I am not a big Halloween kind of girl. The candy is yummy and it's fun to dress in a costume if you have a place to go but otherwise I could do without it. Lots of time Halloween = horror movie marathons. I don't know about you but I'm not really into the horror genre. Sometimes I'll watch one (usually a really cheap B movie that is more funny than scary) but overall I could do without. I like disturbing stories, don't get me wrong, but I prefer my stories to be more of a thrill and less of a normal horror flick. I wanted to share a list of movies that give me the Halloween feels without being your typical slasher flick. Here are some movies that I personally love - some of them being my favorite movies EVER - and that I especially enjoy at this time of year. So grab a cozy sweater and some hot cocoa and settle in for a chilling movie night.

The Prestige 
A short and sweet plot summary: Two magicians strive to have the best magic trick. Which turns them from friends to enemies. I can't say any more because I promise too much information would spoil it. Just watch it anyway.

This is not a movie that would be labeled in thriller or scary BUT I feel like this movie has enough twists and turns and messes with your head to make it a good exciting movie. It's dark and dreary and there is a lot going on but I HIGHLY recommend it. DO NOT GOOGLE IT AND READ SPOILERS. I say this because spoilers will ruin the viewing experience. Just find a place to rent it and see for yourself! 

Here is the trailer:



Rear Window
The Story: "A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder."

Jimmy Stewart is a classic for a reason. He is one of my favorite old actors and Jer and I love watching his movies together. This movie has been a personal favorite of mine for many years. You can't beat a classic Alfred Hitchcock film. Also likely to make you suspicious of your neighbors.




The Birds
The story: "A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people."

I absolutely love this movie. It is another top favorite of mine and another Alfred Hitchcock film. This is everything a thriller should be. The unknowns of why the birds are attacking is eerie and while I don't find this movie scary there are definitely some chilling scenes. Plus Tippi Hedren was beautiful and I love getting to see all the old clothes and things. 

The Village
The story: "An Amish-style community lives cut off from the outside world by the woods, in which they believe dangerous creatures exist. They have an uneasy truce with the creatures - if they stay out of the woods, they are left unharmed. When one of the young villagers becomes ill, the boy who loves her ignores the elders of the village to make a bid to the next town to fetch medicine."

This is a movie that you either love or hate. I am one of the people who loves it. It is creepy, thrilling AND it messes with your mind a little bit. If you like the horror bits more in your movies this will be the one for you because it does have moments to make you jump.


Secret Window
The story: "While in the process of an ugly divorce from his wife (Maria Bello), writer Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) relocates to his remote cabin in upstate New York for solitude. Attempting to recover his mental health, Rainey has the misfortune of being found by John Shooter (John Turturro), a farmer who claims Rainey plagiarized his work. At first, Rainey ignores the accusations, but Shooter has no intention of quietly disappearing. Soon, Shooter becomes increasingly vicious in his quest for retribution."

I know that I have said this for every single one of these movies BUT I LOVE THIS MOVIE. This is one of my top favorites ever (actually almost all of these movies are my top favorites! oops haha) but this movie is a great piece of work. Johnny Depp is excellent. The storyline, the atmosphere, the ending, all of it is wonderful. Make sure to pay attention because it is a psychological thriller and you don't want to miss it. 


Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
The story: "Comedy meets horror when Bud Abbott and Lou Costello encounter Universal's classic monsters in the frightfully funny Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The world of baggage handlers Chick Young (Abbott) and Wilbur Grey (Costello) is turned upside down when they receive the remains of Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Frankenstein (Glenn Strange) bound for the House of Horrors museum. When Dracula and Frankenstein escape, complete chaos ensues as Chick and Wilbur get mixed up in an evil plot to switch Wilbur's brain with Frankenstein's and are aided by Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.), who turns into The Wolf Man when the moon is full! Featuring a perfect blend of laughs and thrills, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is one the 'all-time great horror comedies."

This movie is a comedy but it's a perfect comic relief from all of the spooky stories. I love old movies so much and this combines all of the greats: Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman into one great entertaining film. I love watching this. Never gets old. 



and last but not least...

Halloweentown
The story: "In a place called Halloweentown, good and evil look very different than one might expect. Thanks to a visit from Grandmother Aggie (Debbie Reynolds), Marnie (Kimberly J. Brown) and her family's tradition of ignoring the Halloween holiday are about to change in the extreme. It seems that Marnie's mother Gwen (Judith Hoag) has been hiding a big secret from her three children--all of them possess supernatural powers. Now that it's Marnie's thirteenth birthday, she must begin her training as a witch or lose her powers forever. While Gwen wants nothing more than to see her children grow up as "normal" humans, Grandmother Aggie and Marnie have other ideas. A brewing crisis between good and evil in the alternate world Halloweentown soon pulls the entire family through a portal and into an intense battle."

