Jake and Tobi: Our October Bucket List

I've already established that October is the best month. If you missed that, see the proof here. Since October is such a magical time, we don't like to dilly dally it away like any other run of the mill months. Oh no, October deserves so much more than that. So this year, we made an October bucket list. Oh, we are so going to rock this month.

1. Decorate the House (a little)

When I first mentioned this one, Jake almost ran for cover. After all, no one wants to live in a tiny apartment covered in cheesy plastic pumpkins and one of those creepy motion-censored ghouls that freaks you out when you get up to get a drink in the middle of the night. But thanks to my blogging research and my friends at Young House Love, I've learned a better way. See how they decorate for halloween and thanksgiving.

The idea of repurposing things we already have and making the decorations fit in with the style of our home sounded like a super fun challenge, especially since we don't have a ton of cash to spend on seasonal decorations and every inch of our space has to be as useable as it is festive.

This year, our decorations cost almost nothing and fit in organically with our style. I started off with a neutral fall look, but I'll make things a little more Halloween-y next week.

After Jake saw where I was going with everything, he wanted to decorate too. He even helped drink all these Pumpkin Ales so that I could use them for a project. How sweet, right?

One last comment on decorating. Big huge major props to our expat Aussie friends, Morgan and Alex for keeping the Halloween spirit alive down under. Loving their crafty skeletons!

2. Bake (a lot)

So far, I've made halloween cupcakes and a batch of classic chocolate chip cookies that our friends are quickly becoming obsessed with (from this awesome book). But this year, the big ticket items on my list are breads. I make a good banana bread (hence why I'm letting those bananas above go nice and brown) and I put way too many chocolate chips in it. I'm also going to be attempting my first pumpkin bread. I'm using this recipe. Wish me luck!

3. Pumpkins Pumpkins Pumpkins!

We will not miss a trip to the pumpkin patch this year. Every time we drive past one I get giddy like a little kid. Lines and lines of pumpkins, carnival games and spinny rides that make you sick to your stomach. Heck yeah!

4. Costumes

There is nothing I love more than making Halloween costumes! No final decisions have been made yet, but we're considering being Ricky Bobby and his wife Carley from Talladega Nights (one of our favorite silly movies). I'm practicing my southern accent and trying to figure out how to make a race car driver's jump suit.