Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays! I’m not big on scary movies or haunted houses, but I do love all of the costumes, treats and decor! Hello pumpkins! 

After talking with some of my friends about the holiday and realizing no one really had set plans yet I decided it was time to plan a Halloween party for some of my closest friends!

Thanks to Pinterest I found so many wonderful decor ideas that I adapted with a little Anna flare!

I decided my color themes, in addition to the traditional orange and black, were going to be silver and gold. Instead of carving pumpkins I decided to take my metallic paints to my mini pumpkins and then I added some sparkle gems with a hot glue gun {All found at Michaels}.

I love how these little cuties turned out and since I didn’t carve them I’m hoping they can stick around into the Thanksgiving season.

Next up, I made some cute little toilet paper bats. These little guys were pretty easy to make and just involved some toilet paper/paper towel rolls, some paint and paper. I picked up a variety of different sheets of glitter paper {also from Michaels} and finished them off with a little more silver and gold paint.

After some of my key decorations were made it was time to get going on my costume! This year I decided to play a tribute to my favorite movie Legally Blonde and dress up as Elle Woods and then dress up Scooter as Bruiser Woods! Compared to some of my past DIY costumes, this one was actually pretty simple. 

If you’ve seen Legally Blonde you know that Elle is very pink! Of course dressing in all pink isn’t really enough to be distinguished as the character so I took on a few props. First, I ordered a pink graduation cap, which were legit so I’m totally jealous of what schools actually graduate in pink! Once I got my cap, I got some pink glitter letters and spelled out Harvard Class of 2004 on the cap and added some extra bling and a bow for a little something extra!

Other than my cap, I wore a pink dress and pink wedges — both of which I already owned. I finished off the look with a Harvard University print-out that I made pink and glued to a folder and then a pink cozie for my drinks of the night. 

For Scoots, I ordered a pink doggie polo and used the same letters to spell out Bruiser and then I made a little “B” tag for his collar that I also added a little bling too. 

Pretty easy and I think it turned out pretty good!

Now onto the rest of my party! I styled my bar cart with a print-out I made, some festive orange cupcakes, fun skull and spooky paper straws, and some Happy Hallo-weiner napkins my Aunt Di sent me last year.

I only added some red wine into the decanter to kind of look like blood.

On the bar, I hung a silver and gold pumpkin banner and put some of my pumpkins on display.

Now, no Halloween party post would be complete without a look at my guests’ costumes though! So here you go!

I hope you all had as much fun on Halloween as I did! 

Hey guys! I have some fun posts of some of my travels coming your way this week, but have to interrupt for a post with some exciting news. My apartment got picked for Apartment Therapy’s Room for Color contest! I just found out I made the cut this weekend while I was on vacation and boy am I excited! The submissions deadline had already passed so receiving an email that my apartment had been published was definitely a little unexpected!

The contest is driven by reader votes and because my entry was one of the last one’s to be added in the category I’m pretty behind on the voting (which ends this Friday). You guys can help me get to the next round though by adding my “Bold and Gold room” as a favorite here: apartmenttherapy.com/annas-bold-gold-room-210781. You just have to have an Apartment Therapy account and it’s super easy to create if you don’t have one already.

To say I’m excited about being featured is truly an understatement and whether I make it to the next round or not I’m just so excited they posted my apartment! :) :) Thanks in advance for all of the support!

I just hit the 3 week mark in my new apartment and I must say I am LOVING it! I was a little worried how transitioning from a one bedroom to a studio was going to go, but it really hasn’t been much of an issue. My new apartment is surprisingly actually almost the same size as my old place square footage wise — with my estimates at least. I estimated my old apartment was about 384 sq ft and the new place is apx 370 sq ft + a 99 sq ft balcony. So for the months I can use my balcony I actually have more livable space! It’s been a pretty easy transition too because I moved 2 blocks from my first apartment in the city so I’m very familiar with the neighborhood!

Over the weekend I had a couple of my girlfriends over for my first official BBQ to celebrate the new digs and now that they’ve seen it, it’s time to share it with you!

So drumroll please……Here we go!

When you enter my apartment there is a landing space (not sure it’s really big enough to be considered a hallway) that has my coat, hall and main closets. To the right, you’ll find my bathroom and directly behind that you’ll find my kitchen.

Hey little kitchen! One of my favorite things about my apartment is definitely my dishwasher! After not having one for four years, you really forget how amazing they are ;) I love the brick in the kitchen too. I’ve always loved the character of exposed brick, and even though this brick has been painted, I still think it adds a little something!

Then onto my living space!

As you might remember, my old apartment was very colorful! Not that this place isn’t, but you’ll notice I decided not to paint the walls. You can’t really tell in the photos, but the walls are actually kind of an off-white and I ended up deciding that I really liked having the light walls because it made the space feel brighter and more open. Plus, since it’s a studio I figured if I did paint it would just end up chopping up the space. So instead of painting I decided to get a little creative with some other options…

You’ll see above my bar cart that there’s some wall confetti! I saw this concept on Pinterest and fell in love. You can buy wall confetti wall clings, which are pretty affordable actually, but I decided to go the DIY route. All I did was buy a couple sheets of gold paper at Michaels — one solid and the other glittered. Then I took a circle craft hole-punch and cut out several circles. Add a little double-sided tape and walah, wall confetti! I also decided my new wall collage needed a little extra glitter, because, well, everything is better with glitter! So I added a little extra sparkle to a couple of my frames and my ampersand.

On the other side you have my bed. Not a huge difference in its setup from the last place.

Then onto the other side of my apartment! So not only do I have some fun wall confetti, but I decided to brighten up a couple of my walls with washi tape. I LOVE this stuff because there are so many options of what you can do with it. I decided to do a little bit of an abstract pattern to liven up the space. The great thing about it too is it peels off easily without hurting the surface, so if you decide you want to change it, it’s super easy to switch out. 

Here’s another angle of the space. 

Then onto my desk space.. You’ll see another dose of washi tape too. I just couldn’t resist!

The last room of the space… my bathroom! Nothing too crazy in here.. My bathroom is pretty small, but I really love the subway tile that runs throughout!

Now onto my personal favorite part of my apartment… My BALCONY in all of its finished glory! The previous tenants left me the table, so I decided to add a coat of spray paint to brighten it up a little bit.

I had one goal.. Have the cutest, brightest little balcony on the Upper East Side. Now, I haven’t been to all of the balconies in the neighborhood, but I’m pretty happy with the finished project. 

I think Scooter is too!

Awww, my BBQ! I got this propane grill from Coleman that I just can’t get enough of. It’s from their tailgating series and was the perfect size for the space. Plus, it folds apart which will be great to be able to bring it inside during the winter.

Then there’s my plants! Because I can actually have plants now! No promises on how long they’ll stay alive.. I don’t exactly have a green thumb, but I’m giving it a whirl.

I picked up some herbs at the farmer’s market too!

I didn’t want to go too overboard since we’re getting to the end of summer, but here’s the start of my balcony garden!

And that’s a wrap! Hope you guys like it! I had a lot of fun decorating and am really happy with how it turned out!

If you have any questions about the products/ideas I used, hit me up in the comments section!