I grew up watching this movie on the Disney Channel. We weren't always allowed to watch it so it's kind of fun to be able to watch it more as an adult. It's definitely a cheesy kids movie but I love it. It's classic and it's fun and it makes Halloween fun.

Those are all my top spooky favorites. What is your favorite part of Halloween? What are your go to Halloween/scary/fall movies? 

Also, I do realize I did not include Hocus Pocus. I do love that movie and it is a classic but EVERYONE loves that movie and I just felt like it didn't even need to be included cause DUH. You are going to be watching it anyway.

Wedding Planning Tools

For those of you that may not know - I am a newlywed. Jeremy and I got married on August 10th. It's hard to believe we are already approaching a month into marriage, the time has really flown by. There's still a thousand things to do when it comes to name changing and those darn thank you notes that are haunting me but still trying to find time to just enjoy this new time in our lives. And sooo thankful wedding planning is over. Don't get me wrong - wedding planning did have enjoyable aspects but it was exhausting and one of the most stressful experiences I have ever gone through. I don't think I was ever a bridezilla but I had multiple emotional meltdowns and panic attacks over it so it is a relief to finally be past that. I wanted to start writing and sharing about my experience with planning our wedding. What tools we used, what vendors or services we used, where I got decorations or my outfit, why I chose the music I chose, and so on. I always thought being a wedding planner would be a fun job - HA - and now after going through that I have my doubts - but one thing I always loved was reading through the details of how someone planned their day and what they used. And if something I did helps someone else out with their wedding planning then I'm all about that.

Jeremy and I planned the majority of our wedding ourselves. We did have a small amount of help from family and friends here and there but the majority of it was simply us. Hiring a wedding planner was not something I wanted to do nor did I want to spend money on it. I didn't like the idea of entrusting what I saw in my brain to a stranger either. Would hiring a wedding planner have been a less stressful choice? Yes, most definitely but it just wasn't something that fit our plans and I think it did work out well for us.

I used a few different tools to help me plan. They were:

The Budget Savvy Wedding Planner and Organizer - I honestly think I may have bought this book before we got engaged haha but I saw it at the store and thought it fit what we were going for. It had a lot of helpful suggestions and places to write and I will say it helped me think of things I wouldn't have come up with on our own. I didn't fully use it though and there were a lot of sections that I left blank. However I think it was a really helpful book for planning and I did enjoy using it. Plus the cost is reasonable and I think it is a good suggestion for someone who wants to stick to a smaller budget. I have to admit and say Jer and I loosely planned around the budget of the wedding - we could have and should have done better but we got a little lazy on it. We did end up spending quite a bit more than we had originally estimated BUT I am very happy to say we have ZERO debt over the wedding and are doing fine so overall things worked out good. But if I could say one thing to a girl planning her wedding: FIGURE OUT YOUR BUDGET. I stressed a lot about our budget more so because we didn't have a clear one and I think I would have been wayyy more peaceful had I actually taken the time to invest in it. Be wise and don't go into debt over one day. But also try not to stress over every single penny. Invest in the things that matter to you most and let go of the things you don't care about. Photography was super important to me so that was something I knew I wanted to spend more on but I couldn't care less about ceremony decorations so we literally didn't buy a single one. Most likely people won't notice anyway. Just saying.

The Knot - I used to love browsing wedding websites and blogs so I did take advantage of finally getting to research and plan for a real wedding. I created a wedding website through the knot that I think turned out really cute plus IT WAS FREE. I was never going to use one that cost so take advantage of those freebies, ladies. I also used that for guests to RSVP. It helped out a lot (I also gave the option of having the guests email me) but I will say I did have a few people who had problems using it and getting it to let them submit for more than one guest but the majority of the folks it worked out fine for and it was nice to have that available to us. Just a warning though that it could cause problems. I also set up the app on my phone and that was nice to have. There is a great checklist and guest list feature and a way to budget. I mostly did not use these because it almost felt like another to do for me but they would be great help to anyone and I highly recommend it. I also looked on the knot website at their blog posts numerous times for inspiration on decor, music and how to's that I was unsure about. It was a really nice resource.

Instagram and Pinterest - Honestly, I got most of my inspiration for style from instagram and pinterest. I love following wedding photographers or design accounts so any time I came across a pretty photo I saved that baby. Same with pinterest. I didn't do most of the things I found BUT it was a really nice way to gather inspiration and try to figure out what it was that I wanted and how I could do my own spin on it.

