Halloween Tea Time

Because of my "hiatus" or "break" from the blogging world I have not done a tea time post in forever, but I thought I would throw one together in honour of my favourite holiday, HALLOWEEN. (Also, yes I know it's Thursday not Tuesday, shhhh...)

So here we go!

Tumblr Finds

this cat is so cute!

And this is just awesome! I love Hocus Pocus!

This guy is dressed as "Edgar Allan Ho" and I cannot stop laughing, omfg.

Window Shopping

These skull sugar cubes are so awesome.

I love this coffin shadow box.

I would love to have this, even if it's just a prop book.

Reading List

1. Angie made a frightening list of things you Never Want to See.

2. Kristin made a post about Gothic Novels that my English major heart loved reading.

3. This Halloween Quiz cracks me up.

4. Last year I made a brief post about Samhain that you can read here if you're interested.

Quote

But I love Halloween, and I love that feeling: the cold air, the spooky dangers lurking around the corner. -Evan Peters

Happy Halloween lovelies!

Manda Rave

WHOA

Today I broke 50,000 pageviews for this blog. I repeat, WHOA.

That is so incredible, I am so grateful for everyone who takes the time to stop in here and share this piece of the internet with me. I love you all xoxo

Manda Rave

P.S. Do you guys like Merlin? I love that show, I wish it wasn't over.

Currently

Hello lovelies, how is everyone doing? The blogosphere has been a relatively quiet place lately so I thought I would drop in and liven it up a little bit. So here's my life currently.

Watching: I have been watching a lot. TV shows have been starting back up and this season I am watching The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Sleepy Hollow, Once Upon a Time, and American Horror Story. I also saw the first episode of Reign and enjoyed it so that might be added to the list as well.

Reading: I have been reading soooo much. I read the entire Vampire Academy series and all that is currently out for the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead. I've read The Raven Boys & The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater and I just finished Night World vol 2 by LJ Smith. I am thinking about picking up the Divergent trilogy next.

Listening to: I have been switching between my Lorde, Imagine Dragons & Panic! at the Disco, and Feveray Pandora stations.

Wearing: Lots of leggings and t-shirts with fuzzy socks to keep my feet warm. And I have been making it a point to do my makeup on a semi-regular basis again which just makes me feel better about life in general. It's amazing what some eyeshadow and lipgloss can do for my mood.

Eating & Drinking: Lots of coffee and tea as far as beverages go. Eating has mostly been stuff like toast and tomato soup. I'm settling into fall eating habits. I want breads and soups ad everything pumpkin.

Thinking About: My novel for Nanowrimo as well as a lot of personal stuff. My world is shifting again. I try to get all my thoughts out on paper to help keep them sorted. I've been emotional lately. I went from feeling anxious and sad to feeling angry and ready to rip people's eyes out. It's been interesting to say the least.

Doing: Job hunting. I have put out tons of applications the past few weeks. I've heard back from a few companies about writing positions and have been writing sample articles and the like. I've also spent a large amount of my free time dancing around my apartment to loud pop music. Like I said, lipgloss does wonders, haha.

What are you up to currently? Does anyone have any book recommendations? I'm always looking for more. I'm particularly interested in anything fantasy, especially if it's YA lit.

Manda Rave

Halloween Sale in the Shop

Yep, I'm having a sale in the shop for Halloween that is going on from now until October 31st. You can get 40% off your order with the code GRAVEYARD at checkout!

CLICK TO SEE THE SHOP

Manda Rave

Some Halloween Humour

So this blog on tumblr makes these ridiculous skeleton Halloween comics and I love them so much and wanted to share my favourites with you guys.

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I love bad puns you guys, seriously, these are the best ever.

Manda Rave

I was bored so I took webcam photos and played with them in photoshop and then I made a gif of myself. Because why not?

Is it Halloween yet? I wish it could be October all year round. This is my favourite month, hands down. Leaves changing and falling, weather just cool enough for boots and a sweater but not cold enough for heavy jackets, and everything pumpkin and Halloween. I am a summer child, definitely, but there is something so magical about autumn that I cannot resist.

Still not sure exactly what I am doing for Halloween though. I will of course have some sort of personal ritual, but I'm not sure about party plans or anything like that. I haven't even really decided on a costume yet. Luckily I'm the type of person with a weird enough wardrobe that I almost never need to buy things to dress up.

Also, the new NBC Dracula show starts up in about a week. Anyone else going to watch it? I'm super excited. Victorian era vampires is pretty much everything I need in life. I don't care how much "hype" vamps get, I am a dedicated fang-fangirl for life. Whoo, alliteration, haha.

Also, I have this song stuck in my head because it's awesome, don't judge me for listenignt o Victorious music, okay?

This has been a pretty random post. Tell me what you're up to!

Manda Rave

Hmmm...

I am not ready to come back to blogging full-force. Honestly, I think my blog is going to be a bit different when I do anyways. But that's to think about later. For now I figure I'll just post some updates every now and then. Not worrying about posting all the time is nice but I miss feeling connected to my lovely blogging friends -you know who you are. I am at a place in my life where I really need my friendships, even my internet ones. They're important to me.

So anyways, things are okay on my end. A bit emotional. I am working my ass off trying to find a job. It's hard, I am not in an area with a lot of opportunity. But I am filling out applications and looking everyday. I heard back from an arts & culture magazine today about writing for them which is exciting. It doesn't pay a lot, but it sounds interesting and would look great on my resume. Hopefully I'll be writing a few preliminary pieces for them to see how they go over and if they like my work then I'll have a job. Fingers crossed!

I've also been working a lot on planning my novel for Nanowrimo. I really wanted to do a whole fiction writing series here on the blog but I just can't bring myself to put the work in right now. I have so many other things on my mind. I will probably post a lot about my own nano-progress though and hopefully I can get to the fiction writing series again in the future.

In the mean time I am researching fun stuff like necromancy, voodoo, american geography, motorcycles, and weaponry. Because that's the kind of stuff that goes into the books I like to write.

Speaking of books, has anyone else read The Raven Boys (and The Dream Thieves) by Maggie Stiefvater -they are sooo good. They're the first two in The Raven Cycle series and I highly recommend them. And how can you say no with writing like this?

“How do you feel about helicopters?"

There was a long pause. "How do you mean? Ethically?"

"As a mode of transportation."

"Faster than camels, but less sustainable.” 

I love witty characters. It's my weakness. I would follow well-written witty characters to hell and back. If, you know, that was even possible. 

And with that rambling I am off to clean up my house a bit, possibly paint my nails, and fill out some more applications.

Manda Rave

Just a quick check in

My hiatus is not technically over, I just thought I'd stop by this space and check in with everyone. I am still dealing with a lot, trying to figure some things out, and get myself sorted. Thank you to everyone for all your kind words and support, it means the world to me. I miss this space and I can't wait to come back for real.

I have been spending my down time reading a lot and watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch on Hulu. I got the chance to hang out with a friend of mine for awhile the other day which was nice.

Anyways, here's a couple random pictures of my life currently...

Just some clothes I've been wearing and Eli's mug. I know, none of these are on instagram. Every time I try to upload a picture the app times out on me, it's getting really annoying. I keep trying but I haven't had any luck.

What's going on with you guys?

Manda Rave