Last Minute Halloween Treats: Monster Eyes

I love Halloween, but when it comes to the holidays I am never prepared. So this morning I woke up and found a recipe for a simple Halloween treat on pinterest which you can replicate in under an hour!

These Monster Eyes were inspired by Princess Pink Girl's blogpost. I used waffle pretzels, M&Ms, Hershey's Hugs, red sugar, and black decorating icing in lieu of decorating gel which my grocery store was out of this morning, so I improvised.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Step 2: Lay out pretzels in rows on cookie tray and place one hug on top of each pretzel. I made 9 rows of 8 but it depends on your cookie sheet size, this was enought for exactly the # of chocolates in the bag, minus one that made it's way into my mouth :)

Step 3: Bake pretzels for 5 mins, just enough for them to be shiny, not melted completely.

Step 4: Quickly place an M&M on each Hug (, it doesn't matter what side the "M" is on because you will cover it with a black "pupil" later). As you are placing the M&Ms on the Hugs sprinkle the red sugar over the chocolates every other row or so, doesn't have to be perfect, they're Monster eyes after all!

Step 5: Once the Hugs all have M&Ms and red sugar on them, heat up the decorating icing for 10 seconds in the microwave so it's easier to dab onto the M&Ms. BE CAREFUL, it may be HOT! 

Step 6: Dab a black "pupil" in the center of each M&M.

Step 7: Place whole tray into the freezer for about an hour.

ENJOY!

Yields 72 treats. 

Follow my instagram for more fun! @sayitwithkate

XO Kate

Mint and Sunshine

These are quite possibly the first pants I've worn in months.

Outfit details:

H&M mint blouse, Dalia Collection navy pants, 

Ann Taylor nude bandage pumps, Forever 21 statement necklace.

Thanks for reading, follow me on instagram for more pics and sneak peeks! @sayitwithkate

-Kate

Photography by Michael McAuliffe Creative Photography

DIY Sorority Letters: Part 1

SayItWithLilly is my etsy shop where I sell authentic Lilly Pulitzer fabric and bows. As an avid Lilly lover, it's important to me to quality products and authentic fabric so the beauty of Lilly's prints are not watered down. Half of my etsy shop is bows, pretty straight forward, the other half takes a little creativity. "Fabric for Letters", I have titled them, I've had several people ask me, how exactly does this fabric get turned into a beautiful new set of Lilly Pulitzer letters? It's easy.

Step 1: Find a set of premade letters that you like the look of. Use a set that you already have, or borrow some from your big or another sister.

Step 2: Photocopy the letters. You can do this at home with your all-in-one printer, at your school, or library.

Step 3: Outline the inner stitch with a bright marker so you'll know where to cut. 

Note: If you're very new at this you may want to get two copies of each letter so you may trace the inner stitch on one copy and the outer stitch on the other copy. If you're more experienced you may be able to eyeball the outer edge, this will be talked about more later, don't worry.

Step 4: You saw that Reese's cereal box in the first pic and just thought I was having a snack didn't you? Wrong. Deconstruct a cardboard box (can be cereal, crackers, doesn't really matter) and tape the cut out inner letters to the box face UP. Be sure to use clear tape, not duct tape or other colored tapes...

Step 5: Cut the letters out of the cardboard, follow along the edges and be careful!!

Step 6: For those tricky spots, like the middle of an A, use a craft knife. Again please don't cut yourself. I bought mine at Jo-Ann Fabrics, or you can find it here.

Step 7: Mark the up and down sides, you may think you'll be able to remember but I can't tell you how many veteran letter makers I have seen making letters the wrong way. Yes they'll look good in mirrors but not so good anywhere else. 

Hooray! You've made stencils and recycled your cereal box that you were just going to throw away! Cardboard stencils will last you forever, I passed mine down when I graduated from college, as it turns out, I don't currently have any of my letters with me now that I've moved. So I'm using my boyfriends letters, I was pinned so yes I am allowed to wear this fraternity's letters. 

I will continue instructions in another blog post, for now get to ordering your favorite Lilly Pulitzer prints from my etsy shop! I would LOVE to see your creations made with my fabric, be sure to tag me in your post on instagram with #sayitwithlilly.

Follow me on instagram at @sayitwithkate! And check out my business IG at @SayItWithLilly. 

-Kate

Oxblood and Blue

I took a short hiatus from blogging to catch up on my business lately but I've been itching to get back at it. I threw a birthday sale for my business, SayItWithLilly and had a record breaking number of orders. I'm very happy to be getting busy again. In fact I recently got a Kate Spade agenda to organize my life, I'd been getting the colorful, fun Lilly Pulitzer agendas for years but I feel the need to be a little more professional now that I'm well into my 20's.

It's finally starting to cool here in Vegas, this morning it was quite chilly in the 60s so I decided to throw on these fun bright separates for my walk down the block to Starbucks. I brought my Zara cardi, which I bought on a whim one chilly evening two summers ago in Barcelona, but I knew I wouldn't get much use from it when the sun finally made it's appearance.

Outfit details:

Lilly Pulitzer Dusk top, Forever 21 burgundy skirt, Zara knit sweater, Nine West oxblood pumps,

Kate Spade Beau Bag, Purple Peridot tassel necklace, Loren Hope small Iridescent bangle.

Thanks for reading, follow me on instagram for more pics and sneak peeks! @sayitwithkate

-Kate

Photography by Michael McAuliffe Creative Photography

October Glam Bag Review

This is my third ipsy Glam Bag, ipsy is a great program for people who like to try new beauty products but don't like to commit right away. They send you five full size and sample sized beauty products and makeup once a month for you to try and review. 

This month's glam bag theme was #BeautyCandy which I didn't really understand based on the contents of my bag. I received a black mascara, lip gloss, hand creme, exfoliant, and dark nail polish. For the theme I was expecting more candy colors, maybe some eye shadow or bright lip stick. 

Each month your products come in their own make up bag , I don't know what I'm going to do with all of these bags! The ipsy glam bag of the month is this pretty textured turquoise bag, definitely my favorite so far.

The epice exfoliant was something I was really excited for this month, it has a buttery texture with a microdermabrasion quality which I love in an exfoliant. It's also manufactured in the USA, definitely a plus! It has a light scent; it's one of my favorites from this glam bag.

I just got a new gel mani so I am not about to try this new Nicole by OPI color on. Judging by the bottle I was expecting it to be a dark brown which wasn't too appealing. I tried a little on the postcard from my glam bag and am pleasantly surprised. It's much more of a purple. I was think of trading it but the color is growing on me... we'll see.

I have gotten too many mascaras from ipsy lately so I'm going to be trading this one, I'm obsessed with Perversion by Urban Decay right now. 

Also trading this lip gloss, I get one just about every month and I'm not a big gloss wearer, I would have much preferred the lip stick.

When I saw I was getting another lotion this month I immediately thought I was going to have to trade it. BUT I LOVE IT. Yum. I has a lovely light fruity scent and soft, fluffy texture. I love the packaging and it's from the UK. Just adorable. This is probably the only aspect of this month's bag that reminds me of the theme, Beauty Candy, if only for it's fun colors and scent.

I hope you all enjoyed this review! Do you have ipsy? What did you get this month? Any of the same products? Thoughts on them? Join me on ipsy and subscribe to the Glam Bag! You get 4-5 beauty products every month delivered to your door, for just $10. Michelle Phan curates the bags! Check it out here: http://www.ipsy.com/r/m75x?sid=ipsypoints&cid=email

Thanks for reading, follow me on instagram for more pics and sneak peeks! @sayitwithkate

-Kate