Good ol' pen and paper or word documents - The majority of my wedding planning and lists did not take place on a wedding app, website or in a planning book. I created a wedding binder. I wrote out a thousand lists (not much of an exaggeration) on basic paper or I typed up documents on word and I saved and printed and edited them over the 8 months we planned. I prefer being able to write stuff out the way I wanted and this worked for me. But do be cautious because I ended up with so many lists that I felt insane towards the end and wanted to cry over the stack of papers that I had. Basically: use real paper but be more organized than me.

I didn't use many tools but I am happy with what we did. I know we could have done better and used our resources and time better. There are things about the planning process that I could have changed that would have made it easier on us but now that it is all said and done I truly do think we did pretty good. It's a hard time and it is a hard time to stay organized. My biggest piece of advice would be to not procrastinate. We got lazy in the earlier months and so when it started hitting 3 months to go - I was a trainwreck. Do your best to stay on top of it even if it feels like you have plenty of time. You want to be relaxed and able to enjoy your day.

Thanks so much for sticking around and reading this. I am hoping to share more wedding posts soon. Stay tuned. 

On the Bookshelf: The Turn of the Key

I am always reading something new, usually multiple new things. Working at a library you are always seeing what new books are out or coming across books that look good when returning them so I almost always have a stack of 20+ books waiting to be read and that doesn't include the books that I purchase. On the Bookshelf is going to be where I will review or talk about what I have been reading. Note: I am NOT very good at this whole book review thing so you have been warned.

My latest read was Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key.

I have read all of Ruth's books and I enjoyed her first two - "In a Dark, Dark Wood" and "The Woman in Cabin 10" - but I did not like her last two - "The Lying Game" and "The Death of Mrs. Westaway"

I was excited to see she had a new book coming out but knew it would be a toss up if I liked it or not. I felt like the plot lines and stories of the last two books were just not that exciting or well put together. I remember getting to the end and thinking, "Wait..that's it?" And I will say that after reading The Turn of the Key, I rank it up there with her first two books. I enjoy thrillers and it had the edge of the thriller story to it, more so than Mrs. Westaway. I wasn't as thrilling as I like my books to be and I feel like she really could have gone deeper into the storyline BUT I did enjoy it. I read it pretty quickly - something I haven't been doing lately because of being busy - but this was a book that I wanted to sit down and find out what was going to happen. I enjoyed the garden aspect of the story - read the book to find out what I'm talking about - and I almost wish they would have used that more to make the story a little extra exciting. The modern house element was interesting too and helped me feel the heebie jeebies along with the main character. I didn't find the ending totally surprising - I suspected parts of it - but there was one surprising element that I did not see coming. Overall I think it was a really enjoyable book and it made for an exciting weekend read. I'd definitely recommend it and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on goodreads. Great for those that like a good mystery or thriller.

Here is the book description for anyone that may be interested:

When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.

It was everything.

She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.

Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, The Turn of the Key is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

[This description is taken from the book jacket]

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Welcome!

Once upon a time, like 2011, I created a blog because I wanted a place to share and build community. I saw all of these friendships blossom through what was the blog world then (which was TOTALLY different than what it is now) and I wanted a little piece of that. I developed relationships with many wonderful people - including my bestie Ashley that was actually one of my bridesmaids! - but as time went on and as the blog world changed dramatically and as I changed, I basically ended up abandoning that blog that had meant so much. I have decided to leave that blog in the past and start anew with this one. I've recently begun to miss it and what it meant to me. It was also nice to have an outlet, a little hobby to enjoy and so I decided This is Kaits would be the blog to welcome me back. 

This blog will be a lifestyle blog but a very loose lifestyle blog as in I'm not really sure anyone would want to follow my lifestyle and there probably will not be much of a plan or order so follow along at your own risk of boredom.

But basically I will be sharing a little bit of this and a little bit of that:

• Daily life in a small town and as a newlywed.
• How I Planned My Wedding (and survived).
• Book recommendations (I have about 40 books in a pile waiting for me to read).
• What I'm Loving on (because there is always something).
• Music (It would not be a blog of mine without sharing the music I'm listening to).
• The shows I can't stop watching on Hulu and Netflix (someone ban me from TV asap).
• My attempts at decorating our rental home.
• Outfit posts that would not ever qualify me as a fashion blogger.
• Recipes I've attempted (and most likely failed).
• and a whole lot of other things such as: faith, friendship, my lipstick collection, how to not go blind while applying false eyelashes, pepperonis and chocolate milk and multiple random babbles at 1 am.

Thanks for reading and I hope you stick around. xo

Kaits (or Katie)