Alicia's performance was great and I'm really happy she won this category. She's my new found girl crush, I'm a little obsessed with her. 

I'm also very happy with Inside Out winning Best Animated Film, it was a great take on how our brains work and extremely profound for a film intended for a younger audience. 

The only category I was in disagreement with was Best Original Song. I like Sam Smith and all, but Lady Gaga was definitely robbed of this award. 

Highlights 

1. The appearances made by C3PO, R2D2, BB8, the Minions, Woody, and Buzz Lightyear! So cute and...how did they do that with the Minions,Woody, and Buzz? :P

2. Girl Scout Cookies for the win! I can't decide if that was better than the pizza from Ellen's year of hosting, but either way, Girl Scout Cookies are a good crowd pleaser and I wouldn't mind getting my hands on some Thin Mints.

3. Jacob Tremblay and Abraham Attah standing on soap boxes to be taller while presenting for Best Live Action Short Film. I have yet to see Beasts of No Nation, but I loved Jacob in Room!

4. Joe Biden introducing Lady Gaga's performance of Till It Happens to You and empowering survivors of sexual assault.

5. Lady Gaga's performance!! What a show stopper, this was the ultimate highlight of the show, for me anyway. This performance was truly powerful and the inclusion of survivors of sexual assault on stage with her made it even more profound. Her passion in her craft is just amazing and brings forth emotion, as it did with the audience.

6. Alejandro G. Innaritu's speech upon winning for Best Director, which championed eliminating prejudice and promoting equality. It's long, but worth the watch.

All in all, I was very happy with how the Oscars were this year. From the winners, to the performances, and even the hosting, I thought it was fun and entertaining to watch. And I'm especialy overjoyed with Leo winning...I knew the 88th Academy Awards would be a lucky one! What did all of you movie lovers out there think of it? I hope you all enjoyed it and enjoyed reading my post. That's a wrap!

Organize 2016.

Since it's the beginning of the year, I really wanted to start fresh and just get rid of the clutter in my life. There are so many things that can be cleaned up and organized, which changes the complete feng shui of your life. Trust me on this, guys...with a life free of clutter, you make room in your life to allow other positive energies to flow in.

For the past 2 weeks, I've been doing a complete overhaul on all my stuff. Cleaning out things that are unnecessary in my life and throwing them out is very therapeutic and I want to share this experience with you all so you can de-clutter too. 

Here are some essential cleanses you can do to start of 2016 right...

1. Cleanse your inbox. 

Delete old emails that you no longer need, like receipts from things you've bought and won't return. Create folders to organize the other needed emails. Don't leave any unneeded emails in your inbox. 

2. Cleanse your purse/wallet. 

For the love of god toss out old papers, gum wrappers, and old makeup out of your bags! You might even find some treasures you've been looking for. 

3. Cleanse your phone albums. 

Let's face it, you took 20 selfies to get the perfect one. You don't need the rest now! Get rid of them and make space in your phone for your next selfie photo shoot. 

4. Cleanse your old papers. 

Ever stack up all your junk mail and other papers, stick them in a corner, and forget about them? Time to get rid of those. Invest in a shredder and shred those papers that you no longer need. Don't forget to recycle! 

5. Cleanse your closet. 

If you haven't worn something in your closet in over a year, it's time to throw it out. H&M has a really good incentive of 20% off when you donate a bag of clothes. There's always Goodwill and other charities too. 

6. Invest in a calendar you enjoy looking at.

Sometimes I get stressed out just looking at my calendar and seeing all the things I need to do. I find that having a calendar that's appealing to the eyes lowers my anxiety. Invest in a cute calendar. I made this one at a craft class at Paper Source. 

In general, cleanse yourself from clutter and negativity this year and see if positive energy doesn't come your way. To make room for a different energy, you need to get rid of old ones. Here's hoping to a stress free, de-cluttered, and positive 2016!