FASHION ICON HALLOWEEN COSTUMES

Halloween is on the horizon. Do you have your costume? If you don't I have three simple and affordable ideas to consider thanks to Savers. Last year, we partnered to create a Pinterest costume, unicorn emoji costume and a Starbucks frap costume. This year all of my costumes pay homage to some of the biggest fashion icons of our day.

First, we have the one and only Rachel Zoe. Big round sunglasses, pink lipstick, black and white boho outfit and a lot of jewelry. That's all you need to complete the Rachel Zoe costume. So simple, right?! Of course, if you don't have long blonde hair like my intern, Lauren, then you may need to get a blonde wig. 

Next we have my personal all-time fashion icon, Alexa Chung. Her iconic preppy tomboy style is unmistakable, so a polo buttoned to the top or even a shirt dress like the one I am wearing is perfect. I tied a denim jacket around my waist to add some tomboy casualness to the dress, red lips, short brown hair and funky shoes. 

Last, by not least, the lovely Iris Apfel is most known for her round glasses and over the top layers of jewelry. You always see her in long sleeves and pants too. So, we found a white wig, sweater cape, jacket, slacks, loafers and loads of jewelry at Savers to complete her outfit. 

Be sure to visit your local Savers for all of your Halloween needs including brand new costumes and Halloween decor!

Photos by Rennai Hoefer; product sponsored by Savers

HOME DEPOT STYLE CHALLENGE REVEAL

Welcome to our spooky chic living room thanks to the amazing Halloween decor selection at The Home Depot. I have had a blast decorating for the most creative holiday that we have. It's Elle's favorite holiday, and this is the first time I've ever decorated for Halloween in our new home.

I wanted to stick with whites, grays and black because it really complemented the current style and decor of my living room. The thing with decorating for holidays is that you usually leave the decorations up for a month, so you want to make sure that you love it all that you never tire of it. I was able to create a space I love and my kids love because of variety of products The Home Depot has in their store.

My favorite products from were the skeletons, spider webs and lights. During the day it's chic and at night it's spooky with glowing spider webs, flickering lights and smoke. 

To see the rest of the space and read my process of how I created the room, be sure to visit The Home Depot's blog, http://blog.homedepot.com/spooky-chic-halloween-mantel-decorations/.

Photos by Rennai Hoefer; products used were provided by The Home Depot.

HALLOWEEN CHIC PEEK

Halloween is getting closer, and stores like The Home Depot already have a plethora of decorations to choose from. But, if you're like me, you might not get too excited about decorating the inside of your home with orange, purple and black. So, I've partnered with The Home Depot to share how I do "spooky chic" in our home. Here's a peek, and tomorrow I will reveal our living room. Stay tuned!

Photo by Rennai Hoefer

Spooky Witches' Fingers Halloween Recipe

With the first day of fall already behind us, Halloween is quickly approaching. Instead of bombarding you with another sweet, pumpkin-flavored recipe of some sort, I wanted to share with you a healthier fall recipe that's just as fun. My friends over at Spork Foods have crafted these spooky pistachio witches' fingers which would make a perfect healthy Halloween party snack for everyone to enjoy! Pistachio Chewy Bite Witches’ Fingers

Yields 6

Ingredients:

6 Setton Farms Pistachio Chewy Bites

1/4 cup almond milk

1/2 cup non-dairy dark chocolate chips

Dash sea salt

12 dried cranberries

1/2 cup Setton Farms Roasted Pistachio Kernels, finely ground

Directions:

Unwrap all chewy bites and cut each chewy bite in half lengthwise. Gently press the two halves together, with the stickiest sides facing each other, creating one long strip. If desired, to create thumb and pinky finger, leave two halves short.  Set aside.

Place chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl.

In a small pan, bring almond milk to a boil.  Pour over chocolate chips and let sit for about 20 seconds to melt chocolate.  Add sea salt.  Whisk until smooth.

Dip long Pistachio Chewy Bite strips into chocolate mixture and then sprinkle or roll in pistachios immediately. Place on wax paper lined plate and top each strip with 2 overlapping dried cranberries at the tip.

Set aside for about 20 minutes to firm up.

Recipe created by Spork Foods.

Smoke & Shadows

Happy Halloween! In honor of the spooky holiday my dear friends Ale Vidal, Stephanie Neiheisel and I decided to create a shoot around the idea of smoke and shadows featuring this to DIE for dress by Fame & Partners.

The most glamorous ghoul of them all is a vampire. They are always depicted as wealthy - living in castles, wearing intricate jewelry and sporting bad ass black hair. With the golden details of this unique top over a slim, satin black dress - Stephanie portrayed a vampire living among the smoke and shadows of darkness.

Rarely as a stylist and art director do I get to be theatrical with my concepts. Instead it's always creating to sell something or someone. In some ways what I do with commercial styling can be see more as smoke and mirrors over something like this. Obviously, thought and planning went into the concept, outfit and makeup for this shoot. Sometimes with "lifestyle" shoots they can appear "effortless," but in reality they are just the same amount of effort - sometimes it's even MORE planning. Doing that as a profession day in and day out can take a tole on your perception of reality causing high expectations of myself and for others.

The world of content creation and Pinterest is a world of smoke and mirrors. Though a lot of the imagery can be achieved on your own much of it can't. My advice is to always remember that a lot of the content is purely inspirational and creates a dream world like television. Take it with a grain of salt. Don't let it kill you! (mwahahahahaaa). But seriously...don't let it suck the life out of you like a vampire.

Photography by Ale Vidal Styling and concept by A.V.E. Styles Makeup, hair and modeling by Stephanie Neiheisel Dress from Fame & Partners